Out & About

I forgot to mention yesterday something that I did do that was more useful than making tea and the like for workmen.

Whilst I was away in Greece I got to thinking about what I should do with this career change I've been planning and after much mulling over I came to the conclusion that yes, I do still want to leave IT and perhaps take up a career in animal care. I've always wanted to do it, ever since I was a kid I had grand ideas of becoming a vet, but falling short in the academic requirements I never quite made it. So what could I do that is animal related but not as grueling as training up to be a vet (7 years of study no less!). Veterinary Nurse springed to mind as it happens.

So yesterday I set about finding out how I actually get to do Veterinary Nursing. It appears that you have to first of all get a placement / job with a vet surgery that is registered as an approved training practice with the Royal Society of Veterinary Surgeons, and from there it takes you 2 years of on the job training and day release to college to qualify fully as a nurse.

With that in mind then I get a list of all the approved practices in my area and start to ring around to see if any of them have any availability to take on a student nurse at the moment. Of course most of them didn't, just the usual reply of "send us a CV and we'll keep it on file"... but just as I was giving up one call I placed said that in fact they were thinking of taking on a student in the near future, however the senior partner wasn't in at the moment so if I left a number they'd give me a ring back as soon as they could.

Pessimistic me thought that might have been yet another brush off, but as it happens they were true to their word and I got a call back about an hour later from one of the partners, so we had a bit of a chat and she asked me to send in my CV and covering letter and although she was going away for a week she'd have a look at it when she got back and let me know.

And so back to what I've been doing today then - and that was to brush up my CV, do a suitable covering letter and then hand delivery it to the surgery for perusal. The job would be about 20 miles from here (if I get it) which is about 30 mins either way in the car, but I'm not going to jinx anything by writing anymore about it, I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they give me a chance.... it's proving everso difficult to get ANY job that isn't IT - so all this tosh about a degree being a must to get a job, it's a load of bull.

Along with all that then I also spend a good deal of time in the back garden trying to sort it out a little. Seems the hot, wet and sunny weather has provoked everything to go into overdrive, including the weeds. So I've extracted all unwanted plants, mown the grass and trimmed back anything overgrown. I've also therefore managed to top up my tan from Greece :)

Not so good news came in the form of a phone call from my sister who told me they were taking my Dad to the hospital since the kidney stone that has been giving him trouble for a couple of months has reached such proportions that he can hardly move or pee or anything - so he's been ferried off for the tender mercies of the NHS overnight to keep him monitored and fill him full of fluids and see if they can do some pain management - he's booked in to have the stone blasted on Tuesday next week, so hopefully they can do something to keep him comfortable until then.

Posted by Abi on the May 10, 2006 9:40 PM

Alex at May 12, 2006 8:49 AM