Oh fabulous. Nearly half an hour late and still no sign of the people we are supposed to be having a meeting with. Doesn't bode well for them running a reliable ferry service does it! Could seriously screw up some of the lunch plans in the team here if they don't turn up soon. Still, it has given me more time to acheive the impossible and squeeze all those journeys I mentioned the other day on to one credit card sized piece of paper. And no microscope needed to read it.

Eyes and Sinuses are throbbing gently. I wanna go home and sleep.

Oh God, I think the last two days melted my brain to a serious extent. OK, so some of the course made sense and the training lady was very good at her stuff it just went over our heads for the most part. The words were all familiar, but the order of them was a bit suspect to say the least. I think it will make more sense in time as we start to get properly involved in more formal project working, but at the moment it just seems like a way of making more paperwork and meetings for things we do perfectly well already. And of course it was a bit of a whistle-stop tour around a Suffolk County Council version of a national standard so we were effectively summarising a modified summary. Still, on the plus side the food was rather good, although not to the standard we had at the Novotel before Christmas for the Business Plan day.

I'm not sure if the fact we were all from the same group was a help or a hindrance. She said that the courses she has run before were all to mixed subject groups so there was always a chance that someone would have encountered an example or situation before. With us it was a case of all or nothing every time. The rest of the group would probably not agree, but I get the feeling it would have been better formatted as a three day course as (a) the last afternoon felt very rushed and (b) we could have spent a bit more time trying to translate the concepts into examples we all understood. Oh well, we went and hopefully we learned.

Mind you, I was also hindered by a stinking cold which is still hanging over me. I get the feeling I will probably have trouble getting anything done tomorrow having forced myself to keep going up to now.

Entertainment wise I have delved further into the book, and we also squeezed a film in on Wednesday Night - Along Came A Spider with Morgan Freeman. The sequel to Kiss The Girls and just as brilliant. And once again I was totally drawn in but unable to work out who really done it before the final reveal. Which was nice - the one thing that puts me off so many films and tv shows is the obvious signals as to who the real bad guy is or which cast members will survice the massacre etc. And I do like the occasional real shock when suddenly the person you thought was the hero gets shot or turns nasty.

Today I have a meeting about ferries and a visit to the P&R sites. Better than staring at the screen all day I hope.

Finally got introduced to Peter Lee around lunchtime. But only after Gary had sent an email to one of his staff mentioning the fact that he hadn't said hello yet. What a great place this is. And now Charles is in a complete strop after being left with something he doesn't quite understand after everyone else has gone off to meetings. I'm just a bit jarred off with another load of changes coming in that have been given short notice support from Cambridgeshire County Council but sent out with errors in. Well, unless they've got new magical buses that can be in two different places at the same ime over there of course.

Oh well, at least I am out of the office for most of the rest of the week. Tomorrow and Thursday about 10 or so of us are on a Project Management course at the Holiday Inn on the edge of town. So two days of trying to stay awake whilst having information flung at us at vast speed I expect. With bigger problems in the afternoons as it seems the food up there is pretty darn good. Which is nice! It will mean no entries on here though for two days too unless I find time to connect in the evenings. Then Friday I have been roped into some meeting/project group to try and re-vitalise the Felixstowe - Harwich - Shotley ferry service and am taking a colleague up to see the P&R sites. From a personal point of view I'm pleased something is being done about the ferry as it needs help and I live in Felixstowe, but work wise I'm not so sure. I get the feeling I could end up with loads to do from it with very little prospect of a happy outcome. We shall see.

Seem to be getting along fine with Chris the boss so far. Have already started one project for him. Now all I have to do is work out how to fit information about approx 400 bus departures in to seven lines of text to go on a credit card sized info package. With a map on the other side (that bit's quite easy as it only has to cover 4 roads). I enjoy a challenge but this one could be pushing it a bit when it comes to legibility.

And now I'm caught in a cola war too. Britivc/Pepsi made me a good offer to replace the Coke machine at Bury Road P&R with one of theirs that does still as well as fizzy drinks. We have two machines at London Road to cover that but only room for one here. Now I've asked Coke to take theirs out they are going to try to get one of their new prototype ones that does the same. How do I get into these situations? Little old me playing two global corporations off against each other.

Well, there's no doubt about it. There is something very wrong in Michael Jackson's head. An absolutely fascinating program, but still many questions left unanswered. It was good to see him admitting to a bit of surgery on his nose (even if he denied any other deliberate changes) and getting a bit more of an insight into the problems of growing up in the spotlight that could have been the root causes of why he is like he is now, but other parts of what came out were definitely scary. Especially the still letting kids sleep in his bed. Now surely, after all the hassle from 10 years ago even he should be able to see that perhaps that is not a good idea. Odd.

OK, so he has far too much money for his own good. Which of course is also part of the problem. Anyone complains - just buy them off. Want something, just get it. The amount of money he was spending in one shop was enough to scare me. Still, I guess he did earn it.

The kids are my biggest concern though. All three of them are just too white to have anything to do with him genetically, but he still maintains they are his. Oh well, not really my problem and I guess I will now go back to normal.

Oh, and quarter past ten on day two - still no sign of the policy manager coming to introduce himself.

Ah, time to play catch up again. Put it all down to extreme laziness on my part.

Anyway, the snow did finally kick in properly on Thursday evening. Presumably it spread from the west - when we got up on Friday morning the whole world was covered in a nice fluffy white blanket. There had been a few flakes coming down when we went to bed but not that much! But, investigation of the news revealed people stuck in drifts all over the western end of Suffolk and into Cambridgeshire. In fact people having been there all night, and it turned out some ended up being there for nearly 24 hours. Not nice.

Still, we both got to work OK (with only a couple of minor slides on the untreated bits of Felixstowe) and I even managed to plonk myself nice and centrally in a space in the car park - despite all the lines being buried. Not everyone else managed the journey but there were enough of us to get on with stuff. Mainly trying to find out what, if anything, was actually running out there. The answer being not a lot!

In between that I also had a gripping meeting about Park & Ride at Martlesham and another group structure thingy one. Neither of them offering much attraction as an alternative to being sat at home by the fire I can tell you. Oh well, only a couple more weeks to go before a week off.

Saturday Joan was off and we had a nice slow start to the morning. A quick trip to the shops and then a lazy rest of the day. We got a bit of tidying up done and then Richard came round. Just as we were learning about the Shuttle exploding when coming in to land. Not a very welcome piece of news. I do hope that it won't mean the end of the space program as it is one of the few things in the real world that really does fascinate me. I know the chances of me ever getting in to orbit have now pretty much vanished, but I can still dream about it. Oh, and later on when we'd got over the shock we watched Monsters Inc. which was brilliant and had a nice stir-fry.

Yesterday, funnily enough, Joan was working to make up for having Saturday off. I got a stack of ironing done and played some games and stuff. Nowt thrilling really, just more chilling.

In the evening I ended up doing both round trips when Joan and Helen went to Bingo. And still no winnings. They have decided to give up on the Ipswich one for the time being so at least the mileage will decrease even if they still have no luck.

Today I am sat at the desk again, and Joan is off on her own (well, I expect Tawny will have been keeping her company). Been odd again this morning. Our new boss (Chris Seaman) and the new Policy (Peter Lee) manager have both started but only Chris has been down to speak to us. He has even gone so far as to sit at his desk! But this Peter chap is being very elusive. Not a good way to get us on his side I'm sure. Oh well, I'm sure he'll get around to it sooner or later. I'm muddling through with not much to do really just at the moment again. I ought to be starting a new Park & Ride newsletter but can't seem to muster up the enthusiasm for it. I think I will wait until next week after we've had the user group meeting.

Joan has just phoned - she has just given blood and is now on her way to the Doctors. For a pre-booked appointment I should stress, the two are not connected! She is going to make me one while she is there. I am determined to get myself off these blessed tablets this year and stay off them, even if I am still getting days of doom and despair. The trouble is, when I'm on one of those down days I wonder how on earth I would cope with them when I'm NOT taking the pills. Just have to try it and see I guess.

Not much else to say now. Got a couple of chapters further in to Otherland over the weekend but no real developments. Listened to some music, watched some TV. That sort of thing. Of course tonight is the big and much hyped interview of Michael Jackson on the telly, which promises numerous revelations and profound insights into why he is like he is. Should be interesting viewing I hope. Right, time to find something that looks like work to do before an early finish timed to pick Joan up...