Austerity bites

The Grazers (Alastair Riley)

Last weekend was due to be one of discovery centering around a trip to Sheffield on Sunday to sample the urban birding. But Sheffield was frozen out and furthermore the PR company dealing with the visit contacted me to say that their client was a victim of the Government cutbacks meaning that they could no longer support the trip. I hastily organised an alternative trip to Staines, Surrey but then I got felled by a bout of flu. So in the end I spent the weekend in bed.

I got back into the rat race today starting with a lovely breakfast at The Dorchester, Park Lane in my capacity as Vice President of the Association for Celebrity Assistants - it's a long story. It was amazing to check the menu to see that a full English cost the princely sum of £33!

After breakfast, I spent a couple hours writing in the auspicious surroundings of The Dorchester. Later at noon I had lunch up the road from The Dorchester with my old mate, Fred Street, the ex-England and Arsenal physio. He originally treated a football induced knee injury of mine 10 years ago and we've kept in touch ever since. Finally, I crossed town to Canary Wharf for a meeting to discuss relaunching the migrant bird project that I originally set up last autumn. It's going to be relaunched next spring minus the originator of the survey who proved to be a bit of a pain in the process when the project was first launched. We're going to have a launch event involving the project's supporters including Transport for London, the RSPB, BTO and the London Wildlife Trust.

2011 is shaping up well despite the impending economic doom and gloom. Hopefully, I may have trips lined up to Ethiopia, Texas, Portugal, Maderia, Alderney, Cape Clear, Rome, New York, Sri Lanka, Dominica and Serbia. It all remains to be seen.

By the way, do you like the Red-breasted Goose image? It's by a very talented artist Alastair Riley who's a good mate of mine. Check out his site http://www.alastair-riley.co.uk/