Finn goes under the knife (and comes out the other side)

For the past 8 weeks Finn has been hobbling. Not a painful hobble but rather a nuisance that gets worse with over exertion and remains in spite of a number of visits to the vet and the administering of countless drugs.

We first thought a tick may have become embedded in his left rear foot. After I couldn't get what I thought was the tick out of his foot, we took him to the vet. They in turn dug a whole in his paw and claimed that they had partially removed something but that the remainder would fall out in the coming days.

'If he doesn't get better, come back and see us in a week or so'. We did.

They then took x-rays and hypothesised that he was suffering from an early onset of arthrosis. Not good news for a Labrador at any age but more so for one not yet even 3 (his birthday is 23rd of August for those that are interested). He was prescribed a course of anti inflammatory drugs as well as something to ease the joint pain. We were asked to come back 3 weeks later to report on the progress.

We duly returned to inform the vet that there had been little to no improvement in his movement. Somewhat alarmed at this lack of progress, the vet informed us that he was seeking a second opinion and that we should see an orthopedic surgeon to 'rule out that he hasn't done something to his cruciate ligament'. That was just over 2 weeks ago.

On Thursday we visited the surgeon and within 40 minutes of prodding, poking and manipulating each of his 3 'healthy' joints, the moment he started on the 4th we each knew that something was not right. Ruptured cruciate ligament was the diagnosis - surgery necessary. Cost €900! Yippee. Just what we need at this point in time let alone what a 3 year old Lab wants to hear just before his birthday!

We booked him in there and then and yesterday he had his operation. Although the surgeon declared it a success (neither of hismeniscuss were affected), the sight of our unconscious little boy lying prone on the bed with his tongue hanging limp and with dodgy shaved patches all over his body was enough to bring tears to the eye. His moaning andwhimperingg continued until the wee hours of this morning, though thankfully this morning he was considerably better. He is now house bound for 3 weeks and still after that can only be outside 4 times a day for between 5-15 minutes per time.

Here's how he looked last night - hopefully the healing process is fast and successful.

Finding a new home in Oxford

In preparation for our move to Oxford, last weekend we flew across to London, jumped in our hire car and navigated our way toward the city of dreaming spires to try and find our new home. Before recounting our weekend, I need to set the background.

I spent countless hours last week perusing the internet and talking with countless real estate agents to try and find unfurnished 2-3 bedroom houses that would fit within our budget and be dog friendly. No easy task! Of the 30 or so properties that fulfilled the first 2 criteria I inevitably came unstuck when I mentioned Finn. No regard for his placid nature or respect for others' property - just flat out no's. And when they didn't know, the estate agents would suggest they contact the owner and get back to me. Now in my mind, this should mean that within one business day I would hear back. Not in this part of the world - I would give them 2 days and when I would call back you'd have to go through the same rigmarole with someone else because the person that I had spoken with only worked 3 days a week or hadn't had sufficient time to enquire yet.

In spite of these frustrations, by the end of the week we had 6 properties to visit and so we drove toward Oxford full of optimism and promise. The first property that we saw wasn't too bad though we both hoped that things would get better. They didn't. Our 2nd inspection was a 3 bedroom property some distance from the centre, newly refurbished but in a shoddy, cut costs wherever possible kind of way. The 1st bedroom was one we deemed would be suitable for the baby but when that turned out to be the biggest, we were ready to run, particularly as they were asking 1000 pounds a month for it.

We drove back toward the city centre to see our 3rd property at 11am. This was was a 3 bedroom Victorian terrace in East Oxford currently occupied by 3 male students. The estate agent apologised for the mess on at least 3 separate occasions and was at pains to reassure us that the landlord would re-carpet the lounge room and re-floor the dining room. Beneath the mess that the students had created, we could see that this could be a great place for a 12 month stay. 2 bedrooms upstairs with the 3rd, big enough to fit the spare bed and a desk, downstairs so that I could have some respite when necessary. Even better, the back yard was sizeable enough that Finn could have a play area, we could place our BBQ and outdoor furniture there and it had a shed for storage. Although the property was advertised at 1200 pounds a month, the estate agent seemed to think we might be able to negotiate down. Did I mention that Bullingdon rd is perpendicular to where the OURFC playing field is??

Our 4th and 5th properties were in the Jericho area. During our previous visit we both agreed that this is where we would ideally like to live. It is a leafy area not dissimilar to Paddington and has, on a small scale, a nice array of cafes and restaurants as well as a couple of nice looking pubs. We thought it would be out of our price range however were surprised to find 2 properties within our budget. The first property looked great from outside however on the inside you'd struggle to swing a cat. One down, one to go.

The other property certainly had size on its side and location. Unfortunately, the decor hadn't escaped the 70's and it looked as though the kitchen hadn't been upgraded since then either. Nonetheless, it was deemed a satisfactory back up.

We weren't due to see the final property until the following morning so during the afternoon we ventured into the centre, did some shopping and then visited my college, Pembroke. We took some happy snaps, wondered around and then jumped in the car and drove out of town to find the Trout Inn at Woodstock.

After some searching, we eventually found it and it was well worth the search. A lovely old, rambling Cotswold style building set beside a lock and river it was heaving at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. As the weather was lovely, the extensive outdoor terrace held ravenous crowd who delighted in downing various beverages and what looked like quality meals. I settled for pimms & lemonade (I was in Oxford for christ's sake) but had a back up beer in case it wasn't too my liking. Claud, in her pregnant state, had to settle for a straight up lemonade. I can tell you that the pimms was actually quite tasty and I'm sure that I could comfortably get into the habit of imbibing a few of those next summer.

After we finished our drinks, we headed to our B&B and had a quick kip before dinner at another lovely pub, the Fishes in North Hincksey village, a place we stumbled across last time we visited and enjoyed an equally fine meal then as we did on this occasion.

At 10.30 on Sunday we visited our final property and were pleasantly surprised to find a lovely 2 bedroom terrace in the same general vicinity as our preferred property from the previous day (though perhaps a further kilometre from the centre). Although only a 2 bedder, it was airy and had been freshly painted and also had a sizeable rear garden. As the 895 pounds was negotiable, it was our definitely # 2 in case we couldn't get the price of Bullingdon rd down.

Before driving to London for Terry and Vanessa's farewell we caught up with another Aussie, Doug Waller, and his girlfriend Tory, for a cup of coffee. Doug is finishing his MBA at Oxford and had just completed his summer consulting project for Nokia which took him to Casablanca, Johannesburg and Dubai. We had a good chat about the ins and outs of the year, the merits of playing rugby there and what life in Oxford would be like. After leaving Doug and Tory we both agreed that the next year will be a cracker.

It only took an hour to reach the White Horse where we were able to catch up with Terry, Ness and Josephine for a few hours before we had to dash to Heathrow. They're heading back to Sydney after 4 or 5 years in London. Strange that we'll see them again in a few weeks when we're back home! Apart from Terry, we were able to catch up with Yabba, Sharpy and Phil Hodge and their respective partners.

Although we were pretty wrecked by the time we got home that night, we were both convinced that the weekend had been well spent and that we had achieved a lot.

On Monday I phoned the real estate agent and put in an offer for the property in Bullingdon road. Later in the day the agent came back with a counter offer which I subsequently refused but indicated that I was willing to pay 12 months in advance rather than 9 months that we had previously offered. About 2 hours ago I received the call that I had hoped for - we got the property! And at a price 200 pounds less a month that what they had asked for. Although it is at the upper end of our budget, it's less than we were prepared to pay and it's exactly what we had hoped for (probably even better). So tonight, the stars are in our favour. We now have a study/guest room downstairs so visitors can feel comfortable knowing that the little mac (or junior burger as Kato has christened the little one) shouldn't be too much of a disturbance.

Images of our new life in Oxford

Our new home
70 Bullingdon Road OX4 1QL

Finn's play area

Our new kitchen

The bright blue bathroom!

Claud in the Chapel Quad at Pembroke

Max in the Chapel Quad at Pembroke College

Summer rugby in Stockholm

10's rugby in Stockholm. What better reason to visit the Swedish capital, particularly as neither Claud or I had been before. I was invited to play for the Dutch Exiles with a few guys from our club, a couple from other clubs in Holland and then the rest made up of guys playing in the UK.

We had a strong squad but lacked pace. In the end, we managed to make the quarter finals of the cup (the top tier) but were knocked out by 3 tries to 1. Whilst it was disappointing to lose it nonetheless meant that Claudia and I had all of Sunday afternoon and most of Monday to explore Stockholm and the archipelago.

The city is as attractive as we had been told it would be. Similarly, the beauty of the women was an equally compelling sight to behold. Claud obviously felt right at home!

Here are some of the snaps that document the weekend - we had a couple of great nights out with the boys in the team and some of the partners, we enjoyed great weather and we were able to combine the historic sights of the old town with the natural beauty of the islands that comprise the archipelago. All in all, a great weekend.

For anyone visiting, a special tip is head to the Bronco Bar for one of the better steaks I have eaten (up there with Peter Lueger in Brooklyn and my own AC Butcher King Island Sirloin's on the barby back home).

Here's a snapshot of what went on:



Dinner at the Victoria

The team meets for the 1st time


Heading for the try line

Views of Stockholm

Hawaiian shirts and Sulus on the 2nd night

The girls give the players some support

Quarter final action - unfortunately we lost

Analysing what went wrong

The early exit meant we could see some of the archipelago

In front of the royal palace

Willows and Me enjoying Sunday night in Stockholm

The night is still young!