Horses, Heifers and Hairy Pigs: The Life of a Yorkshire Vet by Julian Norton

Author:Julian Norton [Norton, Julian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Animals, Memoir, Media Tie-In, Tv, Autobiography
ISBN: 9781782436843
Publisher: Michael O'Mara
Published: 2012-09-21T14:00:00+00:00

12

Back in Thirsk

The opportunity to buy into a veterinary practice is an exciting prospect, but also a daunting one. It brings with it a huge financial burden and a lifetime of commitment. As I discussed the situation with Pete, he likened it to a marriage. He was right in many ways.

Suddenly, Anne and I had a lot of decisions to make. We had expected to be fairly settled for the next few years, living in Winchcombe, but now there was the chance of a long-term investment in our future which, hopefully, once the enormous business loan had been repaid, would put us in a robust position for the rest of our lives. Once we started to discuss this, we thought it only fair to bring it to the attention of the partners of the practice where we were working. To their enormous credit, they quickly made us the offer of a partnership in their practice. This added another twist to our situation, especially as Anne loved her job immensely, and could see her own future there, as a partner.

After many evenings of debate and countless nights of broken sleep, we eventually made the decision to make the move back up north. We needed a house, and I set about the arrangement of a business loan, to pay for the partnership. The constraints of our rota meant that we were only off together one weekend in five, so house hunting was tricky. I made the journey alone on one occasion and, after looking at a couple of properties and taking lots of photographs, we made an offer on an end-of-terrace house. Anne hadn’t even seen it at this point, apart from via my not very professional photos. It was a bold move and one that seemed rash when we both did eventually manage to visit Thirsk to look at the house together.

We had been at a wedding in Cambridge on a Friday evening in early December, and made the trip from Cambridge to Yorkshire on a gloomy Saturday morning. It was a journey I had made many times, but this was the first time I had done it with a view to inspecting our future house, and indeed, our actual future. Thirsk could not have looked a more terrible place to move to, on this particular day. It looked a world away from the beautiful Cotwolds. Everything was dark grey and mist hung heavily in the air. Thirsk is on the edge of the North York moors but also at the end of the wide, flat Vale of York, so fog and damp lingers here on a bad day in winter. This was such a day and although I loved the area, even I had to admit that it looked rubbish. Anne managed to put a brave face on it, and we pressed on with the purchase of the house. Three months later I was back in Thirsk for good, back in my old patch. Last time I was here, my most valuable possession was a mountain bike.

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