The sun was still shining come the time I'd finished scoffing my lunch so I went out for a wander. Made a fairly major decision while I was in Smiths and didn't buy Buses magazine. I will be giving that a miss from now on as a regular purchase as, quite frankly, I've lost interest and can't be bothered with it any more. I guess I will keep an eye on it for local articles but otherwise am happy to be reduced in my public transport consumption. Followed that up by resisting temptation in the HMV sale. But I'm going to have to go back there on Monday after we get paid. Hur, hur, hur.

Where did the last two days go? Oh yes, now I remember, working for a change! Big timetable changes happening on Monday and we have all been a bit heads down producing the material to go in 105 or so cases. We even had members of management cutting and pasting bits of paper on to card, which was a bit of a turnip for the books. And today I have got the job of staying in the office answering the phone while lots of other people are out doing the sticking stuff in cases bit. Much as I would have liked a day out of the office I can't say I'm too disappointed. With that many stops to visit it won't be much fun even though the sun is shining in defiance of normal roadside rules.

I have managed to get my Park & Ride leaflets and bus graphics ordered as well, but not much else. OK, perhaps a bit of MP3 downloading and listening to, but that's all. Today I recomend Dreamtime 909 to one and all. Roll on tomorrow when I can get some more comitted to minidisc.

Joan is doing a lot better now. Stil wearing the collar (although not as much) and taking the painkillers, but in better spirits if nothing else. Her back woman gave her a bit of acupuncture last night which seems to have helped. There's something else I've never experienced. I'll be prepared to give it a try sometime though as the thought of the needles doesn't scare me.

Other than being totally zonked out most nights, we did manage to give Charlie's Angels a spin on the DVD player. Much funnier than I remember it being the first time we watched it and we also took a quick look at some of the extras this time too. But mainly we've not been doing much this week. Tonight we are going round to the White Horse for dinner with Ma & Richard (Dad is away working) which should be nice. Always reliable for tasty food if nothing else.

In Car Entertainment over the last few days has been:

Renegade Soundwave - Howyoudoin?
Chumbawamba - Readymades
Papa Brittle - Obey, Consume, Marry, Reproduce
Eat Static - Abduction

Let's just say I am enjoying having the cd player in the car fully.

The what to listen to after Iron Maiden ends decision turned out to be extremely easy to make. After writing that lot I went in to town and got the new Levellers album - Green Blade Rising. What I've heard of it so far is superb and brought me in to the office with a big smile on my face rather than the usual resigned expression of mild boredom and disinterest. It also has the video for Come On and a screensaver on the disc so I think that will pay a visit to the PC at home before long. The only thing wrong with it so far is that the total running time is only a fraction over 37 minutes. Boo, want more! Which means I did need to choose another cd after all to help get me home so that ended up being Xentrix - Dilute To Taste a mix of studio and live tracks put out as a stop-gap between their second and third albums.

Last night was both fun and frustrating in equal measure. Joan survived the return to work physically, but was still freaked out as her boss was on the warpath. No, welcome back, hope you are feeling better, don't do too much lifting. Just straight into moans and complaints. Not a great way to start a week. Luckily she is off today and has also been able to speak to Jacqui at Ipswich and get a better perspective on things. She's going to a meeting with her on Thursday which should also help.

I was also frustrated after once again the BBC pulled off a program I wanted to watch, presumably because someone somewhere would object to it being broadcast at the moment due to it reflecting events in the news. Even though it was filmed months ago with no idea of what would happen in the real world. That was Waking The Dead of course. They still showed an old one though which was probably just as grizzly and likely to offend, just not linked to the news of the day. I wonder when we will get to see it.

Luckily, the new series of Never Mind The Buzzcocks started. Still the funniest music-related quiz show in the history of music-related quiz shows. And likely to get better and better now Bill Bailey has replaced Sean Hughes as a team captain.

Today has been slow so far - just waiting for corrections back from Pindar. I never got to the vinyl people last night so will definitely do that today. What I can do is give today's MP3.com recommendation - Trancient Dreams. Listening to their stuff now, very mellow and atmospheric.

Well, hey, since 0555 this morning it has been officially autumn. And naturally it is raining. Not that I can use that as an excuse for not putting anything up here over the weekend, but I guess it was worth a try. So, where was I?

Thursday night. That was it. We had nice haircuts mainly. And I also spoke to my old boss Colin on the phone for the first time since they moved back up north. And some things never change - when he was here you could guarantee that as soon as he left his desk his phone would ring, and wouldn't you know it - when I called him he was out. He did call back though, and thinks I should appeal against the senior/non-senior thing. Trouble is, who do I appeal too? The higher management and personnel made the decisions that we needed this structure and Gary should get the job, and the union argued against it in the consultation period and were overruled. So who is there left to turn to? Not that I'm a member of the union anyway but the point remains that they were no help.

Still, they are settling in pretty well and he sounds a lot more cheerful than he did down here. I expect we will go up to see them in the new year. It is just a pity that they are no longer a good stopping off point on the way to Newcastle for us.

Friday was the big day of getting rid of Geof stuff. Or rather, taking him out to lunch and then having his official leaving presentation. In the morning I was meant to be going to a car parks meeting but found a whole load of other stuff that needed sorting out and, err, I forgot all about it. Only remembered it yesterday! Oh well, probably wasn't vital that I attended.

Lunch happened at the Lord Nelson pub just down the road from here. We went there for our Christmas Dinner last year and I have been again since, so at least there were no food-related worries. And what I had was very tasty indeed. Geof was looking much better than when we saw him last. Amazing what removal of stress and a heart-bypass operation can do for you. His presentation was a bit odd though. Considering he has been here 24 years there was a very small turn-out. I know that he irritated a lot of people over the years, particularly with his timekeeping, but you'd think a few more might have made the effort. The assistant directors trotted out the usual platitudes and "humourous extracts" from his file. Can't recall any of them now so they can't have been that good. One of the councillors also said a bit and then that was that. The Director kept his trap shut, which again was a bit of an insult really but a relief in other ways for the rest of us. So now we really are embarking upon new, uncharted waters and other such cliched claptrap.

And then it was the weekend. On Saturday Joan was feeling almost human again so we went out for the day. Woodbridge was the first call where we did a bit of shopping and had a nice lunch. Not at the Bull for a change, but a cafe type place on the high street. Good food and good prices so we may well go there again some time. That was followed by a trip to Sainsburys to stock the house up. And then a relaxed evening.

I was a bit frustrated at not being in Oxford for the Retrovision Yakfest event, and am looking forward to reading reports of it on the Llamasoft forums later on today. Not sure I would have lasted the course for an all-night event anyway but it would have been nice to try. One day I will get to a meet-up.

Yesterday was also pretty busy. After scything the lawn it was round to Ma & Pa's for their "open morning" of the extension now it is nearly finished. Not that many people turned up but that wasn't our problem. And now they have the carpet down in one of the rooms and started putting stuff back in there it has made a real difference to the rest of the house. I bet they are pleased to be able to move a bit again now but I still think they would have been better encouraging Richard to move out. Not that he will I'm sure.

The afternon was filled with ironing and a cracking proggy on National Geographic tv about Koko the talking Gorilla. I've been reading about her for years so it was good to see a bit more. It even prompted us to sign up for her regular email newsletters too.

So back to today. The rain has stopped and I've been to a thrilling team meeting so far. Just waiting for timetables to come through then I will be leaving fairly early to sort out P&R liveries and stuff on the way home.

Music for pleasure: As well as reaching the Blaze Bayley years with Iron Maiden (The X Factor, Virtual XI) which means I will be on to the last album and return of Bruce Dickinson (Brave New World) on my way home tonight and then have to think about what to listen to tomorrow, I have been doing more pc - md type stuff. Another disc of Diffusion and also the latest MP3.com find - AnalogX. More good electronic stuff. Might have to look for some more later.