January on the Lleyn Peninsula
Hey Folks,
Well we have settled back into living in North Wales for a stretch. Jamie started work for Deufor Vets (pron. Dayvor) on the 7th Jan. We are living in a really nice house about 3miles from the vet clinic in a little village called Chwilog.
The house is right next to a stream, you could lean out the kitchen window and spit in it! Not that I condone that sort of uncouth behaviour of course!
One of the best things about the UK is that they have central heating - it makes it really hard to leave the house though, because with the usual state of british isles weather it is of course bl**dy freezing and there is always a wind blowing, that reminds you, yes, you are alive but very inadequately clad. Not that I'm complaining mind because it builds phlegm I'm told. I still don't know if this is referring to the kind that lives in your chest and makes you feel crook or the kind that makes you tough.
Anyway I'm going to need phlegm (the tough kind) with this next job because on Monday I start working at a 1000 cow dairy farm further down the peninsula. I'm mainly there to raise the 500 or so heifer calves that are due to start popping out in the next couple of weeks. They also have an 80 cow rotary milking shed which has no roof! and supposedly I'm going to give them a bit of a hand there as well. Anyway its a very cold site so I've raided the local op shops for warm clothes.
I've been keeping myself busy gardening for Jamies old Vet bosses in Caernarfon (about a 1/2hr drive away) for the last 2 weeks. They have a house that they want to rent out that needed a garden makeover.
Jamie is in the heart of welsh speaking Wales - all the Vets and Nurses at the Vet Clinic speak welsh and the majority of their clients do as well, so he is picking up a few words here and there.
On weekends when Jamie is on-call I answer the phone for him with often very funny results. The clients never expect to hear an english speaking New Zealand accent on the other end of the phone. Today someone called me 4 times thinking that he had got the wrong number everytime I answered. The 3rd and 4th time he called he waited for me to answer and then promptly hung up. Poor sod. He probably thought he was becoming dyslexic. In the end, out of total confusion and desperation he called one of the Welsh Vets to find out the problem with the number.
We have discovered a really good indoor tennis centre in Caernarfon, which we've started going to each week. Its right next to an indoor swimming pool, which we've also started going to and then of course there's the local climbing gym, which we've started going to. Of course the church we go to is next to the swimming pool which we go to, which incidentally is next to the tennis centre, but I think I've already told you that. Its all very tidy you see.
We have got a few plans in the pipeline for this year. Jamie is going back to Glencoe, Scotland for a week in Feb to improve his ice-climbing skills. Then in April we are hoping that we can join Georg on a 10 day ski-touring trip in Norway. We would also like to go to Spain for summer, but we'll have to wait and see. Then of course our working holiday visas run out in mid-August so we are trying to decide whether we should pack up and ship out to South America or try to get other work visas for the UK. Deep breath...........We'll keep you posted.
Hope everyone out there is having a good start to the year.
Take care
Katie
Well we have settled back into living in North Wales for a stretch. Jamie started work for Deufor Vets (pron. Dayvor) on the 7th Jan. We are living in a really nice house about 3miles from the vet clinic in a little village called Chwilog.
The house is right next to a stream, you could lean out the kitchen window and spit in it! Not that I condone that sort of uncouth behaviour of course!
One of the best things about the UK is that they have central heating - it makes it really hard to leave the house though, because with the usual state of british isles weather it is of course bl**dy freezing and there is always a wind blowing, that reminds you, yes, you are alive but very inadequately clad. Not that I'm complaining mind because it builds phlegm I'm told. I still don't know if this is referring to the kind that lives in your chest and makes you feel crook or the kind that makes you tough.
Anyway I'm going to need phlegm (the tough kind) with this next job because on Monday I start working at a 1000 cow dairy farm further down the peninsula. I'm mainly there to raise the 500 or so heifer calves that are due to start popping out in the next couple of weeks. They also have an 80 cow rotary milking shed which has no roof! and supposedly I'm going to give them a bit of a hand there as well. Anyway its a very cold site so I've raided the local op shops for warm clothes.
I've been keeping myself busy gardening for Jamies old Vet bosses in Caernarfon (about a 1/2hr drive away) for the last 2 weeks. They have a house that they want to rent out that needed a garden makeover.
Jamie is in the heart of welsh speaking Wales - all the Vets and Nurses at the Vet Clinic speak welsh and the majority of their clients do as well, so he is picking up a few words here and there.
On weekends when Jamie is on-call I answer the phone for him with often very funny results. The clients never expect to hear an english speaking New Zealand accent on the other end of the phone. Today someone called me 4 times thinking that he had got the wrong number everytime I answered. The 3rd and 4th time he called he waited for me to answer and then promptly hung up. Poor sod. He probably thought he was becoming dyslexic. In the end, out of total confusion and desperation he called one of the Welsh Vets to find out the problem with the number.
We have discovered a really good indoor tennis centre in Caernarfon, which we've started going to each week. Its right next to an indoor swimming pool, which we've also started going to and then of course there's the local climbing gym, which we've started going to. Of course the church we go to is next to the swimming pool which we go to, which incidentally is next to the tennis centre, but I think I've already told you that. Its all very tidy you see.
We have got a few plans in the pipeline for this year. Jamie is going back to Glencoe, Scotland for a week in Feb to improve his ice-climbing skills. Then in April we are hoping that we can join Georg on a 10 day ski-touring trip in Norway. We would also like to go to Spain for summer, but we'll have to wait and see. Then of course our working holiday visas run out in mid-August so we are trying to decide whether we should pack up and ship out to South America or try to get other work visas for the UK. Deep breath...........We'll keep you posted.
Hope everyone out there is having a good start to the year.
Take care
Katie
posted by Jamie and Katie at 3:09 pm
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