Well, Joan is appearing a lot better from the outside and claims to be feeling that way too. Unless the Doctor has other ideas tomorrow she is planning to go back to work for the rest of the week. Certainly she has got rid of the headache that made her go to see him in the first place and is much better rested again.

I've been busy as always at work with the usual stuff, but also pondering over a quandry as to what to do career-wise. Basically Sonic has mentioned that there is just no way he will be able to get my post upgraded to Senior status and suggested I go for one of the network planning vacancies instead. Still not sure if I want to do that job per se, but I do want the seniorness and the money would be nice. If nothing else it would relieve some of the pressure on Joan to stay with Argos just because we need her salary as well as mine to keep the house and stuff. I shall see what it entails and at the very least throw my hat into the arena.

So, what else have we been up to? Lots of relaxing and reading and watching films. Films first - The Recruit which I'd not heard of before (well, I had, but not for the usual reasons). Turned out to be a really rather good CIA spy thriller starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrel and very visible as extras Sheila, Stuart, Caroline and Chris. We heard all about their day of filming in Niagara on the Lake when it happened and it sounded like the usual hanging around in the cold and boredom you read about in the magazines punctuated with a few minutes of work. And the sequence they appear in gets repeated a couple of times in the accompanying documentaries as well. Which was nice. Helen & Bhupen brought the dvd back when they were over there last summer and this is the first chance we've had to watch it.

We also watched XXX (or is it xXx?) which was rather an over the top spy thriller. Anything Bond can do they can do bigger, louder and faster. But just the sort of switch-off entertainment we needed. And one of those films where they look like they had fun making it too.

Books have also eaten up some of the time. Finished Big Chief ELizabeth and really enjoyed it. Was good to have some of the mysteries that had been bugging me over the Pocahontas issue cleared up in a concise form too. Then did the entirity of another of the Eric Thompson Magic Roundabout books - The Adventures of Dylan which was just as nostalgically silly as the other two (and still one more to go).

Now I am in the middle of the latest Q magazine special edition - they are doing a multi part series on the history of rock so I'm in the '60s at the moment. Haven't bought Q on a regular basis for years, but they have started doing these specials recently which have been worth buying and keeping.

But as I am only reading that one at home (I tend to only read magazines at home because they get too big to browse on the bus without getting in the way of whoever you end up sat next to) I also have another book on the go. Words And Music by Paul Morley. It purports to be a history of pop music but is proving to be a bit pretentious to say the least. Interesting so far certainly but I can't decide if it is brilliant or simply so far up it's own arse that it has come out the other end again. It is making me want to go and listen to lots of new and familiar stuff in equal measure so that has to be a plus point. Maybe more on that as I get further in.

Tomorrow is the last (oh please let it be the last) trip to Colchester to see if the tooth stuff all worked then in to the office late. Today I was at a meeting about possible things that might happen if we get the money in Sudbury (so a bit vague!) and then went up to Martlesham and for a look at a village that needs a bus service with Sonic instead of my usual 1 to 1 fare. Tomorrow as soon as I get to work I have a meeting about cross-operator ticketing followed by one on marketing for P&R. Then Wednesday the books will finally arrive and I get to spend the rest of the week out in the van before holiday time and birthday...