Enough, already

Just got back this evening from a weekend up in the Midlands, near the Welsh border, studying bats. Whilst it was very interesting, particularly in terms of all the technical stuff I got to discuss about the physics of bat calls for echolocation (harmonics, frequency modulation, heterodyne, FFT... check out the pipistrelle call sample on that Wikipedia page for what we were hearing on our surveys), we really should not have gone to this straight after getting back from South America. Not that we knew when the holiday would be back when we booked the course, but still.

Anyway, I am dog tired and slightly disturbed that I am also away for, er, every weekend until the end of June. Next weekend I need to go down to the south coast to view a potential wedding venue, then I'm off up north to visit my dear friend Gloria, then attending a wedding in Shropshire, then Manchester to see Leonard Cohen in concert (yay!), then hopefully Woolfest in Cumbria... Sigh. I would quite like to spend a weekend in my own little flat at some point, but that doesn't look terribly likely, does it?

Oh well, I suspect I'm just particularly grumpy tonight because I can detect the lingering smell of dead bat specimens about my person, and cannot get rid of it.

Incidentally, it amused us this week to see signs on the way into Shrewsbury, where we were staying, proclaiming it to be the birthplace of Charles Darwin. Can't get away from the bugger at the moment, can we?

We also saw a lorry emblazoned with the intriguing crest of "The Sheep Show". Having just looked it up online, I am bemused: "A humorous educational live stage show about sheep and wool.  Edu-tainment at it's best. 9 breeds introduced onto their own stage. Don’t miss the Dancing Sheep." Huh? And can I get them for the wedding?

Finally thank you all for your lovely comments/e-mails/texts/calls/cards about the engagement. If anybody's around tomorrow and fancies a celebratory drink on a bank holiday Monday, we'll be at The Old Dairy in Finsbury Park (it's raining). Cheers!