Aussie update 1 - where Becky tries to compete with the katies in the long e-mail stakes

So I am finally getting round to e-mailing nearly two 2 weeks after getting here. It has been a bit of a whirlwind though, oh and I still don’t have somewhere permanent to live.

Anyway, I will start from the beginning. The flight, following Bernard’s advice (yes, sometimes I do listen to him…) I bought some extremely sexy flight socks, black, supporting and knee length, oh yummy. Actually that makes them sound about one million times better than they were, though they did stop my legs aching. Oh bloody hell I do sound like an OAP now. Anyway, on the first leg to Bangkok I had a nice snooze courtesy of red wine so that went pretty nicely. Bangkok airport was hot humid and crazy, but I was soon on to flight number two, where I had a nice snooze, courtesy of more red wine and a sneaky sleeping tablet. Anyway I arrived in Sydney at 5.30am where it took forever to go through passport and customs, especially when they found out I was a vet and had to inspect my boots, fun, fun, fun. Anyway got myself onto a train and wonderfully was met by Katie (my very lovely cousin and close friend) at the station, where she whipped me off in a taxi to her home in Paddington. Katie is living in a really fashionable bit of Sydney in a very bo-ho (to hyphen or not to hyphen katie? eek) house with a group of very lovely, wonderful art students, made even more wonderful by the fact that when I arrived one of them immediately made me a cup of tea, which was wonderful especially because I didn’t really know which way was up at the time and had a major tea deficiency. Anyway, the house is full of amazing pieces of their artwork and all kinds of oddments. Oh and Katie lives in the cellar. No, I am joking, it is a split level house on a slope, it just feels a bit cave-like as it is several degrees below the outside temperature. (But they do have an outdoor dunny, not sure why that’s relevant but I found it funny) Though it has Katie’s sarongs as wall decorations (her room, not the dunny, doh), which are truly pretty and Katie also gets the prize for the best use of milk crates as furniture. Oh and she made me have her bed, at which I strongly protested but was inwardly very grateful. Anyways Katie was still not feeling well and me being extremely jet lagged we spent the evening playing Shrek on the x-box! Katie had to work on Thursday and Friday so I spent the time molluscing around Sydney. I also visited the Sydney aquarium, the best exhibit being the platypus. Just the most amazing little creature ever burbling around in the water.

Then on Saturday we had the most productive day ever, we went to Manly beach, spent ages bikini shopping, where we both bought totally gorgeous ones, then we went and showed them off and cooked on the beach. Once cooked we went and had a lunch of ice cream and white wine at the beach bar, result. That evening we went to the seafood restaurant Mum recommended and had the most amazing seafood platter ever and converted Katie to the joys of shellfish. Afterwards we went to a bar and I finally had a good nights sleep courtesy of Mr Jack Daniels.

Sunday and Katie packed me off on the train to Scone. Which was a slow 4 hour journey through beautiful countryside, gradually getting more and more remote, until I arrived in Scone, which could be totally described as a one horse town, that’s if it wasn’t the horse capital of Australia. Kat one of the other vets picked me up from the station and dropped me off at a lousy motel (familiar?!) as the accommodation they had fixed up didn’t have a bed (!). Anyway, they invited me out for dinner, so after spending the afternoon feeling sorry for myself I did what every good English girl should do when faced with a dead one horse (hmm?!) town on a Sunday in a foreign country, we went out drank lots of beer, played loads of (crap) pool and ate steak sarnies, yay.

My first day of work was the Monday. I spent the day trying to sort stuff out. Oh and I went to the accommodation that they’d set up and it was a complete pit. Filthy, dirty clothes everywhere, stinking of cigarettes, nice. So I returned to the practice with all my stuff and whimpered pathetically. Courtnay (who works in the lab) and Demelza (who is a nurse) took pity on me and said that they would put me up in their spare room until I found somewhere else. On the same day I found a gorgeous room in a beautiful house, only they had to get rid of the housemate before I could move in. So I spent the week going on calls with the partners and getting to know the area a bit. Which was quite a change from the norm as I am used to being chucked in the deep end in new jobs, with car, drugs, map and list of calls, but this time they were going to actually break me in gently. I then spent the weekend getting to know the local bars (about as much life and same quality as Malton, but v funny), but still managed to get completely trashed on the Friday night, much fun. Spent Saturday dying, then in a huge coincidence a mate from vet school arrived to stay with the girls I was staying with, random, so we went back to the pub…. Sunday was spent going out for lunch, then drinkies, DVD’s and cheese, yummy, yummy.

This week I have actually been allowed to do some work. The studs are absolutely amazing, beautiful, with the most stunning horses. The whole area is a huge valley surrounded by vast mountains, I love it, just the most stunning scenery. The wildlife is also completely out of this world. The birds are so cool, such a variety with cockatoos and cool parrots and many others. I saw my first kangaroos the other day, very excited. Apparently they get very suicidal with cars at night. Oh and we saw a bearded lizard basking in the sunshine on the road. Looking forward to seeing emus also. Trying very hard to avoid spiders (huntsman – scary but harmless; red backs – small but very nasty; funnelwebs – rare, but deadly) seen none yet thankfully, and getting very OCD about it all.

So my job seems to be good, though we’re pretty quiet at the present as the season hasn’t picked up yet. The people are just amazingly friendly, having lots of fun. Ali is coming out on 28th October, so looking forward to exploring the area with him. So looks like things are coming together, fingers crossed.

Well I hope I haven’t bored you stupid with my extra long letter, trying to make an effort as I really enjoy the long e-mails that you guys send me.

Lots of love.

B.