I do research, strategy and planning on biodiversity and climate change, as a senior scientist in Guy Midgley's group at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. This involves both big and small stuff: in no particular order (1) talks and workshops for the public, university graduate students and senior government officials on climate change preparedness and transforming society towards sustainability; (2) strategic vulnerability monitoring frameworks for species and ecosystems; and (3) field research with postdocs, students and colleagues on the ecological, behavioural and population vulnerabilities of endemic fynbos birds in the mediterranean-type Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. To chill out from all this earnest and urgent stuff, I run and hike in the glorious Cape mountains, bodysurf, read and write, and cook meals for friends and family on a drop-in-anytime basis.