Well, the weather did not permit (in fact we had hail, lightning and the loudest clap of thunder I can ever recall hearing just when I was thinking of going out). Which didn't exactly leave me in the best of spirits, and what with stupid phone calls and emails coming in I got progressively more gloomy all afternoon to the point that I left at 4 rather than my normal 5ish. And then feeling down was not the best place for me to be when I got to track 10 on the CD that was in the car - Bruce Springsteen - The River (and indeed, the title track). Gets me going at the best of times that one so I was almost on tears when I got home. Still, an hour of piece and quiet did the job and I was almost perked back up again by the time I picked Joan up.

There was nowt of note on the telly so we watched Spider-Man from DVD as borrowed off Richard. Enjoyed it loads, even if they did go for the cop-out kill off the bad guy ending that comic based films seem to favour. OK, so some of the effects were a bit dubious in places and it naturally suffered from having to be an origin story rather than throwing us straight in to the action, but on the whole a good, entertaining couple of hours. Which is all a film needs to be really.

Today I have been showing a couple of people from Bedford how to do Park & Ride properly. Another lunch at Pals, but they weren't able to pay for me this time. Boo.

The word from Joan at home is that Jerry has finally managed to get the gate up today. Huzzah. It should look nice as well so I'm quite looking forward to getting home and seeing it. And should keep the neighbours from sticking their noses in a bit more, which is always welcome. Especially as we do seem to have a fairly nosey lot down our way.

Oh well, a bit more work to squeeze in now then I'll be off.

If all goes to plan, the gate should be up by the time we get home tonight. I got to see it assembled last night but Jerry has had to alter it slightly so it will need another coat of paint or two after all. There's something for me to look forward to!

Otherwise life ticks on as usual. So far this morning I have produced another two maps and sorted out 50 or so photos from the batch I took yesterday. I hope this presentation goes down well after all the effort I've put in for it! Next up is sorting out some thrilling P&R facts and figures to give to the posse from Bedford who are coming to see how to do things tomorrow. And also a similar lot for a local school who want to do P&R as a project. I have a horrible feeling I might end up talking to 100+ kids at some point.

And of course at lunchtime I hope to get out and book a couple of days away. Weather permitting.

I'll take that as a no then.

Er, have I just broken this again?

Where on earth has the day gone? OK so I can answer that really - I spent nearly all morning at the two Park & Ride sites taking photos for Mitchell to use in a presentation next month but it still seems to have flown past since I got back to the office. And most of that time was spent doing the maps for said presentation too. I hope it goes all right (especially as I will be in the audience!).

Having started it on Sunday we finished watching Runaway Bride last night. Quite a good if lightweight comedy, and of course by the same people as Pretty Woman so it was bound to be reasonable. I still don't see what the fuss is over Julia Roberts but she does fit the parts well. Also watched the end of this year's series of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here which we had followed from day one but I hadn't mentioned before purely because I couldn't be bothered typing that title all the time! Again, a fairly entertaining series with a good mix of people we liked and couldn't stand. Plus it is always nice to see people plucked from their matural environment and left struggling with new stuff. I'm not sure how they will be able to change it up for a third series though unless they send them somewhere else. And then next week Big Brother starts again so that could end up sucking us in over the summer. Not sure why a house full of people sitting around chatting gets so addictive but despite not paying attention to the first two we were thoroughly hooked last year.

Bit of a let down earlier - last night we decided we would do something nice at the start of our week off in June (before tooth torture commences) and hit upon a weekend to Paris. When I called up to book though it seems they aren't runing a trip then. Marvellous. Will now dedicate tomorrow lunchtime to finding a suitable alternative (even if it means staying in this country).

Right, onwards with a spot of work.

Busy weekend. And still a bit of pain from the mouth today (just thought I'd throw that in - hoping for a sympathy vote or something!).

Anyway, Friday night we went along to see Helen as she was all alone and bored. Main entertainment came from the Police helicopter hanging around the next street and using its PA system to try and shout at people to come out from the bushes they were hiding in. Nothing appeared in the news relating to it though so I guess it wasn't a major international elephant smuggling ring being aprehended or anything thrilling like that.

Sat and Sun can sort of be rolled in together here as we spent the major part of both days working around the house and garden. Grass cut; new gate bought and painted (Jerry is allegedly going to assemble and erect it for us today, but as the rain has been fairly constant since mid-morning I won't be at all surprised to see it still in pieces tonight); loads more weeds removed and proper plants put in instead, dodgy bit of wall finally repainted nearly 2 years after next door had their extension and messed it up, general tidying in the house, washing, ironing and stuff like that. Let's just say we both slept well both nights. Saturday also saw a trip to the Lions Club boot sale (Joan bought a few plants, I replaced a Jean Michel Jarre tape (Oxygene) with a CD). Oh, and today Joan has had to buy us a new duvet due to Tawny being rather ill on the old one.

Still reading Mercator (in fits and starts - just not had time to turn more than a couple of pages over the last few days). Next time Joan is off for the weekend I plan to make sure we spend some more time relaxing or doing stuff away from the house rather than just working. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to arrange as we start a week's holiday then too. Not likely to get away for more than day trips though as the Thursday is the first trip to Colchester for major mouth work. Happy Days.