Karen

Today I walked Django early so I could get back for a meeting with two Japanese collaborators at 09:00, but when they failed to connect to the call I spotted that they'd set it for 09:00 GMT! I spent 90 minutes with them, as the younger one is presenting work I've advised them on at a conference next month. However, I ended up explaining to him how he could present his material much better. So many talks go into too much detail rather than explaining why what the person had done is interesting, and how it differs from something familiar to the audience.

After that, I got stuck into programming. For the first time in years, I'm learning something new, and will have results to present at a couple of upcoming workshops, rather than giving a "big picture" view of what our software can do.

At the end of the afternoon, A left for London, just getting her train! I ploughed on until I had to walk Django. It had been a largely dull day but, just before the sun dipped behind the Pentlands, it dropped below the clouds. So there was beautiful light when I met A's friend Karen. She ruptured her Achilles three months ago, and is taking slow walks to regain strength. So we had plenty of time to chat before I left her to return home.