Well, I have now reached that stage in the week before a holiday where Friday cannot come soon enough. I am all poised to sign off the first couple of books to finally get this production underway when lo and behold more changes are produced. One to a timetable for Monday and one to a bit of filler text. I could cry, I really could. And then to add to the confusion there are some other changes coming sometime in early July which we don't have full details for but I need to add something in about. What did I do? I'm sure I would remember offending the Gods of timetable production wouldn't I? Quite how I am going to relax next week now with all this lot hanging over me I just don't know. Mind you, surely they can't halt production again while I am off. Can't they? Please?

I'm sure things would be better if the rain was coming down in buckets. But instead it is an absolutely glorious day out there in the world. The Suffolk Show is on and I would much rather be there getting chilled with the sheepies and stuff than sat here trying to translate Mike's timetables for public consumption. Or at home in the garden. Or on a beach. Or anything other than this really. But I am just too damn conscientious and will get these books sorted if it kills me (or I kill someone else!). It wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't just spent all that time tinkering with the names of timing points and such like - I am now having to go through any new file to make sure all the changes are there. Consistency after all these years is nice, but a right royal pain in the arse. It would be even nicer if my PC didn't decide to lock up and take 15 - 20 minutes to come back up two or three times a day at the moment as well. Fingers crossed we do actually get new kit and hurrah for deciding to bring my book with me every day now.

Now for some sun and fresher air than can be found in here...

Calmed down a bit now. At least there have been no unexpected urgent timetable changes this morning that need to be squeezed in to the books. A couple have turned up but they are not desperate enough for me to hold production up any longer. Heck, they haven't even chosen their own start dates and will be waiting for the Traffic Comissioner to do that for them, so I can hardly put stuff in I don't have full information on.

Finally got my P&R newsletter approved (after I've made a copule of changes) so that can go out shortly. Woo hoo. Another job done and dusted. I will of course make sure that gets saved for a day or two as the diary is very empty for this week and I don't want to leave myself with nothing to do later on. Mind you, I'm sure I could be more productive if Charles wasn't chairman of the social club bar. He is sitting here at the moment ringing around people to cover shifts while he is on holiday and I am getting a bit fed up of hearing the same thing over and over again.

Haven't mentioned it up to now, but yes we have started watching Big Brother again. Right from the start this time. A reasonable bunch of people it would seem with nothing standing out as far as any of them are concerned to make us want to get rid of anyone as yet. We will have to see how the weeks progress. Still not quite sure what makes the show such compelling viewing but there you go.

Still not got any definitive plans for what we will be doing next week on our holiday. Never managed to book any form of break away from home but we will still manage to relax I hope. It would be just our luck to have booked up to get to Paris though as it seems that most of France is about to go on strike.

Instead of the usual driving to pick Joan up last night (well, yesterday afternoon really as the shop did shut at 3) I walked in for a change. This enabled us to walk home along the beach rogether with an ice cream. All very nice but I won't be doing it again unless Joan specifically asks me to as even after a short day she was rather tired by the time we got in. So was I (!) and we ended up snoozing for nearly two hours before dinner. Add to that a full nights sleep and you would think we would be feeling chipper and dandy this morning, but no. We were both wandering about like zombies.

I was brought to life and then annoyed by the radio though. Not the radio itself you understand just what they were saying on it. Today is of course theoretically the first day of construction at Martlesham P&R so they did a little piece on it. First interviewing a Labour councillor who although supportive of the scheme was very woolly in the things he was saying. Not a very good defender of some of the more "touchy" issues we have had to overcome to get the thing going. And then a few minutes later one of the Conservatives phoned up to basically slag the whole thing off, to the point of claiming the existing sites weren't succesful etc. Fair got my blood boiling. Luckily Mark Murphy lived up to the award he just won for news presenter of the year and was able to turn most of it around - after all it was only last week they asked people to phone in and say what they thought of buses in Suffolk. Nearly all the calls they had praised P&R to the skies and they were so surprised by this that they called here for collaboration. I ended up going on air to confirm we do our best and the praise was justified (how did I forget to write that on here before? Simon Barnett, radio star!). I do sometimes wish we could get the politicians out of the loop, but then I guess we wouldn't be a council!

And already this morning the Police have been on in a tizzy that we might be blocking roads this week when the Suffolk Show is on. As if we would be that stupid!

So, another bank holiday monday. Another day where Simon is sat at the keyboard instead of being out in the sun shine. Not my fault this time though as the garden is currently full of thick and very smelly smoke rising from next door but one where they seem to be burning old socks or something. So I can't sit out on one of our nice chairs that I've just extracted from the shed and cleaned the winter off of. Can't even hang the washing out. So I will sit here and waffle, have a bit of lunch and hopefully by then he will have run out of things to incinerate so I can have at least half an hour before it is time to get Joan. Heck, I have even got my shorts on for the first time this year so he'd better stop at some point.

Friday turned out to not be the relaxing afternoon easing into the long weekend I planned. Just as I was begining to think all was finally sorted with the area books and I could maybe scoot off early the phone rang. Charles had been up to Norwich with Sonic and they had called in to see First Eastern Counties before leaving. Who had given them copies of some more changes they are making. So naturally Chaz phoned to let me know. Luckily we already had copies in the office that had been posted so I was able to do some frantic work to get them sorted out. So at least when Sonic did come wandering in (why is he still so keen? Anyone else would have taken the chance for an early finish) I had the satisfaction of being able to tell him the stuff was already with Pindar and would be in the books. But that is it for changes now. No more. Or we'll never get the damn things delivered (after all, the cover date was meant to be today!).

Anyway, not much excitement for me this weekend what with Joan being at work and all. Saturday I had a walk in to town in the morning which was nice for the exercise and then had a lazy afternoon. We did watch the Eurovision Song Contest though in the evening and I can't say I'm surprised that our entry scored nothing. Some are saying it is a response to Tony Blair throwing us into the USA's war on Iraq but I think a lot of it must also come down to the song itself being pretty dire and the girl not being able to sing.

Yesterday I did some thrilling ironing while Richard recorded some stuff off the computer. I thought I would be free of that now he has his own but it seems not. Turns out his hard drive can actually be heard on the recordings which does not bode well for me getting peaceful weekends. OK, so partly I bring it on myself by feeling a bit sorry for him and lonely some days when Joan is working but...

Feeling generally OK with things these days now I am clear of the tablets. At least I presume they are all gone from the system now. I do tend to get a bit emotional at times - I can often feel myself about to go when watching tv and sad stuff happens - but I can live with that. Just means I'm human after all.

Oh well, time for a bite to eat, a quick look at the forums then hopefully some reading in the sun.

So today I've come in to find the PC I happily switched off last night turned on again but frozen up with a mass of empty windows and logged in as someone called Andy from IT. Didn't even have the common courtesy to speak to Gary who was still here at the time or turn it off when he'd finished. I ask you! I bet half the problems and crashes I have come from things like that.

As I write I'm waiting on approval of the p&r newsletter from the commuincations manager and then that will be me happy for the week. Just a few last bits of timetables to check and we should be done on the books too at last. Whatever happens I will be glad to be out of here tonight for a nice restful long weekend. Only pity being Joan working all three days of it. Grrrr.

Bloody computers and those who maintain them! They got my colours back fine yesterday but lost my connection to the outside world to make up for it. Hopefully today everything is back to normal and working. Of course, that implies that "working" is the normal state of affairs in here, which is unlikely. And actually, I now have 32bit colour rather then the 24 I had before so actually in the end I've come out better off. Fingers crossed that it all lasts for a while or until we get our new kit. If we get our new kit. Still not sure if that will actually happen as all purchases and things like that are supposed to be on hold until it is known who is moving to Endeavour House, what they will get new, what they will take with them and so forth. It seems likely that we will be one of the teams to move as we fit most of the categories for selection that have been published so far but nothing has been confirmed as yet. And the clock is ticking. I assume the workers are back in finishing off the building, but no-one has let us know about that either.

Anyway, Tuesday night went really well. A bit of concern to start with - while Joan and I were waiting outside the Magic Wok for the bus a couple of Police Cars and an Ambulance went tearing past. Turned out a car had wrapped itself around the telephone pole at the bottom of Ma & Pa's garden so when we went past there was much activity, flashing lights etc. And of course a top quote from Barry - "Oh look, they've stopped an Ambulance for speeding". He really is from another planet. Still, no damage done to the garden - they are just concerned about the car still being there and hope it will be towed away before some idiot sets light to it.

So, we all ended up at Felixstowe Ferry in the Ferry Boat Inn. Plenty of old faces as well as the crew from in here so good chat as well as superb food. A bit expensive (the price Bob had originally anticipated turned out to be a special deal, and they didn't repeat it for us despite there being a crowd of 30 all buying drinks as well) but very tasty fish & chips. We really ought to get down there more often ourselves just for the odd meal, it being so close and all. Perhaps with summer coming. Followed the meal with a walk around the boatyard and on the beach (others went to the Victoria for another pint) and then the bus brought us home again. I think of all the people who have come and gone while I've been working here Bob will be one of the most missed along with Colin. Even Joan says she is going to miss him.

Yesterday was spent footling around here on the latest Park & Ride newsletter. I just need to run it past Sonic now before getting them copied and up to the sites.

Joan is off again today and has just been up to the doctors for blood tests. She is still getting odd lumps and stuff from the rash hanging around so they are going to do a full work up on her and get the results rushed back. I hope there will be nothing serious wrong but better to find out now.

Now well in to Mountain... and it is proving just as good as parts 1 and 2. The only "problems" being the sheer number of characters to keep up with meaning we haven't seen them all again yet and that the book itself is so damn heavy to lug about with me! I think I can put up with that though.

OK, so yesterday ended on a good note for the IT department. Today, I'm not so happy. Partly my fault cos I was tinkering with resolutions on the monitor yesterday (with no results apparent at the time) - today I have come in to find the PC refusing to show more than 8bit colour. Meaning everything looks fairly horrible. And of course the bits I need to get at to fix it are locked off and only accessible to the IT dept. So that's been reported to the helpdesk, but according to Richard could take anything up to 5 days to sort out. Not good enough if you ask me. Things were so much simpler when we had our own IT group (i.e. before they all got merged in to one corporate muddle) and they were only up the corridor and we knew who they all were, and it was all fields around here and you could leave your door unlocked, the kids could walk to school on their own... Stop it Simon, you seem to be turning in to an old git!

So I have been muddling along with a restricted pallette and strange combination of font sizes on screen, confining myself to jobs that don't need me to play with pictures. But I won't be able to put them off for ever.

We had Bob's presentation this morning. We got him a very nice framed 1807 map of the county which I find myself seriously coveting. And then had the usual run-down of career highlights and stuff. Bob was also very forthcoming about the stuff they ask about in the exit interview which was quite interesting. I don't suppose what he said will make any difference though. Roll on tonight and the celebrations.

Last night was a bit odd as we spent most of it in different rooms while Joan watched TV I didn't fancy. So I tiddled about on the computer a bit then sat and read. Finished off Mercator and can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only issue I would have with the book is that for the biography of a cartographer (among many other talents it turns out) there weren't enough examples of his maps included in the illustrations. OK, so I wouldn't have wanted the book to be too much bigger and thus more expensive but none the less, a few more would have been nice. So now I have turned back to Tad Williams and Otherland book three - Mountain Of Black Glass. Not exactly advanced the plot as yet (well, I have only read 20 pages) but so far it is living up to the standard set by the others. And to cap it all I saw in Waterstones yesterday that he has a new book out after spending the last couple of years working on a web-based project that I wasn't prepared to subscribe to.

Well, I only got slightly rained on at lunchtime today, which was lucky as it is absolutely throwing it down now. I thought we were supposed to get good weather at this time of year? And I was a good little Simon and only did what I went out to do (pay some bills) and didn't get side-tracked into spending more money on stuff. I was very tempted, but resisted in case of needing the money tomorrow. For tomorrow is Bob's retirement bash along the sea front at Felixstowe featuring an old bus, food and drink.

Anyway, not too much hassle from himself as yet today. Perhaps I will be left to get on with things.

Actually managed to remember part of last night's dream for long enough to mention it for the first time in ages. Mainly because for the first time I can recall I found myself actually questioning the dreamed events as they happened. Usually you just accept them at the time but when waking up think they were a bit odd. This time though, the dream featured me being rescued from drowning in a swimming pool by a Mermaid and I actually thought at the time this was a bit odd, there being no food and how would she cope with all the chlorine and stuff.

Also in the unusual category - the post came before we left for work this morning. And with it came a CD from Monica in Seattle. A Johnny Cash tribute album that looks pretty good to me. Will have to give that a spin tonight, some artists I have heard of before and a bunch of new names.

Not much else to add now. Some girl from IT came round earlier checking out what kit we had in preparation for a brace of new PCs coming in the next couple of weeks. That'll be nice. Another new person has started on the group but not talked to him yet so no information to relate...

And another weekend has been and nearly gone. Time sure does seem to fly past at an alarming rate some days. I'm sure there are deep learned treatises out there in the world that can explain why some days seem to go in a flash while others drag, maybe I'll seek some of them out one day. If I ever have the time!

So, Friday. Had a car park meeting in the morning, which was about as thrilling as normal. All useful information to find out what the "competition" for Park & Ride is doing (especially if they are planning to put prices up) but some of the people involved just make my skin crawl/are soooo boooooooring. Talk about stretching points over seven sentences where a couple of words would do. (Yes, I know that is usually my trick). Still, always good to get out of the office for an hour or so. And I can always do shopping on the way back rather than at lunchtime thus saving a few more minutes towards another flexi-day off. Even more handy given that the weather kept me in all week anyway. Plus they also keep my name in the minds of the upper echelons of the Ipswich Partnership rather than anyone else's and that may well come in handy some day.

The rest of the day was spent mopping up and checking the returned timetable pages. I think we are pretty much all sorted now and hopefully Sonic will be happy for us to go to print when he has a look tomorrow. That is assuming he does come back from his holiday and hasn't realised how much he winds us all up and does the decent thing and not return. No, I'm sure he will be there in the morning as full of energy as ever. We will have to find some way of bringing him down to earth a bit though. Oh well, there's a bank holiday coming up so only 9 working days until our week off to put up with him.

Yesterday Joan was at work so I had a semi-relaxed day. Got a stack of ironing cleared up, a look at the Llamasoft forums and some Cube stuff. Pretty close to being what the Doctor ordered really. Plus we allowed ourselves a Chinese for tea which was bloody lovely.

Today we have been out and about in Felixstowe. Took the old gate down to the tip then when we were down that end of town drove up to the dock viewing area for a walk on the beach there. Then we decided to have a look around Landguard Fort as it was open. I went there many years ago (while I was still at College, and more to see if I could use it as a good vantage point to get some pictures of the docks to use on my dissertation) but Joan had never been before. They have spent a lot of money lately and it really has become an interesting place to visit now. We even managed to get a guided tour just for the two of us, which was nice. Much work still needs doing, and most of the rooms are just bare shells at the moment with no real clues as to what they were used for over the different stages of the place's development but then that lets the imagination fill in the gaps. There have been a number of different forts on the site over the years since the 11th or 12th Century and what is left dates from 1744, 1860ish and some World War Two additions so plenty of history there - in fact it is the site of the last attempted invasion of British shores - by the Dutch in the 1600s.

Part of the site also houses Felixstowe Museum so we had a look around that as well. Again some interesting stuff. Not as much as I would have liked on the growth of the town itself, the architecture of some of the buildings and so forth but still pretty interesting. And again much expanded since I last took a trip round. It is so easy to forget things that have happened in the town over the years and always nice to be reminded. Just as an example where Landguard Terminal stands at the docks now used to be a Seaplane research station - it must have been wonderful to have them buzzing overhead, all new shapes and types cropping up. That was one of the things I used to like back in Welwyn Garden City when the British Aerospace factory was still producing planes down the road in Hatfield.

Then it was back to the here and now when we got home. Put another coat on the gate to hide the marks and scuffs it received in the hanging (it was looking lovely when I gave the bits to Jerry, what on earth did he do to it?). Then also slapped a coat on a bit of the fence that will need another coat when we re-paint the whole lot while we are off. Nice to spend so much of the day out in the sun (and only a teensy bit of rain) and I feel quite virtuous after it. Joan has now gone off to play Bingo with Helen so I will tinker about on here a bit more and hope they don't come home empty-handed.

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.

Aaargh, must stop going out at lunch times. Just bought two Springsteen CDs to replace a bit more vinyl. Bad Simon, no pudding for you tonight!

Seems like it just goes to show - you don't get something for nothing. This last tooth may have been the easiest to come out with the least trauma at the time, but I'm still suffering in pain terms here. Mainly the rawness of the gaping hole but also a bit of residual jaw throb. Am going to attempt to get through today without resorting to pain kilers but am not too proud to give in if I have to. And from all the horror stories people were wafting around when I mentioned what was going to happen I still think I've had a better deal by getting it done at the dentist than by going the hospital route. No stitches, no bruising, able to eat again almost straight away... I'd just rather have not had them done in the first place because that would mean I wouldn't need what is still to come either.

Busy day yesterday sorting out book changes, book changes and book changes. Did manage to get out at Lunchtime though, and made the mistake of wandering in to Game. Where I ended up wandering out again with a copy of Beach Spikers. They had it new for £19.99 and second hand for £19.97 (!) but a bit of haggling got me another £5 off the second hand copy which was about what I was prepared to pay (after all, it was selling at £39.99 a few weeks ago and there was no way I was going to pay that much). Pretty good beach volleyball game that I look forward to getting the hang of. I also had to leave early to pick up a stock transfer from Argos. A bit of a pain so I tend to only do it if the customer is being a right pain or it is something that will get Joan in someone's good books. However, in this case the customer was me so I did it anyway. So I now also have a Wavebird wireless controller for the Cube. Only one, but at least if I'm using it on my own there is no more need for trailling cables across the lounge. And exhaustive play testing last night has proved it ti be in tip top working order.

Joan was out for dinner with friends so Richard came along. We whipped off a couple more two player levels on Timesplitters then had another go at sorting out some of the problems he's been having with his PC. To which end I have lent him my Zip drive for a few days as his seems to be causing crashes. Now he can at least see if mine will do the same through a different interface.

Got the news this morning that the purchase of land for Martlesham Park & Ride has finally gone through. So we can get cracking on building the thing now. Hoorah. Might still manage to be open for Christmas after all.

Feeling a tad unhealthy right now. Face is throbbing gently and I can feel a bit of a headache coming along. Great.

Met a man about re-painting the white lines at London Road Park & Ride this morning and now just waiting for his prices to come through. I think we will be able to aford him whatever though as they need doing desperately.

OK, so once again I was injected with enough stuff for him to rip my tongue out with no pain never mind a tooth, but this one seems to have been the easiest of the lot. Certainly the quickest and no pain in the pulling part. So now my mouth is symmetrical again and I've managed a spot of soup for lunch. Just the dull throb from the needle impact craters to contend with at the moment. Having an hour or so snoozing earlier probably helped.

It has occurred to me that I forgot to mention that on Sunday night, care of the BBC, we did the national IQ test. I came out at 130 and Joan at 98. What that means is still to be decided - probably just that I read a bit more than she does and I didn't have to leave school and get a job so early.

Have also neglected to mention in the past that I have got my record player up and running again. So am now in the midst of transferring selected albums on to Mini Disc (and also just listening to them for the first time in years). Have been quite surprised by how few albums there are waiting to be done. OK, so I have replaced quite a number with CDs over the years, but there still don't seem to be very many in comparisson with the number of other formats kicking around the house. And yet all my friends at school were astounded by how many records I had. Must prove something or other but I can't think what. Anyway, am definitely enjoying getting re-acquainted with some of the stuff I've not been able to track down on CD. The Thompson Twins at this very moment in time.

Bookwise I settled on Mercator: The Man Who Mapped The Planet by Nicholas Crane. Obviously I can't comment much on the subject as yet due to only being a chapter or so in and him only being about 6, but the books so far is excellent. Wonderfully written with some great language in use.

Oh goat, feeling all nervous and uptight just at the moment due to the impending final tooth extraction in just under two hours time. I'm sure it will go just as easily as theother two, but of course it is a lower rather than upper tooth and thus the brain reckons it will be different and a problem. So to try and distract myself here's a run down on the weekend.

Friday night was Chinese at Helen's and very nice it was too. A good evening withmuch hilarity and jolity.

Saturday Joan was at work and I was left to my own devices again. Spent most of the morning tidying and generally pottering about the house before Richard came along after lunch. Did a bit of Cubeing before he went home again then it was me getting the dinner ready and picking Joan up before a nice relaxed evening. Not very thrilling!

On Sunday Joan was also at work. Again I had a relaxed morning (well, I did some Ironing) before Richard came round for lunch. We then adjourned to the corner of the street as it was time for the Ipswich to Felixstowe historic vehicle run. Lots of old cars, vans, buses, bikes and the like making their way down to the beach for the afternoon. Including Ma & Pa in the Opel of course. The weather was lovely (I have the sunburn to prove that!) and I managed to get some good pictures. Which also finally let me prove the power of the camera on moving targets - now all I need to do is work out the delay between pressing the buton and the picture being taken properly to get better results. It isn't as quick as a normal camera in that aspect, but also isn't as slow as I was expecting resulting in a few pictures with the subject a bit further away than I was aiming for. And then there were thousands of people lining the route and down on the beach all afternoon so a good time was had by all and sundry.

Yesterday Joan was finally allowed a day off so we had a great day together. Went to the new shop in Ipswich - The Range. Sort of general cheap shop with some good stuff thrown in as well and a big garden centre. A kind of B&Q meets QD for those in the know. Can't say I'll be rushing back there on a regular basis but it might prove handy for the odd bargain (although whether they are still bargains after making the trip to Ipswich if you weren't going anyway is another matter). Then after a quick trip to Wickes to look at gates, and laughing at the cost of delivery, it was off to the Beagle for lunch. We decided we deserved a treat after Joan's recent suffering and my impending soft food. And very nice it was too. As always. Finished the afternoon off by planting the plants we'd bought earlier and then general lazing about for the rest of the evening.

So here I am again back in the here and now trying not to think about teeth too much. Finished Feet of Clay earlier having once again enjoyed the ending. Not sure what to read next so will report back on that later. Now I shall post this and find some other form of distraction.