Category Archives: Requests

The Return of the Triumphant Polar Explorer

Requests,

And so, the Scary Boss Lady returned triumphant from her travels in the cold, cold North. She had seen a polar bear, she told me. I presume she learned some stuff about eyes as well. I forgot to ask if the polar bear had healthy corneas, but I’m sure she would have mentioned it if it had needed treatment. She did bring back some pictures. This is my favourite.

polar 3

The hand belongs to Dagny’s husband Sondre, so that is a pretty big paw-print. The actual photos of the bear are very distant, but the place looks stunningly beautiful.

polar 2

And they did see some Svalbard reindeer.

polar 5

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the weather has been quite warm some days this week. So much so, that the first of this year’s flies appeared in the clinic. I couldn’t find the fly swat, so when the evil menace entered the operating theatre, I had to create a cunning fly opening by propping the doors outwards to encourage it to remove itself. Happily I didn’t make the same mistake I made last year when I announced to Dagny and Magne that there was ‘et fly’ in the room. They managed to keep straight faces, despite the fact that I had just told them there was an aeroplane buzzing around their heads. A fly in Norwegian is ‘en flue’. It’s an easy mistake to make.

Tuesday was a good day to forget my lunch. As sometimes happens, I remembered about five minutes into my journey that I had left it lying on the side in the kitchen at home, and as I never set out with more than five minutes to spare, there was no time to retrieve it. Fortunately there was a rep in from Bayer, who brought the usual inducements to buy their products in the shape of a few sandwiches and a bowl of chocolates. It’s good that big pharma likes to spend so much in bribes. Actually I had to laugh the other day when I realised the pen I had in my pocket was actually a Vets Now pen, presumably purloined from some conference or other. Those things get everywhere. It was a nice reminder of a happy past.

Thursday saw Wivek carrying out some major dental work on a dog. As we don’t have gaseous anaesthesia in the dental room, we often rely mostly on deep sedation for doing dental work, but as she was potentially going to be working on the animal for up to three hours, she wanted something that would remain reliably stable for much longer. She therefore used the new infusion and syringe driver to give a complex mixture of anaesthetic and pain-relieving drugs and we used the new oxygen pump for breathing. It all worked like a dream. I monitored the breathing and pulse for her and she achieved wonderful stability. I have always been a big fan of gas anaesthesia, but I could definitely be converted.

I had a slightly bizarre experience on Thursday. The washing machine and tumble drier are in the changing room area of the clinic, as is the toilet. As I stood unloading the machine and folding up the clean washing, Jan-Arne rushed in.

‘I have to go to the toilet,’ he said with obvious urgency. I took some of the uniforms through to fold them up in the next room as I had no great desire to listen, but the next moment, I heard the skirl of bagpipes emanating from behind the door. For a mind-blowing moment, I wondered whether Jan-Arne was actually Scottish. After all, only a true Scot could possibly blow that kind of noise from his bottom. But then it dawned on me.

‘Are you using your iPhone in there?’ I asked.

‘Oh yes,’ he said, obviously perfectly happy that I was there. Men are strange creatures.

Towards the end of the day, I was chatting to Dagny and she was trying to send me her is-bjørn photographs. It was taking ages (maybe Jan-Arne was on the toilet again). Marita walked in.

‘I just had a telephone call from a boy, wanting to know how long it would take for a rabbit to get pregnant if the boy rabbit and the girl rabbit got in together. I told him about five seconds,’ she said with a grin.

Dagny put her head on her side. ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘I don’t think that’s right.’ She paused for a long moment for effect. ‘Not SO long as that,’ and we all laughed. It was the perfect end to a very pleasant day.

 

This week’s picture is of Jan-Arne’s dog Susii Because he chats to his clients enthusiastically about his own pets, those who have similar dogs tend to want to see him again. It always amazes me how many cute little brown dogs make their way onto his patient list.

 

Twice as Scary

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I’ve been feeling much better this week. So much so that a few minutes ago, I found myself dancing around my kitchen eating a slice of leftover barbecued haggis (yes you did read that correctly –  it’s delicious). The working week started well with an unexpected hug from Dagny. She told me how glad she was to see me and asked whether I had received my final pathology report on my tonsils, which I had. I was able to assure her that everything had come back clear.

I had a moment of quiet confusion when I walked into the kennel room and saw Dagny again, apparently on her hands and knees cleaning out one of the kennels. When she heard me coming, she pulled her head out of the kennel and smiled infectiously. It wasn’t Dagny at all, but a young girl who looked so like her I knew it must be her daughter. She said ‘Hi’ and a few minutes later, Dagny introduced us.

‘This is my Sara’ she said. ‘She’s here to help clean.’

Irene arrived at about the same time and as there were no operations, she, Sara and I set out on a mission to give the clinic a full spring clean. Having cleaned out one of the consulting rooms, right down to the bookshelves and inside the cupboards, we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves when Dagny came in to see how we were doing. Having admired most of the room, she came to a standstill in front of a pin board in the corner, where a random-looking set of dosage sheets of all shapes and colours were hanging in squinty profusion.

‘You could tidy this up,’ she suggested. I stared at it. Amazing how invisible things become to my eyes when I am used to seeing them. No wonder my house is never perfectly tidy.

IMG_5480The most amusing moment with Sara came when Jan-Arne arrived. By this time, Irene and she were outside cleaning the windows. Jan-Arne walked into the prep room, where Dagny was working on the computer. His eyes opened wide, he shook his head and slowly raised a shaking hand to point.

‘But you’re out there,’ he said. The confusion in his voice was comical.

‘Do we really look so much alike?’ Dagny asked a few minutes later, when Sara was back in the room.

‘Mostly from behind,’ Irene assured her, and took a photograph to demonstrate.

Twice as scary

My brain was functioning much better with the Norwegian this week. I find it astonishing though, how often I still can’t understand the entries made when the patients are being booked in. Considering how many times I see animals with the same or similar conditions, I find this mildly disconcerting, but mostly amusing. At least when it’s written down, I can ask before I come face to face with the client.

‘Har vært is slåsskamp’ (has been in a fight) was straightforward enough.  Can you beat the wonderful word slåsskamp? Kamp translates as match (as in football). Somehow for me then, slåss (rough pronunciation sloss) just sounds like a competition where the combatants are sloshing away at each other. That doesn’t make sense? Somehow in my brain it just works.

The next appointment was more confusing. ‘Hull i huden på hodet etter fjerning av hårsekk.’

‘Hull i huden på hodet’ (hole in the skin on the head) was straightforward enough. But ‘fjerning av hårsekk’? ‘Fjerning’ means removal but what on earth was a hair-sac? Somehow my mind was imagining a hole filled with fluff. Really though, it was logical, and thanks to google translate I was able to find out that it was actually a hair follicle.

The next case, ‘Sår etter bet’. Well I still don’t know what ‘bet’ means but I guessed correctly that this was a cat bite abscess andl I managed well enough. The hole in the skin after the hair follicle incident, was actually a gaping gap between the dog’s eyes following the emptying of a cyst. Generally when a cyst has burst, unless it is recurring, it is best just to clean out the hole and then leave it to heal. I do sometimes still find the ‘I know it looks awful, but we really don’t need to do anything,’ conversation harder in Norwegian than English. It’s far more noticeable to me when I have to translate everything, that people often repeat information in slightly different ways. There is a lot of speaking which could realistically be compressed into a very few words. This isn’t in any way a criticism. Indeed consulting here makes me realise that back in the UK, faced with an owner who was obviously confused about what I was telling them, I would re-explain in a different form. In Norwegian, that is more difficult as I tend to run out of words. Having explained to the owner that despite the fact that there was quite a large hole in the skin on her dog’s face, it would heal best if left alone, I could tell she was still unconvinced. Luckily, a quick conversation with Dagny allowed me to go back into the room and assure her that my boss agreed with me. Amazing the things I have to resort to, but at least it worked. Still, it’s cheering that consulting on cases with your colleagues is so encouraged here, that Dagny never batted an eyelid when I asked her about something as simple as a sebaceous cyst. It makes for a great working environment when everybody works as a team.

 

 

 

My review of Christmas at Mistletoe Cottage by Lucy Daniels (@SCMcG) #BlogTour #BookReview

Requests

Thanks for the lovely review Donna. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

donnammaguire's avatardonnasbookblog

Today I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Christmas at Mistletoe Cottage by Lucy Daniels!!

ChristmasAtMistletoe-Blog-Tour.jpgChristmas has arrived in the village of Welford. The scent of hot roasted chestnuts is in the air, and a layer of frost sparkles on the ground.

This year, vet Mandy Hope is looking forward to the holidays. Her animal rescue centre, Hope Meadows, is up and running – and she’s finally going on a date with Jimmy Marsh, owner of the local outward bound centre.

The advent of winter sees all sorts of animals cross Mandy’s path, from goats named Rudolph to baby donkeys – and even a pair of reindeer! But when a mysterious local starts causing trouble, Mandy’s plans for the centre come under threat. She must call on Jimmy and her fellow villagers to put a stop to the stranger’s antics and ensure that Hope…

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Julebyen – Egersund Christmas Market

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With the heavy snowfall late last week, it seemed like a good time for a Christmas pilgrimage. And so we made our way, by bus and train to Egersund, to join the Egersund monks in their annual Gløg Festival.

 

This is where the bus dropped us off by the harbour. It was truly a beautiful day, though perhaps not the best weather for sitting down to admire the scenery.

Then we walked across into the market.

The Christmas tree was the first thing that caught the eye. It was beautifully decorated in red and gold, then nature had added the best touch of all with snow that sparkled in the winter sunshine. The stall is selling ris grøt – a kind of rice pudding eaten with cinnamon and sugar and sometimes butter or cream.

We paid our first visit to the gløg shrine at this point. Gløg, for the uninitiated, is Norway’s version of mulled wine. It’s sweeter than the more familiar beverage, and improved with the addition of nuts and raisins. All in all, it’s very welcome on a cold day in December.There’s an alcohol free version for children and anyone driving home. The bottles at the front of the picture are of Norway’s other traditional Christmas drink, Julebrus.

There were lots of different stalls, selling everything from miniature Christmas gardens to Dutch cheese.

 

There were traditional toys.

All kinds of sweets.

 

And more decorations.

We went for a wander through the main shopping street where they were setting up trees for a tree decoration competition

Still too cold to sit down, but in the picture, the tree is garnished with a bundle of straw. I’ve seen many of these in the city, often tied with attractive red ribbons. This tradition began as a way to provide food for birds.

But we were drawn back by the singing monks.

Who kindly replenished the huge copper containing the gløg so we could have another cup.

Some Thai street food followed, then back for another walk round the market as the sun sank lower.

We returned to the harbour to catch the bus back to the station. The sky was beginning to turn pink, but the fjord was still bright with the reflected light.

It was dark by the time we got off the train and tramped through the snow towards home…

…where we lit the second of our advent candles: a peaceful end to a beautiful day.

 

 

 

Epiphany on Ski

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Epiphany can mean a lot of things. In its more general use, it is a revelation; a moment in which you suddenly understand something in a new or clear way, but of course today is 6th January, Twelfth Night: the last of the twelve days of Christmas.

This is always a rather sad day in my calendar because it means that Christmas, New Year, and my birthday are over for another year. I’ve always rather liked having a birthday on January 5th. For me it extends the festivities, and even as a child I always insisted that the tree should stay up for my birthday, but of course now that’s over and later today I am going to have to take down the decorations. It’s ten to nine in the morning, still dark outside, and I confess that I am shamelessly sitting with the tree lights on, the stars lining the window are lit up, and the Christmas candles are burning for one last time. I can see the sky outside the window is grey. Full daylight is being delayed by stormy weather and heavy rain but it will arrive shortly, and then I will have to get on.

Despite my reluctance to remove the trappings of Christmas, I know that once the room is cleared there will be a sense of space. I can’t hold on to things forever. And of course there are new things to look forward to, as well as lovely memories to enjoy. In two weeks time, Charlie and I will be going out for dinner together (a rare event). Charlie’s company are celebrating this year, and they are treating their employees to a number of special events, of which this is the first. We have decided to splash out and spend the night in a hotel so that we don’t have to come home on the late train. Personally as a profound emetophobe, I’ve never been very keen on taking transport that is frequented by the very drunk. But I am looking forward enormously to a night of comfort and (hopefully) a bath. I don’t miss it so much now. After five years I am used to it, but I still love hotels and their endless supply of warm water and clean white towels, and if I can, I will wallow for hours. If I’m lucky I will be able to check in before Charlie and take a while making myself gorgeous, something else I don’t get the opportunity for as often as I would like. For Christmas I received a lovely new coat, and for my birthday a pair of boots and a tiny clutch bag (the first of those I’ve ever had) and I am looking forward to trying them all out together.

There is also the rest of winter to look forward to. Hopefully this rain will stop soon. It’s been going on now since October and in my opinion, it’s about time it stopped (I have tried glaring angrily at the sky but it hasn’t had any effect). Regardless of the weather here though, there will be snow in the mountains, and that means skiing. We have just spent the weekend in the apartment that Charlie’s work rents, and on Saturday we ventured out to do some skiing. Not the downhill kind, but cross-country, which is very traditional in Norway. We only invested in the skis last year, and so far we are just learning. This is both exciting (I always love learning something new) and on occasion painful. There are some significant advantages over downhill. The boots are really very comfortable (it is, after all, rather like going for a walk with long skates attached to your feet) and compared with downhill skiing, it’s both cheaper and relatively easy to head out without having any lessons… but (perhaps because of the lack of lessons) there does seem to be a considerable amount of falling over involved. There are an infinite number of ways to do this, but as it is obviously of interest to those who have never tried, here are a few of the specialities (with apologies to dancers everywhere):

Splits: When the left leg goes one way and the right leg seems quite determined to go the other.

Progressive Side-Step: When you have come to a standstill (usually due to exhaustion) and you realise that someone is coming up in the tracks behind you, it is sometimes necessary to perform this move. It involves stepping sideways out of the tracks and then realising the snow beside them is too soft to support your weight.

Reverse fleckeryll: When you arrive almost at the top of a rise and realise that you have failed to provide sufficient forward propulsion to make it right to the peak.

Basic weave: When, despite your most profound concentration upon ensuring they remain parallel, the tips of your skis inexplicably become tangled.

Forward lock:This manoeuvre occurs when you attempt a faster glide down a hill involving a curve and (perhaps unwisely) decide to attempt use of the tracks (see picture below). The forward lock occurs when the tips of your skis fail to follow the bend in the tracks, instead digging into the snow resulting in their coming to a complete standstill while your body, failing to receive the message, carries on.

Windmill: A particularly extravagant move involving the rapid circling of the ski-poles in a propeller like motion. This action can of course precede any of the other moves listed here.

One of my personal favourites here:

The Hip Bump: Any attempt to glide smoothly down anything more than a slight incline can result in the Hip Bump. The movement begins with a failure to throw the weight sufficiently far forward, resulting in an acceleration of the skis whilst the body fails to capture sufficient momentum to keep up. Ideally this manoeuvre should be performed in its gentlest form, which involves elegantly sitting down on the skis and continuing gracefully downhill, but if performed in its more extreme form it can result in:

The Whip: A rapid backwards motion wherein the Hip Bump is closely followed by a more painful thump of the head backwards onto the packed-down snow. This particular move usually requires a period of recovery (preferably involving chocolate) before further skiing can be undertaken.

Ski tracks: