Update. And ticks.

Well, I'm three weeks into my field assistant job working with ticks and it's knackering! Hence the infrequent posts!
I am enjoying the work though - dragging fleece blankets through vegetation and then counting the collected ticks and trapping (live) small mammals and examining them for ticks. I'm getting to see lots of Scotland that I haven't had a chance to view yet; including the scenic West coast. There are some really nice walking/running areas until you realise the places we are looking at are areas reported to have lyme disease. Kinda puts you off being at one with nature a bit. It's making a little paranoid re. getting bitten and the end of the day finds me examaning myself, clothes and possessions for vagabond ticks - especially as the larvae are only about 0.2mm.
I have a week off this week and then five more weeks before I return to uni to analyse the data and do data entry/tick species identification. Unfortunately most of the sites render me away from home (and Gareth) from Monday till Friday, then I'm too tired to be civil on Saturday and spend Sunday packing for the next week! Gareth is putting up with my sultry attitude well though!
On a positive note, we are actually getting married next August! Hurrah! After 6 years! I'm very excited and my head is full of wedding dresses, cakes and what-not. I'm especially pleased as my sister has agreed to be my matron of honour - it took me a while to ask her as I figured she would take it as read that she would be the important bridesmaid, until mum hinted that perhaps I ought to ask!
It's going to be a manic year with my final university year, planning a wedding and deciding what our next move will be after Aberdeen!