My life has been somewhat on the accelerator mode of late - trying to juggle some contract work to pay the bills and make sure I don't land on the streets in the last home 'thesis' stretch, as well as the thesis writing itself. The latter has been going well - though definitely happening in spurts. I had gathered some good momentum in June - then was forced to delve into some other work for most of July. Mind you, it has been some truly exciting and interesting work - taking part in discussions on establishing a network of marine protected areas in West Africa, and advising/assisting where necessary a group of scientists, NGO workers and government officials that has been involved in the process for a little while now. My trip to Senegal was to participate at a workshop trying to define more clearly what the stakeholders see as the overarching objectives of such a network and try to come up with a list of indicators for the effectiveness of this network - not only from a biodiversity perspective, but also (and this in my mind is the truly quite exciting bit - albeit also most challenging!) from a socio-economic and management perspective. There were about 30 or so people that attended the meeting - all truly passionate, dedicated and committed to make things move forward. We worked ourselves hard - but it was well worth it! For some info - and for those of you who dabble in some french here's some background info.
So since my return it's been tying up lose ends, catching up on accumulated emails and getting ready to launch myself into the thesis again - I want to make serious progress in August and am actually really excited about it :o)
This weekend I have tasked myself with getting quite a bit of reading done - mostly of foodweb related matters but also on marine protected areas. So much is being published these days it's hard to keep one's head above water - but it's funny how with the years I've developed a method to my madness, knowing how to read papers depending on what I want to extract from them/use them for.
..and as a treat I am going to keep things exciting by going climbing (if it's stops raining that is!) Can't wait to give my muscles some exercise - after all it's the best way to go otherwise they'd get jealous of all the exercise the brain is getting ;o)
