I haven't posted here for a while for a variety of reasons both academic (I had my upgrading which, for those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, means that I'm now registered for a full PhD rather than for an MPhil, not that I now have night vision and laser tits) and personal (a move, illness, some family stuff). A rather more cheerful reason for my extended absence from the interwebz is that I've actually started to get some results, and the problem for bloggers hoping to publish is that as soon as you have something interesting to say you can't say it. Now that things are starting to look up I do hope to start blogging again on a semi-regular basis, but I think the posts will be more focussed on Africa, development, cool insects, vectors and life, the universe and everything in general, rather than on my own research. I may even dip a tentative toe into the skeptosphere, because the internet obviously needs another ranty post about homeopathy just as much as it needs another amusingly captioned picture of a cat.
I'll be going back to The Gambia on the 2nd of July for a month and will be getting a mobile dongle (and will probably single-handedly double The Gambia's GDP by paying the price I'm paying for it) so providing that my laptop doesn't blow up again and the phone mast doesn't blow down again I should have rather better internet access this time. I'll try and write a few blog posts while I'm out there when I'm not too busy wrangling manure-filled traps or getting climbed on by small children, because Mary asked me to and she could probably break me in half if she wanted to. Or at least cover me in very sticky plant material.
I don't have a picture of my navel to post so instead here is a picture of my friend's navel. Mine is similar but with fewer geckos. And possibly more fluff.
