Life continues to surprise me!

It's the two and a half week mark, and I'm just starting to feel like I understand how this place works. It is always a bit tricky the first couple of weeks working out what is expected of you and what isn't, and you learn to take constuctive criticism and correction on board on a regular basis. The last week I have had a yukky head cold which has made everything twice as hard, but that's clearing now.

It is lovely to be in a clinic that has enough computers, and also enough nurses (yes, you vets out there, there is hope, these clinics do exist!!!!:).
The clients a very friendly, and I'm getting used to them being punctual, to the point of often being early.

I've caught up with my friend Claire, who lives only about half an hour away on the the train, and went along with her to church a couple of weekends ago, and to a'Jane Eyre night' with about 15 of us turning up to watch the newest 4-hour series. It was lovely to watch the movie and have all the appropriate oohs and aahs echoing around the room! It was nice to meet lots of people around my age at Claire's church, most of whom ar young professionals at a similar stage in life to myself, or with young families. It is somewhat of a change after being in smaller centres, where alot of people my age are married with children already. (not that there's anything at all wrong with that :)

The Best thing that I've discovered is that my flatmate, Jess, is a christian as well! so we toddled off to church last weekend, to be met by the practice manage from work at the door, who took a few minutes to recognise us! There is a lunch for 18-30s next week after the service as well, so that'll be another chance to meet some people.

Jess has just passed her vet nursing exams, and has quit smoking as a result, which suits me very well! She's doing really well, and sticking to it, which is impressive. It's been great getting to know her better, we get along really well, and I have an excuse to get a bit more adventurous with cooking (yes Craig, I can cook more than just apricot chicken - which is lucky, as I can't seem to find any apricot juice/nectar in this country :)

I caught up with a friend from New Zealand who is living literally 5 minutes from my place, and had her second baby about 2 weeks ago. By coincidence, she brings her cats to my clinic, so I asked her to book in and specially request me, as I tend to get quite a lot of vaccination consults as noone knows me here yet.

I have had a few interesting cases, one of which is a possible reaction to a new drug, so I'm collaborating with the drug company to try to get to the bottom of it so they can have it on their records.

I have been spending some time wondering what to do with my life, as I haev not really got any plans to get my teeth into (I am trying to enjoy that feeling, though it does make me feel a bit purposeless at times).
I was just thinking on Sunday that I'd like to do something constructive for other people and literally half a hour later Claire rang to say that she and a couple of friends are looking at a short term mission trip to Peru in August to help with construction work or the like there. That sounds exciting! I will have to work out timing, as my brother's wedding off the Newfoundland coast is in June/July, but I think I'll be visiting South America later in the year! It is so good to be in a position to take the opportunities that come around.

I'll probably be just posting newsy things on here, I'm a bit stuck for putting photos on, so I'm afraid it might not be that interesting for a while, unless you like reading the general goings on adn adventures of a locum vet!

It is day 2 of my new job, and I felt the deep breath I took at the beginning of the week was unwarranted!
There are only three vets out of five actually here this week, one of which is me, brand new, and another is the other locum who has only been here 2 weeks! I thought it would be chaos, but we seem to be on top of things quite nicely.
I've done a few consults - my first appointment was a tortoise with a sore eye. Luckly the boss was free to see it, and I am going to grab the toisoise notes I saw on the shelf in a minute and start a crash course in chelonian medicine!
This morning I had a couple of rabbits to desex - one to spay and one to castrate. they thought the female might have been mated 2 weeks ago, and he belly felt a little bit swollen, soI went on and and after looking for her uterus for half and hour, the nurse had a (second) closer look and we found his testicels, which I promply removed instead! the second castrate took about 10 minutes!
I am not consulting till 5 (finished surgeris at 12!), so am catching up on a few things and will get some good reading in this afternoon I think!

I was a little bit worried about my accomodation before I got here, but I arrived on Saturday to find the boss and her husband putting up curtains and setting up a bed in my room (which is the lounge of a one bedroom flat). My housemate is South African locum nurse, who I get along really well with, and we are going to share cooking between us (we only have a small bar fridge between the two of us!) She has cooked me three meals already, so it's been really great. She also only smokes in her room, so it isn't too bad when it comes to that smokey smell I was worried about.

The trip back was a bit stressful when I arrived at Melbourne airport to find I had missed my flight (I thought I was booked on one 2 hours later) so I spent a couple of hours sitting around wondering how I would explain that to my new boss, then got a standby seat on the next flight, which was fine for my connection in dubai as well!

No jetlag yet again, am kinda glad I don't sleep well on planes, and my theory still holds!

It was so good to catch up with everyone I saw in Oz, I'm just sorry it wasn't a bit longer, as I felt a bit strung out by the end! I'm sorry if I didn't get to see you if I missed you, see you next time.

So it's all gone amazingly well (Than you, God!), I'm just praying that the rabbit I 'spayed' starts eating and doesn't get paralytic ileus on me now............