A short week

On friday we celebrate the holiday of the working forces. This year I think it will be especially important with big numbers of people marching downtown and giving speeches. It is especially the working forces who are feeling the blow of the economic recession.

My dogs, however, do not care about the recession. They care about their country walks, toys and food. They love me just the same, even if I don´t have a fancy house to live in or a shiny car. I´m babysitting for three weeks a dog I saved from the lethal injection a couple of years ago, and found a great home for him with a nice young couple. They have been rather loose on the feeding spoon, however, and will get a scolding when they come back from their holiday. Meanwhile I will find out just how much weight a dog can loose in three weeks. A worthy research project.

Travelling

Just came back from a course in surgery in Norway. I love going on trips like this, will definately keep going in the future. To my surprise I met a classmate from vet school at the course, he was one of the few norwegians I knew back in school. The course is no 2 in a series of 3 courses in soft tissue surgery. I have decided that my favorite topics are surgery and behaviour. This was my first trip to Norway, but I didn´t have much time to look around, as I spent most of the time in class or travelling between airport, hotels and teaching center. However I did get to see some fantastic scenery and downtown Oslo.

It´s a little difficult to type as I have a cat reclining on my left arm as I type, with my laptop in my lap. Apparently there is not enough room in my lap for a cat and a laptop, so the creature decided that balancing on my arm was almost as good... Now the dog is getting jealous and is trying to squeese herself in there somewhere, licking the cat in the hopes that she will move over. So far no such luck. The dog is balancing on the arm of the sofachair...

I´m trying my hand at knitting, which I haven´t done in a long time. So I found patterns for soft toys made up of simple straight knitted squares. So far so good, I wonder if I should consider learning how to post pictures so I can show off my work. Am also in the process of writing a novel, I joined national novel writing month and am having a ball writing lots of crap throughout the month of november. I need to buy a palm pilot for writing when away from home, as I cannot be bothered to take my laptop everywhere, it´s too heavy!

Lecture

After a weekend in London I´m going to Birmingham to give a lecture at the british small animal veterinary congress. My lecture is about my research on the reasons for euthanasia of cats and dogs in Iceland. It´s a little nerve-wrecking to think of speaking in front of all these people I´ve never seen before, and in a foreign language too, but I also think it´s a little bit exciting, and it will be a good experience I´m sure. Because I´m guest speaker I don´t have to pay the congress entrance fee, which is a big plus, since it would otherwise cost an arm and a leg.

A new beginning

Decided to give this blog thing another go. Will only post once a week, no time for more when you are a busy practitioner. Also I have a family and hobbies to pursue as well.

maybe I´ll tell you about some interesting cases or other animal stuff. i might be tempted to talk about personal things as well. However, I have for the moment simplified things, no guestbook, no comments and no posting my personal e-mail on the internet, it will only fill up with junk mail like my last one did.

Another one of Stina´s quizzes, the only thing I can manage on-line at the moment. I can´t even remember how to link to her page. Can´t remember anything.


You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you
have a habit of waving your arms about
maniacally.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and
"Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the
Internet"

HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.

QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

What Famous Leader Are You?

Graduation
Hey! I graduated the other day! I am now a fully certified veterinarian! Weeee... I shall have to change the name of my blog, but since I haven´t written anything in here for the longest time, noone will know the difference anyway.

In life and death
Was feeling philosophical on friday. We had an interesting case, a cat cecarian (that could incidentally have been avoyded had the owners not fed the pill to their pregnant cat, after 2 weeks of forgetting it!). There were 2 kittens, one dead, one lived. Shortly after reviving the baby kitten and putting it under the heat-lamp with it´s still unconcious mother, a client came in for euthanasia of her really old and sick cat. She had been dreading this day since this summer when her cat was diagnosed with kidney disease. It was very beautiful though, she brought her family for support, and a home-made coffin with the cat´s favorite blanket and a card to put in with her. I almost cried myself.

You're a Human! Inquisitive and mellow, you're an
explorer at heart.


What Star Trek Race Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You represent... hope.
You're quite a daydreamer and can be a hopeless
romantic. You enjoy being creative and don't
mind being alone at times. You have goals, and
know what you want in life... even if they are
a little far fetched.


What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla

Slaughterhouse 5

Today was the first day in my new job. I hate it already. The job involves inspecting dead animal bodies at a slaughterhouse in the nearby town of Selfoss. Mostly it consists of standing on the line, inspecting the carcasses for any sign of infections, such as abcesses (yuk!). I also take samples to test for salmonella, the most feared bug. Only a few farms have ever tested positive for it, none of the ones sending to this slaugherhouse, fortunately...

Last night was the night of the eurovision song contest. In Iceland this is a big thing, everybody gathers to watch (and every year most of the songs are totally lame, this year was no exception). Iceland first participated in 1986, before that there was no such thing as a eurovision party. People just had parties. The cab driver told us last night that the eurovision night was the biggest night of the year on the town here in Reykjavík, boy have I been away for long. If I had remembered I wouldn´t have ventured out last night. After the traditional eurovision family party we went downtown to meet my cousin who was celebrating her graduation from acting school. Afterwards we had to wait for almost an hour before we got a taxi to drive us home. This morning my husband woved never to drink again. Now where have I heard that before?

Being vet
I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately, as I have been very busy writing the last pages of my report, and starting my new job at this veterinary clinic (my picture will be posted there later). The clinic is right in the centre of town, 101 Reykjavík where I grew up. I love the job, and get along fine with my boss (there´s only the two of us working there, so this is absolutely essential), at least so far. This weekend I was on call for the first time, and it seemed half the pet population was going bonkers. I was called out twice to put stiches in a cat, which managed to rip them out as soon as we looked the other way, off she took the collar and everything. Saturday we had general elections and I threw a dinner party, and then had to take of when the guests arrived to splint a cat´s broken leg (apparently he jumped out the window on the second floor). There was also a dog we suspected of having parvo and another cat with a minor injury to the leg. The whole thing was rather nerve-wrecking, but I got through it and feel more confident now.

Find your inner Smurf!

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

This information was found on the web page guide to women leaders, but the information can also be found on other sites (I added the boldface).

01.08.1980-01.08.1996 President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland.
In 1972-80 Director of Iceland’s National Theater was the world’s first democratically elected female president. Since 1996 she has been involved in a wide range of international humanitarian and cultural organizations. She was a divorcee and mother of an adopted a daughter. (b.1930-).

For anyone wishing to learn more about Iceland´s history, factmonster.com has some info on Iceland.

The countryside
This afternoon we are leaving on a short, 2 day, trip to the countryside, where mum & her siblings have an old farm. My grandparents lived there in the 50´s and 60´s, and when my grandmother died it was handed down to her 11 children, who now own it together. Some have built summer houses on the grounds, one of my mum´s brothers restored the old house and lives there full time (he is not a farmer though, he has a job in a neighbouring town). These 11 siblings now have 36 children among them (ages 6-40something), the grandchildren are too many for me to keep track... We all enjoy coming there during the summer, and there is always room for anyone who wants to stay in one of the summer-houses. My mum has decided where she wants to put her summer house, but has only gotten as far as putting up a fence... My guess is that it will be me and my husband who will put up a house there for us and my sister (and her future family). We will be staying there until saturday, will return in time to invite mother in-law for a traditional easter sunday roast leg of lamb.

Icelandair, our voice to the world

Icelandair´s campaign in the UK these days has posters that read: "Dirty weekend... only in Iceland" (w. pictures of Icelandic women in bikinis in the blue lagoon), "One night stand in Reykjavík", and the latest "free dip in every trip" (picture of a stewardess up to her crotch in the blue lagoon serving champagne to a man in a swimsuit).

What do you people think when you read this? I think Icelandair is telling british men to come to Iceland and have a quick "dip" or "one night stand" with the "cheap" Icelandic women. Or am I just illiterate to the deeper meaning of the english language, as Icelandair´s spokesmen have told me?

A job!
It looks like I have finally landed a job at a small animal clinic here in Reykjavík. I couldn´t believe it at first, so I didn´t talk about it too much, I was afraid to jinx it if I did. I am supposed to start working on a trial basis in early may, after I turn in my thesis. To my surprise the practice owner called me yesterday to ask if they could put an ad in the TV guide´s easter edition with my picture and a "welcome to our new vet" message. I said yes, of course, and then proceded to frantically search my photo albums for a half decent picture of myself for the ad. No such luck. It seems I am the only one in the family who takes any pictures, so naturally I do not appear in many of them. I had a few passport pictures taken (at a photographer´s, not a booth, they´re usually not so good) and turned them in. I was told I would be printed in 70.000 copies, yaikes! We have a saying here in Iceland, when someone has their 15 minutes of fame, that they´re "world famous in Iceland". I am still sceptical though, the TV guide hasn´t arrived yet, the whole thing may burn in a freak fire at the warehouse, or something...

The writer in me

I have a novel growing inside my head. The main character is becoming almost like a friend of mine and is begging that her story be written down. So far I have not responded to her wishes. Maybe I´ll "come out of the closet" as a writer someday, who knows. At the moment I´m too practical to even consider writing. I think I may take it up as a hobby after I graduate from vet school.

I am doing some writing, however, my thesis is slowly growing. I was at a lecture last thursday where a lot of veterinarians were present (of course, since the lecture was on skin diseases in Icelandic horses!), and I managed to trick one of them into helping me do the statistics on my project, since unfortunately I have discovered that my knowlege of statistics has declined considerably.

I am a feminist
In my mind a feminist is someone who recognises that there are gender discriminations in our society, and is willing to do something about it. There is a need to educate a large part of our society about feminism and feminists.

No, we are not ugly women who envy beauty queens and porn stars.
No, we do not burn our bras when we have meetings.
No, we do not hate men, nor are we all lesbians.

Yes, we are women and men (yes, real men are feminists!) from all walks of life, and different ages.
Yes, we are pissed that women do not get paid as much as men for the same job, even if they have a college degree.
Yes, we get angry when we see women are portrayed as objects and others made to feel inferior because they do not fit an "ideal standard of beauty"