The Dubbo Chronicles No.2

Well, it will be three weeks tomorrow since I arrived in Dubbo and time passes quickly when one is finding one's feet.

The homesickness pangs have started to sneak in now and then. Foolish things, like waking up in the morning and turning over to find that there is no cup of coffee waiting for you on the bedside table, or dropping one's toast on the floor and calling for the dog, only to realise he's not there.

People have continued to be friendly and all my colleagues are lovely people. The work is varied and exciting. I have seen my first snake bites and spider bites (and coming from a country that has no poisonous animals it seems quite exciting). There seems to be a real need in the area, and it is the last major hospital before you hit the large nothing to the west.

Life at Willowbrook is ticking on. I hear that we have bought a new tractor and lawnmower; that our head gardener and farm manager has everything under control.

We had the final Highland calf born - a boy, and have sold 4 of the other calves, which means that we can now buy a bull for the fold. Peter has sourced a lovely much handled 5 year old pedigree bull, called McIntyre...

He should arrive in March, just in time to do the business.

Well, that's all for now. I am enjoying keeping up with everyone's blogs now that after 3 weeks I finally have broadband - Yay. It is just about time for another installment of the Great Estates Series, so I shall get onto that for this weekend.

Till then I'll leave you with this charming song I came across: These foolish things (remind me of you)...

The Dubbo Chronicles No.1... (First Impressions)

After a day of frantic last minute goodbyes, I set off at 4am from the airport. I had forgotten that hour existed. Dubbo awaited…

Warm and friendly is an understatement for Dubbo. Flying over a patchwork quilt of varying shades of brown and red, I landed in the middle of a heat wave when a lot of the state of NSW was suffering from wild fires. The temperatures are in the 40s, with the expectation they will get higher this weekend. I had left behind my family and the green lush pastures of Willowbrook to work in a burning desert – this is not what the tourist brochures had shown!

Standing at the baggage carousel I wondered how I was going to get into town.  “Excuse me”, I said to the lady next to me. “What is the best way for me to get into town - I need to go to the Base Hospital”. “Well, you could call a taxi, but we are going near there, so we can drop you off. My Name’s Coleen and this is my husband Barry”.  And so it was that Coleen and Barry kindly dropped my from the airport to the doors of the ED, giving me a guided tour of Dubbo on the way.

The staff at the hospital are all very friendly. Still, I am filled with trepidation about taking my first real job as a specialist, running a Emergency Department, taking weekly teaching sessions for all the junior doctors, and becoming au fait with how the health service runs in a different county. There is no option but to embrace it all with fervour and hope for the best.

I have been given a lovely air conditioned 2 bedroom apartment and a new Nissan X-trail for my stay here. I spent the afternoon cleaning, rearranging the furniture, and stocking the cupboards with a few staples.

My job this week is to try to sort out an internet connection and cell phone. Not having a credit history in this country, and only having been with my current employer for ‘0 days’ was not what most of the telecom providers wanted to hear yesterday. We shall see whether they can step up to the same level of trust and kindness as Barry and Coleen. 

Oh No!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Unfortunately my first post of the year starts off by announcing calamity: I decided to upgrade my blogger account to Google+. I then found a whole lot of photos in the albums of my Google+ account, and not knowing any better deleted them, with the result that it has removed HUNDREDS of photos from previous posts. It is going to take me weeks to put them back on the blog, if I can even find them again.

So, in the interim "Bear with, bear with".

David.