after squash - check out the bare legs on the aussies!!! :)

The pancake banquet

the master chef and his melted Mars-Bar creation

Possibly 1 pancake too many

The British Museum - Claire in the foreground in the orange jacket!

The cool ceiling at the museum

Us with the cool roof at the Museum

Look what I found!

Sainsbury's surprised me - if you look up high or down low, you can find these delicacies hidden....

FINALLY bit the bullet and bought a card reader for my camera - some finally something more interesting that miles of text!

Below are great pics of all the snow we had last week - it was beautiful. I don't have to worry about getting to work in it either, so it's all just fun and exciting! We had a bit of a snowfight and got some pics of it at work before we got stuck into the day.

Things have been cruizing along here, work is getting busier now (which I told is more the norm thatn my first couple of weeks here). I'm currently working my first full weekend, which was total chaos yesterday morning.
One highlight this week (though I wasn't lucky enough to do the surgery) was a bull-terrier who has a bit of a thing for eating items of clothing. One of the other vets retrieved a lacy lady's g-string, some shoelaces and few other unidentifiable items from his small intestine. It's the third time he's needed surgery for this, and the parents are threatening to get rid of the dog if the kids don't learn to put their dirty clothes in the basket!

I went ice skating last weekend with some people form work, which was lots of fun! It felt like I was about 16 again, I think the last time I went was back at school or early uni. Most of us could skate ok, so we had a bit of a tag game going on, darting amongst all the other people there.
I went along to a women's breakfast with Claire's church last Saturday, which was about thankfulness. It was a really good perspective change - we have so much to be thankful for, and if we believe those things come from God, it really cahnges our attitude to life.

I was invited along to lunch with Claire's bible study group, which is made up of people of Indian, Egyptian, Aussie, Malaysian, Lebanese and English backgrounds - made for some really great conversations.

After that it was off to Buckinghamshire to Big Pete's place for his housewarming. He's a friend from uni who has been over here a while, and is now settling for a couple of years. He has a lovely little house, which backs on to some nice countryside, so after staying up till 4 am it was out for a walk in the woods and then in to town for a Pub Sunday lunch - such a relaxing day! It was great to catch up with a few other guys from uni who are working in and around London as well. I think there are about 20 people from my year in the UK at the moment!

If you think I crammed a lot into one weekend, then you'd be right and Iw as rewarded with a shocking dose of the flu this week, which I somehow managed to work through, and on into this weekend. I've banned myself from any outings til next weekend so I give myself a chance to recover!

I managed to find Lonely Planet on Peru last weekend as well, so I've been reading up a bit of Peruvian history and culture - it's so interesting. The trip over in August keeps getting bigger - it's almost stretched to a 6 week tour now. I'm getting a bit exciting about it now!

It doesn't look like much, but this is both my home and my work at the moment. The clinic is on the bottom, and there are lots of flats, as well as a couple more blocks in the total complex. 4 of the flats immediately over the clinic are occupied by staff.

Meet Zola

My apart from Jess, my other flatmate is a 7 month old Silver Tabby British Short hair called Zola (said with a South African Accent, it sounds even more exotic!).
She provides plenty of entertainment, and is a beautiful little thing as you can see....

smiling for the camera

She has an obsession with plastic bags!

such a poser

Playing in the snow before work last week. It was forecast to snow, but it was still fun and exciting to wake up to it that morning! Martin (the only straight guy in the practice!) is already making a snow ball to throw at some poor innocent....

View from my front window (with a cute kitty too!)

Zola discovers snow

you can see the 'what the..?' expression on her face here - the first time she's ever experienced snow!

Zola in the snow

A little cat in a big white world...........

'Blue Steel'

OK, so it was 3am at Pete's housewarming and things were getting a little silly (but seemed perfectly logical to those familiar with Zoolander)......

A walk in the woods

A walk in the woods

With friends from uni after Big Pete's housewarming - the Buckinghamshire countryside in the background

Archie with his mummy and daddy

Archibald William Wilson Gartrell

This weekend I am visiting Will and Isa Gartrell, who are now a family of 3, with baby Archie, now 5 months old. It was great to just hang out with these guys! I last saw them only 6 months ago, thought is seems a lot longer - so much has happened in that time.
Archie is a happy baby (overall!), and he especially likes his Noah's Ark book, which I am reading to him here (got a bit bored the second time round though!).

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............

Messing about on the river

We got up early this morning to head down to the river. I was not that keen on an early morning (I'm on holiday!), but it was definitely worth it. The temperature was perfect, the river was beautifully flat, like glass. It was only disturbed by the occasional duck, or rowing boat, or us in our canadian canoe..........

Dad and I

John and Marielle coming back in from their cruise. Looks like they are canoeing on the sky, the water was that flat!

It was worth getting up early to see the river looking like this........

Marielle, John, Dad, Mum and I and our Christmas dinner.

Mission accomplished

Well, that was worth it!! I arrived yesterday at my home in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Mum and Dad were sitting in the lounge with my bro and his fiance, thinking that they had quite a small gathering for Christmas, and imagining me at the farm with friends in Warwickshire, England where they genuinely thought I would be spending Christmas. Then I walked in the door here!!
You should have seen their faces! Lots of hugs, and mum very nearly cried (or maybe she did), then we all sat down for a massive Christmas lunch!
The trip all went very smoothly (just slowly, as that long haul always does!), I thought there might be issues with fog in Heathrow, but that cleared in time to get the flight to Singapore on time, then there was a bit of a delay at Singapore, but we made up the time in the air and got into Brissie spot on time, with an hour to sit around before the flight to Townville.
My fam liked the prezzies I'd bought them, and we went over to some friends place for drinks in the evening. I was struggling to keep my eyes open by about 8pm, so we went home and I was out like a light for 12 hours sleep (having not slept since the Friday night before I left). I reckon that's the best way to get over jetlag!

Oh, dear, it seems I am misinformed (sorry Marielle, and all you Bretons out there), Nantes is not in Brittany, it is in the Pays De Loire (44) region! We have been to Normandy for the last couple of days, to Mt St Michel, the Bayeux Tapestry, and to the Normandy beaches where the American, Canadian and British troops landed on D-Day. I feel the need to learn a lot more about the World Wars, they seem so much closer to home over here!
We are going to the primary school this afternoon, and will be sticking with the 10 Aussie kids for some of next week as well. It is strange to have a teacher's perspective on the school.
I feel totally useless at French, it feels like being stripped of all personality and expression and I find myself sitting silently listening like mad and understanding about every 10th word! I have been talking to an american girl who has been here 4 months and will be here another 5. She is living in Nantes, and has basically thrown herself in the deep end living with three non english speaking french girls, and working at the school as an aide with the english department. I feel it would take so so long to get anywhere near as fluent as I would like to be at this.......

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Well, my 6 months in Buxton is up already - where did that go???? I'm still pinching myself that I've been living and working in the UK, and I already have an old 'home' to go back and visit! It has been a great 6 months, mostly good memoreis, though I'm never going to miss the weather in the last couple of months, where I'd lie in bed praying the phone wouldn't ring while listening to the wind and rain outside.............. :)

Well, I have a few minutes to kill, as i wait to board my flight to Nantes, Brittany, France. It's exciting to be heading to mainland Europe for the second time! I'm not sure exaxtly what the itinerary will be, except that i think we are going to Normandy to see the Bayeux tapestry tomorrow - never wuld have thought I'd get to see that in real life!
I'm tagging along with a school trip from St Paul's in Warragul, near where I used to live. My friend Christine is a French teacher there (we used to play for shows together in Warragul, Victoria. We're with the school kids for a couple of days, then just cruising for a few more after that. i think we have both been to busy to organise anything much, which is actually a really nice way to take a holiday!

Anyway, I'm sorry my blog has been quite boring for the last couple of months. Do watch this space, one day I'll be at a computer with fast internet access, and by able to put some photos of York Chrismas Markets, and other exciting things on here....

La Tomatina

Mum's first comment when I told her I'd be heading to Spain to throw tomatos at lots of people was 'Catherine! what a waste of good food'! I'm inclined to agree with her, though the tomatos involved were certainly at the point where they probably would have gone rotten by the time they made it anywhere to be sold!
The event took place a Bunol, a village just outside Valencia in Spain. We arrived in the morning, having been briefed on what to expect, so hence wearing clothes including shoes we were ready to throw directly in the bin at the end, with or without goggles and ear plugs. We (and the other 35000 people there) made our way through the little spannish village, down a steep hill to one of the main streets, past pubs and shops that had been carefully covered with tarpaulins to keep them clean. We ended up in on long narrow street, crowded in shoulder to shoulder, with no room even reach to the ground if we dropped anything. the festival starts with a large ham at the top of a greasy pole, up which men (and some women) attempt to climb to retrieve the ham. The locals are not keen on a foreigner reaching the top first, so they can play dirty and pull people down if they look like they are getting too close. This goes on for at least an hour, while the crowd looks on (a bit difficult form the distance we were at, and I had not worn my glasses or contact lenses, so it was even less rewarding for me to peer in that direction, I could just make it out.) In the meantime, people are being sprayed from rooftops and around with water from hoses, fire hydrants, or just tubs from people's private houses (the tall aparment type housing with balconies that is classic Spanish is perfect to throw water from!).
Once the ham was claimed, the crowd erupted! The water started in earnest, and we happened to be right beside the spot where the next ritual began: ripping the shirts off anyone at all really! It was mostly guys that were falling victim to this, though if a girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time, we saw a few lose their tops!
Our little group were Lara and I, Lara's bro Daniel, Sam (a pharmacist from Toowomba who is working in Waterford, Ireland), Steve (crazy rocker dude/surveyor/rock climbing instructor from Leeds), and his roommate on the tour, James (travelling around Europe from Melbourne). Lara and I were very happy with the 2:1 male female ratio, purely from a self preservation perspective!
Just when we though it was getting a bit crazy, someone decided to light a flare right next to where we were standing, I tell you the Spanish have no concept of public liability, or health and safety, which means they really know how to party!

The next thing were a few single tomatos that seemed to come from nowhere. I was just wondering if this was going to be it, when I saw the massive truck slowly working its way through the crowd (just when we thought there was no room for anything else in the hemmed in street, but people just got out of the way as it drove through). It was the first of 6 trucks that drove through during the hour. Huge tip-trucks full of ripe tomatos, with people riding in the back throwing them to the crowd. A bit further up they would stop, and tip the entire contents of the trailor onto the ground - literally a mound of red.
Tomatos flew! ripped sodden t-shirts were a little less comfortable when hit in the face, but all you could do was grab them a throw them on! soon everything was a sea of red, and it was also quite hot (warning - don't ever attempt this if you suffer from chlostrophobia, panic attacks, heart conditions, or asthma!!). The occasional dousings with cold water from the nearby fire hose just kept us refreshed as the tomato juice started to dry...
We realised that the only way to stay together was to hold on to each other somehow pretty much the whole time, otherwise it would have been so easily to become totally separated in the writhing bodies of the crowd. At the end a huge horn sounded, signalling the end of the fight. the flying tomatos slowed, but people were still wired, so some turned back to ripping clothing off random passers-by.
To our horror, Lara and I both fell victim to this crazed stripping, though luckily our boys (aka knights in shining armour!) fought them off valliantly, with Lara's top only ripping down the back and mine just very stretched out of shape. we were separated making our way out of the crowd, Dan and I managed to keep connected, and ended up down a side street, where we saw an asian couple, she in a wedding dress, he in a suit. Maybe they were on their honeymoon?
the crowd thinned as we made our way around a few streets, hoping we were going in the right direction for the buses and the others. Little clusters of people were congregating under balconies, crying 'Agua, Agua, por fabor', to be rewarded by random buckets of water being poured over our heads. This hardly made a dent on the tomato-sodden mop that was my hair, though it did clean my face and arms at least!
We made it to the main street, where local shopkeepers were hosing down whoever asked, to get the excess of the muck off.
It had so far been quite an alcohol free occasion, which was surprising, but now the beer and wine flowed in pints - Lara went to get a rose and was given an entire bottle poured into a pint glass with ice!
We sat in the beautiful spanish sun, contemplating our bruises and tomatoiness, and bonding as one only can on such a surreal day, eventually making our way to the buses. My shoes, singlet and socks were left in a bin in that town, but I have managed to salvage my swimmers top and shorts after many washes!
It was a crazy and surreal day, and one the photos hardly do justice............ :)

Nice and dry before it all began (the guy in the white suit interviewed James, one of our little group, asking why he was here and who in the world he'd most like to throw a tomato at - not sure where that footage will appear!)

flying tomatos

Rivers of tomato soup

A couple of aussie guys I just bumped into at the ball! Tim (right) went to Cromwell College at UQ at the same time as me, now living in London, and Dave I met in June when I stayed at Tim's with my bro and his girlfriend. Not a very big place, this world, hey!

Me and my slightly 70's dress. I had a slight hiccup with my contact lenses (ie they started burning like I had acid in my eyes, and continued to do so for a few hours after I took them out!) which is why my eyes look a bit red here!
Oh, and the things sticking out of my head are a decoration on the wall behind me, not a hair accessory!

Lara and I with the cool statue lady

Hillsong ball

Lara and I

Hillsong ball

Fairy Floss!!!!! :)

hillsong ball

Ben And Jerrie's at Hillsong Ball!

Tomato fest!

Just a little tase of what we got up to in Spain, more to come soon!

Hablo muy poco espanol!

It's been a great couple of days! I've been chilling out today with old and new friends in London. I'm staying with Lara, a friend who I went through vet school with in Australia, who lives in Goodmayes (almost into Essex), with her brother. It's been a relaxing day spent shopping for last minute things for our trip to Spain, and having a BBQ in the intermittent sunshine on what has been quite a nice warm day!

We went to the Hillsong church ball last night - which totally ble us away! The most entertaining ball I've ever been to! there must have been at lest a thousand people there, maybe two, everyone looking fantastic in black tie gear. there were heaps of different rooms at the venue, one a real disco feel, with a free Ben a Jerrys ice cream stall, pop corn and fairy floss, a DJ and huge dance floor. There were regular dance acts which would perform on the dance floor, with routines from Austin Powers, to street dancing and an African dancing group (10% of proceeds from the night went to the Wototo Children's orphanage in Uganda). Another room had couches with tables and cheese and grape platters, with a wine bar, then another had a more classical feel, with a string an flute ensemble playing at one stage, and some other acoustic performers. Next to that was a room with paintings on the walls, and a huge frame suspended from the ceiling with a lady painted like a statue standing in it. People could go up and pose with her for photos, and if you were lucky she would move to pose with you! Another room was a french style cafe, with tables and chairs, another like an arabian lounge, with low tables and cushions to sit on the floor, another was a dance/club feel with a live DJ and dance music, and yet another had a Jazz band with sax, double bass and blues set up! Needless to say, it was an awesome night, far exceeding anything I have ever experienced in a night out! I will put some photos on here when I get back from Spain. I ran into a friend from uni, who I had stayed with in May with my bro, and met some of Lara's friends from Hillsong. The funny thing was, I only spoke to one english person all night, all the rest of the people I met were Aussies, South African, and a couple of Kiwis and Americans! It was great to meet some fellow travellers, though, and chat about all sorts of things, and of course, work out connections or people we know in common from back home!
I'm hoping to have a couple of visitors to experience the other side of England (ie the not london part!), I really think there is so much people miss out on just living in London the whole time they's in the UK.

So after our relaxing day today, Lara and her brother Dan are busy packing for our trip to Spain. We leave here at 4:30 tomorrow morning, and head to Stanstead airport to fly to Valencia. With all the heightened security after the terrorist scare, we're allowing 3 hours to check in.
The good news is that the check in and luggage handlers strike that was going to happen this weekend has been averted!
Thanks to the people who have been leaving comments on here for me - it is so good to hear your news! Marilyn, it's great to hear that things have come together well with the farm, and Christine, I'll have to give you a call when I get back from Spain - I'm already getting excited about Paris in December!
Laurie - if you're reading this, could you let me know your email address? I'd love to hear what you and the cell group are up to.
And everyone else, I'm thinking of you all often, (more often that I am emailing you, no doubt!)
watch this space for photos of classy dresses, Spanish sunshine, and tomato-covered people!

Adios!

At a local pub quizz with work mates

Close up of the surgery door

The work building, the driveway to the left leads to courtyard, the office, drug store, radiographic/ultrasound, kennels, lab, and main clinic all lead off this courtyard through different doors. It's ok to run outside all the time in Summer, but I'm not looking forward to it in a wet winter!

The work cars (see previous post!). My lovely Peugeot 307, and.................

.... the Maverick; which would you prefer!!

With some of the nurses and vet at the Buxton Carnival

I have no idea who this guy was, but he was funny to look at, and the mittle kid on the back was having a ball!

One of the carnival queens on her float. The hours that must go into decorating these must be phenomenal! There were lots of marching bands, huge trucks decorated and community groups and some businesses participating.

A dressed well in Buxton. A lot of the towns in the area have well dressing carnivals, and Buxton is the largest. All the Carnival queens ride in the Buxton Carnival parade.

Another well-dressed well

With another familiar face in the chatsworth scuplture room

One more of Chatsworth!

Plans............

I've finally managed to book a few days off at the end of this month. This in itself was an exciting prospect, though once I had the time organised, I was left with the challenge of filling it with something exciting to do! Options included a bit of a week long road trip around the country visiting lots of friends who are living here there and everywhere. The second option was a Haggis tour of Scotland, which had been recommended to me. Then I learned that a good friend of mine is going to Spain to throw tomatoes at her brother, and anyone else in the vicinity!!
That sounds good, hey! So I have just finished booking flights and accomodation to the La Tomatina festival in Valencia, Spain, and then on to Barcelona for a few days afterwards.
I'm also going to the Hillsong Annual Summer Ball in London with Lara (afore mentioned friend), which sounds like a great night. Just have to find a ball gown from somewhere................ :)
I'll post a few more pics of things that have been happening the last month or so above...............................

Nostalgia

Life is trundling along here, work is going ok. We have a new locum at work, which might mean I get a chance to take some time off at the end of this month, which would be great!
The car I have at work sort of fell apart a couple of weeks ago, (well, it is a Ford after all, can't expect much better I suppose). the gear box needed replacing, (and that has nothing to do with me putting 20L of unleaded fuel into it's diesel tank a week or so before - how dumb can you feel?????!:). So I had to put up with driving a brand spanking new peugeot 307 around for two weeks! It was lovely to drive, but now I have gone back to the old Maverick, complete with new gear box and three new tyres. :(
I made the most of having the Peugeot and drove over to Chesterfield, which is about 20 minutes from here, and caught up with Lee, a friend from uni, on her last day there before she moved onto her next locum position. WE checked out the markets and looks around the cathedral with the crooked spire, which Chesterfield is famous for. Apparently it was built in a bit of a hurry several centuries ago and they didn't wait for the wood to dry properly, so as it dried out over time, the whole spire has spiralled a little bit. it looks quite precaious but is so tightly joined now that it wouldn't fall down very easily at all!
I then drove further south to 'Fenny Drayton' the village where my Grandparents used to live. It was where my family stayed the times we came out on holiday, the last of which was about 13 years ago, so it was really quite surreal to be there again. I saw my Grandma's old house, which has had some extensions on the front, and the little park where we used to play with some other kids in the village, and where I saw snow for the first time. Lots of little memories came flooding back, and driving myself around, places were all connected up so they made more sense. I dropped in on a friend of my Grandma's and my mum's (and now mine as well!), who used to live on the next door farm to my mum's family in a place called Bentley in Warwickshire. Mrs Farmer is a lovely lady, and absolutely loves animals, and worked at a vets for a while herself, so we sat and chatted for ages. There had been some really severe storms, which I had driven through on the way down, and there was not power in the Village, so we drove to the next town and got fish and chips for dinner.
I drove home feeling like I had reconnected with my mum's side of the family, and I will be back down that way again to see some more friends no doubt.