Time flies like an arrow fruit flies like a banana
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Saskia
18 Oktober 2015 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Beith
Hiya guys!
The most exciting thing that has happened this week is the release of all (ALL) of our fox cubs and the cleaning of their enclosures. And even though the latter is a true p in the b, my colleague and I had a lot of fun doing it (accidentally spraying someone in fox shite is good fun. She got her revenge though; I was cleaning the dead rook’s enclosure that was filled with mites today). A lot of animals are getting released these days. Even the violent pouter pigeon is gone from the main hospital (thank goodness).
Furthermore, I went on several rescues this week. Even though they were quite uneventful, it was nice to be a part of it. One of the rescues took us to Dunlop, a wee town around here (read: in the middle of nowhere). There was a magpie over there who had his foot stuck in one of the feeders an older couple had put up. His foot was nearly falling off, so we put a splint on it. It's quite interesting to put a splint on a 6" bird with wee toaty feet. The second rescue took us all the way to Ayr, the town Ayrshire is named after. This “rescue” was most unsettling. A starling had been caught in the gutter on one of the houses. When we arrived, the smallest house reached almost 15 feet (!). But alas, once we arrived, the bird had already flown off.. It was fun hearing my colleague rant about it for half the way back. Our final rescue was in the toaty town of Stewarton. It was a baby collared dove, a big improvement over all the pigeons in the hospital.
A big badger arrived at our hospital a few days back. It’s interesting to see a badger eating a dead pigeon, I never knew they would eat anything larger than a hedgehog. Our young heron has been released, though, and even though he sticks around for fish it’s good to see him go. All the other jobs at the moment include cleaning out empty enclosures and a whole lot of animal poo, I won’t bore you with the details!
And for the school stuff:
Wordlist:
Toaty
Cormorant
Brung
Cudgel
Fetid
I have had a great opportunity to test out some of my "being polite" skills. Since English has no distinction between "you-informal" and "you-formal" anymore, I had to find a new way to be formal with people. On our rescue to get the magpie I planned on seeing what my colleague would do to be polite. He complimented the house of the people, and had a wee talk about their garden. When I was asked for how long I'd been working at Hessilhead, I decided to join in the conversation and gave a compliment about the garden as well. The elderly couple gave me an approving glance at that, and it felt good to have succeeded at this goal.
Another opportunity in being polite arose today. An ancient couple (I really can't describe it otherwise, these were the oldest people I have ever seen) came up the driveway today with two baby hedgehogs. I offered to carry the hogs for them, and tried to make polite conversation. However, the man (who was a wee bit deaf I think) just kept talking about how he found the hedgehogs and what he thought of hedgehogs. I just nodded along and smiled at him every now and then. The woman was following in our wake, just enjoying the surroundings. When I delivered the hedgehogs at the main hospital and left to finish feeding the foxes, I heard the man say: "You've got some nice staff here, buddy." Again, it was very nice to be appreciated.
One last opportunity rose today. A man with a family of four came in and started asking some questions about what kind of animals we have here. I answered him politely, talked a bit about hedgehogs and pigeons when his 4-year old daughter asked if we had foxes. This was my chance to have a conversation with a 4-year old Scottish kid and I embraced it with both arms (the opportunity, not the kid). We talked a wee bit about the tame foxes we have, and then she giggled and said: "Ma'am your accent is funny." We had a good laugh over it, and said our goodbyes. It was a great opportunity to speak to yet another age group in English.
Cheerio!
The most exciting thing that has happened this week is the release of all (ALL) of our fox cubs and the cleaning of their enclosures. And even though the latter is a true p in the b, my colleague and I had a lot of fun doing it (accidentally spraying someone in fox shite is good fun. She got her revenge though; I was cleaning the dead rook’s enclosure that was filled with mites today). A lot of animals are getting released these days. Even the violent pouter pigeon is gone from the main hospital (thank goodness).
Furthermore, I went on several rescues this week. Even though they were quite uneventful, it was nice to be a part of it. One of the rescues took us to Dunlop, a wee town around here (read: in the middle of nowhere). There was a magpie over there who had his foot stuck in one of the feeders an older couple had put up. His foot was nearly falling off, so we put a splint on it. It's quite interesting to put a splint on a 6" bird with wee toaty feet. The second rescue took us all the way to Ayr, the town Ayrshire is named after. This “rescue” was most unsettling. A starling had been caught in the gutter on one of the houses. When we arrived, the smallest house reached almost 15 feet (!). But alas, once we arrived, the bird had already flown off.. It was fun hearing my colleague rant about it for half the way back. Our final rescue was in the toaty town of Stewarton. It was a baby collared dove, a big improvement over all the pigeons in the hospital.
A big badger arrived at our hospital a few days back. It’s interesting to see a badger eating a dead pigeon, I never knew they would eat anything larger than a hedgehog. Our young heron has been released, though, and even though he sticks around for fish it’s good to see him go. All the other jobs at the moment include cleaning out empty enclosures and a whole lot of animal poo, I won’t bore you with the details!
And for the school stuff:
Wordlist:
Toaty
Cormorant
Brung
Cudgel
Fetid
I have had a great opportunity to test out some of my "being polite" skills. Since English has no distinction between "you-informal" and "you-formal" anymore, I had to find a new way to be formal with people. On our rescue to get the magpie I planned on seeing what my colleague would do to be polite. He complimented the house of the people, and had a wee talk about their garden. When I was asked for how long I'd been working at Hessilhead, I decided to join in the conversation and gave a compliment about the garden as well. The elderly couple gave me an approving glance at that, and it felt good to have succeeded at this goal.
Another opportunity in being polite arose today. An ancient couple (I really can't describe it otherwise, these were the oldest people I have ever seen) came up the driveway today with two baby hedgehogs. I offered to carry the hogs for them, and tried to make polite conversation. However, the man (who was a wee bit deaf I think) just kept talking about how he found the hedgehogs and what he thought of hedgehogs. I just nodded along and smiled at him every now and then. The woman was following in our wake, just enjoying the surroundings. When I delivered the hedgehogs at the main hospital and left to finish feeding the foxes, I heard the man say: "You've got some nice staff here, buddy." Again, it was very nice to be appreciated.
One last opportunity rose today. A man with a family of four came in and started asking some questions about what kind of animals we have here. I answered him politely, talked a bit about hedgehogs and pigeons when his 4-year old daughter asked if we had foxes. This was my chance to have a conversation with a 4-year old Scottish kid and I embraced it with both arms (the opportunity, not the kid). We talked a wee bit about the tame foxes we have, and then she giggled and said: "Ma'am your accent is funny." We had a good laugh over it, and said our goodbyes. It was a great opportunity to speak to yet another age group in English.
Cheerio!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
