Tired, but contentSo after a good Catching Up On Admin day yesterday, I agreed to go out with G today to help survey the river. He had borrowed the usual collection of
I got to be in charge of the theodolite, which meant I could stay dry, while G and J had to wade around in the river with the long measuring tape and the ranging poles. Quite a lot of measurements later, we adjourned to the pub for lunch.
After lunch it was back in the river for G and J, and also a good bit of clambering around on the river bank for me, untangling the tape from the undergrowth and shouting readings at G, who was recording everying meticulously.
For several hours, it was wonderful. I could feel the stress ebbing away as I breathed in the fresh, slightly pine scented air. The rushing stream and dappled light was soothing and at first there was no one else there, apart from a gold panner, busy sucking water up with a giant syringe thing, making splooshing noises in the distance. But by 5 o'clock, I was starting to get tired and, OK I admit it, a bit bored.
After a bit of subtle whingeing, G got the hint that I was fed up and we finished for the day. He is currently engaged in turning all the readings into a detailed plan of the river bed and flood plain. The next step will be to feed all the data into a marvellous computer model and... well, I'm not sure what all this is trying to prove, I just go along for the walking and the scenery, but I'm sure it's intended to prove something.
Not sure what to do now for the rest of the evening. I don't suppose there's anything on telly, other than football. I ought to write, but I'm not quite sure whether I've got all the novel uploaded back into my brain's RAM, having had to, as it were, store it to disc while I was marking all my students' stories, all 57 of them. I could go and watch a video. Oh, decisions, decisions...
