Happy Halloween!

Twas the weekend before Halloween and a quiet little village outside Edinburgh was descended upon by people dressed in funny outfits...

A great night of fancy dress, fun food, pumpkin making (isn't he beautiful! I made him all by myself, and yes, he does just have one eyebrow) and ducking for apples.

Do you like the hat?...

And that's a wrap!

Ahh, first small animal practical of the year: bandaging!


An hour and a half of wrapping poor wee doggies up in lots of cotten wool, and bandages to create a supportive work of art.


The dog to the left is Angus and that big blue thing is my first bandage. (No, he's not dead or even sedated-He's a vet student's dream!). Hoorah. Angus is one of the nurse's dogs and clearly is bored with the whole event, whilst also enjoying the fuss and cheeky biscuits. He's a nine year old springer spanial and has been one of the student's subjects since he was a pup. I'm sure if only they could talk, I'm sure he could tell me exactly what to do step by step!

Here he is post-bandaging: still a happy chappy.














This here is scruff. I think the girls had the good deal here-not only their first bandage, but the smallest I reckon!





Now all that's left to do is re-roll out bandages and take them home to attack an unsuspecting flatmate or partner. Watch out!

Bike Origami

I must share the genius that is the folding bike! Well, after some very naughty person stole my beautiful, faithful bike from right outside my flat (boo hoo), I was forced to consider another. Having suitable grieved then pondered the pros and cons of what felt like every bike in the world, I finally decided on this folding wonder.

OK, it did take me a while to get used to the small wheels, characteristic appearance and folding my bike in the middle of the street, never mind getting over the fact that the bike could fall apart at any moment if I didn't unfold it right, but now all is well and I am mobile again.

Hoorah for bicycles!

A GIANT snail!

How's the snails I hear you cry? Well, 1 became 3, which became 5, which again became 3 (after a happy manager at Boot's opticians became the proud owner of 2 snails for his sons). They have grown (slightly) and have moved up the property market to a modern, spacious, modified Ikea jar. Anyway, here's the pictures to prove it: Huge they are!...

What's the marra with the angel like? It's al reet...

Well, when a was eatin' me breckfast this mornin', I was watchin' the tv like n this laddy on the telly reckoned that peepel thought that the Gateshead Angel was reet disappointing in this vote of the sites te see in Britan.

'Am not shua aboot that leik. Me 'n' the lads went a few weeks ago 'n' I think it's reet good! Bit windy on the hill like but it's dead canny to look at (even if it does look like an aeroplane on end...). What a pick-cha!

Horsing around in the borders

A welcome mid-week day off meant a day trip to Paxton near Berwick upon Tweed today with a visit to Aunty Diane and Uncle Bob's house.

That's Aunty Diane on the left her horse Jeffrey. Not much time for a ride, but a quick hello, a nice groom and some fussing left Jeff a handsome happy chappy.

There was also a surprise visit to Aunty Diane's friend down the road, where I was introduced to a slightly smaller variety. Meet Flora ('Miss Independence', born on July 4th). She was just two weeks old but bold as brass and gorgeous!

I had a great day off all in all: What with jam-making, horse/foal visiting, rabbit playing (featuring Benny the Bunny), cups of tea with the family and general horse play it was a very successful day off. Thanks Aunty Diane!

CSI vet!

The summer holidays are here and apart from working at Boots Opticians, I have found other exciting things to keep my active mind occupied (and from stopping it degenerating over the summer months).

So, I'm back at uni working in the pathology department on a short project. This included student input on some issues, scanning extremely old slides so they can be used on the computer, re-sizing lots of photos for online teaching, taking photographs at post mortems throughout the week and then creating case files for them and others so they can be used for teaching and online resources. Phew! It's been quite a varied, educational busy week but I've learnt quite a lot and have enjoyed it. Back to Boots next week!