Dr Jones

A slightly surreal day today.

I woke up this morning in agony. My back has been sore for a couple of days, but last nights bowls match finished me off. To be honest with you, I was glad for the 21st end as I could barely bend down to pick a bowl up.

The result was I spent the day prone on the spare bed catching up with the big pile of Fortean Times that I have been collecting. It seemed to do the trick, as by five o clock I was at least agile enough to move about. Sore and stiff yes, but I could get about.

This was just as well as I had an appointment with Dr Rhys Jones he of Dr Rhys Jones Wildlife Patrol fame on BBC One.

Now you might be wondering how a mere beardy prog rocking birder like me got connected with Dr Jones. Well the last part of that sentence is your clue. I asked Dr Jones if he would like to write a guest blog for me for my RSPB Cymru We Love Wales thing that I do. He very kindly agreed. I was chuffed to nuts about it. You can read what he wrote here. It is quite wonderfully written, and a small snippet of his experiences in Kenya.

It turned out we had a mutual friend in the shape of prog rocking bass maestro Matt Cohen from the Reasoning. So the natural progression was we all met up for a pint. Alas Matt couldn't make it tonight, so it was just me and Dawn, and we wandered down the bay for a bit of a chin wag.

I must admit it was a cracking night, and Rhys turns out to be one of those people who seems to have lived several peoples lives! I find people like that fascinating (and I must admit I am always slightly jealous, although I wonder where I would fit in all the time they find to do things...).

It was interesting to hear some of the follow ups from the stories that featured in the Wildlife Patrol series. I have to be honest, it's the quietest I have ever been in someone else's company! Those who know me will know what I am normally like ...

I'd like to thank Rhys for taking the time to meet us tonight and being such excellent company to two complete strangers in reality. I hope we can do it again soon, and you know I want to pick your brains for a few more blogs in the future.

Wildlife crime is a much ignored part of societies wrong-doings any anything I can do to raise the profile of some of the terrible acts that have been carried out can only be a good thing.