Mmmmm. All full up now with Burger and Chips and Onion Rings and Coke and Grease. Lovely! Joan has already bought two DVDs today (one with Will Hay and one Jackie Chan) - don't know anything about either of them so that will be a change to watch. Still raining though so I'm a teensy bit damp. Now just have to hang around here until they want to come home.

I know where I'd rather be though.

And so it rains again. Well, a whole dry day was nice anyway.

Ernie was doing much better last night when I phoned to check on him. Breathing and obs back to normal and he was asleep naturally. So, that's something to smile about anyway.

I am also smiling for other reasons today. Firstly I don't feel too tired. Slept fairly well - only woke up once when Joan thought it was a good idea to wake me from a dream. Was dreaming about the parking problems we have been having with next door - he had finally decided he was going to park where he wanted whatever and was somehow getting his car on top of ours. I think I must have gone round to complain as when Joan did the good deed I was thrashing about and shouting "you've got two minutes to move the bloody thing or I'm getting the Police". I wonder what the conclusion would have been. Anyway, I slept well again after that - to the point that although I remember the alsrm going I must have just zonked straight out again and not finally got up until an hour after normal. Luckily I made some time up and only got here half an hour later than I usually do. Praise be to flexi-time though.

Secondly the postman brought me a set of cdroms today containing about 2-3,000 old arcade games ready to use on the PC with MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). There go any hopes of getting anything useful done this weekend.

Thirdly Joan is off again today and is in Ipswich right now along with Alexander. So, despite the weather I am goingup town in 25 minutes time to meet them for lunch. I feel junk food calling (well, Alexander doesn't really eat anything else).

And I've designed a nice advert this morning too.

Terrible news at lunchtime - Boots have (a) put the price of their meal deals up by 10p and (b) stopped doing the chicken & sweetcorn sarnie I like. Had to settle for a cheese topped Ham and Emmental roll instead, which was quite nice but not in the same league.

Joan's foot rub thing went well enough for her to book another one next month, so that'll do her good.

Ernie has come through the surgery. The actual op went well, but at the moment he is having a bit of trouble breathing so has been moved to a high dependency ward (one step down from intensive care). I guess he was lucky they even agreed to knock him out at 82 and he should be back to normal soon they reckon. We shall see. Probably going up there in a couple of weeks time.

Time to go home now, methinks.

Hmmm, got the details through on whose car it was and have sent them an email, but no response as yet. Then again, I didn't see it when I got in this morning so perhaps I shouldn't expect one as yet.

Gary is just as piddled off as me so we are going to work together and go on strike! Will see what happens.

Nearly lunchtime, and will have to go up the town having brought no food with me. That factor also led to me breaking my resolve to be good and having an Alberts this morning. Very tasty (egg and sausage for a change) and I don't feel guilty about it at all. Even confessed to Joan and she said it had been a good idea!

Ernie should be going under the knife any time now - they are doing a vein transplant or replacement depending upon what they find when they oopen the leg up. Hopefully he will come out of it with better circulation. Fingers are crossed.

Forgot to mention last week - we finally got a new water cooler thingy at last. Actually, we got two - one last week and a replacement for that this week. It has only been 6 months or so since the one on this floor went wrong. So now I can get a decently cold drink with no stairs involved. However, this one doesn't do fizzy water (which is fine by me, I prefer it still) so I won't get the bizarre sight of people getting a glass of half and half. Surely you either want fizzy or still? How can you have half fizzy? Doesn't quite make sense to me.

Will be accompanied by the end of a disc of assorted heavy tracks as recorded from Kerrang telly and then a collection of Honeycrack B sides I put together when I go out. Yesterday's in car entertainment came from Satellite by P.O.D. A bit shouty/rappy and not enough singing in places but very good otherwise and an uplifiting feel to the lyrics for a change. Nice.

Things went kinda downhill after that.

The meeting was just as irritating and dull as predicted, with yet more talking in circles based on the future of the group. Then when we got out we were given the proposed structure. It sucks big time. Not only have they split our team up, but everyone at my level currently gets upped to Senior Officer level except either me or Gary. We have to fight it out between us and the loser stays the same under the other. Like that won't cause any resentment! It took me several hours to come down to a mild simmer rather than full boiled anger last night, and I'm still pissed off this morning. I will be writing a very strongly worded note to someone about it, you can be sure of that. What makes it worse is that all the jobs seem to have been decided and allocated already. What happened to the group I was invited to be part of that was supposed to be doing that? I had enough of this kind of shit with Argos and I don't intend to suffer it here as well.

Joan & Helen didn't win either. Still, I did get to watch a great prog about Llamas on the Discovery Animal Channel which cheered me up quite a lot.

Today it isn't raining (yet!) so I might even get a bit of air at lunchtime. No word on the car either so perhaps it will be OK.

Joan is off today but has to pop in to work - her boss went to a meeting yesterday and phoned on her way home to say she had something to tell Joan. Why she couldn't have called in on her way home, given that the meeting finished at 4 is just one of those unsolved mysteries! When that is done she's going for a pedicure, which should be nice and relaxing for her.

General consensus from the morning meeting people was that it was a complete waste of time and I need to take a pillow/matchsticks/something to do. Oh great. They also overran, which is not my idea of fun as I want an early finish today.

Partly because of the car thing (still no response!) and also because Joan and Helen are having a night at the Bingo here in Ipswich tonite and this time I get to drop them off rather than pick them up. Which will be a rush to start with, but nice overall cos I'll be able to relax and not have to come out again. A big choice between sleeping a bit or shooting some aliens I think. Or, most likely, falling asleep at the keyboard!

Still raining so no visit to the town today. Which does at least mean no DVD purchases! Unless I get to the mail order sites on the web...

Hmm, a Wednesday that feels like a tuesday. Must be because I had Monday at home rather than any deep meaning. Then again, it could just be that I'm once again sat in a mostly empty office feeling a tad bored. Mostly empty because the meeting we thought we were having this afternoon about the future of the group (again) has turned into two meetings about how the group is going to meet the Council's 11 priorities. Only about three of those have any bearing on public transport so I'm not really sure how interesting or useful it will be. They have decided to do us in two halves so I'm down for the afternoon slot. Oh, I can't wait. To make me feel a whole lot better it is raining so I don't reckon I'll be going out at lunchtime, and I scraped someone's car when parking this morning. I don't think it is more than a bit of paint transfer that will polish out, but not a happy event. I have gone the official way to try and find out who it belongs to but had no response yet. I just hope they are a nice person and won't want lots of money from me. Of course, if people could park a bit better and not leave teeny-weeny gaps it would never have happened. :-(

We are also fretting over what to do about Ernie still. It was looking like we would be going up there tomorrow and back Friday just so he would see one or two of us, but Joan has decided it is too much for her to be a passenger for the trip. I don't mind doing the driving, but the decision is hers really. I think we will end up going up nearer the end of the month when her boss gets back from holiday. And for three or four days. It seems now he is not eating properly in the hospital and things are thus a bit more worrying for those of us 300 miles away.

Body Balance was good again last night - did a load of work on backs and abs again and once more I cam quite surprised at being able to stand up and eat today. There were a whole bunch of new people again last night, although I don't think some of those will be coming back from the comments they were making on the way out. I am quite surprised by that too - I would have expected it to settle down to a regular group by now rather than the constant flux in members we seem to have. Wil be interesting to see what happens when the school holidays kick in.

We still didn't sleep very well though. Just the worry I suppose, but if Joan doesn't get some rest soon she'll get ill herself.

Haven't really done any reading for days now either. Which means I'm still on the Classic Bus Tests. It is, however, proving interesting in some other respects as it also highlights how language and attitudes have changed over the last 60 or so years. F'rinstance, the pictures taken on a review carried out on "the hottest day of the year so far" (early June) still show the staff done up in huge coats and hats, whereas now you can bet on shorts and a t-shirt. I do really want to finish the book and move on to some fiction, but can't be bothered to pick it up at the moment. But, I haven't given up on a book in years, and don't intend to do so this time. Or to take a break and come back to it. Hey ho.

OK, so the trip into town turned into a visit to Park & Ride at Bury Road as they needed a display stand I had up there down here for an exhibition. I then had to help a representative of the Zulu Nation (really) find Radio Suffolk's studios to give an interview. They had told her to meet them at P&R then failed to turn up. So I did my good deed for the day, and she apparently gave us a plug on air so that was OK.

Of course, the BBC are at the opposite end of town from the office here, so I had to walk past Smiths. And naturally I got dragged in and came out with Scary Movie 2 on DVD. I really must stop spending money like its going out of fashion like this.

Body Balance tonight, so two BB's to help me to sleep! Time to go home now.

Made it in to work today, but still feeling a bit delicate in the guts department. Also really tired too - neither of us slept very well last night.

Didn't really miss much yesterday other than the arrival in the group of a couple of seconded people. So we are nearly at full strength again, which makes for happier faces all round. Have even managed to get some (boring, essential) work done this morning so that perhaps by tomorrow I can do a bit of the fun stuff I've got lined up.

Up the town for some air now.

Ooof, what a few days this has been since last I graced the keyboard here! Not that I'm at the usual "Here" for writing this stuff, but we'll get to that later. So:

Friday: Having had the meeting I thought was due on Friday morning on Tuesday I was in the office rather than the meeting room at Ipswich Buses. Did pop out for half an hour though to help Gary move a bus stop flag at Great Blakenham. We'd had one of our new shelters installed on Thursday afternoon and someone had phoned up Radio Suffolk in the afternoon to complain about it being in the wrong place because the actual bus stop was a few yards away. That was because there wasn't room for a shelter where the flag was before, so we knew we were going to move it when the shelter went in. But fancy calling the radio station rather than us. Some people are just odd.

Then I just did a teensy bit of work and spent too long hanging about the Llamasoft forums on the web before lunch. That was when I made the mistake (?) of going in to HMV and looking in the sale. OK, so I had actually gone in with the intention of getting the Miles Hunt CD at last, but they'd sold out. Why do I do this to myself? I've got a perfectly good credit card that could stand the occasional impulse CD purchase but instead I make myself wait until payday and when I get there they've sold 'em all. This has happened too many times for it to be palin stupidity. There must be a deeper reason. Anyway, I finally came out with two CDs - SilverGinger 5 Black Leather Mojo complete with Bonus second disc (that makes the two!) and one DVD - The Cannonball Run. That has to be one of my favourite films of all time and I haven't seen it for years. So, we watched that last night (Sunday) and it was just as funny as I remembered. I had forgotten just how many people were in it, and can't quite believe they packed it all into 90 minutes but that's memory for you.

The afternoon was spent showing the Park & Ride manager from Bristol (and his wife!) around our two sites (and also the guided busway) as he was looking for inspiration. They had come up on two wheels - I somehow can't imagine 240 miles as a pillion passenger with no way of having a conversation. Still, it is always nice to have someone else think what we do is the best.

In the evening we just mellowed out, had fish & chips for tea and watched TV. Nothing thrilling, but then who needs an exciting life all the time? To prove it here's a poem I've been meaning to stick on here for ages by Wendy Cope:

Being Boring
"May you live in interesting times" - Chinese Curse.

If you ask me "What's new?", I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it's better today,
I'm content with the way things are going.
Yes, he's the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.

There was drama enough in my turbulent past:
Tears and passion - I've used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last,
If nothing much happens, I'm thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you're after excitement, steer well clear of me,
I want to go on being boring.

I don't go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don't need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I've found a safe mooring,
I've just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.

Which just about sums us up at the moment.

Saturday: Joan was at work and I had a very lazy start to the day - didn't even get up until gone 10. In the past that would have been unthinkable for me, but at the moment I just feel tired most of the time and fall asleep given half a chance. By the time I was finally ready to do anything Richard had turned up. We went out up to the big B&Q by the Bury Road Park & Ride. Joan and I are looking for something new to use for video/DVD storage in the lounge and also a new flashy shower head. Drew a blank on both fronts. We also popped in to Comet where he bought some CDs and Toys R Us where I got another of the remade Llamasoft games for £2.99 which wasn't to be sneezed at. We also had lunch at Tesco (gee, what thrills) then back here to fart about on the PC until it was time to get Joan.

We had a nice Chinese and watched Casualty - the last inthe series and a couple of good cliff-hanging storylines to boot. I can't decide if I like that or not - I know it is intended to help guarantee viewers for the start of the next series, but we would watch it anyway and now I really want to know what will happen. Big Brother then seemed to eat up the rest of the evening.

Yesterday we went up to Sainsburys for a bit of shopping which was made slightly tricky by them re-surfacing the car park so we had a bit of fun getting in. I do like the smell of hot tar though so that made up for it. Homebase failed to provide a shower head or storage unit either but we did at least manage to get loads of bargains on the food.

In the afternoon Mum took Joan round some local gardens that were open for charity while I had a bit of a blowing things up session on here. Then we watched the Cannonball and a bit of BB.

Today I have been at home. Thought I was OK when I first got up but then spent far too much time in the bathroom (you can work the details out for yourselves) and decided I was best not going to work as I probably wouldn't make the trip. In the end I slept until 1230 ish (more sleep, why am I so tired still?) and am only now coming to full sentience. Also had some very strange dreams again while I was snoring through the morning, mixing Greek Myths, archery, Lego and a flooded London. If that sounds weird don't worry, it didn't make much sense while I was dreaming it. Some dreams seem to hold together quite well while they are happening and only seem strange with hindsight, but this one felt odd from the start.

I have managed to find most of the floor and some of the shelves here in the study which is nice. Was helped on the way by the SilverGinger 5 discs and also: Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - 1992: The Love Album and Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Are You Normal? all of which entertained me. Still feel a bit weak and have had a couple of wobbly weepy moments during the tidying, which is one of the reasons I've stopped now.

Also because it is nearly time to go pick Joan up and I want to post this.