We did indeed go to Homebase and got some trellis which I will try to put in tomorrow. Should be easy, but I seem to be technically useless in the garden. Also did the week's shopping at Sainsburys so should be able to relax on Sunday.

This morning has been annoyingly busy. Also have a visit from Graham our sales rep for printing. It might well be his last as he reckons the management are trying to get rid of him. It will be a shame to see him go as we do get on quite well, and he never pressures us into buying stuff we don't need. Good luck to him anyway.

Hit a major wall of gloom at lunchtime. Was out looking for a birthday present for my Mum - she mentioned wanting some old Ealing comedies or the like on DVD. Wasn't sure if any are available when I went out, and having looked at about a zillion discs in assorted shops am now convinced of it. I couldn't even be bothered to buy anything for myself by the end of it. Just ended up feeling numb and fed up. The fact that the sun is shining while I'm stuck in here and the forecast for mon/tues when I'm off is drab doesn't help either. Really need to shake myself up, but nothing seems to be doing the trick today.

Hoorah, I was right about the buses. I think basically she had lost the plot slightly. There seem to have been a lot of those on the phone over the last couple of days.

The Ipswich tour was good. A very interesting commentary and I certainly learned a few things about the town I'd never have guessed at. Not sure if I'm 100% keen on the City Sightseeing livery on the bus, but that's the price you pay for getting in with a multi-national organisation I suppose. A bit windy going over the Orwell Bridge and there were a couple of trees that still need trimming, but otherwise a good route. Lunch was at the Tolly Cobbold brewery and very nice too. Got a free bottle of City Sightseeing Ale to take away too. The room we were in had an enormous collection of celebratory and special beer bottles all round the walls - and it was nice to see that they weren't all Tolly ones either.

It is another money off everything day tomorrow at Homebase but I think we will go up tonight for the cardholders preview. The crowds last time were just ridiculous and Joan wants a few bits and bobs. We also need to get a trellis pannel to finish off the patio area but I'm not sure if that will fit in the car.

Another morning at work. Took ages to get in to the PC this morning, and some git is drilling holes in the building at regular intervals making an awful lot of noise. To make matters worse, we have just had an email round saying that will be happening tomorrow. I wonder if they are just early or we will be getting it again. I'd probably have been better off staying at home at this rate. Although I am going to the launch of the Ipswich Open Top bus tour complete with free lunch later, so I can put up with a bit of noise until then.

Finished HP3 over breakfast this morning. Very good book all round. I now have the big problem to face - do I go on to The Goblet of Fire fairly soon or put it off to make the wait less for book 5? Oooh, decisions! Not sure what book to open next - watch this space.

Now to do some work - have to phone some woman who wants to know why her bus doesn't seem to appear in our timetable books. I wasn't aware we'd missed any and will be most annoyed if she turns out to be right.

Aah good, we seem to be posting properly again now. And I'm at home at last. Wasn't in for much more than usual, but it felt like a very long day! I think Dawn being boss is beginning to get to me a bit. Probably because she is getting loads dumped on her, but acting the Martyr just annoys me.

Oh well, time for a bit of relaxing. And she is off til the 10th now anyway.

Hmm, Blogger doesn't seem to be publishing properly at the moment. Will this work?

I won't say the dentist was pleasant yesterday, but definitely the easiest of the four visits. And I even had most of my feeling back by teatime which was nice. And on top of that parked in the same place again without a knock on the door. Serves the bugger right. The problem only comes about because they have two cars and there is only room for one outside each house.

Body Balance went better than last week. I think I will have to do some practice on the balancing on one leg bits, but otherwise I think I'm pretty much up to speed. And must remember to wear shorts next week - its amazing how hot you get moving slowly and holding position whilst breathing. The class was fuller than before too, so it was nice not to be fumbling around like a total newcomer.

Today we have decided (higher powers permitting) who will be running Park & Ride for the next 3-5 years. I like being able to make decisions like that. All we have to do now is persuade the politicians that closing it would be a very bad move and to just give us the money to get on with it. I often get the feeling that this job would be a lot easier without the political part of it, but I guess a council without politicians wouldn't exist very long.

Harry P is getting better with every page I turn. JK has been very skillful I've noticed in giving out info on Harry's background as we go along. It has been done in such a way that it feels neither like something has been withheld from us (just learned as he does) or that what we learn is an afterthought shoehorned in to an existing story. The latter has tended to crop up in some series I've read, where by book 10 people are referring to past events/meetings with a character we only met in say book 7 but are supposed to have occurred in the time of book 2. Or suchlike. I know it must be hard for an author to incorporate new ideas without compromising the back story, but it still grates. Of course, later HP books might suffer the same way. We shall see.

Tonight Joan is doing a staff training session at work, based on the work I did for her over the weekend creating a database of comment cards they have had in at the shop. I shall be interested to hear how it goes, having had an input for a change. Pity she has to stay behind late to do it though.

OK, time to write up the minutes of the trip to Cambridge a couple of weeks ago.

A measure of consistency, that's all I'm asking for. Last night all was pretty much fine with me. I read a bit. Well, actually, I read a whole book! Mind The Gap by Simon James. A collection of photos of the termini of the various lines of the London Underground, so not actually all that many words to wade through but lots of wonderful images. Some of them even made me itch to get down to the Metropolis again. I then started Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which looks as good as the first two so far.

I then coped supremely when Steve from next door (attached house) came to moan about cars and where to park them. Jerry, (not-attached house) on the other side has had the kerb dropped between our two abodes so we now have a nice shared driveway. He parked up there for the first time last night and I naturally parked in the remaining space outside our house. I used to park where the ramp now is which sort of overlapped the two houses, and Steve sat behind me in front of ours so he could keep an eye on the car. Last night he couldn't do this cos I was there and was in a right old tizzy when he came to ask what we were doing now. I think he expected me to immediately bow and scrape and move, but I just said we'd see how it went. Ha ha. We then went out for a walk so he couldn't come back and try again later.

So, basically, no worries problems or other hassles last night.

This morning though I was nearly reduced to a wreck by the simple problem of lunch! Went to make a cheese sandwich and found the unopened packet had turned blue depsite being within its date. Left me totally flabbergasted and upset. I couldn't believe it. Almost back to normal now, but not the best way to begin a day.

Just had the last 2 of my latest set of books arrive. Nice to get out of the office for 20 mins in the fresh air to unload the lorry as I didn't fancy a wander at lunchtime. We seem to have kept up our standards of print and presentation, so that might earn me a brownie point or two.

We have had one of the job-sharing Personnel Managers move in with us this afternoon. She is trying to get a feel of what we all do in order that the review goes smoothly. I hope she gets the picture and we all come out of it better off, with a few extra bodies to share the load.

Seems like things were still catching up with me yesterday. After fiddling on the PC in the morning and planning to iron through the GP, I proceeded to fall asleep during the first ad break and missed the rest of it! Oh well, at least the result was better than the last few. Will try again in 2 weeks.

We have finally caught up on all the ER, Holby and other stuff we taped whilst Shiela was here. Some cracking good episodes in the mix there. And genuinely upsetting in places too. And I don't mind admitting that either.

So, back at work today (although Joan is off - we'll get synchronised one of these days). No major repercussions from Friday, and everything pretty much as normal. We have, naturally, had some timetable changes come in before most people have got hold of our new books which kind of annoys me. I think most of them are minor but still, why can't things stay stable? Why can't I stay stable? Still feel like I could use a few more hours sleep and would rather be somewhere other than here in the office.

Not even had the motivation to listen to much music of late, which just shows I'm feeling down again. Got to pick up soon though.