He was struggling with the lymphoma he had in the gut and I thought I needed to do something, so I took him to the vet and an hour later I buried him in the garden, so I brought him home.

I shall miss him dreadfully, I'd had him for nearly 17 years but it was awful to watch the cancer eatng him away.

So rest in peace little fellow, you know I loved you.

I am seriously considering resigning as a member of British Cycling after they decided to stop transwomen from competing in elite women's bike races.

This has all blown up after Emily Bridges transitioned, as a man she broke the national junior 25 mile record and is considered to have an unfair advantage over biological females. So they have suspended the policy on transgender cyclists.

According to an article, children's services are overwhelmed by demand from youngsters who are uncertain about their gender. It is problematic for the youngsters who may develop other issues while having to wait 2 years or more for an initial appointment. However, things might eventually improve as a study has suggested that there need to be more regional hubs to deal with it involving a range of doctors and therapists who wouldn't otherwise be associated.

Sorry folks, I realised I'd made a major cock-up in the latest episode of The Joiners, so I have largely rewritten it and offer it for your perusal, which means you can read it all over again and compare it to what you saw yesterday.

Real life has caught up big time this week and I have an assignment to complete in the next couple of days, I am really busy also my elderly neighbour has also become increasingly needy and confused and I can't abandon her but she really soaks up the time. So sadly, I haven't time to write (except bloody carbon cycle and not carbon fibre, and grassland ecology) and most of that is calculations in gC per m squared per year.

Anyone who thinks the Open University is a soft option is probably too stupid to do a degree with them.

I shall be posting another Joiner's chapter shortly and probably another Drew Goes South, tomorrow. However, my university course is getting ever more demanding and I'm possibly going to have even less time than I do now, I'll have overlapping modules for a few months, the new one is the one that requires the equivalent of a dissertation, though I'm hoping the fieldwork I'll need to do for that will be fun.

Anyway, please take this as notice that my posting may be more erratic than usual.