Made the "mistake" of going in to Waterstones while I was out at lunchtime. Only bought 5 books, 4 of which were in the sale and together as a set so I guess they could count as one if I try to justify it properly. The 4 are Eric Thompson's Magic Roundabout scripts and the one is a serious investigation into computer games. Which seeing as how I have got right back into those of late was a must have. More details when they get read!

The meeting was OK - made some progress on the publicity for the Ipswich Gyratory but would still rather have been doing something else.

Am listening to a series of '80s compilations in the car at the moment and my unprovoked reactions to some of the songs got me thinking. Why does the memory work like that? If I was trying to actively think of certain places and events from the past I know I would struggle with some of the details but play me a song associated with them and wham - glorious technicolour. What got me this morning was Perfect by Fairground Attraction. That one (along with Love Shack by the B-52's and Sinead O'Conner's Nothing Compares 2 U) takes me straight to the bedroom m'friends Deborah & Marianne shared at Linden's lodge in College. Right down to the cheques for £1m and shrunken crisp packets stuck to the wardrobe doors. Kind of spooky that I can recall that much detail. I know I visited there on a regular basis but that was 12 years ago now.

Nearly time to go now. And to pick up some KFC for tea on the way home...

Ooooh, a couple of days worth of waffle to fill in! I know I could and indeed should have written some yesterday but just never got round to it. Lazy and busy at the same time!

So where were we? Tuesday evening. Can't remember doing anything spectacular. We haven't got around to booking back in for Body Balance as yet so didn't do that. I think we just sat out in the garden with our tea and then did a bit of tidying and ironing.

Yesterday proved pretty productive for me in the end. I got all the changes needed on the map and town plans to send them off for updating. Then I scanned in the recent Park & Ride pictures. Had a slight hiccup there when the scanner started playing up, but it seems to be working again properly now. And also got a good way in to sorting the accounts out. Might be able to finish them off soon and actually understand them. And to make things better than doing them here (a) the phone only rang twice all day, (b) I had the windows open and my shorts on, (c) there were no e-mails and (d) I had a decent soundtrack. That comprised:

Underworld - Live: Everything, Everything
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - 0.522 (a B-sides collection)
Ozric Tentacles - Strangeitude
Skyclad - Prince Of The Poverty Line

And also the in-game music, bleepings and so forth for a variety of old Arcade classics I was running under Mame for breaks every now and then. I've got a set of cds with over 3,000 games on for Mame and am gradually trying them out for size. Some of the old Japanese ones are very obscure and tricky to get to grips with, there are also an unseemly number of ones featuring people taking their clothes off in very bad graphics!

The afternon featured the long-awaited (but not looked-forward-to) trip to see Kirstie the hygenist to see if all the agony earlier in the year had been worth it. This was the poke the needle in lots of times to measure if the pockets have got any shallower stuff. Not fun, but not too painful in the end. And yes, all of them have got better than they were before we started. Not all of them by a great extent, but enough to have justified the treatment package. They will keep an eye on them and there are some other things they can try in the future if things start to go the wrong way again. And I didn't have to pay any money over yesterday either as I had been knocking a chunk off the bill on the earlier visits and actually went 12p over.

In the evening we had our feet sorted out then had a look at holidays once again c/o the good old Internet. Some wonderful tours around parts of the US and Canada that we really want to see. The prices look fairly horrendous at first glance, but we think we might just treat ourselves next year. We just need to get disciplined to save properly. Then we had a manic two player session on Puzzle Bobble. One of the few games Joan can really get into.

Got woken up at 5ish this morning by my right leg deciding it hadn't seized up with cramp for months and that now was the perfect opportunity. Quite painful at the time and still uncomfortable now. Still, got to work OK, have done some useful stuff and finally the morning is almost over once more. Time for a spot of lunch, a walk up the town and then back here for a meeting.

Goes on, and the heat goes on... To adapt a line from the Talking Heads for a moment or two! It is still absolutely scorching out there, but it is now also raining which may help to cool things down a fraction (it will also probably mean our washing will need drying again when we get home if this persists as far as Felixstowe and lasts all afternoon). It might also encourage the girls of Ipswich to put a few more clothes on. I wouldn't mind so much if they were nice looking to start with. Better stop that thought now before it gets me into trouble.

Tomorrow I am working at home updating our maps and trying to whip the finances into some sort of shape. Trouble is I have been so good at getting stuff ready to do so that I'm now left with not a lot to occupy the afternoon. I might go home early and make a start - especially as I need to do some work related scanning too. Of course, given how the future of this department appears to be shaping up I ought to ignore the finances as they are likely to be split between different managers in the new milieu but it is still a better option than being here for all 5 days of the week.

Going back in time a bit, last night was reasonably busy for us. Jerry from next door brought a car round for us to test drive. A Vauxhall Corsa. It was quite nice and all that, but not really what I'm after as despite being small it had a large engine so that pushes up the tax, insurance and fuel costs and I'm trying to save on those. I do feel a bit sorry for him as he is lonely since June died, but I don't think I'm ready to be a substitute family for him yet. I also don't want to end up buying a car from his mate just to keep the pressure off and harmonic relationships on if it doesn't come with the right warranties etc.

After that we did a spot of shopping and then went on to see Helen & Bhupen for a bit. As a consequence of that we didn't eat until quite late (Chinese again!) and thus didn't really do much else. And we both had disturbed sleep (Joan was up for two chapters of a book) and strange dreams again. I think the disturbed sleep may also have been temperature related. And now the heavy eyes and yawns have hit me once again. I really must get a trip to the doctor sorted if I don't start being more awake soon.

Still hot today. And uncomfortably sticky too. At least the office isn't too bad, but I think I'd rather be elsewhere. Nothing to do with Joan being off today of course. Oh, no, nothing to do with that at all! Also very tired this morning again - must get an early night some time to try and catch up on missing sleep.

Had a nice evening of dinner on the new patio and just relaxed chatting, but it must have drained some of the energy reserves after all. And now sitting here trying to make sense of timetables without my eyes closing. Not easy.

So Kate won. But at least Jonny came second so we aren't too downhearted here. Mind you, we were both absolutely knackered when it come to getting up yesterday after staying up to watch the final and all that, but never mind. It was worse for Joan as she had got home late on Friday due to Saturday being the launch of the new catalogue. And the shop is just intolerably hot at the moment. I know from having worked there just how oven-like it can get at times, and yet still head office won't splash the cash on some air conditioning for them. A customer even passed out because of the heat in there today but I bet that still won't make a difference.

We finally got around to watching Scary Movie 2 last night. Not quite as funny as the first one but just as good as I remembered from seeing it in Canada last year. There are also loads of deleted and alternate scenes. Got through about half of them last night and was surprised that some of them didn't make the final cut. Especially as in places they have bits in them that are featured on the cover of the disc (and were thus on the posters for the original release) but didn't make it to the cinema version. Strange.

I also picked up my photos yesterday and I think some of them will do just nicely for the purpose I took them for. Others will be useful for joke stuff to go on www.b3ta.com so not all wasted. On top of that we got a new wooden table and chairs for the garden. Joan had seen them at work and liked them, but we thought they were a bit overpriced. While we were up north one of her colleagues spotted that they had gone down in price and ordered us a set in. They are really nice now, especally for what we finally paid!

Today Joan is at work once again, and I have been taking it easy up to now. Have sat in the sun a bit (including for lunch, nice) and finished the Dilbert book(s). Not sure what to pick next, but I do have a huge pile of magazines to read so the next actual book is a couple of days away as yet. Better do a bit of tidying up now before I go to pick her up.