Working over Christmas
Well, Christmas 2024 is coming! If blue tongue and bird flu don’t get us I imagine it will be another busy Christmas for everyone in practice. Over the years I have heard several ‘Veterinary Christmas Carols’ with the lyrics changed to reflect the joys of our workplace. I’ve always had a fondness for the festive joy of ‘Ring worm merrily on high’, an ode to the stray kittens that can crop up heading into the festive season.
For a truly festive veterinary connection we can trace Charles Dickens and his writing to Camden and an association with the London school and the RCVS. Dickens and his parents live at 16 Bayham Street in 1822, which is accredited with being the model for the Cratchits home in A Christmas Carol. This was published in 1843 and a few years later Dickens was on the board of governors for the London school. According to a record of his homes during his life time Dickens was living between Rochester in Kent and various houses in France. It is unlikely he was a regular attender at meetings but the presence of his name would have been useful for connections in London society. But back to the present day!
I apologise if this changes your listening enjoyment of this song but here we are! The Chris Rea song ‘Driving home for Christmas’ is already a festive classic so how could I make it better? Well, my brain refuses to hear the correct words anymore and on the second line my brain is replacing the word ‘faces’ with the less traditionally festive ‘faeces’. This has sat in my brain ticking over and I felt I needed to share with you the subtle changes to the original so that it reflects veterinary work over the festive holidays.
I’m hoping that I’m not the only one that has a brain that disrupts nice things at the expense of very basic humour. If you do, then do feel free to share your Veterinary Christmas Carol with us all. But for now, relax in my amateur re-make of:
‘Working over Christmas’…
I’m working over Christmas,
Oh, I can’t wait to see those faeces
I’m working over Christmas yea,
Well I need the overtime…
And it’s been so long
Since I’ve been home on Christmas Day
I sing this song
To pass the litter tray
Working over Christmas
Can’t work from home at Christmas
It’s gonna take some time
But I’ll get there
Paw to paw in consults
Oh, I got emetics on my mind
Chocolate toxicity
Shares in apomorphine would be fine
I’m working over Christmas,
Oh, I can’t wait to see those faeces
I’m working over Christmas yea,
Well I need the overtime…