Back to work ...

I returned to work today. It was a fairly good day, could have been filled with drama. Cityrail is busy upgrading its railways along our line, and for the most part has put on buses. However, it turns out that they are still running peak hour trains. I have to leave a little earlier in the morning and get in a little later due to a change along the way, but at least it is train travel and not the buses.

One of the guys at work, who lives even further out than me decided once to catch the bus. It got stuck in traffic for about two hours. So he decided to drive in. Yesterday he got stuck for almost five hours. Bugger that for a joke. I'll keep a bottle of water with me, as the train took almost an hour for a normally half hour trip. If it is any longer in the heat, it will be a killer. Luckily both trains today were Millenium trains and like fridges to sit in. It is only tomorrow and Friday. Next week will be back to normal.

Surprisingly everyone was pleased to see me back. I spent the day using a Stanley knife to cut teeny little squares in pieces of paper. The challenges of working in the Public Sector never cease to amaze me.

On the walk to the station, which is about a mile, there was a thunderstorm threatening, but it never came to be more than a few drops of rain. I am the biggest chicken when it comes to lightning. I can run faster than her ladyship the ex racehorse when it comes to that. The boy picked up from me to be afraid of storms, and he was as big a chicken as me.

The vet came out yesterday and gave her ladyship her second vaccine. He had to also take blood from her jugular vein. It took him three goes, and she was totally unimpressed. Still a carrot afterwards always helps. Vet was glad to be on his last run. He looked really tired. He still has his normal practice to run on top of all this EI. But he was quite chirpy and a little chatty.

I was able to finally tell him about the boy and how he died. He also confirmed that the operation that can be done does not give the horse quality of life, just drags it out indefinitely. The way we spoil our horses and give them the best food, farrier, veterinary care etc., he could have lived in misery for 25 years. So hard and all as it has been, I know for sure that I did the right thing putting him down.

His horses had EI, which would have been an added worry for him. Apparently they came through it okay, however. They have better immunity than is gained from the vaccines. However, a matter of demographics means that most of the horses on our side of the freeway did not get EI. Also, as I have previously written, we are pretty isolated here.

Still working on getting a buddy for her ladyship.

So it has been a not too bad couple of days...