The Great Flood Could Be Much Worse For Me But Hopefully Not

This is crazy. I will be okay just not sure about evacuating. More water is coming.

Christmas day first sign of flooding

one road out

other road out right behind clinic i swam to middle of road was over my head

only good story so far this was a christmas miracle had a blood transfusion

This is what downtown normally looks like

That sign shows where the beer drive thru is. That sux

kangaroo

New Years is Looking Dismall

 It rained 5 inches between christmas night and this am. Also everything here is measured in metric and celsius except for rain measuring? That seems odd to me.  Anyway woke up this morning toa phone call the kennel helper could not get here the clinic is completely flooded in. Went behind the clinic and checked on the creek found heaps of kangaroos. Attached are videos and pics

that blur is a really close kangaroo cant believe it did not turn out

 

some animal photos

Baby kangaroo in its little homemade pouch was hard to get still

This is the baby version of a kidroo some version of a porcupine. This is what they call a puggle not like the states version

The spines are soft when this young

Delivery a set of twins to the clinic for evaluation. Twin foals are very rare for a reason it does not go well.

My double decker plane to get out to australia. The top level is where its at but would have cost 10,000 roundtrip

Christmas morning for me is in 14 hours

 I will get more photos up soon I promise but the constant rain and flooding interferes with internet connection. It is getting close to flooding me in in all directions. Only one road out to east towards brisbane is still open. Quick update I was the official vet for the christmas horse races it was lots of fun. The first horse race had a horse named tennessee blues in the race. I bet on him and he won but was the favorite so did not pay much. I hopefully can get out to the great barrier reef for new years. I am looking forward to it. Work has been busy and will stay very busy until february first. Merry christmas to everyone.

What a crazy week I've forgotten what it is like to work 60hrs + a week. There is a reason I quit doing it

 Wow that was a tough week. Started monday night with a difficult horse owner and difficult horse. Cost me three hours of my life and a sore chest.. Tuesday busy and then at 4pm left for calving difficulties. Pulled out two calves two different ways. Wednesday morning went to stitch up a horse real quick but horse never got sedated. Thought to myself what is going on. Decided to look at drug bottle oh yeah the sedation drug was out of date by a year. That explained a lot about my farm calls so far. I just thought it was fault. Gave up and would return later got to clinic had two snake bites waiting and a sick foal who needed a transfusion and we were short staffed. Went back and stiched the horse up at 7. Left at 8:30pm then got an emergency farm call at midnight. Friday morning did a c-section on a cow in am then a two hour attempt to repair a very broken radius on a dog. Saturday was the official vet for the chinchilla christmas horse races. I worked in am until 11 then rushed to racetrack. It was muddy raining and the last two races had some injuries.  Did feel kind of important when I stopped the last race because I was fixing a horse and they had to wait on me before could proceed. It was just like an american horse race all the girls got dressed up and it was a big party.  Had a quiet day on call today but it has absolutely poured nonstop today. Hope next week starts right. I cant believe christmas is a few days away. I will be on call until the dec 30 but all the store swill be closed so do not know what I'll do.

Sorry for delay here are some photos not very organized though

Washing machine real big and they do not have driers in many homes

Entrance to clinic

Water collector back of clinic next to my room. Every house here has one of these because of the drought conditions here they collect the rainwater of the gutters This weather is insane wet for them. 3 years ago this town got 7 inches of rain total for the year!

The room for all the patient exams and appointments

Random pic of outside window unt it it gets like memphis in summer 95 and humid and all we got is window units

OOPS Got a talk about this one did not know they had a security service

They love land cruisers here. This contraption was in dalby and list price is 65,000

Back of clinic at sunset

This was the bigger kangaroo did not get a video of but can tell its pretty tall

A photo collage of some interesting finds so far on trip

Seriously can you interpret that label? Try shopping on the metric system. I bought 1\2 kg of lunch meat

     These next two photos are directed towards my family kelloggs expert. Yes the kelloggs brand is doing well in australia. My questions are do yall have a metric day at the plant? Are the loops the same size? The box says 550gm is that a fair price or should I buy the generic "fruit rings" as they are called here? I mean come on 1.74 per 100grams (Really I have no idea what that correlates to in any way)

   This is picture of three items. Can you geuss which
   one is most expensive?     

I do not shop for groceries a lot. So may be mistaken. The hat was free on my pub crawl but the facewash was 15 dollars little ridiculous to me

Seriously these are all my toilets in my place and the clinic.

I am scared touch the hose spray nozzle thing not sure what it is for? I guess your supposed to aim it down the hole I guess. I am not sure but not comfortable enough to ask. I get the powder stuff I think

This frame over one of the "eco" toilets cracks me up. It is not relaxing to use one of these at all!. It also gives a whole new meaning to dropping something in the toilet. There is no retrieval from one of these.

The bigger kangaroos are smarter

 Here is a video I shot at back of clinic with camera just missed a bigger one.

                                     

Not a good day! RyRy is not a multitasker

  Quick update it is yet again pouring down rain lot of flooding now in my area. My first day off since here. I tried to go to toowamba (the "big city") to shop for stuff. It was a bad trip. I was overwhelmed to 1 see stop lights again, 2 to make sure did not stall out the manual ute,  3 a lot of other pedestrians and cars. Between all this I could not focus on the left side of the road. I ended up into oncoming traffic couple of times. That is when I was politely told by a police officer to park my vehicle for a while and he phoned me a taxi. By the time I got to the stores they were closed and it was pouring rain. I decided not to spend the night and try tomorrow but drove the 2 hrs back to the clinic. On my way home I tried again to drive to auburn australia. The road had a lot of creeks to pass over. The second time I crossed a creek and water came into my floorboards I decided to once again give up and hide back at the clinic. I at least was on auburn rd. I will download pictures today.
                            
      The only good news is I have tonight off and belong to a club where I get free access to a shuttle for pickup and drop off after my troubles today will be nice not to drive tonight.

     P.S. I blame the clinic for my driving troubles. I have to drive three different utes each manual and each clutch behaves differently based on certain situations.

Update its friday here just got of work

 I will post some good pictures soon tonight I promise. So I have seen some cool stuff last couple weeks. I am still being lazy and not walking out to film the kangaroos yet but did grill out some the other night. A little gamier than deer but grilled steaks is good. Do not think you can use it for spaghetti and hide the flavor. I see more now that I am not so focused on staying on the right side of the road. They decorate and celebrate christmas here very well. Lot of lights about.  As far as work goes have treated a baby kangaroo, their version of a porcupine as a baby called a puggle, a wallaby, and a japenese rooster. Funny thing is this guy who does wildlife rescue came and got a bird and he is very odd with a bad lazy eye but means well. He was chatting it up and kept telling me about his puggle and having to take 20 minutes to feed it and it was prickly. I though he was mental because thought he meant the dog breed puggle and was confused. Two days later he walks in and says here is my puggle it is sick now and showed me a baby critter. Wow was I off track.  Photos to follow. I will hopefully have weekends off starting January 7th. That will be good can go explore some. That is work and will post photos of clinic and such tonight just s o long to download.
   As far as the rest goes apparantley a lot of these people read the paper. The last 4-5 days been recognized everywhere as the bloke from the paper. As far as the nightlife goes I have two good angles the veterinarian angle works with the paper but I tried out another successful meeting line as well.  When in a different country and u say your from tennessee tell them you work for jack daniels back home and buy a round of shots. U'll have friends for life.
It has been too wet to try any outdoor activities. They play lawn darts which is bocce but can only roll the ball. Can't wait to play. All I see on tv is cricket but (WTF cant figure that game out!)
    They have the annual chinchilla christmas horse races next weekend. I am the vet in charge. It will be interesting. They say they get a crowd of 5 thousand out for the races. I am even presenting a trophy to the winner at one race. I will be really busy working though. I think there are 8 races for the day.

PHOTOS OF VEHICLES

One of my UTE'S Notice which side steering wheel is on

                                              How is this for annoying!! notice what side the turn signal is on! It gets old turning on your windshield wipers every time you try to turn!

                                                 They don't even offer both mph and km how rude

                                             My other UTE more power has 6 gears

                                               Loaded up ready to go chase the big animals

                                           Now that is a real truck! This is how they transport horses here

                                             Inside the back of that beast of a truck pretty roomy

DAY 1 of Living at clinic could be bad could be good

  So it is night one at the clinic flat. Word to wise do not off road in a 2 wheel drive UTE that is not yours it can get ugly and it being a manual (ask my friend tommy how it turns out)  Anyway nice to have a country place all to myself. I am really excited about to eat my First Real Hamburger since leaving the states. They have no mcdonalds, subway, or burger king. They do have a domino's and KFC is huge down here one in every town and lots of tv ads. Off to enjoy my home grilled hamburger. They also cant fry food for crap a southern cook could make a fortube hear teachin them.

Pictures and why is no one caring

 Well I had a good day today treated a baby kangaroo from a lady and patched the wing up a tropical looking bird from around here. Moving into the clinic tomorrow so will have better computer acess. I went out for a unique australia pub crawl last wednesday night on a bus to multiple small pubs in the area. It was an experience. Have to be the only vet here until december 30 so will not get out much but going to spend new years in FIJI unless anyone else has a better idea. Australian open is in january may try to get away to see it.

It is slow posting pics so few at a time

                                              Pic outside brisbane hotel the Mercure a fancy place apparently every big australian city along coast has a central ferris wheel my night photos did not turn out to hot

                                                View of river in dowtown brisbane

                                                My article in chinchilla news have been noticed everywhere after my accent is heard

                                            Fitting title for me after my vet school experiences ha ha

                                               same pets mainly same problems

ONE WEEK IN

   So I am about 10 days in for working and about to be two weeks in australia friday. Getting around better. I did have a run in with the police last thursday night. I was headed back to the clinic to check on a baby foal when I stalled out the manual at an intersection in town. I then had trouble pulling away a little jerky. As soon as I got a little ways down the road I see flashing blue lights in my rearview  mirror. I thought great now if I can only pull over this UTE (slang for truck) without stalling in front of police. The officer arrives at the drivers door breathalyzer in hand. Thought he had an easy one. I inform him I am just a dumb american trying to drive a manual and keeping on the left side of the road. I show him my official queensland drivers license. Oh yeah the one I just got that afternoon. No worries I'm sure he got a good laugh. I will post pictures of my journeys soon I promise. 

The Beginning

 Well it is hard to get set up in rural Australia but now is the time.
  The trip began on a two story airplane in business class. Slept a lot did not utilize the free drinks as should but had enough on the other flights and the layovers to sleep. It has been a grand adventure so far. I will post pictures soon. I have kept a little journal of my journey so for now wil share some thoughts.
 How to look obviously foreign in australia (without speaking that gives it away)
    1) lugg around a ginormous 50lb suitcase and two other bags onto a train.
    2) refer to your bag as being heavy it weighs 4lbs without anything in it you say
    3) Always try and get in on what in america is the passenger seat of a car but not here
    4) If you plan to travel at all to any other countries recommend manual car practice before you go!!!
   
   Interesting stories so far:
 Do not fear the local talk of "droppers" they do not attack
 You can get coke and sprite but no dr. pepper
 People in brisbane had no idea a shrimp is a prawn
Any Hooters here is not like the Hooters in the states
What the hell is 376ml of coke?
Try figuring out your height on a drivers license form in meters!
When in doubt say "no worries" and "mate a lot" 
Got lost on a farm call and lady called the horse was better before I found the place!
Oh yeah don't freak out when someone asks to "take away" your food apparently that means to go hear. Makes more sense then our expression
They stereotype us as bad as we stereotype them