It has been raining for the last 24 hours, nice and steady, long overdue. I sent R on his way to inspect and discuss various new solar energy gadgets at one of these gatherings where people teach each other how to save the planet or cut their electricity bills, whatever. I am usually too impatient to do this and am prone to sarcastic comments. 

You know the joke about two planets meeting in space? 

The first one: "How are you?"
"Not so well", the second answered "I've got the Homo Sapiens."
"Don't worry," the other replied, "I had the same. That won't last long."

Well, that's me these days and I better not dwell on it.

Instead I should be working my way through a riveting piece of publication on the latest groundbreaking research in laboratory methods to detect early prediabetes. 

But as usual, there is so much to organise on my desk and in the kitchen and so I dawdle and mess about like the next best teenager.

And there is my child's tired face to think about, the way she smiled at us this morning from the other side of the planet. She works hard long dedicated hours, she is skilled and smart and she has the bigger picture right in front of her, she is changing the world. I just hope her health is up to it.

Here she is aged nine months after R taught her how to read maps.