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It has been a couple of days since I have picked a camera up. It is not that I didn't want to make the best of the nice weather to get out and about - even in my current condition. No, I really would have liked to go for a wander. However, life got in the way, and I have had my nose well and truly pressed to the grindstone (how about that for a mixed cliché) correcting someone else's poor translation for a panicking academic who needs the paper for a conference in Athens on Monday. I spent two hours on the phone on Monday night with this academic, from 10.30 to half-past midnight going over the paper line-by-line: speaking a mixture of Portuguese and English to boot. On Tuesday, I spent all day trying to correct the English of another poorly translated paper - and I had to search for all the bibliographical details, and then I had to change the references in another article from the Chicago style to SAGE's antiquated house style - and again, I had to search for just about all of the references. Last night I spent another two hours on the phone to Portugal as we continued going over the paper for Greece. So that has been my week so far. I managed to get some respite from this career I chose for myself (and don't let me fool you, I do like my job) when Gavin came calling with a couple of M42 fit lenses for me to try out on my D70 (I bought an adaptor). A very pleasant afternoon was spent sitting in the garden chatting. My tickets for Lisbon arrived, so I am definitely going, but before I do, I have to get myself down to Bute for a couple of days to visit the relatives (and Zak) - I just hope the weather stays nice, because there is nowhere nicer than Bute on a warm, sunny day - and there is nowhere worse than Bute on a miserable wet day. I think it will be nice... It will be nice. There. I command it.

I was looking at nature last year too!