Two days off this week (Mon and Wed). Conference Tuesday. That just leaves today and tomorrow to clear up.

I had been going to come in on Mon and Tue of next week but have decided to take leave instead and spend a little more time with my foreign relations.

So what was the 'bird of the day' thing I mentioned yesterday?

Well a colleague, R, was appalled at my lack of knowledge of birds when we went for our team Christmas meal the other day. She's taken it upon herself to email me a photo each day which I have to identify (I've got a little pocket book to help) and provide one interesting fact for. I managed to get the first one right more by luck than judgement, since then I can only say my results have been 'patchy'. Still, I am learning something - I just hope I can put it to use before I forget it. I just don't 'see' enough birds.

And with that, this blog is closing down until the New Year and January 5th when I'm back at work again. (This holiday contains the most days the university closes down for for several years - 8 days!) Unless of course, I'm inspired to logon over the Christmas break! :-)