Bedtime stories with Zachary

Going the healthy option at Macca's

Go Karting

some horseriding

two Cats with some icecream :)

Adam and the sponge cake

Enjoying the lovely sunny beach!!

The Beach - bleak, but beautiful

Maisey and I with our yummy sandwiches

It's been a good mix of work and play for the last month or so. It's been pretty constant at work, and doing a couple of weekends has kept me on my toes. I have to say that compared to mixed practice I would hardly call it working once the doors close on Saturday, in a nice warm clinic.

I've been spending other weekends playing squash, having picnics, going to the Opera and last weekend I crammed in a dancemat party before my weekend on call!
I've mainly been hanging out with a bunch of people from Christ Church in Balham where I've been a few times for church. Claire goes there, and it's about an hour from my place by train, but I've stayed at her place a few times (ok, most weekends, to the point where he housemates say, 'see you next Saturday'!). They are great bunch of people. We are planing a weekend away up to the Lake District in May which will be lovely.

I'm off to Buxton, then to Skegness on the NorthEast Coast for a Christian convention with a bunch of friends from Buxton on Friday for the week, then spending Easter up in Buxton, which will be fun - it seems like worlds away since I lived there.

My flatmate left last week, back to South Africa fro 5 weeks before she starts a new job in Surrey. She has left me her computer for that time, and I'm also babysitting Zola for her, so it's nice to have some company at least now I live alone. I think there will be a new locum nurse moving in in 3 or 4 weeks, so that'll be someone new to get to know. It looks like I have a job here till mid June now, right up to when I go to my Bro's wedding, which will work out just perfectly!
Peru planning is coming along - we have booked our Inca Trail walk to Machu Picchu, and the Mission fortnight as well so there's no turning back now. The only drawback is that I'll be missing my 10 year school reunion in September, which is a shame, but after all the travel to Canada and Peru I don't think I would have afforded it this year anyway. I wonder how many people will be there.

So that's about it for now. last weekend I was on call, and went to church with the nurse who was on with me, then chilled out at her place for the afternoon. She has 2 enormous 70-ish kilo Mastiffs, and a puppy who is already getting big - awesome dogs!

The dancemat screen

Claire and I doing very badly at dancemat!

the 'dancemat'

With Jess, my (ex) flatmate at her going away dinner

The cool tower that we 'found' at Box Hill

With Megan and Margaret from Christ Church Balham

One happy dog!!

Nice view!

A beautiful day and a beautiful view from Box Hill

Stopping for our picnic at Box Hill

A much better picture of us after squash - and much better weather to have bare legs too! :)

We went and saw 'the Gondolieres' by the English National Opera - a crazy modern-costumed and set of classic Gilbert and Sullivan. This is the inside of the Lonon Coliseum Theatre.

The inside of the Coliseum (just before the told us photos were not allowed in the theatre!)

:)

Fitness, food and artefacts

Had a bit of fun last weekend - headed over to Streatham to hang out with some folks from Claire's church - a great bunch!
Started on Saturday morning, with a good hour of squash. I haven't played for about 5 years, so my legs, bum and right arm have been telling me all about it ever since!
After that we headed to David's place (a fellow Peru planner), for a pancake brunch. It was the best variety of pancake toppings I've ever seen!
Some of us then travelled into London to check out the British museum to see what we could find out about the Incas. When we got there, we found they only had displays as far south as the Aztecs (Mexico), and there wasn't anything about Peru, but it was still really fascinating. They have this display at the moment of all the tablets/pills that an average man and an average woman take in their lifetime all laid out next to each other - literally thousands, and women take more than men!

So it was a fittening, fattening and educational day all rolled into one!

Some Peru planning in the evening, then a bit of time wathcing the Lunar eclipse before dropping in on a party of some other friend's finished off the day quite nicely. The next day was church - I really wish I lived less than an hour from Balham, the teaching and fellowship there is fantastic. We went to lunch afterwards with a family from church beofre I headed home to get myself ready for another week of hard work!

Monday morning started with a house visit to put to sleep an elderly dog. It is by far the worst part of the job. The lady was so grateful that she brought in an orchid for myself and one for the nurse who came on the visit. It is lovely to know we are appreciated, though it is usually only when an animal dies that we get such thanks!!

I found out today that I am able to stay here in Bromley till the end of April at least, which is great - I have a home for another month!

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....