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