Aussie Update 3 – Finally here (I'm not dead, I promise)

So my diary has kinda fallen on its head for quite a while, well over a month to be honest... Basically work went absolutely nuts, one assistant vet ended up ill in hospital and another got badly kicked and so was also off, so my work load went through the roof at the height of the season. This all occurred just after Ali arrived, which wasn't much fun as I barely saw him as I was working truly stupid hours. I have also come to the conclusion (again) that one in two rotas really really really really really really suck, especially when you work a five and a half day week as standard.

Anyway, back to the beginning. So Ali arrived in Sydney on a Saturday night at the end of October. We stayed by Coogee beach and had a lovely time exploring Sydney the next day seeing the sights before we drove back up to Scone where I introduced Ali to the delights of The Royal, one of our locals and a particular haunt on a Sunday night. Jet lag set in and Ali started to fall asleep over his beer. It is so lovely to have him out here, although I saw very little of him for the next 2 weeks because of work until my next weekend off where we went to the lower hunter valley wineries. We stayed at one of the smaller wineries in a cabin. Where we were pleased to discover the mini bar was stocked with their own (proper size) bottles of wine at the cellar door prices. We thought it rude not to immediately sample one. Yummy. Then after a wander among the vines we had dinner at their restaurant with another bottle of their wine, yummy yummy yummy. The next day we left our winery with a box of their wine and visited some other wineries where we acquired yet more wine (funny that...). Our other favourite was one called Pigs Peak, which had fab names for the wines like sows ear and wiggly tail. That afternoon we picked up my cousin Katie from the station who was visiting before she returned home to San Francisco the following week.

Scone is an interesting place, it makes Malton seem exciting. Scary when Malton suddenly seems to have a good range of restaurants and night life in comparison! They have a nasty habbit of shutting the pub here at 9.30pm here on week nights if they feel like an early night, even if there are people wanting to stay on drinking in the pub! It does feel like we are worlds away from civilisation. Trying to buy anything or sort anything out seems to be impossible. The shops close early and at lunchtime on saturday, and nothing is open on a sunday and things close when they just can't be arsed. You can't get food at restaurants or takeout past 8pm (meaning I frequently go without dinner) and they often close early. Service is truly dead out here.

The job that Ali had been led to believe was out here hasn't materialised and he hasn't been able to find anything else. All the helicopter companies out here are tiny and have too many pilots already. So he is currently having a holiday and doing some travelling around Australia (he is currently somewhere in coastal NSW). This weekend we are going to spend the weekend in Sydney. I have got the Saturday morning off so we are going to drive down on Friday night. We are staying by Manly beach and have booked to do the Sydney harbour bridge walk on the saturday morning. You are breathalised before you do it!!! Really can't wait to have a chilled out weekend.

I finish my job at the end of December. They offered me a permanent position, but Ali can't find a job out here and although I have loved the job I don't think it is exactly what I want to be doing forever, I miss the sport horses and peoples ponies and England in general. Oh and also being able to get something decent to eat past eight pm, oh and actually being able to get something decent to eat as the food is generally rubbish, oh and so is the beer, and the bloody miserable Australians, and the misery caused to me by bloody mosquitos, and people mentioning the cricket every two f***ing minutes. Sorry minor rant...

;-)

So the plan is to head off to New Zealand for the new year and then travel round and come home late January, then who knows! I am really looking forward to NZ, no deadly snakes or other nasties. Over here I just feel as if everything is trying to get me. Mainly because the mozzies will fly round Ali to get to me even when i am wearing mozzie repellent.

On the plus side I have discovered a new best friend, Vegemite! So so so so very yummy, I am totally addicted to vegemite and crackers, well vegemite and anything to be honest and it is also quite nice licked off the knife (sorry gross I know) The Aussies are amazed as visitors usually hate it and it is a real Australian institution. I also recently met a wombat for the first time in my life. Actually much to the amusement of everyone else I got called out to a wombat in a chicken coup. I surveyed said wombat who apart from being extremely mangey appeared to be in good health. They are also considerably larger than I thought that they would be and he also appeared armed with a fine set of jaws. Therefore I passed the buck and got the people to contact a wildlife charity as I didn't want my first meeting to turn into a mauling! When I got back to the practice Mel, one of the receptionists presented me with a certificate to say that I had passed the wombat examination with flying colours! (see my photos)

I also had the pleasure of being kicked by a lovely little foal, unfortunately it was on my right hand over a bone. The doctor would not believe me that foals are actually dangerous and cause most of the injuries we get at work, it didn't feel very cute and fluffy kicking me! Anyway an xray confirmed no break, however it did get me off work on a saturday morning (as the most I could pick up was a wine glass and that was of course purely for the cold therapy!) This was especially good as there was a big beach party at Darley, one of the big studs on the Friday night. Oh and yes Scone is inland, but paddling pools and beach balls helped out. Much fun, even more so as it was Kate's party who is English and the Darley yearling manager, so we got a tiny bit trashed drinking pimms, yummy! My head seemed to hurt as much as my hand the next day though...

I can't really think of any more news right now, except that it truly does not feel like December over here and the run up to Christmas, it is just too warm, it is going to be a very strange Christmas, though I am going to be working for most of it. Must start thinking about Crimbo shopping....

Anyways, bye for now!

B