Tis the Season

While it looks like I wont be starting work until January, I now have some time to organise myself in preparation for moving interstate and my first day at work as a fully qualified veterinarian.

I can’t possibly revise everything in time, and even if I did it would be as useles as cramming for exams, so I’m devising a more targeted approach to my revision.

Fortunately, I get to spend Xmas with my family, rather than with dogs that have contracted pancreatitis, chocolate toxicity or macadamia nut toxicity.  Instead I’ll be starting work slap-bang in the middle of snake bite season, allergy season and heatstroke season, in addition to all the usual suspects that crop up at any time of year, such as hit-by-cars and not-quite-rights.

Summer is busy  in most vet practices. Fortunately I’m going to be out of the usual bushfire zone, so I shouldn’t have to worry about that, but snakes are everywhere in Australia. We’ve got most of the top venomous snakes here, as well as venomous ticks, venomous spiders, venomous octopi, poisonous fish, poisonous plants and poisonous cone shell molluscs. There’s a not untruthful satirical song with the chorus “Come to Australia, you might acidently get killed!”

But I mustn’t forget the large animal side of the practice. Around Summer the sheep must be shorn, and with that mulsing issue I’m not sure how many flystrike cases we’re going to see in the next few years. Probably not many because it’s more economical to kill the individual sheep than treat them. There is likely to be some pregnancy testing of cattle, and I admin I’m out of practice so I need to’get my hand in’ again.

Moving intetstate is going to be a big task, and I’ve started sorting two decandes of my belongings into three piles: Take, store, and bin. So far most things are going in the bin. It’s amazing howmuch stuff you can stack away over time and forget about.

Does anybody have any advice about trying to find a rental property in a place you’re unlikely to actually visit until you’re ready to move in? I’m worried about ending up in a not-quite-as-advertised place.