Steel Kitten

New start, new blog

I've been blogging for nearly 11 years now. To begin with, the Typepad blog platform was ideal for me as I just wanted a simple structure and layout all done for me. I tried Wordpress and Blogger before Typepad and could not get along with them - they needed more knowledge to modify than I possessed.

As the years passed, the existing format became more unwieldy. The amount of work involved changing the existing template to something cleaner and more modern became too big a task, especially going through and cleaning up the formatting anomalies on all the posts afterwards. I have nearly 1000 posts, so the task is not quick one. 

Then a few weeks ago, Rhonda Hetzel at Down to Earth offered a blogging course to get people up and running on Blogger, and I jumped at the chance. It seemed the perfect solution to the problem. It would also draw a line under the goals we strove to achieve in our old life, and refocus on our new goals for the future, namely strategies to achieve an early retirement. 

I will keep this blog up on Typepad as long as it lets me do so, but from now on you can find me over on my new Blogger blog!

Steel Kitten

 

Admitting when you are wrong

For more than 10 years I lived with fatigue induced by catching glandular fever in 2005. I've spent years and a small fortune trialling supplements, food regimes and treatments to make me feel better. I finally found a good combination in February 2017 and for the first time in 11 years I felt almost normal. Then I started to get annoyed that I had missed out on the last 11 years of my life. I wanted to turn the clock back and do something big now I finally had the energy to do it.

I wanted retrain to be a vet.

Had I tried 9 years ago when it first entered my head I would have succeeded. It was only a few years after completing my PhD and just within the 10-year time limit of degree graduation. But I was too tired. I couldn’t think how I would do it when I needed to rest so much every day. Come 2017 it was a different story - 20 years since I got my degree and my qualifications were considered too old, irrelevant even. I had to re-sit three of my science A’ Levels and get Grade A*s before applying, but I decided to give it a go. In June last year I found a good tutorial college in Oxford to sit the A’ levels, and then settled down to begin the first two of eight years hard graft.

The rules for funding vet training changed at the beginning of July 2017. Vets were in such demand the government wanted to encourage more people to go back to university and retrain. So, I would graduate at 52 and my £96,00 student loans would be written off at 65 after I had paid back around £11,000 of them. A new life, a new beginning, and a professional qualification for £11,000. What a bargain. Martin was worried but supportive, bless him. I would have freaked if the shoe was on the other foot.

As ever, into the challenge I plunged and I began studying at the beginning of June. And then sometime at the end of in October I sat down and did a spreadsheet. What I worked out shocked me. In my excitement at the thought of the benefits my new life would bring us, I hadn’t considered the other side of the equation – what we would lose:

• Six years of my income, both employed and self-employed
• Six years of pension contributions and the future growth of those
• All of our savings
• Starting out as a new graduate on at least £10k less than I am now
• Taking at least 10 years to get back to my current level of earnings
• Credit card debt

On paper, that added up to more than £350,000 before I even added the £100k of student loans. Whatever student finance I would get would be tiny and sponsorship wouldn't get me anywhere near my take home salary. I would have to move to the university town to do the degree, so that would be two homes to pay for. I would have to work to 80 before I made up the loss and get us back to where we would be. And in the meantime, Martin would be 92 and have been alone for his entire retirement while I studied and worked long hours to make up the appalling financial loss I had inflicted on both of us.

It massively unfair to Martin to carry on with this selfish plan knowing what I did, plus I started to have doubts. Could I really work in such a demanding profession until I was 80? Realistically how many years did I have left to work as a vet? What happened if one of us was ill and couldn’t work? We planned to spend time in retirement together and here I was screwing that up.

I stopped studying at Christmas. I spoke to vets and they all said the same thing “rewarding vocation but don’t do it”. The pay is poor, the hours are brutal, the stress intolerable and the suicide rate high. Around 40% of new graduates leave the profession within 10 years for these reasons, usually burned out. If qualified vets are telling you not to do it, you know something has gone badly wrong.

That’s when I let go of the idea of being a vet.

I'm telling you this now because some of my readers were very supportive and gave me some great advice back when I first announced I was doing my A'Levels again. I could have just let it fall by the wayside and never mention it again, or perhaps make up some lie to wriggle out of it but I didn't want to. I wanted to be honest and share my reasons behind doing what I did.

So there you have it. Vet school is not for me.

The prisoner is released

We took Georgie for his seven week post-op check up this evening - and he passed with flying colours and has been signed off. He is now out of the cage and loose in the house building up his muscles for a month before he goes outside in April.

When he broke his leg seven weeks ago I struggled to imagine how this once lean and lively feline juggernaut would get over such an injury, but he proved himself very adaptable. The first four weeks were strict cage rest, and he did ok at that. A little whining here and there but nothing alarming. Most of the four weeks he was on painkillers so he was a bit spaced out and sleepy anyway. Then after his four week x-ray, he was allowed out for five minutes twice a day, slowly rising to 30 minutes by the end of this week. No running or jumping allowed though.

This was more difficult to manage. A sniff of freedom and he went manic and had to be put back into his cage a few times for his own safety. Slowly he learnt that if he didn't go crazy he could stay out for longer and longer periods of time. There was a fair bit of whining and the occasional mournful howl by this stage several times a day while confined in the cage. We needed nerves of steel to be strong through this and keep on with the recovery programme for his own good. Today he came out, wandered round and then went upstairs for a snooze on our bed - and was so quiet I forgot about him for three hours while I was working! It was only when he appeared at the living room door asking for lunch I realised what had happened.

The vet says his leg is now healed and stronger than it was before the break due to the plate and the new bone laid down in the break. In fact, he said in vet med school they joke that if you put two pieces of cat bone in the same room they'll heal themselves well!

Cats are survivors, no doubt about it. 

 

Back to Berlin

Martin and I haven't had much of a break since we bought the holding, so last week we took the chance for a few days away and headed off to Berlin. This was the first time for Martin and the second time for me. 

I wanted to take Martin to Berlin for a long time; I knew he would enjoy the vast amount of history and sights it had to offer, not to mention the extensive assortment of sausage-based food! Seventh heaven for him! 

I visited one of my favourite places - KaDeWa department store - the second largest department after Harrods. I don't like it for the consumer goods - I'm not someone who enjoys shopping for stuff - but for the gourmet food floor. There are 30 food counters plus dedicated sections with goods from around the world - fish and seafood, meat, deli, sweets, pastries, herbs and spices, fruit and veg, coffee, tea, alcohol, oils and vinegar, and endless little spots to sit where chefs will cook for you. We obviously had to have a currywurst. 

The German Museum of Technology was the most impressive museum I've ever visited. You could spend a whole day there and still not see everything; we spent over four hours and only saw about half of it. And the planes - so many, many planes! I don't think I've ever seen that many planes in such a confined space. It's ship exhibition is pretty impressive too and I'm not a naval fan. 

We covered quite a few sights in our four days in Berlin (the train network is superb), mostly related to WWII and the cold war. It's surprising what you can cram into a short space of time!

A little bit more travelling is one of my goals for the future. We are pretty frugal people, but it occurred to me recently that we are running the risk of becoming too inwardly-focused and I think it will help us become more broad-minded if we spent more time visiting other cultures. It is possible to travel cheaply too, although the cheapest options - youth hostels and camping - are both ones I don't enjoy anymore.

This time we stayed in a cosy little self-catering apartment in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, which I managed to find a last-minute deal on (cheaper than a standard double room in a hotel/B&B). It's little kitchenette had a sink, dishwasher, fridge, induction rings and all crockery and cooking equipment provided. I prefer this type of accommodation so we can prepare our own breakfasts and lunches and, if necessary, also dinner if we're watching the pennies.

 

Berlin was cold at -10^oC, but it was a different type of cold to the UK, a dry cold which is fine when you're wrapped up. Most days the sun shone and it was lovely and bright. Travelling out of season in February is not always a bad idea, especially for keeping the cost down.

Although we missed all the snowstorms, our return flights were cancelled and refunded Thursday due to the bad weather In the UK, so we rebooked them for the following day and enjoyed a few more sights that afternoon and evening, including a wonderful indochinese meal with schnapps at the Lemon Leaf restaurant (love the umbrellas on the ceiling). Two main courses, a beer, a lemonade and two schnapps came to about £22 pounds, which is ridiculously cheap!

Anyway, we're back in England and back at work.

The animals seemed pleased to see us, although they may change their minds when they realise that my sister is no longer here to spoil them with tidbits!  My sister very kindly offered to come up and keep an eye on the place and MIL while we were away, which is a pretty big ask and one of the reasons we've shied away from having a longer break. They all managed to make it through the snowstorms ok, with the only problem being a burst water pipe in the paddock when the temperatures rose Saturday. Luckily, the split was well above the tap and isolation valve, so it is easily fixed by replacing that section.

Phew, fingers crossed that is the only issue and we've come through all the bad weather unscathed.

Hannah Hauxwell remembered

I found out a week ago that Hannah Hauxwell died at the end of January aged 91. Her funeral takes place tomorrow.

Hannah was 'discovered' by Yorkshire Television, a 46-year old single woman living a solitary bleak life of utter deprivation on a remote farm in Yorkshire. It went on to feature her life as part of 1973 documentary called Too Long a Winter, which is available to watch here, then later A Winter Too Many here and Hannah Hauxwell: Past and Present here. She took part in several documentaries and many books about her life were also written. 

Despite the conditions, she was so incredibly cheerful and optimistic. The last of her family died when she was 34, leaving her alone to run the 80-acre farm but she never felt sorry for herself. If anything, she was enormously grateful for the little she did have.

I don't know why she struck such a chord with me over the years. Maybe I like stories of strong brave women fighting against adversity. 

I hope that chapel is packed to the rafters tomorrow.