Well, I'm glad I went withmy instincts and picked the book up yesterday morning as no sooner had I reached the A14 than my phone rang - Dawn not feeling well enough to come with me. She did manage to make it to work though. Grrrr. Still, her loss as I had a pretty good day all told.

Trains there ran perfectly to time - not been out of Victoria before either so that was a nice trip for me. And it turned out the girl who had sat opposite me for the whole hour and a bit of the trip was heading to the same meeting (but she didn't say anything until after we got there when the best she could manage was "I thought you would probably be coming here because of your bookmark" - I have a picture of a bus. How sad am I?). Some serious money been spent by the Bus Company and council down in Brighton & Hove with a pretty modern fleet running all over (inclusing some brand new Scanias that I was very impressed with) and loads of Real Time information on the streets plus a swishy control centre. Plus it was good to meet up with the colleagues from other counties I've not seen for about a year now due to being ill or at the bloody dentist during the last couple of meetings. Brighton itself, however, seemed pretty run down in places and a lot drabber than I remembered from my only previous visit about 10 years ago. Now all I have to do si write the minutes up and circulate them.

Journey back was also pretty punctual, if very hot for the London - Ipswich part. And here's a co-incidence or two for you: Finished the Ransome book somewhere between Chelmsford and Colchester on the way back. (Very enjoyable, and almost has me wanting to get back on a boat again soon). Thought about it for a while whilst looking out of the window then ruminated over the unread books sitting on the shelves at home waiting for me. Decided that the next book would be Park And Ride - Adventures in Suburbia by Miranda Sawyer. Not actually about P&R at all but a good look at what makes those places the way they are (and also fitting neatly in to the right age-frame for me at the moment). Then we left Colchester, I picked up the Evening Standard left behind by a fellow passenger and opened it to... a guest column by Miranda Sawyer talking about Suburbia. Now, the book was published in 1999 so it is not as if she was trying to promote it all of a sudden. Needless to say the article will be cut out and popped in the back of the book for next time I read it! Bizarre twist of fate there. Especially with a feature on Brighton a few pages later.

Finally got back to Ipswich at 7 (after catching the 0711 out in the morning) in time to meet hordes of football fans around the station heading for Portman Road. Glad to avoid them it must be said (Ipswich won 1-0 in the end apparantly).

Today I have been out of the office again - delivevring books (again) this time in the West of the county. Got to everywhere I wanted to that was already on the list and also found some more new outlets. Hurrah.

Joan has been signed off for another month. She turned up for her appointment to be told she had missed it through some cock-up with them writing the wrong time on the card. When she did finally get to see him she said she now had a splitting headache from the confusion, which was enough for him to say "well, you aren't going back to work then". So now she will be off until at least a week after we get back from Switzerland. Hope the weather holds for her!

Right, must go home now or I will get in trouble for building up too many flexi-hours.