And the weekend rolls around again in a haze of drunken debauchery, all-night partying and general misbehaving. Or perhaps that was someone else and I've done some ironing while Joan has been at work today... Take your pick. If Chris's latest plan comes off then I might be working some Saturdays in the near future as he reckons we have got far too much work to be done in our contracted 37 hours per week. While we are being told all the time from above not to exceed hours to build up flexi-time we never get to take, there might be the possibility of doing some paid overtime to clear the backlog instead. OK, so I'm not sure if 6 day weeks will agree with me in the long term but for a couple of months I might be prepared to give it a go. Especially as the extra hours will be at my new rate of pay.

Of course I still don't really know what I'm doing in my new job that will take all these hours to complete. It seems I will be running a project reviewing publicity, but then I was going to do that anyway. Just now it will be a bit more in-depth and generate interim and working paperwork as well as just a final report. I'm sure some of this project approach is just making work for its own sake (and we are surely meant to be churning out less unneccesary paperwork now we are in the gleaming world of Endeavour House) but I'd rather be busy than sit around twiddling my thumbs.

Not that there was much of that yesterday. Woke up with a headache that I didn't manage to shift until I got home an had a couple of hours sleep. Car Parks meeting in the morning which Chris came along to to see what they were all about. I think we were all agreed that the group has lost some of its focus over the last year or so - a lot of what it was set up to acheive has now taken place so we are in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. Hopefully I will still get to go in the new world order (still not sure if I will be retaining all or some of the Park & Ride work) as I do like to know what's going on in Ipswich in general - and the group gets that info by virtue of being part of the Ipswich Partnership. After the meeting Richard Walker came back with us to have a nose at the new building and also talk to the marketing people about doing some shared parking adverts. I think he liked the place and seemed quite taken with some of the new ways we are starting to do things. And of course the Borough council are going to have to move soon as their building is gradually crumbling away, plus they have de-criminalisation of parking controls going through so that will change a lot of Richard's job too.

Joan and Helen are at the bingo right now - hoping not only for a win but also that Ipswich gets pulled out of the hat in the big million pound share-out happening tonight. Basically £1,000,000 will get split between everyone in the lucky club. Naturally there was a huge queue to get in when they arrived so even if they do get drawn the share will be fairly small (the place is huge and will hold at least 1,000 people I guess). Fingers crossed for them to at least cover the entry cost and have a nice night whatever.

Finished the geography book. Not quite what I was hoping for (it was more a review of different methods and techniques available than the history and overview I wanted) but still very interesting and reminded me why I took my degree in the subject all those years ago. And it was nice to realise that I do still use some of the knowledge gained in Derby without realising it. Will have to look out for something more along the lines just described some time. Which might be easier as I have taken the decision to rejoin the book club I used to belong to. The Softback Preview. Which is the only one out there that doesn't insist on you buying a set number of books per year or whatever. Which is the only reason I joined in the first place back in the College days and why I'm going back. Not that I ever officially left as far as I recall, they just stopped sending the brochures after I'd gone a year or so without buying anything.

Am now half way through the latest Terry Pratchett to hit paperback - The Wee Free Men which is just as good as everything else he has written. Technically a children's story set on the Discworld but still in the same league as the rest.

That'll do for today.