Forgot to mention earlier - finally finished Otherland book 1! Absolutely superb and nicely set up for the rest of the series. Will probably go for something else first though - watch this space!

Woo, bit of a busy day yesterday. Spent the morning showing three from Essex CC round the P&R sites. They were suitably impressed and asked allthe right questions. Hopefully if they get their own up and running it will be a good one now! They also took me to Pals for lunch, which was very tasty.

Then when I got back the final missing timetables had been confirmed so I spent the rest of the afternoon getting them in shape for printing. I'm glad that's all over and done with now (well, still loads of checking to do but the hardest bits are over).

Today I am planning to crack on with some ironing this morning and then relax this afternoon while Joan is at work, with a similar plan for tomorrow. So off I go...

0944: OK, so we are at war with Iraq again. It is reet foggy here. I feel like throwing up and generally unwell. I wonder if things could get any worse? Probably but we will try not to dwell on that. Still, Richard is at work so I can't be worse than him. In fact, I refuse to be!

Yesterday was mainly taken up with sorting timetables out and the big full group New Routes meeting hence no time to waffle here. Not that there was anything to waffle about really. Even dreams have been as simple as moving offices around (although I did have an old BBC micro instead of my current PC) and a chase through a Canadian department store. Nowt spectacular.

We did watch Road to Perdition last night though. Joan bought it on Monday after we had been to the dentist. I had merely expressed surprise at it being out on DVD already and she decided it might help cheer me up. Something like that anyway. A superb film though, with yet another top performance from Tom Hanks. Some actors I find trouble seeing beyond the familiar face to the character beneath but he always manages to sell the role to me. And Paul Newman was also wonderful. Must seek out some more of his films.

1110: Still feel like death warmed up. I thought I was over all this crap. After all, this is week six now of the every other day business. And I'm pretty sure it isn't a case of the much suspected "Joan's at home" syndrome (her name, after she also mentioned that on Saturday she might well be suffering from Simon's at home syndrome). Mind you, some "being looked after" would go down a treat just now.

I am also at the stage of getting frustrated by delays again. All the timetables that are confirmed I have processed but I stil have some irritating gaps in the network to plug. Half of them are simply waiting for an operator to say yes and the rest are because we need to show bits of those routes on other ones that are sorted out. Still, plenty of magazines to stave off the boredom.

1155: Time for a bit to eat and a walk in the fresh air to see if that will sort me out!

Yay! Sonic has determined that I can take the treatment days off as Special Leave, thus saving on the holiday and flexi budgets. Now that's what I call good news. Especially as at least one of them falls in a week I was planning to have off anyway - wonder if I'll actually get away with that?

Went out in the sun at lunch time but managed to avoid spending more than the 88p I needed for the Radio Times. I did spend a lot of time looking at wheel trims though. We finally got round to buying and fitting some new ones on Sunday after I smacked one up all those months ago. Not official Ford ones though, so although they look nice and smart they seem a bit odd to me. Will see how they stand up and then perhaps get some more in a couple of years time.

Now that was a pretty good weekend, even if I do say so myself. Not that anyone else would be able to judge what I regard as good or not and pass comment along those lines, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, Saturday was the London Theatre jaunt. Caught the coach fine from just outside the office here and promptly lived up to all expectations by sleeping away the A12 and a large chunk of the M25. They are just such dull roads for passengering along and I can't recall the last time I stayed awake on them when not behind the wheel. Still, the rest of the trip was as interesting as driving in to London always is. Even though we were along roads I knew for the main there are always new things to catch a glimpse or a better understanding of. And little architechtural quirks always catch my interest.

On arrival we had a few hours to kill so as it was almost next door wandered along to the National Gallery. There we had a quick look at some personal fave piccies before finally completing our art odyssey and having a look at the really early stuff we hadn't got to before. Once again awestruck by the way things have lasted - some of the colours on paintings 5, 6 or even 7 hundred years old are still so vibrant it defies logic. Especially these days when anything we do seems to fade away in weeks if it even gets a glimpse of the sun. Really must read up on art a bit more when I get the chance (and given that I have a couple of appropriate books just sitting there on the shelf I do have no excuse really).

Culture hunger satisfied we then went off for a spot of lunch. And guess what? We went to Garfunkels again. Did consider trying somewhere else but then couldn't be bothered. So I had the Spanish Omlette which was just as tasty as Joan had lead me to believe and also left room for a pudding for a change. Nice toffee waffle combination. A short walk along the Strand turned up nothing else of major interest to kill the time we had remaining so we just went in to the theatre and sat down a bit early to read the programme and wait for curtain up.

And another damn good show we got to see. As with Les Miserables, Chicago is again presented with a very minimal stage set. So much for the so called west end extravagance. One day I'm sure we will see something with lots of constructions and props and stuff! Anyway, the cast were all well up to scratch (even Gaby Roslyn who was not exactly noted for acting before and Michael Grecco off Eastenders) when it came to the singing and dancing and stuff. The band were on top form and even the costumes were pretty sparkly. Not sure why girls in prison for murder should spend all the time in their underwear but I wasn't going to complain. Maybe they did things differently in Chicago in the '30s. On the whole a very enjoyable couple of hours - and we had both forgotten the surprise ending(s) so that made it even better. Trip home was a bit cold on the bus but otherwise OK and that was that for a good old day.

Sunday we didn't venture very far. Spent the morning sorting out the top shed so as to make it sensible to have the "new" freezer we got from Jerry in there. All of which generated several bags of rubbish and a tidy final location. I wonder if we will manage to keep it that way this time. By the time it was finished time was rolling on so we went in to town for a spot of lunch at the Wimpy. I can't help it, but I do like their burgers from time to time. A quick trip to Safeways followed (where funnily enough we bought plenty of frozen food!) and that was the daylight pretty much gone. Joan went to Bingo with Helen in the evening (Helen had a couple of small wins that covered the cost of getting in but nothing dramatic) while I stayed at home and watched my VLM 3 DVD and played some TS2.

Did I mention the VLM before? Virtual Light Machine. Jeff Minter's ever expanding quest to do things other than games with computers and amazing graphics. They evolved from things like Psychedelia on the C64 and Trip A Tron on the Atari ST with the first VLM proper appearing built in to the Atari Jaguar's CD add-on back in the early 90s. Designed to react to music pumped through it and interpret it visually with lots of interesting swirly patterns and the like. With an element of user interactivity and control on top. VLM 2 lives in the Samsung Nuon range of DVD players which never really caught on and don't seem to be available any more. VLM 3 is what he is producing on the way to Unity as part of the process of getting to know the inner workings of the Gamecube. The DVD was produced as an auction item at the last Retrovision and the winner is now making copies available for the cost of a donation tot he Llamasoft Travel fund. So I just had to have a copy.

Seriously groovy stuff. Mind melting in places! I am so looking forward to getting hold of the finished product it just isn't true. And still at least a year to wait for it. So unfair the waiting process. And this incarnation will be totally User driven as there is no way of getting an Audio input in to the cube. Woo.

Yesterday was another Felixstowe based one. We walked in to town to see the Dentist to get the final info on what I should or shouldn't do and the decision was to go for it. So I am. Wish me luck cos I have a feeling I'm going to need it. We also did some shopping and had lunch at Puccinos. Yup, three days off, three lunches out. Well, why not? And I managed to resist the usual Pannini temptations but had my favourite filling in a jacket spud instead. And I was amused to notice in amongst all the hygeine certificates on the wall one for tap dancing. We also saw Ma & Pa (and yes, Richard had made it in to work fine. I assume he is in today but haven't heard otherwise) and I even managed to give the grass the first cut of the year. Although only at level one as it was just too soggy still for major leage scalping.

So here I am back at the desk. Nothing major going on although I do finally have some timetables to play with and ought to be getting on with them. And it is good to see that nothing else changes around here when you have a day off - we have a new trainee among us but no-one has bothered to introduce him to me...

Update - that lot written between 9 and 1030 in odd fits and starts. 1100 - Richard phones to see if I can take him home now as he just feels too zonked by his tablets to go stay awake and focussed. Great. Not a good way to keep a job this. I'm not free though so he is phoning home for a rescue!

Oh well.

Another strange and involving dream last night. Basic premise revolved around Richard getting married (so I knew it wasn't real straight away). It started off with me and Joan getting ready (and again I was getting fully made-up and wearing a rather nice dress. I wonder if my brain is trying to tell me something here) followed by a decidedly eventful journey along Trimley High Road (loads of very deep holes to drive through and around smashing up the car in the process) to get to the venue. Which was our old junior school back in Welwyn Garden City. So that was odd enough to be going along with. The bride to be kept changing race - again odd. And thenthe entertainment was being provided by me, Mr Minter and the VLM crew and most of the rest of the dream revolved around us trying to get set up. And then I woke up so don't know if we were a hit or not. Very disappointing.

Update 2 - he is getting taken home by someone from IT. Another load off my mind. Hope he gets sorted soon.

Had a strange text message when I turned the phone on this morning. It just said I fancy you and gave a number to call for more info. At £1.50 a minute. The most obvious explanation is that "they" have this fab new service that will let you send an anonymous message to the object of your desire and are trying to plug it. The sinister option is that it is just a big scam and they will rake in thousands from people phoning back and listening to some long recorded message or just being put on hold. The final option is of course the most worrying - that someone really does lust after me and is using this as a way of telling me. And given that I know who I've given my phone number to this is very unlikely. Whatever the true source I'm not going to phone it so it will have to remain a mystery unless I start getting more messages.

Well, Richard has made it in today (afternoon only as directed) so I will be taking him home. Which does of course mean that I have to stay until five now. I was kind of hoping to slope off early as the weather was so nice but I guess it is not to be. Never mind, three days should do me instead.

Comic Relief today so we are mostly dressed in a "relaxed" manner and red hair is spreading throughout the office. I didn't get a chance to pop up town at lunchtime, but there were apparently plenty of strangely dressed fools trying to get people to part with their money. And of course a marathon of comedy and serious stuff on the telly tonight. We have been watching the celebrity version of Fame Academy all week and been quite impressed by some of the talent on display. I wish I could sing some days...

I am just really bored again this afternoon. Loads of jobs both large and small waiting for my attention but I can't face any of them. Plus I feel like picking at chocolatey foodstuffs and am trying to avoid such temptations, which is never easy.

Still no confirmed timetables. I think they should have them sorted by Tuesday when I'm next in though. Fingers, toes and anything else crossed that will cross. Of course it did make the meeting we had first thing to decide how we are going to publicise the new stuff a little one sided. So, Simon, what's changing? Don't know yet. Where is it affecting? Don't know yet. And so forth.

Then it was straight into my second one to one meeting with Sonic. Went pretty well and have some more issues sorted and others to chase. He is also going to see if he can sort the time for toothwork stuff.

Looking forward to the three day weekend now. Just hope the weather stays as sunny as it is today. For it is glorious outside.

A good meeting with the current leader of the Ipswich Partnership helped to lift the mood somewhat yesterday. He seems a lot more on the ball than the previous head and wants to do lots to help promote Park & Ride. Obviously we shall see how it goes but any help with pulling in the punters is fine by me. For my part I merely have to look again at the concept and prospect of finding some sort of in town left luggage facility and produce a revised all in one idiots guide to using P&R type leaflet (which I was planning to do anyway). Easy life!

I was also fortified by a nice beef and egg on granary roll from Alberts for lunch which gave me the will to get through the afternoon and finish off the first draft New Routes booklet. Now all I need is a bit of help filling in a few blanks and we are probably ready to go to press. Except of course for the fact that Louise from personnel, who has been working on the project with us, is now going off for a six month secondment at St. Edmundsbury Borough Council and the person who will be taking her place on the team is on holiday until next Wednesday, which is also the day I am presenting it to the rest of the group. Stonkingly bad timing if you ask me.

That lead in to a nice relaxed evening and a pretty good sleep. Today however...

Got up fine (eventually after the alarm had gone off half a dozen times and Tawny had taken to attacking our feet) and got to work fine (even managed to clock in at the same time as yesterday despite leaving later). Logged in fine and started reading the emails and tinkering with graphics etc. Phoned Joan to make sure she was up in time for her dentist's appointment. Then from behind came "hello Simon, have you got a minute?"

It was Claire from IT. Richard's nerves had hit him again and it was big brother to the rescue. So he has now gone home (luckily he had a lift in from Mum again today and she was still in the vicinity as he had had trouble earlier in actually getting out of the car it seems). I really don't need to get involved with his hassles at the moment. I have enough of my own to be worrying about. Still, I will do what I can as he really does need to get back in to the swing of working and most of this job is really ideal for him. I know it took him a while to get in to routine when he started his last job, and has had recurring problems since, but there really is only so much I can do. Trouble is, I don't like leaving Ma & Pa with all the hard work of sorting him out, soft bugger that I am.

Anyway, the rest of the team have finally made some decisions on the tender front so I might just get some timetables today...

Joan's trip to the dentist sounds almost as yucky as mine is going to be. She is having a crown put in for a tooth that has shuffled off this mortal coil and today was all the preliminary work. I think she was expecting impressions only but ended up getting drilling and removal and a temporary fitting put in as well. She also made an appointment for me to have a chat about everything on Monday so that should at least put my mind to rest one way or the other.

Oh Goat. Another grey, wet, grotty in general miserable day out there today. Which in many ways suits me fine as I'm feeling kind of miserable myself this morning. Partly through my own copy of the confirmation letter meaning my head is wandering off to dental thoughts whenever I give it a chance. I'm just so sacred by either option and don't know what to think any more.

And then I was dreaming on varied subjects last night (including Joan driving off to pick people up from the airport and clearing a house presumably belonging to a deceased relative of some kind) and throughout the different scenarios I was crying in the dreams. Which naturally didn't allow me to wake up in the best of spirits.

So being in here listening on other people moaning on about there current problems coupled with the lack of time to make lunch meaning I'm going to have to go out in the rain later isn't helping lift the mood either. Definitely one of those days where I wish I could go home and just go back to bed to switch off from the world for a few hours until I feel more like facing it. All of which means I don't much feel like cutting down the tablets any further at the moment after all. Of course I may well feel completely different about things tomorrow, which is half the trouble with the whole issue. Give me stability! And perhaps some bottled enthusiasm I can take a sip from on days like this when I seem to be lacking in the real thing.

On a slightly more positive note, we are at least expecting some information on what service changes are coming up to be confirmed today. Well, the second round tenders are due back which will hopefully have brought the prices down to something we can actually afford. So with any luck I might just get some final timetables to play with and put together after lunch. A nice, detailed job I can get stuck into without my brain having the chance to lose focus and start thinking about teeth again.

Went out for a wander with Richard at lunch time. I think he will do OK once he settles in. If they get round to telling him what to do of course rather than leaving him sat there with no idea. And I'm not giving him a lift home either as I need to be at Argos before he is planning to finish. Must remember that he isn't my responsibility and he is (reasonably) grown up and everything now.

Have had my designers hat on again today. Stil fiddling with the structure chart thingy I've been working on for Mitchell. Also begining the crafting of the New Routes explanatory booklet. Need to add a splash more colour to that as well as the facts just to make it a touch more visually interesting. Plus I think we will need some new and improved photos to illustrate our points so hopefully the sun will come out soon and I can wangle a day wandering around the county taking them.

There has been another load of blowing up from assorted people in here today due to things going wrong or being dumped on them through the new structure. In some ways I'm kind of glad I did stay where I am in terms of what I do for now as at least I'm not suffering in that way.

Had a phone call from the normal dentist earlier. They have now had a letter from the specialist and wanted to make an appointment for me to talk it all through with him and get the bits done that need to be done in Felixstowe. Except of course that can't happen before I am supposed to see the Colchester Hygenist at (no doubt) vast expense. So we are going to see if we can at least pop in for a chat before then. Still not sure what I want to do in myself, other than avoid pain where possible. I just wish the thought of losing my teeth was actually scarier than the prospect of what it will take to save them - that would no doubt shove me in the right direction. And then there is still the exorbitant cost to consider. Right, nearly time I wasn't here.

So why do we get wound up by such trivial little details? An item on the news this morning about kids being scared off railway travel by the number of crashes they see on Thomas The Tank Engine tv episodes. Which naturally meant people phoning in and talking about Thomas The Tank. No Engine. Thus implying a piece of military hardware. Just drives me up the wall. Must calm down now and eat lunch...

Bum, bum, bum and bum. Don't you justhate when you press cut rather than copy and then when Photo Editor arses up the file you are trying to manipulate you haven't got the original anymore? Or is it just me? Oh well.

More hot and happening dreams last night. One where Joan was coming to work with me, and we were also bringing the cats. Although it was nice to have Barney back from the dead it did kind of tip me off that the whole thing was not real. Then another one later on where I was in a record shop in Derby (but located where I know there used to be a launderette) seeking out some strange and rare cds (and indeed vinyl) while under pressure from some strange young black lad wanting to stick a knife in me if I bought the wrong things. After making the purchase I then took him in to town to the Industrial Museum, which was in the middle of being re-vamped to include modern art as well. So strange sculptures and the like in the middle of displays of jet engines and old cranes. I never will understand my head.

Still, I've made it here in to the office despite the best efforts of Suffolk Coastal District Council to keep me away - got stuck behind a Dustcart while dropping Joan off at work and then further hindered by both a recycling collection wagon and a roadsweeper before getting out of Felixstowe. Must be some kind of conspiracy to keep my hours down. And on arrival have found my new holiday card at last. And only 4 extra days added rather than the five I was expecting (despite Charles getting the full five for starting a week before me but then being off for 7 weeks straight away). Grrrr.

Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men and all the rest of that quote I can't remember right now. Fair does your head in some day. I mean, I've only been in communication with a local school youth club for months now trying to arrange a convenient date for getting some pictures of them to use in the Park & Ride newsletter and finally settled on Thursday this week. With some models they made of the buses. Which only got thrown away by an over zealous teacher last week. Makes me want to scream! Still, they are going to use the service in a couple of weeks so I will grab hold of them then instead (and please, no funny remarks about me grabbing hold of school girls). Puts the newsletter back a few days on my planned publication date and changes the focus of what I was going to write a bit but does at least give me more time to think up what else I can cover.

This afternoon's meeting went OK. A big wave of tiredness caught me near the start of it by I managed to pull myself together again. I seem to have been nominated to summarise it for the rest of the group next week, but that isn't too much of a hardship as it will at least give me something to think about and play around with on the computer in the gaps until then.

I was planning on going home as soon as I got out of it too, mainly to get some dinner thoughts organised and close my eyes for a bit, but as another hour has passed since then and it is now nearly time I would have left normally, I think I will give that concept a miss. And of course tomorrow who knows when I will leave, what with Richard starting and all. He has made it very clear that he doesn't want a lift in with me to start with as it will get him here too early but has said nothing about going home again. After all, we don't know whether he will be allowed to park on site and I can't see him paying £3.50 a day to use the nearest public parking. Hey ho.

I think I've waffled on here enough today so let me get away.

This morning's big meeting on Park & Ride went OK. Basically the chap from our contracting unit agreed to do the studies into site improvements I want and Mitchell agreed to pay for them from the capital budget rather than my P&R ones. Bit of a result really. However I have now been given responsibility for any local action plan work or other miscellaneous stuff that comes up in Suffolk Coastal. Now, this should be good news as it will mean a bit more work to fill in the quiet patches and most of the involvement is likely to be in Felixstowe rather than other parts of the patch. The county has been split between the team so there might well be some sort of competitive spirit engendered now over who gets the most out of their area. We shall see. Whatever happens at least I've got "home" turf to think about.

It is also blinking freezing in the office today. Just when I thought it was going to be safe to put the jumpers away until the autumn too. Not cold enough for me to think about taking up hot drinks though - especially with the state the kettle here seems to be in (based on the complaints about scum and general crap floating in drinks most people give, but no-one ever wants to clean the thing out so they only have themselves to blame).

On the news this morning was a call from the RAC to investigate whether people on anti-depressants ought to be driving or not. I kind of agree with them the way I've been feeling some mornings recently. Which is of course another good incentive to keep up with the withdrawal process. I'm quite looking forward to the end of next week when I will have to decide if the time is right to cut down further or to stay where I am for a bit longer. As most of the problems I've had since cutting down have been physical rather than mental or emotional I am currently thinking I will. Plus we are actually off that weekend to see Chicago on the Saturday and I have the dayy off work on the Monday which should all help with the immediate alteration situation should anything arise.

Well that was a largely wasted weekend. Saturday I got up, had a spot of breakfast, realised I had a bit of a headache, went back to bed and woke up again at lunchtime. I followed lunch with a bit of Cube-ing, decided I still felt ill and went back for another couple of hours. Only really got up when it was time to pick Joan up from work.

Had perked up enough by then to go round to Ma & Pa's for a nice dinner, but we were both a bit zonked by the time we got home again.

Yesterday Joan was in much the same boat and she had the late start and afternoon snooze. We did manage to squeeze in a bit of shopping and watch the Grand Prix, but that was it.

So, what did I think of the first race under 2003 rules? Not bad. I'll be honest, I'd not been paying attention over the winter so wasn't up to speed with what the new rules actually were. The new qualifying method looks very interesting even if it didn't throw up any major surprises this time around, and will certainly be worth watching. And it was good to see Coulthard win. I will see how the season goes...

Cube-wise what I did was to thrash through another couple of levels on Timesplitters 2. Some great set-pieces lurking in there (such as the use of Gunpowder trails to blow up a wagon of dynamite in the Western Level) and I'm looking forward to running through them all again on harder difficulty and in co-op mode some time. Plus they are a good source of inspiration for when I start messing about with the map-maker options. Roll on some spare time to experiment!

Did a spot of MP3 to MD transfer while I was ironing yesterday. Another disc's worth of Cruel Brit@nnia who I urge people to go and look for. Really rather clever stuff and again fitting in the category of music I wish I had the time and talent to make.

All the sleep naturally lead to some pretty bizarre dreams again. One I think must have been inspired by the Western TS2 level mentioned above. Joan and I were going to an old west themed wedding where all guests were expected to attend in costume. Nothing too odd there except that it was Joan who went as the leather chapped gunslinger and me as the saloon floozy. And of course nobody batted an eyelid.

The other big one I recall was another full-on production number featuring superheroes in department stores, helicopter attacks on family homes and much other strangeness. Left me feeling quite exhausted when I woke up!

Albert did the trick with a hot sausage and egg on granary bread. Very tasty and warming and providing of the energy for emptying boxes and moving bus stop flags. Trouble is we generated so much junk just from sorting one of the three rooms that we are going to have to get it cleared out before we can move on. I knew there was a lot of junk that had accumulated over there, but hadn't realised there was quite that much. Part of the trouble is of course that everything we buy comes in about seven nested boxes...

I was thinking of just hopping off early tonight, going home and sitting around enjoying myself for an hour or so before picking Joan up, but it seems everyone else will be off in meetins so I guess I will do the decent thing and stay here to cover the phones. Will have to get myself a book to learn how to be more of an uncaring bastard some time. Not the way I am, but I get the feeling it would be quite useful in many ways.

Arse, now it is raining and I put my new summer coat on this morning which has no hood. And my brolly is of course in the car rather than being over here in the office where it might be of some use. Grrr.

After spending all that time drawing my nice map for the Shotley ferry project they have decided not to use it after all. Taken some of my ideas, but implemented them on to one drawn by the ad agency. With errors aboundant on the draft copy from what I can see. Really makes me feel valued again. Still, there was an interesting looking job as manager of a training centre in Felixstowe in the paper this week, so I am now waiting for an application form to arrive. I will of course get all the usual should I or shouldn't I jitters when it does turn up, but it can't hurt to apply. And who knows, maybe I'll even end up being offered the post (which comes with a lot more money than here, even taking in the pay rise we'll be getting next month). That would be a result and either a fresh start or a good bargaining tool for here.

It would also mean getting away from stupid, stupid people phoning up about buses (why do you waste all that money on paying for buses that only carry 2 or 3 people? Can you not give your park & ride people better protective clothing as they are obviously not clearing the rubbish from the prickly bushes? Can't they make the steps on the buses smaller?). Or worrying about bus shelters that get installed in the morning then smacked up by buses in the afternoon (happened today in Trimley so I think I might take a look on the way home). I could just delegate all that to my underlings. Of course there will no doubt be other hassles associated with the new situation but at least they would be new and not the same old same old. And do I really want to leave the Council? Dunno. All will be revealed in time I guess, when I get to read just what this job actually entails and do some thinking about it.

I'm also in one of those flat bits here where I am waiting on other people to do stuff before I can get on with things. So in some ways it would be nice to be able to set my own pace on a higher percentage of my work. Just not sure I'm up to making the move really.

Oh crikey, the boredom/food threshold has been crossed again and I have had to obtain a creme egg. I really must devote some of my energy to finding a way to perk myself up without the use of chocolate from next week on. It would of course help if there were another huge pile of magazines to read like I had last Friday but it seems that nothing new has made it to me since. Oh well, at least the diary for next week is pretty full so there will be less time available for sitting around here trying to look busy. I have cleared out a good bin full of old junk from my desk drawers as well this afternoon. What is it about local government that we end up hanging on to so much useless tat?

Part of the general feeling bored and a bit fed up problem also stems from this weekend playing host to a Retrovision event where loads of Llamasofties will be getting together in Oxford to play old games, eat drink and generally be merry. So big amounts of wishing I could be there with them instead of sat in Felixstowe. One of these days.

Paranoia strikes! IT have rolled out a new software tracking system across some (read all of us so far) PCs in the council today to see what we've got installed. I have of course got stuff on this one they didn't put there - although nothing has gone on recently. The thing crashed out with illegal operations when it tried to run this morning though so we will just have to wait and see what happens. I'll get Richard on the case next week...

And we have decided that to avoid confusion, new boss Chris will henceforth be known as Sonic. Due to his Hedgehog style spikey hair. I'll have to fire up the emulator over the weekend and capture some suitable images to use in the future.

Today I am planning to spend mostly over the road sorting out Dove Street. Its a tough and dirty job but someone has to do it. Plus it means being away from the desk, the phone and the all-seeing eye. It also means that if the general consensus is a yes, I'll be prepared to indulge in an offering from Alberts this morning to start off with a warm lining. Got to keep the insulation levels up after all. Of course what I really want to do is go home, catch a couple of hours sleep and then goof about on the Cube. That will have to wait for tomorrow instead.

Hmmm, interesting. They have put up temporary traffic monitoring cameras at the Dock roundabout in Felixstowe where I join the A14 of a morning and also at the roundabout where I come off again on my way to work. I wonder of they are looking for anything specific or just general surveys. Hopefully they will lead to improvements for those of us doing the Felixstowe to Ipswich run of a morning and the reverse at night as the layout of both these junctions seems to favour people doing other journeys than mine. I have sat for up to 10 minutes waiting to get a gap in the traffic some days which does not a happy Simon make.

Of course the trip in to work today was complicated by my own stupidity. I managed to leave my id badge/car park entry card on the desk last night so had to make sure I got up on time and out the house early (not easy on Joan's day off). Then find a space on street, come in and pick it up then move the car again. Not the best way to arrive! And not something I will want to make a habit of when we move as there is even less opportunity for on-street stoppage at that end of town. Of course they will probably change all the entry systems anyway while they have the chance.

Seems that Richard is not starting here until Tuesday now. I repeated my offer of a lift and he still hasn't made his mind up. He thinks he will be doing a 9.30 to 5.30 pattern covering the help desk and doesn't want to get in early with me and sit around finding things to do! Can't say I didn't try.

Entertainment last night came from Swordfish on Sky. Not a bad little film despite the poor rating in the Radio Times. Certainly had us guessing up to the end on some of the plot twists, plus I give it extra points for having John Travolta driving a nice British TVR rather than the usual sports cars that Hollywood likes. And I'm sure that certain aspects of Halle Berry were on the judges minds from this film rather than the one she was awarded the Oscar for when they were making their decision.

Am feeling OK again for the second day in a row, which has to be a good sign. Also not as tired (although I ought to be - dreams had me running up and down stairs half the night!).

So the planned day out in the van turned in to about an hour and a half of not getting outside of Ipswich owing to the fact that there were hardly any books left in stock. Which according to my records means over 50 boxes have been taken without being recorded. How am I supposed to keep track of stuff when people help themselves willy-nilly? I have thus sent a snotty email round the group asking everyone to be more careful when the next edition arrives. It will be interesting to see what happens when we move to our new office as I don't suppose anyone has taken things like storage for large amounts of timetables into account. Not to mention bus stop flags.

Other than being a bit tired I'm feeling pretty good today. I wonder if that will be that or if the grottiness will come back at random, or when I reduce the dose again. Fingers crossed and all that.

Tiredness is due to the BBC deciding to show all of this week's In Deep last night rather than splitting it over two days as normal. Another good one (but the last in the series, boo hoo) that again managed to do without murder as the main plot. I think we will have to go to bed early tonight to make up for missed sleep.

Got pointed to a website earlier that has some sort of database of all the names in the country. It seems there are 106 Simon Barnetts lurking about. I wonder what the rest of us are like. I don't recall being related to anyone else with the same name. And indeed I wonder if there are any in other parts of the world. More to the point, I wonder if any of them are millionaires who would like to share their good fortune with namesakes. Got to be worth a try I reckon. Too many wonders in that paragraph.

Gary back from his holiday today so for the first time in what seems like months we are actually at full strength in the office today. All a bit strange - finding people at desks and not having to answer phones all the time for absent colleagues. I could get used to that last bit.

Still no letter from the expensive gum dentist giving me a formal quote. I think I might have to give them a call tomorrow to try and hurry them along. I need to start looking at making sure I get the time off to go down there if I'm going to have the treatment done, and as the first appointment is only a couple of weeks away I could use written confirmation. I'd like to see if I can wangle some of it as special leave rather than having to take holiday each time.

Update. Feeling almost Human again now. Joan started the moving already so they may not have to stay late after all. Still raining.

Stayed in over lunchtime so no shopping today. Need to get petrol on the way home but I think I will be untempted by the rest of what they have on offer at the garage.