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In this dreadful excuse for a Summer, we are at least less inflicted by flies and insects. But when the sun blazes, I am out there, sunbathing as often as I can. I leave the back door open. And this is a golden invitation for flies.

So at the end of the day, I have flies buzzing around my house. I can open a window and one or two might, just might, escape.

The next day, those that have not died of exhaustion, dehydration or starvation overnight are flying in ever smaller trips, or slowly crawling up windows.

If I open a window, they rarely seek exit through it. So I often find myself coaxing an exhausted fly to an open window. They often struggle against what they perceive as a threat.And I have not got so much time to play the rescue man.

To me, this is a neat denial of the existance, as described, of God.  Why would a rational entity create flies only to see them pointlessly die? Surely this is a great opportunity to guide them to windows? Or does God like seeing them die prematurely?

What is it about Microsoft that makes them see the cosmetics of the user interface as a high priority, (even when it then slows down your computer), when the following scenario goes unchecked EVERY day on my PC :

Unrequested by me, my hard disk will suddenly churn into action. It will embark on feverish activity for up to 10 bloody minutes.

During this time, my PC grinds to a halt. Actions that would take 2 seconds now take 20.

So I open up Task Manager. It says that the CPU is 7% loaded. System Idle is mostly in the 90%s.

No task is hogging the CPU. Except that in reality there is.

So a task I did not request is hidden from me, stopping me use my PC.

Who in their right mind would design a system that works AGAINST rather than FOR the user?

Microsoft.

After 3 months on a low-carb diet, I have lost 1 stone (14 pounds) of weight. This was not my aim.

Unlike traditional dieting, with which I was surprisingly successful - losing a similar amount and keeping it off for a few years - I appear to have retained my muscle mass. My waist gets thinner and thinner - close to it’s shape when I was 20. I am very curious both why the diet induces weight loss (does it occasionally prefer to burn body fat instead of the dietary fat I intake?), and when such loss ends. I strongly suspect that I have a way to go, and that my ‘natural’ body shape is wiry. Or skinny, as I was as a boy.

But recently, I have put on noticeable fat on my sides. Just a little, and I feel that I know why.

On a number of occassions recently, I have experienced blood sugar crashes at unexpected times - sometimes fairly soon after eating. So I have ‘topped up’ with nuts and cheese and avocado. Delicious, but it did not feel stable.

Likewise, I have had a worsening of the  leg and foot cramps that characterise the early stages of the change from carb to fat burning.

I believe that I have simply not beeen taking in enough liquids.

In a semi-dehydrated state, the fat does not get metabolised well. It passes through or gets stored as fat. The shortfall in energy may impact on the protein processing, aggravting its metabolism. The cramps are a result of  mineral loss caused by fat rather than carb fueled protein metabolism, I believe.

Yesterday evidenced a distinct example of these problems - my fluid intake was irratic since I was photographing a Wedding. By evening, my legs were achy, and my head was painful.

Today, I hydrated well and found that a small lunch at 1:20 took me through afternoon football comfortably to an evening meal at 7:30. After which, I felt bloated with food. No room for nuts. And a greater stability in mood and general well being all day.

Often, with great schemes such as a change of diet, there is a much stronger focus on the glamorous  aspects, and too little emphasis of the details, such as hydration in this case. And on exactly how to manage hydration and the tell tale signs of poor regulation.

As a perfectionist, I am naturally saddled with a tendency to procrastinate. Knowing both of these characteristics, however, is rarely enough to bypass their more damaging consequences.

So I am particularly pleased that I am now developing a habit that addresses both of these conditions, linked as they are.

As a relatively seasoned photographer of over 50 Weddings now,  you would imagine that I would refine my job further and further as each Wedding takes place. Alas, partly as a result of a shocking memory, I tend to forget a lot of lessons learned in the past.

But there is no excuse, in hindsight, for failing to address a major difficulty on the Wedding day.

Big group photos.

Lots of people to organise - and people are worse than sheep when it comes to a harmonious group photo - and their heads so small in the image that it is barely worth taking. So I decided I will not do any more big groups.

And how can I tell the couple this? It took me 1 minute to change the mindset. Instead of a big group of ‘all the family of the bride’, I will now break this down to 3 groups - grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins.

That will mean more meaningful and faster pictures.

One concession - if an elevated position is possible, I will do one group photo of everyone.

Evolution by innovation. Except it is probably way too obvious to receive a plaudit.