This is so bizarre. Had a very relaxed evening feeling fine again only for most of this morning to be spent suffering instead. Oh how some days I hate having to live in a body. Whatever happened to all the free-floating consciousnesses or robot doubles to download into we were promised inthe 21st Century by early '50s science fiction? When viewed from that perspective we really are in a terrible way - no flying cars, we all still eat real food rather than taking nutrition pills, none of the high street fashion shops have flimsy silver togas or foil jumpsuits in the windows, we don't have a domestic robot to do all the cooking and cleaning and holidays to the moon are still missing from the Thomas Cook brochure. A shockingly bad state of affairs. Somebody should do something about it. You will just have to excuse me now while I go and meet my visitors from a printing firm on Alpha Centauri...

Yeah, I know, a bit over the top. But I am getting a bit fed up with feeling bad because I'm stopping taking some lousy medication. It's not as if I was feeling ill physically and they were blocking/preventing/masking the symptoms which are now coming back because I've stopped taking them after all. I keep trying to tell myself that as the problems were originally "all in my mind" as it where I ought to be able to filter out the reactions mentally somehow, but haven't found much joy in the search for a method yet. So I will just waffle away on here instead.

And it is only an hour or so to the weekend now. Unfortunatley it seems Joan has to work both Saturday AND Sunday this week. I must have missed picking that one up as it was a bit of a shock when she mentioned it last night. Looks like I will just have to amuse myself (OK, and do the ironing) and take it easy if I feel grim. I expect I will do some exciting and innovative cooking as well if we manage to buy any interesting ingredients at the shops tonight.

My map has come along in leaps and bounds today, with roads, railways and the ferry it is intended to promote all added. I just need to speak to Dawn now about how she wants to show all the towns and villages and we are pretty much ready to roll. I have also read 5 issues of Coach & Bus Week that all made their way in to my in-tray at the same time. I do so love the circulation methods we have here. I somehow get the feeling stuff would still take weeks to get to me even if we all had out own copy of everything.

Well stone me, just had a text mesage from Richard and they've given him the job on the help desk here. That should make everyone much happier in Western Avenue. He will be starting on the 10th of March and I get the feeling I'll end up car sharing with him (well, it does make sense really) if he can get up early enough to make it here while it is still possible to park.

Caved in to temptation in the HMV sale at lunchtime and now have the Lemon Jelly ep collection KY and first album proper Lost Horizons. Listened to the former while map-drawing this afternoon and it really is rather wonderful stuff. Sort of ambient floaty dance stuff with mad samples blended in to the mix. I like a lot! That better be all I spend on myself this month though (and it hasn't even started yet!!) as I have to tax the car tomorrow. Boo hoo. Still, it is only once a year and also means we've had it six months now. Time to go home now and take Joan to get her back cracked.

Well I was right about lunch being totally messed up. Didn't get back to the office until 5 past 2, but luckily there was still a space inthe car park. Not sure I had anything very positive to contribute either other than reassuring them I would be putting a bit more info in the books than at present - which I was planning to do anyway. And providing a bit of background information on how I run my Park & Ride user group which I get the impression will be ignored anyway. Hey ho. All of which meant I ended up having to leave work early to go up the town then rather than the plans I had for lunch. Which was basically to take back the jacket Joan bought last week as in the end it didn't match anything else she had and she got a different and better one in Felixstowe instead. Aaaaaargh.

Managed to have an evening without feeling like death warmed up last night for a change. Perhaps I'm through the worst now. Good job too as Dad finally managed to obtain the Ikea coffee table we have been after since September (and had given up on, hence the shopping for an alternative previously mentioned) and I had to put that together. And wonderfully the new powerdriver thing Joan got me for Christmas has an attachment for the alan key type headed screws they put in most flat-packs these days so it was a complete doddle to do. And it looks really good and does the job we wanted it for. Hoorah!

We then made use of the Sky movie channels and watched Coyote Ugly. Wasn't sure what to expect but ended up enjoying it thoroughly (and for the plot as well as the girls, honest) and being very impressed with the choice and use of music throughout. To the point that the first EMF cd is now sat in the car waiting for the journey home tonight.

And then the dreams were definitely not linked in with anything watched. One was a sort of back to college affair where I was approaching the start of the final year and visiting my friend Deborah. Who was living in a houseboat incongruously moored on High Road East in Felixstowe. Good design of vessel but not quite where I would have expected to find it! And then ending up in some kind of theme park looking for the British Embassy there. The other was another back to Argos one - in Ipswich. But this time I made it clear from the start I was doing it as a favour during a week's holiday from the Council to help them sort out some major problems. And I took the manager up to Park & Ride to show him why I wouldn't come back permanently no matter what they were prepared to offer me.

Today I have no meetings at all (hoorah!) which is letting me get on with some serious map drawing I've been trying to fit on for a week or so now. Always nice to be able to put some proper geographical knowledge to use. Makes me feel I didn't waste all that time going to College and getting the degree. OK, so once again the office is pretty much a wasteland so I am getting regular interruptions from other people's phones but at least they don't need me to drive across town.

Just remembered another dream from last night (my head seems to be working overtime while I sleep at the moment). This one was some sort of huge museum about the London Underground. All in one big building but over several floors. A sort of interactive ride experience as there were loads of replica stations from assorted time periods and you got to ride betwen them in the appropriate vintage rolling stock.

I think I must need to get out more.

Although right now I could do with either not getting out or a bit more notice. Seems I have to go to a meeting at Suffolk ACRE halfway up the Norwich road in 40 minutes time, which will mean me driving in my car. So probably no parking space free when I get back. About a subject on which I have almost zero knowledge (the Shotley Buzabout service) having had no involvement with setting it up or producing any publicity for it up to now. Marvellous. Plus it will probably drag on and totally screw up my plans for lunch time. What a wonderful place this is.

Felt absolutely drastic again last night. I think it must be to do with the tablet withdrawal, but knowing what the problem is doesn't help cure it. At least the 10 O'clock electric shocks running through the brain seem to have stoppped again for now. Always a concern when you can set your watch by feeling odd.

Still, at least I have a good idea where last night's dreams came from as they were centred around what we'd watched on tv. Kind of an extended episode of In Deep but with the plots focussing on a corrupt health centre where too many patients weren't coming out again and then investigating the finances of a football team in a town that was at the same time being overrun by aliens. OK, so not the usual happenings in the show but fun anyway.

Nothing in the diary for the rest of the week so hopefully I can catch up on the outstanding map for the ferry project. Having to chose between trying to get a proper map extract produced (but our Ordnance Survey licence doesn't go down far enough in to Essex) or drawing my own in some kind of stylised form. I want to go with the latter but am not sure if it will be what everyone else wants. It would help if Dawn were here to discuss it with but she seems to be off with Tonsilitis.

Sweet dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree....

Well, actually I'm not sure they all count as sweet but I have had some pretty odd night-time noodles recently. Probably caused by getting the right amount of sleep for a change so here's the breakdown on some of them for your delight and delectation:

I'm the architect/chief designer of a big retail and office complex being built alongside a lake. I think it was meant to be North America somewhere from the scenery but the dream never actually made that clear. It was all looking very lovely with merchandise in the right places, offices full of happy workers (thus proving it was a dream) and so forth. Lots of trouble ensued with people trying to run the enterprise down and I was forced to resort to some pretty bizarre tactics to get rid of them. Like strapping them to the rollercoaster that just happened to be outside and making them ride all day until they agreed to desist.

Helen & Bhupen getting marriage vows renewed, loads of people trying to split them up and Joan and I fighting them off. To the point of physically picking up and moving the house of one of them (where did we get the strength from)?

Waiting in a fish and chip shop with Alexander for everyone else to turn up. We are trying to juggle several bags full of hot food (why did we have it in carriers?) and also give the rest of the group directions to find us. They were lost because the majority had insisted upon following Stuart's Canadian produced guidebook rather than listening to Joan who had been there before.

Eastenders, but set at my old secondary school, with assorted characters up to the usual scheming and plotting and backstabbing. That was odd.

And some others that I can't remember any more. Hey ho.

Mind you, last night I didn't sleep at all well. Kept waking up and taking ages to drop off again leading to feeling pretty grotty this morning.

Which didn't help when I had to drive up to Norwich for a traveline marketing meeting. Still, I got there in one piece with time to spare (with the help of Primal Scream, The Levellers and on the way back Jesus Jones cds) and in the end the meeting went pretty well. Plus had a good chat and catch up with Claire from Norfolk over lunch afterwards. Then back here for an hour or so of checking the mail and now I'm off home for a hopefully relaxed evening and by tomorrow I plan to be rested properly again.

Aaaargh, have I been off? Got in today to find a new desk (left hand bend rather than right hand bend) and all sorts of junk to sort out. Done that, and read the 250+ emails so now am taking five minutes breather before looking at the in-tray proper. So, let us rewind the last couple of days and finish off from where I was in the holiday reportage.

Click, whirr.....yadhtrib....nodnol.....stneserp.....click.

Thursday - Joan perked up not long after I posted the previous load of waffle so we ended up going in to Ipswich after all. A nice lunch followed by some wandering round the shops. Still no joy on the coffee table front, but we did manage to get Joan a jacket for work (which hopefully she will one day find other clothes that match so she can actually wear it) and a few other bits and bobs. She then went out for the evening with Lesley and Tracey again leaving me to mellow out in anticipation of a busy day to come.

And busy it was. But in the nice form of busy that you like on a birthday and day out rather than the busy that can happen at work when the phone never stops ringing, the emails fly thick and fast and so forth. After presents from Joan over Breakfast, we managed to get the 0902 train from Ipswich by the skin of our teeth (partly my fault for leaving the lights on and having to run back to the car, partly because the receipt printer machine wotsit at the station was misbehaving when I was trying to pay for the tickets). After the de-railment a couple of weeks ago there is still no central line running while they check every bolt on every train or something so we took the long way round to Tottenham Court Road.

The intention there was to check the lie of the land and possibly hook up with a Llamasoftie or two. Why? Because noted Japanese game designer Shigeru Myamoto was making his first ever European Public Appearance at the Virgin Megastore and that had to be worth a look at. So we bowled in there just before eleven to find the queue for the event (due to start at 1) already extending out from the designated area and all round the basement CD racks. Not a good omen for a casual visit! I did manage to find a few people and put faces to the names (good old mobile phones) while Joan had a coffee but wasn't about to spend the rest of the day standing around there. So it became a fleeting hello and then we buggered off up the road to the Bristish Museum.

Main aim there was to see what they'd done in the central courtyard as we haven't been along since it was re-vamped for the millennium. Where do the years go? Anyway, impresive would probably be the best way of describing it. Re-clad the old reading room and roofed over the rest of the space with a vast expanse of glass panels. The sun was streaming in creating wonderful shadows everywhere and in all I was rather taken by the results. We also had a look at a couple more galleries we hadn't fitted in on previous visits and some general wandering about going "Oooh" at stuff. We also decided not to purchase anything in any of the various shops on site (£35 for a tie, I don't think so no matter how nice the designs) then went for a late lunch.

Garfunkels (of course) where for the first time I tried their all day breakfast. It has become a bit of a standing joke that I quite often have an all day breakfast when we go out, but as Joan doesn't eat bacon or sausages I don't see why she should cook them for me (or put up with me cooking them) at home hence the choice when out. I was also trying to be original in a Garfunkels sense by not having the chicken and bbq bacon I normally go for and had a burger the day before so... As it was, I probably won't have another one there! Wasn't much impressed with the sausage situation although the rest was OK. Joan had a spanish omelette which was very nice though. Might try that next time myself.

Anyway, we popped back in to Virgin after that to see what the score was - and couldn't even get to the downstairs area. Managed to get one glance at Miyamoto-san over the railings before being moved on by security! And it seems we were about 5 minutes ahead of the LLamasoftie group getting their stuff signed and coming out into the air again. If we had just hung on... But we didn't and went in search of more culture instead.

Got the tube back down to the Thames then walked east along the bank in the sunshine. It was extremely nice and we even stopped for a sit in the rays for a while. The aim of the walk was reached at the Millennium footbridge by St. Pauls. Crossed over to the Tate Modern gallery and commenced to get both enthralled and confused in equal measure by the works on display there. I'm sure I'll get the hang of modern art one day, but not just yet! Some truly wonderful things in there, but others that just leave me wondering. Now, I know that the definition of what art actually consists of is pretty vague at the best of times, but I still don't see how some of the stuff on display can count as such other than by virtue of being in a gallery. Perhaps I just wish I'd thought of sticking a pile of bricks together or putting a neon tube at 45 degrees then charging £10,000 or so for it.

Arrived back at Liverpool Street nicely for the train home and rounded the evening off by watching Top Gun from the dvd I'd unwrapped that morning. Haven't seen the film for years and it was just as good as the brain recalled. OK, so the plot has dated a little (but substitute Iraq for the un-named but obviously Russian bad guys and it comes bang up to date again) but the flying sequences and photography are just superb. My only gripe is the lack of any extras on the disc. A commentary and a few documentaries looking back on the impact and how it fits on to the world today would be great.

Saturday we spent blitzing the house in readiness for Ma, Pa & Richard coming along to shower me with gifts and have tea. Joan excelled herself in the kitchen with seriously belt-straining results, I was thoroughly spoilt and a good time was had by one and all.

Yesterday was a typical end of holiday relax and get ready affair. Did some ironing, played some games and also felt a bit unwell. I hoping it was something I ate or picked up or something (or even just being tired) rather than the only other possibility - motion sickness caused by playing Timesplitters 2 on the cube. I've never really suffered from it before with any other first person shooter and while I guess there is a first time for everything I don't really want this to be the case here. As I still feel a bit rough today I'm betting against it, but will also be keeping clear for a couple of days until I am certain I feel better.

The rest of today has been catch up stuff (this has been written in spurts over the last 6 hours or so, but I thought I'd just post all as one.) Richard was here for an interview for a post in IT just before lunch so I saw him when I took my fresh air break. Fingers crossed as it is about time he got off his backside again. And now it seems to be time to head off to pick Joan up and relax for the night.