Massie Lodge is a boutique agistment property in Queensland that first came onto my radar back in late 2003 when I was researching (of all things) company tag lines. Joint-proprietor HELEN McDONALD has since become a very good friend - Helen's understanding of the importance of sterling client communication is on par with most of the largest stud farms in Australia. She also hosts one of Australia's only thoroughbred-related blogs on the Massie Lodge site; it's well worth a visit.
Helen has kindly stepped up to the mark and authored this evening's guest 'blog post'.
Over to Helen ...
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Living out on a thoroughbred agistment property on the South East Queensland Darling Downs has presented us with an idyllic lifestyle which is a real sea change from our corporate past life. Because of where we live, we are offered the best technology that this millennium offers, i.e. tank water that is sent in plentiful supplies from the heavens above, a state of the art internet connection (2 IXL Raspberry Jam tins with baling twine - well, there are two computers, so we need 2 jam tins!). We have door-to-door waste pickup that our council doesn't charge us for. No expense has been spared to make sure that people living in rural areas have the best that is on offer.
OK, yes I do jest. We actually don't have 2 IXL Raspberry Jam tins connecting our computers to the Internet. We have actually been brought into the age of dial-up and can actually muster 35kps on a clear night. Ok, you got me again! The garbage service - my husband Evan's ute to the Allora tip. Ok, ok (boy the pressure is on now!), the water does come from the heavens, but I am not sure about the plentiful supply bit.
We really haven't been forgotten I guess. Not true!
An issue that does seem to have slipped through the crack is the fact that people living in the rural areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are denied access to TV coverage of all racing in Sydney and Victoria.
What does that mean when you run an Internet Bloodstock Agency and a client wants you to value a horse running in the 5th at Rosehill? Not very much I am afraid. It means that we are served up a programme of cold leftovers and the Victorian Provincial Trots on a Wednesday afternoon!
YES! The letters have been sent to the ACCC, to Local and Federal Members, The Shadow Ministers and to the Premier's Department in each State - no one has been missed. The result? Nothing. I have never seen so much finger pointing and buckpassing in all my life.
So much for the voice of the people. So whose fault is this mess? It doesn't matter. What does matter is that the people living in the regional areas of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are denied a basic access and will not see the Sydney and Melbourne Spring carnivals in their living rooms.
I sit here at my computer and look over the monitor to see our yearlings frolicking and mucking around in their paddock and you know what? I wouldn't exchange my Jam Tins for anything.
Helen McDonald
www.massielodge.com
www.gallopers.com.au
