Snow!

As a kid snow was amazing fun, it meant time off school and general play until you were too cold having built a snowman and thrown snowballs. As a student not a lot changed! Snow days were still fun and spent playing and building snowmen.

As a mixed practice vet living close to the practice, snow is a pain in the bum. For a few days this week I had sole charge of the hospital with only a receptionist, a nurse and myself looking after the place. Scary stuff! It was good fun, though a little manic at times. I can't get my car to many of the farm clients so I'm just being a small animal vet for now.

So far I've only nearly died twice driving in the snow. Blizzards are not good fun when you can't see the road. And the emergency pager going off when I was driving nearly got me killed yesterday due to shock. Oh well!

First Days

Work has started! At the moment I'm mostly trying to settle in and find out where everything lives around the practice. Everyone is really helpful, and the mix of work is just what I need at the moment.

So far I've been out to see calves and horses, stayed in and treated cats, dogs and rabbits and been on call a couple of nights. It's going pretty well! Not too many fun stories yet, but I'm sure they will come along in time.

The only downside at the moment is we don't have internet in the new flat, and won't for another 2 weeks. I'll be back then...

Moving House

Ahhhhhh! Packing!

I'm uncovering things that haven't seen the light of day for about 3 years, finding lost notes that may have been helpful for uni, and generally making a mess. There's dust everywhere. Not too much actual packing has been done.

Unprepared? Me? Never.

Tigers!

There's a new button, and it's all about tigers. As the information from the WWF says:

"Right now, there are as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild and that number is falling. Tiger habitat is being lost at an alarming rate and poaching has surged over recent months."

Tigers are amazing creatures. If you have a spare moment, take a look at the petition which aims to help increase tiger numbers, or just click the button on the sidebar.

I'm the proud sponsor of a tiger, thanks to a friend, called Kamrita. Her avatar, a cuddly tiger, goes quite a few places with me. She's now a regular at the pub, has been photographed with Nessie, driven 3 boats and will go out on call with me. Photos to follow maybe...

More Goodbyes

Today was spent with the vet practice where I have spent a good portion of my life, saying farewell to the various people.

Some people, such as one of the office staff, I've known since I first went there as a kid about 13 years ago. The vets change fairly regularly but some I've known for the past 4 years, others for just 2 years, but we still get on really well. I've worked with the head nurse since she started in 2001. New people to the practice generally got me to work with when I was on EMS as I knew the place so well.

At interview I was asked why I didn't want to work with this practice. It's mainly because it's not what I need in terms of support for a first job, i.e. there is none really.

Maybe one day I will come back. I love the area, I love the people I'd be working with. Sadly not all the memories are as amazing though. One for the future.

More On The Job

So a bit more about the job situation...

In the end I applied for about 6 or so. I had interviews with 2, rejection letters from 2 more and I've heard nothing at all from the final 2 - strangely enough the first and last ones I applied to.

The two interviews all seemed fairly straightforward. I've heard some horror stories from others about aggressive questioning and other badness. For me they just seemed to want to chat! Very nice.

So my work in a mixed practice job with a couple of other branch practices in the Edinburgh area. The best part is they really seem to be switched on to the requirements of new grads such as myself. I'll start off slowly according to their schedule, learning various procedures until I'm comfortable with them.

All sounds pretty good really! I can't wait to start. There's just the small matter of having to pass the driving test first.

Really need to revise everything too before I start. My medicine isn't as great as it should be, and I haven't done any surgery for months. Hopefully it will all come back.

Job

I have a job! Very excited, just accepted it.

It's a mixed practice job in Scotland, close enough to Edinburgh. I don't start for a few weeks so time for getting sorted.

Yay!