School's almost out!

Hello reader!

I'm here to confirm that I am still alive even though you haven't heard from me in so long. I'm doing quite well actually, considering I finish my first semester of second year university in about two weeks. Quite a few things have happened over this time so I have to fill you in!

I promised my friends, family, all of your readers and most importantly myself, that I would knuckle down and achieve my dream. To transfer into studying veterinarian science I need to obtain excellent grades at university. My goal is to achieve greater than 85-90% in three subjects, which will allow me to study and become a veterinarian.

You'll be impressed to know that my results from all assessment so far have been well on track! I have achieved 78%, 85 % and 93% of available marks in my subjects. A grade greater than 85% is considered a high distinction and the highest grade achievable. However these grades haven't come without effort and sacrifice.

Don't get me wrong, I've come to love study. I feel physically ill if I haven't summarized lecture content or revised what I've learnt. Call me crazy but it's my thing. I've also learnt some really cool things!

One of my subjects involved me taking a field trip excursion to Fraser Island to study the island's ecology. We performed surveys on crabs, small mammals, dingoes, vegetation and mangroves to analyze the abundance of organisms and the relationships between factors. 

Credit to http://www.flickr.com/photos/76379704@N06/sets/ for the pictures below.

We measured Ghost Crab burrows along a sand dune to infer crab size and abundance and how they related to type of vegetation cover. This involved laying out big grids and estimating percentage of plants within each grid square. Give it a go yourself! Now times that frustration by 25 as we measured that every 5m for a 100m stretch. I'm tired thinking about it.

One of the more exciting activities was the Dingo prey preference and abundance analysis. We laid Elliot traps to estimate the abundance of prey that Dingoes hunt. These traps lure small mammals into a enclosure with bait and then snap shut as the animal steps onto a pressure trigger plate. It was awesome going to check the traps the day after trapping because when a trap caught one we all got to watch it get released!

Something bizarre happened to me one of the days I was trapping with my team. My job was to roll little balls of bait to put into the traps. It just so happens that dingoes like the smell of peanut butter and oats. While my team sat in a clearing within the forest, a dingo appeared and began walking toward us. Being excitable science students we just watched it in amazement. Until it walked two metres from me and I realised I was holding food. Smart one dumb one. I threw the food away and we scared the dingo off, but it was still a close call.

We did lots of other activities looking at vegetation and plant adaptations. Too many to describe.  Overall it was the most fun I've ever had while doing assignments.

It's not all fun and games though. My decision to pursue my studies has limited my social circle and number of outings I attend. This is pretty lame but I have to hope that the quality friends will understand that I'm temporarily unavailable while pursing my number one priority. Hopefully someone will be standing at the finish line to congratulate and celebrate with me.

None of what I've achieved so far would have been possible without the support, encouragement and sometimes strict supervision from my friends, family, partner and pets. I've made friends with some of my partner's friends and they've been more of a good influence than bad! Instead of letting me pull apart and rebuild cars with them, I've been banished to finish before joining in. They even ban me from patting their dog. It's a hard life.

On my occasional down day where I relax my brain and have some fun, I've been having dog dates! We take our not so little puppy Nanuk to hang out with Mika. Nanuk chases Mika, Mika chases her Kong, Nanuk chases Mika. It's very entertaining. We've come to love our 7 month old giant puppy dog like a child.  She's certainly spoilt more than scolded by me. "Are you being naughty Nanuk? Oh, why not have a treat!"
Not quite, but if you ask Matthew that is apparently the truth.

I also got Nanuk to master the agility course at the dog park. Life goal complete!

Aside from puppy play dates, Matthew's family recently got two kittens! So now I get face licking and scratching on a regular basis. The grey is a girl called Malibu and the ginger a boy named Ollie. 

I also get plenty of sleepy kitty cuddles to distract me from study. 

Unfortunately my happy little family all crashed down the other morning when my dog starting yelping. That's nothing unusual as Nanuk tends to cry wolf when she thinks one of the other dog's is going to pick on her. However this time she didn't stop. We ran out and found her soaking wet lying on her side at the bottom of the stairs. Yelping and making no effort to stand up, we rushed to the vet to find our baby broke her growth plate from her knee bone.

So now I have a hyperactive puppy with a cast on her leg and I'm not meant to let her run around?! 

Impossible. I spent half a week babysitting her while I studied.

To cheer me up from my life dilemma I got a new fish tank and fish! Upgraded to a roughly 30L tank with brighter LED lights and inbuilt filter so everything looks and stays cleaner. Also took the big kid step into tropical fish using heaters and pH tests. 

Cool creepy looking platinum white angelfish and even more creepy see-through catfish. I'm going to buy some black ghostknife and maybe the ultra ugly elephant nose fish. Just because I collect weird fish. 

Mmmm. Weird fish. 

Aside from additional animal critters to brighten my life, I also got domestic and bought some plants! Trips to Bunnings Warehouse resulted in my new vegetable growing urge with cherry tomatoes and strawberries on their way. Hopefully.

Who said anything about crazy cat lady? I've got psychotic plant passion!

Aaaand now you're up to speed with my life over the last 5 months or so. Mostly mundane study with highlights of animal and plant drama. I will update more frequently after the 20th as that's my last exam! Expect vidoes and mischief!

Thanks for reading and sticking round.

Melanie xx