Once I had crossed the Channel, the road took me through Northern France, past Verdun and Metz down to the Northern Vosges mountain range and then across the Rhine valley to Freiburg and the Black Forest. Over the next few weeks I will rely on the hospitality of my friends (old and new) to both …
Author Archives: The Blue Vet
On the Road again…..
The living room is littered with stuff in a seemingly random pattern and the Christmas decoration is complete and utterly spoiled…… Returning from Abdingdon following an extra – thankfully quiet – nightshift, I have 24 hours to pack all the gear, clothes, books, IT equipment, skis and instruments I am likely to use during the …
Abingdon
How does it feel when you have been the boss in your own clinic for over 20 years, having made your own decisions, having taken on most of the risks and responsibilities of running a business and being used to do this “your way” and then you find yourself once again as the “ordinary” member …
EERVC
The Eastern European Regional Veterinary Conference (EERVC) is to a large degree the realisation of the vision of my friend Denis Novak, a Croatian vet with a clinic in Belgrade in Serbia and the new President of FECAVA. Denis had a part of his veterinary training in the UK and he has a good understanding …
Driving with Father Polykarpos
Patrick Leigh Fermor was 23 when he arrive in Daphni at the end of his walk from Hook of Holland to Constantinople . It had taken him 5 years and his trip had resulted in one of the most famous travel journals of the 20th century. The year was 1935…… In the same way as …
The Road to Mount Athos
I have to admit that at times I had been furious with Kyriakos, but while joining douzens of other men ladden with back packs and heavy suitcases entering the speed boat at Ouranoupoli in Northern Greece, with the precious visiting permit for Mount Athos in my pocket, I was once again very grateful for the …
CPD Armenian Style
The Armenian Small Animal Veterinary Association (ArmSAVA) is the youngest member of FECAVA, the Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations, and had at the time of our visit just 44 members (hopefully a few more now ?…..). Yerevan has a small veterinary faculty attached to their agricultural department of the local university, but continuing …
Touring Armenia in a Lada and nearly falling off my (high) horse…..
It slowly dawned on me that I was standing in front of the worst car I had every rented, when I realised that there were no seatbelts on the rear seats. …..and this came on top of electric windows which only worked if the door was been held wide open ( not easy while driving …
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The Street Cats of Istanbul
It was 3 am in the morning and although I felt completely spend following a whole week of late nights out with both Russian and other international friends at the FECAVA EuroCongress, usually followed by early morning runs through the city, I had to catch a flight…. Together with my Estonian friend and colleague, Tiina Toomet, who …
Sergey Sereda
It was in April 2011 when I attended my first Russian Small Animal Veterinary Congress in Moscow. We were staying in Hotel Gamma or Delta on the outskirts of the city, a cluster of not very inviting Soviet style high rise buildings next to a Disney style Russian utopia village and in walking distance to …
The Blue Vet Diary 