A colleague once said – every scientist has a creative streak, somewhere.

All Science, from the pure sciences of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry to the Biological sciences including Medicine, Biology and assorted disciplines of today, requires creativity as well as curiosity, dexterity and an ability to solve the problem at hand.

I first studied Medical Science and began this exacting, extremely fascinating career at “the Kids” now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in South Australia.

An overseas trip saw my parameters broaden as I found a job at the Copenhagen Veterinary Serum Laboratory and worked on a program to document and eliminate an enzootic Leukaemia found in European dairy cattle.

An offshoot of this was a visit to the Zoo with my esteemed project leader, later EU veterinary adviser, and a chance to see blood samples and tissue scrapings extracted from various animals including a “washing bear,”  it’s Danish name. Try as he might, he could not find an English translation for this animal, until I saw the animal.

‘Oh, you mean a raccoon!’

‘Yes,’ he replied and began to mimic the actions of a raccoon at the water’s edge washing it’s paws.

Language and translation became even more important in my life as I met my life’s Hero who spoke more languages than the fingers on one hand plus a couple on the second – but not English.  Dedication to finding a worthwhile endpoint in conversation makes understanding inevitable I discovered, along with several languages learned to a passable degree.

Another round of study loomed on return to Australia with the Hero and our mini-heroine. Enrolled at RMIT University, I basically repeated my entire studies as extensive time away meant complete updating of qualifications.

But every cloud does indeed have a silver lining and the road to teaching younger generations of Hospital and Pathology Medical Scientists gradually overtook my time spent in Pathology.

Scientific Writing became a challenge as poorly presented reports began to suffer the indignity of my red pen, applied through a red haze.

We all mellow – and as I prepared to take an early retirement, I couldn’t resist a smile at the quality of assignments and reports being handed in. It was all good!

But once a student, always a student and I began taking short courses in creative writing and attending writer’s festivals as often as I could. The result of the last eighteen months is currently in the UK for appraisal and my learning curve in creative writing is still far from the apex of a nicely proportioned Bell curve. But the fellowship of like-minded writers surpasses whatever result I receive on my manuscript.

The thought of adding a book of fiction to my list however, gives so much pleasure that all I can say is – you must try it.