I am not a scientist, just a science fan and nature enthusiast. I work with software. Bitten by the bug of species identification when I worked on a postgraduate thesis on bird call identification algorithms in South Africa for a possible future handheld identification aid - something a little like iNaturalist in helping narrow down based on captured data. Decades on, in New Zealand I seemed to have transferred the urge to tick off species onto fungi, perhaps because the NZ bird list is sadly short and the mushroom list vast. I have always loved forests and slowly am being drawn down the rabbit hole into the wonderland of mushroom spotting. There's always the possibility of meeting a famous one, or an undescribed one, an edible one, or just a really strange one, beautiful, deadly, or elusive - but at the end of every foray there will have been an excellent few hours out in nature or in the hidden natural recesses of the city...