So there I was, walking along the street minding my own business in a little remote highland town. And there were these two men in the road wearing those luminous yellow jackets that stop people running them over. They were taking turns to peer into a little computer/calculator/lens-type thing on top of another bright yellow thing, but this had three legs instead of their two (each).

And I thought, after all this time working on the staff of GIM International and reading about surveyors and all their electronic gizmos every month, here might be a chance to see the real thing at last.

So I asked them.

"Excuse me," I said, "are you surveyors?"

"Well, sort of," mumbled the older one.

They both looked about sixteen, actually. But that's probably got more to do with my age than theirs.

"Well what are you doing?" I persisted.

You get like that after a few years as a sub-editor, always having to go over every word a thousand times to make sure you understand it.

"We're setting up new stations because they want to measure that field over there."

"I see," said I.

I didn't. Not yet.

"But you're not surveyors?"

"Well, yes, we are really," he confessed with a blush.

"And that's not a total-station then?"