Busy day so far for a change. Finished off all the roadside preparation this morning and waved all those heading out off before settling in for a few minutes of quality internet-based skiving. Then headed out to Bury Road Park & Ride to be photographed with the new buses. That went OK but while I was there one of the buses they were using while we had the real ones broke down and chaos ensued. Glad I was on site to see how well they coped really.

Called in at Radio Suffolk on the way back to buy one of their new CDs produced to raise money for Children In Need. Full of jokes and stuff so should be a good laugh. And it was only a fiver. Took the opportunity presented by being up that end of town to pop in to the shop where I got another Lynx game a couple of weeks back, but they didn't have anything else in. Some cheap second hand Gamecube stuff though so I expect I'll go back there after I get mine next week.

Now things have gone a bit wrong at London Road Park & Ride. Some idiot car owner has driven into the exit blocker and had their petrol tank ripped open in the process. Splendid. They have had to get the fire brigade in to mop up and now the water company need to find where all the drains go to make sure none gets where it shouldn't. Fab.

Add to that people asking me to chase up complaints and answer questions that are nothing to do with me and things seem gloomy. Then throw in the fact that my phone number seems to have been used to replace the TraveLine for enquiries now that has closed and you can see that I'd much rather be at home today. Especially as Joan is off. If it wasn't for the availability of quality Egyptian Dance Music on the internet I'm sure I'd go mad.

OK, so it is technically American music, but by a chap of Egyptian descent who has lived there for a while in the past (and also Italy) but we don't need to get that specific do we? MP3.com sure is proving to be a wonderful place now I've started digging deeply into it. And I have always had a soft spot for some of the stranger sounds that come out of Arabia so adding them to a modern idiom works wonders for me. All I need now is time to get them on to Mini Disc for regular listening.

Also lookingon the brighter side, I have now obtained a blank CD to take with me to the Llamasoft joly thing in London on Saturday. The plan is to record a whole bunch of us shouting obscenities on Yak's laptop then work those in to a special customised version of Gridrunner available only to those in attendance. Should be a laugh. We are also going on the London Eye (and I'm going again on Wednesday with Joan!) and shopping for fluffy sheepies etc. Really looking forward to meeting some of the people in the flesh I communicate with daily. Pity some of the foreign correspondents can't get over, but that would be asking a lot really.

Hmm, just had another complaint in - seems one of our sponsored operators is refusing to accept notes as payment for any fare under £3. Surely that's not cricket! Better get the sponsored team on that one.

My books have arrived. And maps. All look lovely thank God after all the hassle. We even had a helpful driver to getthem off the lorry for a change. Weeeeee. Now just have hurty arms to worry about.

Tried the new fried chicken take-away in town last night. Tasted exactly like KFC. Not so much of a secret blend of herbs and spices eh, colonel?

Managed not to spend any money at lunchtime again, but the potential for spending has increased again. Especially as our payslips arrived today and we have had both raise and back pay. Most woo and yay worthy.

Less in the way of strange dreams last night I'm pleased to say.

Oooh, look at the time. Better go now to pick Joan up.

More rain. Getting a bit sick of it, and winter hasn't kicked in yet.

One of those regular back at Argos dreams last night. Ipswich this time, and they had once again called me in to sort out a serious mess in the stockroom. I did of course, and then refused the job when they offered it to me on a regular basis. But is this case the manager was my old Primary School headmaster Mr Thomas and the person I trained up for the job instead of me was Dr Carter from ER. All very odd.

Today we are mostly stciking timetables together in advance of the big roadside push later this week.

Another drab day waiting for other people to do things for me.

Weekend had its moments though. Joan off Saturday so we did lots of tidying and ordered a new carpet for the dining room. Not sure when I'll get time to paint it but that's another matter. We then had Alexander staying the night which was fun.

Sunday Joan back to work so I did loads of ironing (of course) complete with commentaries on Independence Day and Charlies Angels. Both quite interesting. Then last night round to Ma & Pa's dinner. Very tasty.