Ginger Beer is one of our frequent drinks here.  We see a lot of Tui beer bottles (neighbors' recycling box).  The Tui Brewery is quite close to PN.  We'll be near there next weekend, when we get out to nurse Jan's place in Pahiatua.  It's lambing season.  One of Jan's sheep just had twins.  When out with the dogs on Wednesday at the Linklater Reserve walk, I saw 2 sets of little lambs with their mums.  Lamb gestation is 5 months and 5 days.  Just finished another work week; 8 more to go.  We're coming into the home stretch of our adventure.  I'm seeing about 12 patients per session (half day), sometimes more.  Rich has been busy as well.  Observations about practicing here:  patients are less demanding and more appreciative;  notes are brief, or as Rich would tell it, "they don't say anything";  docs with mutual patients don't call and talk with each other, but write letters; which is one of the reasons why Murray has so much paperwork; children in the exam rooms are very well behaved and have better manners compared to those I see in the US.  There is less materialism here, and kiwis seem to be happy with just the basics; and they are more "green", with less waste.  On Monday, Kaylee had a tooth extracted and she is now on Clavulox for her dental abscess.  She also had all kinds of x-rays, and I was happy to contribute a great teaching case to the veterinary students at Massey University.  The findings were quite useful for me.  Her hips and hardware are all fine.  She has arthritis in her knees (osteophytes indenting the femur), but new to me is the spondylosis and degree of osteoarthritis in her spine.  No wonder she doesn't like to sit.  So now I'm clear on what to treat.  She just started Previcox, and we have a follow-up appointment next Thursday.  I'll bring the discs home for anyone interested.  Yesterday was girls' night for 7 of us from the office.  The invitation said "5:30, bring your own tea" which means your own supper.  Dianne made her famous pav for dessert.  We watched a chick flick, and a little of The Block NZ, a popular TV show.  I hope that we get Olympic Game coverage on our local channel, and don't need Sky TV (which we don't have).  There was an earthquake during dessert.  I'm getting used to them already.  This one was a 5.2  (depth 30k) 30 km south of Dannevirke.   misc: learned about lembas bread (Lord of the Rings);  Stubbies - brand name for fashion shorts in Australia and New Zealand (owned by Sara Lee for a time); pronunciation for cities like Whakatane (F sound, not Wh).  We're planning our Northland trip which will be the second weekend in August, and also starting to organize a sightseeing adventure to do with Marta and Lee who arrive on the 26th of next month.  Lastly for this post, Happy Birthday to Rx on Sunday.