It is the last day of August and the weather in Bavaria is dismal ……….but looking on the bright side, the COVID incidence figures in most European countries remain low and with the borders open, I have decided to take full advantage of the geographical uniqueness of the Alps – just three hours drive away, …
Author Archives: The Blue Vet
Heading North – again…..
I am sitting in a train heading from Stockholm 400 km further North along the Gulf of Bothnia to Sundsvall, a town of less than 60 000 inhabitants that had based its wealth on timber. Despite its limited size, the place has a busy veterinary emergency clinic which is taking in small animal patients from …
To write for a living ?….
It is 5.30 in the morning and its done…… With the coffee machine working overtime and our Vizsla snoring peacefully on the floor next to my desk, I am sitting in front of 71 pages plus eight appendices of an advisory job, which I had taken on to try my hands on a completely new …
Gran Paradiso
It was still early in the morning and the sun was about to rise over Punta Feuillaz in the East. A thin layer of snow was covering the ground which was not unusual in September at 2500m above sea level and despite a double layer of warm clothes, Vittorio Emanuele was still cold. He was …
Surrey Practice Days
It was now the middle of the summer and the river of life had washed me back on to British shores, where the tsunami of “Pandemic Puppies” had caused a huge demand for veterinary professionals. This times I was not alone though, as just before my departure from the continent I was re-united with Mia, …
“Nanny” Burdinski
It is 12 noon and following a few consultations and a bitch spay, it is time for a communal lunch. The table is laid out with silver cutlery and as it is a Friday, fish (of course….) is on the menu. The usual knives have been replaced with fish knives, which are accompanied with a …
Lauenburg
While I was seeing patients in Bradford in May, 700 miles away in the North of Germany a young farmer decided to overtake a bus in a bend without knowing what was ahead of him – unfortunately there was another car traveling in the opposite direction……. In the ensuing head on collision, he not only …
A Stroll along the Thames
(This post took me much longer to write than usual, partially because so much had happened in the meantime and partially due to an inexplicable inertia caused by several periods of forced self isolation. For some strange reason your productivity sinks rapidly if you have actually nothing to do…..) It is the end of May …
An unexpected job…..
It just didn’t feel right when I walked through the thick mud towards the abandoned building in front of me…. It all had started a day before with a brief text message of a friend asking me for help. When I stepped into the building, I noticed the bullet holes in the wall, the empty …
The Great Outdoors of the North and calling on an old acquaintance I never met…
One of the reasons for my excursion to the North was my complete ignorance of the natural beauty this part of the world has to offer and this despite of its population density and its industrial heritage. Whenever I had a few days time to go hiking, I usually drove to Wales in the West, …
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The Blue Vet Diary 