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.

Feeling grotty again today. Damn these bloody tablets. Still, this is now day two of week four and I haven't given in to going back up to one a day. I am determined to see this through to none at all unless I start getting really bad trouble from cutting down. Fingers, toes and legs are crossed on this one.

Of course the weather isn't helping today. Grey and dull with fine rain that seems to work its way under hoods and up sleeves and things. Which also meant having to have the heater on in the car to keep the windows clear and all that sort of stuff. Hope it is sunny again tomorrow as I've booked a car to go out and deliver some books. More to stop some people moaning at me than any other reason!

Joan is working late tonight moving stuff around on the shop floor. I did offer to help but she thinks it would be best "politically" if I stayed away. Oh well, can't say I didn't try. She is now confirmed on the annual conference thing for this year at the end of the month so that will be good for her to get away. Stupid thing is that although Argos are providing transport and B&B in Telford the night before, they are NOT paying for the evening meal. Seems a bit crazy if you ask me. I know they want to keep costs down where possible but you would have thought that when dragging people halfway across the country it would be only fair to feed them when they arrive. At least she is going with some people she knows from other stores again so they will go out together, rather than being alone.

I was right. The sale tempted me again so I left HMV with the Royksopp cd Melody A.M. which I have been thinking about getting for some time and at the price couldn't refuse. Mind you, I did manage to refuse quite a few other offers so I guess I won there. Also downloaded a cracking Lemon Jelly vs. The Prodigy remix as done by someone on the Llamasoft forum. Superb piece of cut & paste if ever I heard one. I do like that sort of messing around with music. Again, if only I had the time!

Have now done as much on the map as I can without outside advice. It has changed a bit from my original concept and I'm not 100% sure if I like it as much now but will persevere. Hopefully I'll be happy with the finished version anyway. I'm trying to combine a geographically accurate base and a representational style of information on routes etc which should be easy to understand, but I think it is losing a little in the mix.

Another good weekend overall. Had some downer moments on Sunday but nothing too major. The main theme of the two days was pretty upbeat generally. Mainly thanks to the Lemon Jelly albums as they are just wonderfully uplifting and fun to listen to. With good use of obscure and interesting samples. It is also the type of music I'd like to make myself if I ever had the time, equipment and talent. I guess I might have the equipment as I have a whole stack of music progs and samples for the PC lying around waiting to be installed (not to mention built-in sampling facilities for all the strange stuff I'd want to put in), but the other two elements are still lacking!

I had a blitz on the ironing and some other general tidyness stuff. And made some bread that came out perfectly (yay for me!) and finally managed to get some software sorted on the PC to actually rip tracks to MP3 and create files that will work on other machines with no licence problems. Not that I will be going for mass musical piracy, but for sending the occasional top track off to people it will be very useful.

Entertainment goodness also came from more attempts at Timesplitters 2 - this time without the feeling ill business so I guess it was either long time no first person shooting or being actually ill before. Still having trouble on the normal setting, but having switched to Easy I have at least whipped off the first 4 or 5 levels now. I'm sure it shouldn't be so much fun shooting people, but some of the details are excellent. Right down to there really being a hunchback in the Notre Dame stage. Woo for hunchbacks. Also tried the co-op mode with Richard but didn't get off the first level (again possibly through playing on the normal setting - what kind of game has a health feature but no way of restoring it?).

Oh, and a new Jonathon Creek on the telly. Been away from the screens for too long.

I was wrong when I predicted me doing big things in the kitchen though. Saturday night we had a pizza which was OK, but won't be bought again (it was on a Ciabatta style base which didn't do much for either of us, frankly). Then last night we decided it was time we paid the Beagle a visit as we hadn't been there for ages. Very nice meal there and well worth the drive. Even had room for a pudding for a change. And with Joan off work today and a chicken sitting there just asking to be roasted I guess I won't be doing much of the cooking tonight either.

Not much going on at work today either. The meeting I should have had this morning has been cancelled, leaving me time to get on with Dawn's map and one or two other little things I've got on the burner. Still a few empty desks scattered about but Chris is back from Jamaica and seems to have had a good time. The git.

Couldn't be bothered to make any lunch again today. Must get back in to the habit there as although having to go out for food means that I do actually get out of the building at lunchtime, it isn't exactly cheap. Still, I will also go to the Library and possibly HMV again so it will be a multi-purpose trip. Might even help wake me up as I'm feeling a bit sleepy right now.

This is so bizarre. Had a very relaxed evening feeling fine again only for most of this morning to be spent suffering instead. Oh how some days I hate having to live in a body. Whatever happened to all the free-floating consciousnesses or robot doubles to download into we were promised inthe 21st Century by early '50s science fiction? When viewed from that perspective we really are in a terrible way - no flying cars, we all still eat real food rather than taking nutrition pills, none of the high street fashion shops have flimsy silver togas or foil jumpsuits in the windows, we don't have a domestic robot to do all the cooking and cleaning and holidays to the moon are still missing from the Thomas Cook brochure. A shockingly bad state of affairs. Somebody should do something about it. You will just have to excuse me now while I go and meet my visitors from a printing firm on Alpha Centauri...

Yeah, I know, a bit over the top. But I am getting a bit fed up with feeling bad because I'm stopping taking some lousy medication. It's not as if I was feeling ill physically and they were blocking/preventing/masking the symptoms which are now coming back because I've stopped taking them after all. I keep trying to tell myself that as the problems were originally "all in my mind" as it where I ought to be able to filter out the reactions mentally somehow, but haven't found much joy in the search for a method yet. So I will just waffle away on here instead.

And it is only an hour or so to the weekend now. Unfortunatley it seems Joan has to work both Saturday AND Sunday this week. I must have missed picking that one up as it was a bit of a shock when she mentioned it last night. Looks like I will just have to amuse myself (OK, and do the ironing) and take it easy if I feel grim. I expect I will do some exciting and innovative cooking as well if we manage to buy any interesting ingredients at the shops tonight.

My map has come along in leaps and bounds today, with roads, railways and the ferry it is intended to promote all added. I just need to speak to Dawn now about how she wants to show all the towns and villages and we are pretty much ready to roll. I have also read 5 issues of Coach & Bus Week that all made their way in to my in-tray at the same time. I do so love the circulation methods we have here. I somehow get the feeling stuff would still take weeks to get to me even if we all had out own copy of everything.

Well stone me, just had a text mesage from Richard and they've given him the job on the help desk here. That should make everyone much happier in Western Avenue. He will be starting on the 10th of March and I get the feeling I'll end up car sharing with him (well, it does make sense really) if he can get up early enough to make it here while it is still possible to park.

Caved in to temptation in the HMV sale at lunchtime and now have the Lemon Jelly ep collection KY and first album proper Lost Horizons. Listened to the former while map-drawing this afternoon and it really is rather wonderful stuff. Sort of ambient floaty dance stuff with mad samples blended in to the mix. I like a lot! That better be all I spend on myself this month though (and it hasn't even started yet!!) as I have to tax the car tomorrow. Boo hoo. Still, it is only once a year and also means we've had it six months now. Time to go home now and take Joan to get her back cracked.

Well I was right about lunch being totally messed up. Didn't get back to the office until 5 past 2, but luckily there was still a space inthe car park. Not sure I had anything very positive to contribute either other than reassuring them I would be putting a bit more info in the books than at present - which I was planning to do anyway. And providing a bit of background information on how I run my Park & Ride user group which I get the impression will be ignored anyway. Hey ho. All of which meant I ended up having to leave work early to go up the town then rather than the plans I had for lunch. Which was basically to take back the jacket Joan bought last week as in the end it didn't match anything else she had and she got a different and better one in Felixstowe instead. Aaaaaargh.

Managed to have an evening without feeling like death warmed up last night for a change. Perhaps I'm through the worst now. Good job too as Dad finally managed to obtain the Ikea coffee table we have been after since September (and had given up on, hence the shopping for an alternative previously mentioned) and I had to put that together. And wonderfully the new powerdriver thing Joan got me for Christmas has an attachment for the alan key type headed screws they put in most flat-packs these days so it was a complete doddle to do. And it looks really good and does the job we wanted it for. Hoorah!

We then made use of the Sky movie channels and watched Coyote Ugly. Wasn't sure what to expect but ended up enjoying it thoroughly (and for the plot as well as the girls, honest) and being very impressed with the choice and use of music throughout. To the point that the first EMF cd is now sat in the car waiting for the journey home tonight.

And then the dreams were definitely not linked in with anything watched. One was a sort of back to college affair where I was approaching the start of the final year and visiting my friend Deborah. Who was living in a houseboat incongruously moored on High Road East in Felixstowe. Good design of vessel but not quite where I would have expected to find it! And then ending up in some kind of theme park looking for the British Embassy there. The other was another back to Argos one - in Ipswich. But this time I made it clear from the start I was doing it as a favour during a week's holiday from the Council to help them sort out some major problems. And I took the manager up to Park & Ride to show him why I wouldn't come back permanently no matter what they were prepared to offer me.

Today I have no meetings at all (hoorah!) which is letting me get on with some serious map drawing I've been trying to fit on for a week or so now. Always nice to be able to put some proper geographical knowledge to use. Makes me feel I didn't waste all that time going to College and getting the degree. OK, so once again the office is pretty much a wasteland so I am getting regular interruptions from other people's phones but at least they don't need me to drive across town.

Just remembered another dream from last night (my head seems to be working overtime while I sleep at the moment). This one was some sort of huge museum about the London Underground. All in one big building but over several floors. A sort of interactive ride experience as there were loads of replica stations from assorted time periods and you got to ride betwen them in the appropriate vintage rolling stock.

I think I must need to get out more.

Although right now I could do with either not getting out or a bit more notice. Seems I have to go to a meeting at Suffolk ACRE halfway up the Norwich road in 40 minutes time, which will mean me driving in my car. So probably no parking space free when I get back. About a subject on which I have almost zero knowledge (the Shotley Buzabout service) having had no involvement with setting it up or producing any publicity for it up to now. Marvellous. Plus it will probably drag on and totally screw up my plans for lunch time. What a wonderful place this is.

Felt absolutely drastic again last night. I think it must be to do with the tablet withdrawal, but knowing what the problem is doesn't help cure it. At least the 10 O'clock electric shocks running through the brain seem to have stoppped again for now. Always a concern when you can set your watch by feeling odd.

Still, at least I have a good idea where last night's dreams came from as they were centred around what we'd watched on tv. Kind of an extended episode of In Deep but with the plots focussing on a corrupt health centre where too many patients weren't coming out again and then investigating the finances of a football team in a town that was at the same time being overrun by aliens. OK, so not the usual happenings in the show but fun anyway.

Nothing in the diary for the rest of the week so hopefully I can catch up on the outstanding map for the ferry project. Having to chose between trying to get a proper map extract produced (but our Ordnance Survey licence doesn't go down far enough in to Essex) or drawing my own in some kind of stylised form. I want to go with the latter but am not sure if it will be what everyone else wants. It would help if Dawn were here to discuss it with but she seems to be off with Tonsilitis.

Sweet dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree....

Well, actually I'm not sure they all count as sweet but I have had some pretty odd night-time noodles recently. Probably caused by getting the right amount of sleep for a change so here's the breakdown on some of them for your delight and delectation:

I'm the architect/chief designer of a big retail and office complex being built alongside a lake. I think it was meant to be North America somewhere from the scenery but the dream never actually made that clear. It was all looking very lovely with merchandise in the right places, offices full of happy workers (thus proving it was a dream) and so forth. Lots of trouble ensued with people trying to run the enterprise down and I was forced to resort to some pretty bizarre tactics to get rid of them. Like strapping them to the rollercoaster that just happened to be outside and making them ride all day until they agreed to desist.

Helen & Bhupen getting marriage vows renewed, loads of people trying to split them up and Joan and I fighting them off. To the point of physically picking up and moving the house of one of them (where did we get the strength from)?

Waiting in a fish and chip shop with Alexander for everyone else to turn up. We are trying to juggle several bags full of hot food (why did we have it in carriers?) and also give the rest of the group directions to find us. They were lost because the majority had insisted upon following Stuart's Canadian produced guidebook rather than listening to Joan who had been there before.

Eastenders, but set at my old secondary school, with assorted characters up to the usual scheming and plotting and backstabbing. That was odd.

And some others that I can't remember any more. Hey ho.

Mind you, last night I didn't sleep at all well. Kept waking up and taking ages to drop off again leading to feeling pretty grotty this morning.

Which didn't help when I had to drive up to Norwich for a traveline marketing meeting. Still, I got there in one piece with time to spare (with the help of Primal Scream, The Levellers and on the way back Jesus Jones cds) and in the end the meeting went pretty well. Plus had a good chat and catch up with Claire from Norfolk over lunch afterwards. Then back here for an hour or so of checking the mail and now I'm off home for a hopefully relaxed evening and by tomorrow I plan to be rested properly again.

Aaaargh, have I been off? Got in today to find a new desk (left hand bend rather than right hand bend) and all sorts of junk to sort out. Done that, and read the 250+ emails so now am taking five minutes breather before looking at the in-tray proper. So, let us rewind the last couple of days and finish off from where I was in the holiday reportage.

Click, whirr.....yadhtrib....nodnol.....stneserp.....click.

Thursday - Joan perked up not long after I posted the previous load of waffle so we ended up going in to Ipswich after all. A nice lunch followed by some wandering round the shops. Still no joy on the coffee table front, but we did manage to get Joan a jacket for work (which hopefully she will one day find other clothes that match so she can actually wear it) and a few other bits and bobs. She then went out for the evening with Lesley and Tracey again leaving me to mellow out in anticipation of a busy day to come.

And busy it was. But in the nice form of busy that you like on a birthday and day out rather than the busy that can happen at work when the phone never stops ringing, the emails fly thick and fast and so forth. After presents from Joan over Breakfast, we managed to get the 0902 train from Ipswich by the skin of our teeth (partly my fault for leaving the lights on and having to run back to the car, partly because the receipt printer machine wotsit at the station was misbehaving when I was trying to pay for the tickets). After the de-railment a couple of weeks ago there is still no central line running while they check every bolt on every train or something so we took the long way round to Tottenham Court Road.

The intention there was to check the lie of the land and possibly hook up with a Llamasoftie or two. Why? Because noted Japanese game designer Shigeru Myamoto was making his first ever European Public Appearance at the Virgin Megastore and that had to be worth a look at. So we bowled in there just before eleven to find the queue for the event (due to start at 1) already extending out from the designated area and all round the basement CD racks. Not a good omen for a casual visit! I did manage to find a few people and put faces to the names (good old mobile phones) while Joan had a coffee but wasn't about to spend the rest of the day standing around there. So it became a fleeting hello and then we buggered off up the road to the Bristish Museum.

Main aim there was to see what they'd done in the central courtyard as we haven't been along since it was re-vamped for the millennium. Where do the years go? Anyway, impresive would probably be the best way of describing it. Re-clad the old reading room and roofed over the rest of the space with a vast expanse of glass panels. The sun was streaming in creating wonderful shadows everywhere and in all I was rather taken by the results. We also had a look at a couple more galleries we hadn't fitted in on previous visits and some general wandering about going "Oooh" at stuff. We also decided not to purchase anything in any of the various shops on site (£35 for a tie, I don't think so no matter how nice the designs) then went for a late lunch.

Garfunkels (of course) where for the first time I tried their all day breakfast. It has become a bit of a standing joke that I quite often have an all day breakfast when we go out, but as Joan doesn't eat bacon or sausages I don't see why she should cook them for me (or put up with me cooking them) at home hence the choice when out. I was also trying to be original in a Garfunkels sense by not having the chicken and bbq bacon I normally go for and had a burger the day before so... As it was, I probably won't have another one there! Wasn't much impressed with the sausage situation although the rest was OK. Joan had a spanish omelette which was very nice though. Might try that next time myself.

Anyway, we popped back in to Virgin after that to see what the score was - and couldn't even get to the downstairs area. Managed to get one glance at Miyamoto-san over the railings before being moved on by security! And it seems we were about 5 minutes ahead of the LLamasoftie group getting their stuff signed and coming out into the air again. If we had just hung on... But we didn't and went in search of more culture instead.

Got the tube back down to the Thames then walked east along the bank in the sunshine. It was extremely nice and we even stopped for a sit in the rays for a while. The aim of the walk was reached at the Millennium footbridge by St. Pauls. Crossed over to the Tate Modern gallery and commenced to get both enthralled and confused in equal measure by the works on display there. I'm sure I'll get the hang of modern art one day, but not just yet! Some truly wonderful things in there, but others that just leave me wondering. Now, I know that the definition of what art actually consists of is pretty vague at the best of times, but I still don't see how some of the stuff on display can count as such other than by virtue of being in a gallery. Perhaps I just wish I'd thought of sticking a pile of bricks together or putting a neon tube at 45 degrees then charging £10,000 or so for it.

Arrived back at Liverpool Street nicely for the train home and rounded the evening off by watching Top Gun from the dvd I'd unwrapped that morning. Haven't seen the film for years and it was just as good as the brain recalled. OK, so the plot has dated a little (but substitute Iraq for the un-named but obviously Russian bad guys and it comes bang up to date again) but the flying sequences and photography are just superb. My only gripe is the lack of any extras on the disc. A commentary and a few documentaries looking back on the impact and how it fits on to the world today would be great.

Saturday we spent blitzing the house in readiness for Ma, Pa & Richard coming along to shower me with gifts and have tea. Joan excelled herself in the kitchen with seriously belt-straining results, I was thoroughly spoilt and a good time was had by one and all.

Yesterday was a typical end of holiday relax and get ready affair. Did some ironing, played some games and also felt a bit unwell. I hoping it was something I ate or picked up or something (or even just being tired) rather than the only other possibility - motion sickness caused by playing Timesplitters 2 on the cube. I've never really suffered from it before with any other first person shooter and while I guess there is a first time for everything I don't really want this to be the case here. As I still feel a bit rough today I'm betting against it, but will also be keeping clear for a couple of days until I am certain I feel better.

The rest of today has been catch up stuff (this has been written in spurts over the last 6 hours or so, but I thought I'd just post all as one.) Richard was here for an interview for a post in IT just before lunch so I saw him when I took my fresh air break. Fingers crossed as it is about time he got off his backside again. And now it seems to be time to head off to pick Joan up and relax for the night.

Funny old thing. Whenever we have time off and don't go away we always seem to spend large chunks of it squabbling over the division between relaxing and working around the house. And then when we do spend most of the time tidying and diy-ing by the end of the week one or other of us ends up with a bad head and we both just fall asleep when we do manage to sit down. Must be a lesson in there somewhere but I'm sure we will never learn it. All I'm asking is for Joan to put herself first for a while when she has the chance, rather than worrying about what people might think if they come to visit and there is a speck of dust or piece of paper lying around. One day.

So, what have we been up to?

Saturday Joan was still at work so I did my main relaxing and getting unwound from work. I did also do a spot of tidying in the study as that had reached limits even I wasn't prepared to put up with any more! And then Richard came along and irritated me. I know it must be fairly tough for him sitting around all day applying for jobs and not even getting interviews but it really seems like half the time he does nothing to help himself. He never was a particularly outgoing person but he keeps isolating himself more and more from the rest of the world. No friends, no social life and no responsibilities. All of which make it harder for me to understand him these days. And he doesn't seem to comprehend why I get wound up by things he says or does as they seem so divorced from the reality of life. Plus he has absolutely no idea of what it costs to run a house or the work involved but doesn't take it in when I do try to explain. And the constant changing of jumpers and fleeces when the rest of us are sitting around quite happy with the temperature or insisting lights be turned on or off or curtains adjusted because he is being "blinded" or "dazzled" by tiny glints of light no-one else had even noticed just winds me up even more. So when he comes around wanting to spend hours on the internet searching out obscure bits of music making software to go with all the others he never uses despite having all the time inthe world it does rather get my goat.

Anyway, enough of him.

Sunday Joan started her holiday and among the sorting out did manage to catch up with a bit of sleep. We also went round to Ma & Pa for dinner which was pretty good in my books. And Joan made loads more bread, all of which has been very tasty so far.

Monday was D-day as far as my teeth were concerned. Not knowing what to expect I had asked Mum if she would like to come along to Colchester with us in case I was not feelingup to driving home again afterwards. Richard came along too and proceeded to "entertain" us with the most depressing music from Elvis Costello I have ever heard on the drive down. Really put me in a positive frame of mind for what was to come.

So, the chap was quite pleasant. Between him and his nurse they took about 15 x-rays of my mouth from assorted angles including a 180 degree scan thingy (which did look pretty impressive when I saw the developed picture). Then he did the old 6 stabs per tooth measuring malarky and sent me to sit in the waiting room while he decided what to do next. The decision was a bit of a shock to all concerned when he did reveal it. I thought it would be some kind of really deep cleaning and possibly medication or something but no.

He wants me to have a couple of wisdom teeth out (they are just in the way it would seem, despite causing no pain) and then slice my gums open and insert artificial bone to encourage my own to grow back. All over a series of 9 or 10 appointments coming to over £1,000 in hard cash. Ouch. In more ways than one.

Quite frankly I'm not at all sure if I want to go through with it all and become Simon Cyborg Jaw (and not sure if we can afford it either) so am waiting for the written version before I make my mind up. Which will be done in consultation with my normal dentist as it seems a bit extreme to me. OK, I don't want my bones to rot away and my teeth fall out but frankly that lot scares me stupid. Definitely not something to enter into unprepared. Plus it will mean loads of days off to go down to Colchester early in the morning, which will not be fun in the traffic and arse up our holiday prospects I'm sure.

After that had sunk in we went into town for a bite of lunch (three main meals and for Richard a sandwich he didn't finish. Yet he'd been picking at stuff all morning - even before we were out of Felixstowe. Another reason I prefer not to go out for the day with him as he won't eat properly and makes a terrible fuss over where he will and won't "try" to force a meal down. All fast food is out to start with...). Also had a look round the shops and were a bit disappointed by what we saw given the size of the town. No wonder people on my Park & Ride surveys say they prefer to come up to Ipswich.

I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a daze frankly, and am still coming to terms with what I might be spending the summer going through.

Tuesday we spent in Felixstowe. Did a bit more about the house and went in to town for a bit of shopping - mainly a new shower.

Yesterday after taking Tawny to the vets for her annual injections (which left her totally spaced out for the rest of the day, but she seems back to normal now) I stuck the shower up while Joan did some stuff in the garden. Not put the new rail up yet though as it is of course a different length from the one already in place and I don't want to be left with holes in the tiles that have only been up just over a year. That of course is now a bone of contention with Joan. I will get it done, but not until I've worked out a neat way of doing it. Anyway, we then took Ma & Pa round to the White Horse for lunch. Very nice again, and nicer still to get away with no Richard for a change.

After the meal we popped up to some of the furniture shops looking for a new coffee table but with no luck. We want one with drawers in to keep the numerous remote controls away tidily but haven't found anything that will match the existing furniture. And I zonked out for a couple of hours alongside Tawny when we got back.

Today Joan has woken up with the headache mentioned before and I'm just trying to let her recover.

Part of the plan was to watch a few films while we were off, but we've only managed one so far. Bound. Pretty good thriller if a little grizzly in places, but some fantastic use of odd camera angles. Right, off now.

OK, so they found someone with a live Hand Grenade at Gatwick yesterday so perhaps I was being a bit matter of fact about it all. They caught him though, not "a grenade went off" all over the papers today. Which is good. Anyway, the bread was wonderful and that's all that I really care about out in my own little world. Crispy crust and a smooth textured tasty middle. Perfection in a yeasty way.

And I got through the evening without feeling like I was due to hurl, so I can safely blame the thing on tv about eye surgery rather than the non-taking of tablet for that one. Which is also good.

I did have a very odd and in some ways nasty dream though. It started off in the usual just plain bizarre way - I was on tv as a guest on Never Mind The Buzzcocks along with Ely from the Llamasoft forums (who I have yet to meet in Real Life) and we were both wearing frocks, which no-one thought strange at all. We were such a success that they offered us a long term contract to appear all the time. Upon arriving home to tell Joan of this news I was rather surprised to find a letter from her Dad in the post. Then when she said she had been speaking to him on the phone whenever I was out I was more than a little concerned for her well-being. What with him having died last year and all that. Turned out it was her sister Helen impersonating him to try and make Joan feel better, even going as far as to send stuff to friends in Newcastle to make sure it had the right postmark on when we got it. I woke myself up at that point when I was shouting at her on the phone to make her stop. Very unsettling.

Today I have given in to Coke rather than going with my original plan to get Pepsi in at Bury Road P&R. Perhaps they'll get a shot at Martlesham later in the year. Oh well, so long as the punters are happy...

Only a couple more hours now and I can get out of here for a week. Not that I'm keen to be on holiday you understand. More like desperate! I just want to relax and enjoy my shoes.

Of course one consequence of getting up late and rushing in was not taking/having the time to make lunch. Luckily Albert provided (all the while grumbling about losing trade and considering retiring when we move buildings). Trouble is, I am now having serious problems resisting the purchase of a second creme egg for the day. I am doing my best, but don't expect to be able to hold out much after three o'clock.

The situation is not helped by the fact that Joan is off today and trying out our new breadmaker at this very moment. OK, so the finished loaf won't actually be ready until I get home from work but the thought of it is making my taste buds tingle. Why do I let my stomach rule me this way?

I wonder if any one would miss me if I went over to Dove Street for a nap.

And I was right, of course. It all went very well last night. And because we recruited through surveying rather than people who had filled in comment cards we had a more varied bunch of interests rather than the one-topic obsessives of the past. Which also meant they were more willing to accept explanations of what was and was not possible in the real world and that Park & Ride is not the only factor that gets taken in to account when planning traffic flows and bus stops and the like.

As I type I am supposed to be in a meeting designed to address some of the issues on a more permanent basis but the person I am meeting has vanished. Must have been called off to something more urgent. I am hoping to get a shed load of building and re-shaping work done to smooth passage of cars and buses at the two sites and have got the money to do it. Very frustrating to be delayed like this though. Oh well.

Mind you, I wasn't certain of making it myself earlier. Not getting home until nearly 9pm was OK but for some reason I managed to stay in bed an extra hour this morning. I remember the alarm going off, but then must have coma-d out straight after. Bit of a mad dash and ended up with pretty much the last space in the car park, but made it in the end. Only one more wake up to the holidays! Yay!

Still no real plans for next week. Monday is the gum guy in Colchester and Friday we are considering London for my Birthday but nothing else firm. But one thing we are sure of is that we aren't going to let any possible terrorist threats stop us doing what we want. After all, fear of something is usually worse than the something itself. And a heck of a lot more likely. I do think some of the scenes from America we were seeing on the news last night are a bit over the top though. I know we have had the looming threat of things like the IRA for decades and they are just getting used to the idea of being attacked at home, but somehow I can't see anything being as bad as they are painting it. Let's hope I'm not the one to be proved wrong.

Now today I am tired. After a normal amount of sleep. Work that one out! Mind you, I did have a funny turn in the evening. We were just eating tea and watching tv when I came over all peculiar and thought I was going to throw up. Could be because they were talking about eye surgery at the time which does freak me out somewhat but could also be due to not taking a tablet. Will have to see what happens tomorrow. And of course hope that thinking about the possibility doesn't then make it happen. I love psychosomatic stuff!

Got the prices in for printing from Clowes today. They knock the curent amounts we are paying well off the scale so I think something will change in the not too distant future. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will get the chance to all sit down and sort out what we want to do for publicity for the next couple of years. It would be nice to have a plan to work to rather than flapping in the wind and being hit by surprises from the outside all the time.

We now have confirmation that we will be moving office to the other side of town by Christmas or thereabouts. The moaning from some quarters (well, Charles anyway) has reached annoying levels already. I'm quite looking forward to it in many ways as it will be nice to have a change of view but it might also mean major traffic problems or having to use Park & Ride every day as there are not likely to be enough parking spaces. It will also be further from the shops, which will probably be a good thing in the long run.

Park & Ride user group tonight. I think I am fully briefed and prepared and ready to go but there will no doubt be one or two issues that throw me. Oh well, at least one of the users will be nice - somehow my Mum has been invited along. Could be interesting. Hopefully it won't drag on too late as I could use an early night.

Had a bit of a later night than usual last night, but don't feel at all tired today which is nice. Plus not taken a tablet today as the first step in the weaning off process and no ill effects from that so far either. Mind you, I wasn't really expecting any on the first day, but you never know.

The reason for the late night was the return to the screens of In Deep but shown all in one night rather than across two as usual. A very good episode though despite the late finish. Been thinking about why this series appeals, and I think it is due to the focus on crimes other than murder all the time. So many of the police shows on at the moment concentrate on people getting chopped to bits or other such grisly ends. OK, these are still good drama but they do get a bit samey. Now all I wonder is if any tv company would have the guts to do a vice squad show. I know most American cop shows feature at least one visit to a strip club as part of every investigation, but one that concentrated on the seedier side of things could be quite fascinating.

Not much else going on today though.

Yes! Dr P agreed with me that the time has come to start coming off the tablets so here we jolly well go. At least six weeks of one every other day then spacing them out more and more after that until none at all. Fingers crossed for it all going right and no funny turns this time.

OK, so the ferry meeting was delayed by half an hour, but went alright in the end. It was just with Essex Council rather than the ferry operator so no worries about boat related timekeeping! And Chris the boss was suitably impressed with P&R so all went well there too.

Don't know what Charles was up to over the weekend, but he is in foul humour this morning. I could seriously use an excuse to get out of here for a couple of hours just to get away from him slamming things around and stuff like that. Plus there are still furniture moves going on which I could happily stay away from. Still, I am leaving early as I've finally managed to get in to see the Doctor this afternoon so perhaps the time will have come to get the tablet habit kicked.

Our weekend was much better than Chaz obviously had. Saturday Joan was at work but I managed to get a load more music sorted on to Mini Disc. Which I will no doubt start listening to properly again soon. Also cracked ahead with the ironing and got the house ready for the evening. When Helen, Bhupen & Alexander came round and we had another big chinese meal. Which was very nice. Managed to insert a bit of variety into the usual order we place when they are involved and it went down ok.

Yesterday we had a lazy start then braved the weather to come shopping here in Ipswich. The main aim was to get Joan a new jacket for work, but the shop I'd seen them in turned out to be shut. In fact, large numbers of shops were very much closed. Which puts another nail in the coffin for those who keep asking me why Park & Ride doesn't open on Sundays all year round. There was just not enough to bring punters in. In the end we just bought some bits and bobs for my Birthday. OK, so I won't have a surprise to unwrap but at least enjoyment of the end product will be guaranteed.

Later on we wandered around to Ma & Pa via the exciting (OK, perhaps I exaggerate a bit there) Lion Dance to welcome in Chinese new year (of the sheep!) outside the Magic Wok. Some pictures can be found on my fab new photo web site here: http://album4086.fotopic.net where you will have to excuse the illuminated rain drops in some shots.

Rounded the day off watching Basic Instinct from DVD. Only seen it once before, and that was about 6 years ago. I did remember who the villain was but none of the motives and whyfores etc so that side of it was still good. And yes, Ms Stone's bottom did look even more wonderful in digital colour. Not that I pay any attention to that sort fo thing, oh no. It dis also make me realise that despite him being such a huge star and all that, I can only think of two other Michael Douglas films I've actually seen - Black Rain and Falling Down. Both of which I have enjoyed but not led me to seek out his other roles.

Hey ho, only a week to go to our holidays now.

Oh fabulous. Nearly half an hour late and still no sign of the people we are supposed to be having a meeting with. Doesn't bode well for them running a reliable ferry service does it! Could seriously screw up some of the lunch plans in the team here if they don't turn up soon. Still, it has given me more time to acheive the impossible and squeeze all those journeys I mentioned the other day on to one credit card sized piece of paper. And no microscope needed to read it.

Eyes and Sinuses are throbbing gently. I wanna go home and sleep.

Oh God, I think the last two days melted my brain to a serious extent. OK, so some of the course made sense and the training lady was very good at her stuff it just went over our heads for the most part. The words were all familiar, but the order of them was a bit suspect to say the least. I think it will make more sense in time as we start to get properly involved in more formal project working, but at the moment it just seems like a way of making more paperwork and meetings for things we do perfectly well already. And of course it was a bit of a whistle-stop tour around a Suffolk County Council version of a national standard so we were effectively summarising a modified summary. Still, on the plus side the food was rather good, although not to the standard we had at the Novotel before Christmas for the Business Plan day.

I'm not sure if the fact we were all from the same group was a help or a hindrance. She said that the courses she has run before were all to mixed subject groups so there was always a chance that someone would have encountered an example or situation before. With us it was a case of all or nothing every time. The rest of the group would probably not agree, but I get the feeling it would have been better formatted as a three day course as (a) the last afternoon felt very rushed and (b) we could have spent a bit more time trying to translate the concepts into examples we all understood. Oh well, we went and hopefully we learned.

Mind you, I was also hindered by a stinking cold which is still hanging over me. I get the feeling I will probably have trouble getting anything done tomorrow having forced myself to keep going up to now.

Entertainment wise I have delved further into the book, and we also squeezed a film in on Wednesday Night - Along Came A Spider with Morgan Freeman. The sequel to Kiss The Girls and just as brilliant. And once again I was totally drawn in but unable to work out who really done it before the final reveal. Which was nice - the one thing that puts me off so many films and tv shows is the obvious signals as to who the real bad guy is or which cast members will survice the massacre etc. And I do like the occasional real shock when suddenly the person you thought was the hero gets shot or turns nasty.

Today I have a meeting about ferries and a visit to the P&R sites. Better than staring at the screen all day I hope.

Finally got introduced to Peter Lee around lunchtime. But only after Gary had sent an email to one of his staff mentioning the fact that he hadn't said hello yet. What a great place this is. And now Charles is in a complete strop after being left with something he doesn't quite understand after everyone else has gone off to meetings. I'm just a bit jarred off with another load of changes coming in that have been given short notice support from Cambridgeshire County Council but sent out with errors in. Well, unless they've got new magical buses that can be in two different places at the same ime over there of course.

Oh well, at least I am out of the office for most of the rest of the week. Tomorrow and Thursday about 10 or so of us are on a Project Management course at the Holiday Inn on the edge of town. So two days of trying to stay awake whilst having information flung at us at vast speed I expect. With bigger problems in the afternoons as it seems the food up there is pretty darn good. Which is nice! It will mean no entries on here though for two days too unless I find time to connect in the evenings. Then Friday I have been roped into some meeting/project group to try and re-vitalise the Felixstowe - Harwich - Shotley ferry service and am taking a colleague up to see the P&R sites. From a personal point of view I'm pleased something is being done about the ferry as it needs help and I live in Felixstowe, but work wise I'm not so sure. I get the feeling I could end up with loads to do from it with very little prospect of a happy outcome. We shall see.

Seem to be getting along fine with Chris the boss so far. Have already started one project for him. Now all I have to do is work out how to fit information about approx 400 bus departures in to seven lines of text to go on a credit card sized info package. With a map on the other side (that bit's quite easy as it only has to cover 4 roads). I enjoy a challenge but this one could be pushing it a bit when it comes to legibility.

And now I'm caught in a cola war too. Britivc/Pepsi made me a good offer to replace the Coke machine at Bury Road P&R with one of theirs that does still as well as fizzy drinks. We have two machines at London Road to cover that but only room for one here. Now I've asked Coke to take theirs out they are going to try to get one of their new prototype ones that does the same. How do I get into these situations? Little old me playing two global corporations off against each other.

Well, there's no doubt about it. There is something very wrong in Michael Jackson's head. An absolutely fascinating program, but still many questions left unanswered. It was good to see him admitting to a bit of surgery on his nose (even if he denied any other deliberate changes) and getting a bit more of an insight into the problems of growing up in the spotlight that could have been the root causes of why he is like he is now, but other parts of what came out were definitely scary. Especially the still letting kids sleep in his bed. Now surely, after all the hassle from 10 years ago even he should be able to see that perhaps that is not a good idea. Odd.

OK, so he has far too much money for his own good. Which of course is also part of the problem. Anyone complains - just buy them off. Want something, just get it. The amount of money he was spending in one shop was enough to scare me. Still, I guess he did earn it.

The kids are my biggest concern though. All three of them are just too white to have anything to do with him genetically, but he still maintains they are his. Oh well, not really my problem and I guess I will now go back to normal.

Oh, and quarter past ten on day two - still no sign of the policy manager coming to introduce himself.

Ah, time to play catch up again. Put it all down to extreme laziness on my part.

Anyway, the snow did finally kick in properly on Thursday evening. Presumably it spread from the west - when we got up on Friday morning the whole world was covered in a nice fluffy white blanket. There had been a few flakes coming down when we went to bed but not that much! But, investigation of the news revealed people stuck in drifts all over the western end of Suffolk and into Cambridgeshire. In fact people having been there all night, and it turned out some ended up being there for nearly 24 hours. Not nice.

Still, we both got to work OK (with only a couple of minor slides on the untreated bits of Felixstowe) and I even managed to plonk myself nice and centrally in a space in the car park - despite all the lines being buried. Not everyone else managed the journey but there were enough of us to get on with stuff. Mainly trying to find out what, if anything, was actually running out there. The answer being not a lot!

In between that I also had a gripping meeting about Park & Ride at Martlesham and another group structure thingy one. Neither of them offering much attraction as an alternative to being sat at home by the fire I can tell you. Oh well, only a couple more weeks to go before a week off.

Saturday Joan was off and we had a nice slow start to the morning. A quick trip to the shops and then a lazy rest of the day. We got a bit of tidying up done and then Richard came round. Just as we were learning about the Shuttle exploding when coming in to land. Not a very welcome piece of news. I do hope that it won't mean the end of the space program as it is one of the few things in the real world that really does fascinate me. I know the chances of me ever getting in to orbit have now pretty much vanished, but I can still dream about it. Oh, and later on when we'd got over the shock we watched Monsters Inc. which was brilliant and had a nice stir-fry.

Yesterday, funnily enough, Joan was working to make up for having Saturday off. I got a stack of ironing done and played some games and stuff. Nowt thrilling really, just more chilling.

In the evening I ended up doing both round trips when Joan and Helen went to Bingo. And still no winnings. They have decided to give up on the Ipswich one for the time being so at least the mileage will decrease even if they still have no luck.

Today I am sat at the desk again, and Joan is off on her own (well, I expect Tawny will have been keeping her company). Been odd again this morning. Our new boss (Chris Seaman) and the new Policy (Peter Lee) manager have both started but only Chris has been down to speak to us. He has even gone so far as to sit at his desk! But this Peter chap is being very elusive. Not a good way to get us on his side I'm sure. Oh well, I'm sure he'll get around to it sooner or later. I'm muddling through with not much to do really just at the moment again. I ought to be starting a new Park & Ride newsletter but can't seem to muster up the enthusiasm for it. I think I will wait until next week after we've had the user group meeting.

Joan has just phoned - she has just given blood and is now on her way to the Doctors. For a pre-booked appointment I should stress, the two are not connected! She is going to make me one while she is there. I am determined to get myself off these blessed tablets this year and stay off them, even if I am still getting days of doom and despair. The trouble is, when I'm on one of those down days I wonder how on earth I would cope with them when I'm NOT taking the pills. Just have to try it and see I guess.

Not much else to say now. Got a couple of chapters further in to Otherland over the weekend but no real developments. Listened to some music, watched some TV. That sort of thing. Of course tonight is the big and much hyped interview of Michael Jackson on the telly, which promises numerous revelations and profound insights into why he is like he is. Should be interesting viewing I hope. Right, time to find something that looks like work to do before an early finish timed to pick Joan up...

Went very well last night, and no snow as yet either. Well, none lying about anyway. There have been a couple of intense falls but it hasn't settled. Further north in Suffolk they have up to six inches but doen here all is clear.

Time must have flown yesterday without me realising it for I seem to have not written anything on here. Mind you, there wasn't really very much to write about.

Monday night we had a very nice dinner but nothing else to report of interest and yesterday was much the same all day. We did have a half hour blizzard during the afternoon but nothing settled to hamper the drive home. They are forecasting large amounts of snow sometime between now and the weekend but no sign of it falling from the heavens as yet. Plenty of short, sharp and very wet rain showers, but none of the white fluffy stuff.

Am now a good way in to Otherland and beginning to get the basics of a plot appearing from out of the character introductions. Seems pretty complex and I am sure I have many more people to meet as yet. Of course what I really need now is for the lighter evenings due in a couple of months so I can sit and read outside Argos of an evening while waiting for Joan to lock up.

I seem to be eating more at work than I probably should at the moment. Not sure I can blame anyone but myself either if I turn into a huge amorphous blob of lard as a result of it. Am managing to resist the Alberts option but am pigging out on biscuits and cakes instead. I ought to just be able to say no thanks when other people bring cakes in (three instances inthe last week, and only one of them related to a birthday) but am just too weak-willed. God help me if they ever open an American style donut shop in Ipswich.

Today is Bhupen's birthday so we are going up there after tea to give him his presents. I was hoping to get on the PC and download the contents of the camera but I guess that will now have to wait for tomorrow.

Well I was right about one thing - there was a great deal of knicker twisting this morning not to mention serious amounts of unhealthy cynicism. To the point that I seriously considered moving desk to join the slightly more welcoming half of the group.

Anyway, another pretty good weekend just gone. Fun, frolics and sleep that kind of mix. Joan was out until mega-late on Saturday night for Tracey's proper leaving do. It seems we will be going to the Chinese place they visited for a meal ourselves soon. From the menu she brought home it looks to have a very good selection. Wonder if they do takeaways.

Consequently we were up late yesterday and didn't really do much worth writing about.

The doors are now all up and looking fine, and that's it.

Err, is this working?

Nothing major to relate in the real world since yesterday. We were both shattered last night and after managing to get as far as 830 and the end of DIY SOS crashed out on the couch for an hour or so of quality sleep before waking up and deciding that really we might just as well go to bed. So we did.

Today's highs have been the purchase of the new issue of Edge with the full scoop on Jeff Minter's Unity project and the new WiLDHEARTS single. Otherwise just plugging away at some confusing timetables (I think I turned them from Mikespeak into English) and stuff like that.

In the unreal world, however, things have been much more thrilling. Yup, time for me to waffle on a bit more about recent dreams.

Had one the other night which was actually set in my current job rather than harking back to the Argos days. I was delivering timetables to Newmarket and got back from lunch to find the van missing. Stolen was the diagnosis. This was followed by a strange chase round a department store that certainly isn't in the real town and a drive around with a colleague who happened to be passing to see if we could spot the missing vehicle. Hadn't found it by the time the alarm went off though.

Last night proved stranger still. Featured some kind of sporting challenge event crossed with quasi-religious hysteria (in which I seemed to be the venerated figure) all set in the grounds of some big country house. The Queen was there to dish out prizes and there seemed to be a rather large amount of gratuitous nudity. I never did work out what the sporty part was meant to be - plenty of people were intraining for different events but I never got to see an actual contest. Odd.

Wonder what the psychologists would make of those.

Oooh, just had an email while I was writing that lot. Cunningly timed to after most of the office has gone home for the weekend thus meaning we will have the big discussions on Monday morning. Seems we will be going LIVE with the new database system on Monday. Wham and indeed Bam (not forgetting the Thank You, Mam). I forsee lots of things not working still and many people getting their knickers in a twist over the small details and forgetting the bigger picture. Especially as the person appointed to look after the system isn't starting until March time. Time I went home too I think.

Interesting day.

The drive up to Beccles was in the main fun and relaxed, but there were a couple of annoying hold ups caused by roadworks which obviuosly had people behind me fuming as they were hanging far too close to my rear end. And just when I was almost in sight of my goal I was further diverted by a Policeman after an accident ahead. Great. Oh well, got there in the end.

Graham looks nicely settled into his new job and they have some pretty nifty kit on the printworks. Wandering around there was just a joy to a lover of books like me, the smells of ink and paper alone were enough! Anyway, the data people reckon they can do pretty much anything we want if I can get Routewise to spit it out properly so I will do a bit more playing around at this end and quite possibly save us £30-40,000 a year in printing costs if it works. We shall see.

Also managed to fit in a nice sausage sandwich at the King's Head across the road and catch up on a bit of the family news and stuff since he left Pindar. Oh, and getting rained on as well. Always good to fit that in...

On the way back I detoured via Leiston to deliver some bus boards to an operator there. I do like that part of the county a lot, and if the rain hadn't been doing its thing would probably have stopped once or twice to take some suitably scenic snapshots. Oh well, plenty of time for that to come. Also detoured into Wickes to pick up the door handles and latches. Should be very nice when I get home tomorrow.

Arrived back here to find my desk in its new place. I think I will soon get used to it, although in theory I do have a new desk on the way. Not sure now if I want to change the angle I'm sitting at (supposed to be swapping from a right bend to a left bend) but we will see when the time comes. Of course being nearer to the window doesn't make a difference to me as I am still far enough away NOT to be distracted by pretty young student girls passing by, and I am also further form some of the other noises in the rest of the team so in all probably a good move. And then got to meet the new boss. Chris Seaman. Seems OK on first impressions so hopefully he will stay OK. He is coming from a London background so it might take him a bit of adjustment to get used to the slower Suffolk ways!

Then again, if what they are saying on the news is confirmed, we will be on the move again soon anyway. A new office block for the power company TXU is being built across town, however they went bust and got sold to Powergen who don't want the new home. In many ways it would be nice to move to a spacious, airy, modern building but as it was designed for 800 and we have 1300 to squeeze in it will probably be just as useless as this one. Plus it is further from the town centre so although I might be pleased to be away from the shops, it will be a bugger when I do need to go in.

Tonight Joan is staying late due to a staff meeting to get Gill properly introduced and see where they are all going. I hope it will be OK and not a cause for more fireworks. I will find out when I pick her up I guess.

And finally for today, finished Tunnel Visions and despite wandering off into too much theory/philosophy and not enough transport stuff I still enjoyed it a lot. Have now Started on the Otherland saga by Tad Williams with book one City Of Golden Shadow. Only read the prologue thingy last night so can't really comment on it just yet, but looks interesting and entertaining, as all good fiction should be. I don't think I will read the whole series in one go though, as each book is enormous. Some light relief in between volumes will no doubt be required.

Phew, Joan just called to say she isn't too bad and things are going in the right direction. Which is what I needed to hear as I have just had a very depressing lunchtime.

Other than the not knowing I was just gloomy through not having any spare money, drab weather and loads of books I wanted to read on the shelves and no way of fitting them all in.

back to drab reality of work now, but at least one weight is lifting from the shoulders.

Hmm, I had intended to add to yesterday's waffle during the afternoon but circumstances conspired against me. First blogger refused to publish, then there was more furniture moving to assist with (and that is still going on today). That was then compounded by a quick look in to the Llamasoft Forums which lasted a bit longer than planned. Yup, the long awaited IT has been revealed at last as a game called Unity for the Gamecube. So, yay! I have the right hardware already (as suspected). OK, so there is still likely to be another year of waiting, but at least we now know what we are waiting for and I can keep on with my learning of Cube hardware and generally getting better at games.

Joan heard last night that Gill had been at the meeting yesterday claiming that it was actually Lesley who ran the store anyway. Hopefully though things will be improving now - I dropped her off just as the evil one was arriving and there wasn't an immediate punch-up on the doorstep. And nearly three hours later I've not had Joan on the phone asking for help, in tears or announcing her resignation so fingers are crossed. I do hope they can find a way to work together and that Gill is only there for the three months initially mentioned as I don't want to see Joan affected this way.

Homewise I bought the four doors for downstairs last night. So thanks to Dad for lending me his big car to transport them in. Luckily they had them in stock in Felixstowe so no trip to Ipswich (and more importantly as they were a fraction of a smidgeon too long, no trip home with the boot open). Plan to pick up the handles (well, knobs actually) and latches tomorrow on my way back from a meeting in Beccles.

We also took a viewing of a video tape sent over from Canada last night. A mix of the Christmas lights around Burlington and Oakville, Caroline & Chris's new house and Darrell's new band. Very nice indeed the lot of them. Although I don't get the concept of selling you a house with the basement unfinished. Surely you have enough to do on moving in without that to sort as well? I will have to take advice from people on the appropriate side of the Atlantic there I think. I would also get some colour in to the house asap but that's just me.

Well, today marks the fifth anniversary of me last working for Argos. Yup, the Tuesday after the catalogue came out (and I think it was the 21st then as well). The months of put-downs, lack of supprt, insults, general morale-sapping and personal attacks finally took their toll. I'm not going to go into the full, gory details here and now (I expect I'll write them up on here at some point as eventually I want to backtrack over the entire 30+ years of me) but suffice it to say the way I was five years ago today resulted in one of the staff at Stowmarket phoning Joan worried and Joan making me an appointment for the Doctor on the Wednesday. He signed me off sick for a fortnight and I then ended up being off 12 weeks or so before starting here. Which was a change to say the least!

And that all ties in reasonably well with the fact that Joan spoke not to her new boss as I had thought, but to the Area Manager instead. She did so representing the entire store not just her own views, and he promised to get it sorted out. Gill was at a meeting yesterday afternoon when the conversation took place and another all day one today so hopefully he will be able to sort her out during those and things will be better from tomorrow. Certainly they have plans for a full store meeting on Thursday so if that doesn't clear the air I am going to get involved, whether they like it or not. After all, I am not about to let what happened to me happen to Joan. And not just because we need the money (although she did also have a look in the Job Centre yesterday too)!

Today all in the office has once again descended into pre-big move, furniture shifting chaos. There are desks and filing cabinets and stuff going everywhere as I write. Mostly I'm staying out of it but lending a hand when needed so as not to look too lazy. There have also been verbal fireworks with Chris really letting fly at Charles. First time I've ever seen him get worked up like that and, truth be told, rather wonderful to watch. In a schadenfreude kind of way of course.

Definitely a Grand Old Duke of York weekend just gone. When it was up it was up but when it was down it sure was down.

Saturday started great for me. I got a load of old files and junk cleared off the PC making room for some last bits and bobs of music I had kicking around on zip discs to go on. Then got a load of ironing done whilst finishing off the MDs to send to America and later made and printed the inlays for them. And I even managed to squeeze in a viewing of War Games one of the best cold war/teen hacker combo films ever as far as I am concerned. Great performances from all involved (and the realisation a couple of years ago as to why I recognised Barry Corbin when I forst saw Northern Exposure) and fond teenage wibbly thoughts about Ally Sheedy. Looking forward to re-visiting it again soon with the commentary.

Then I went to pick Joan up, which is where the down bit kicked in. It was her first full day with the new Manager and to say that they did not get on would be a boit of an understatement. It seems Gill has rubbed everyone up the wrong way and there was talk of a mass exodus if she didn't sort herself out pronto. All of which left Joan in tears when I got her home and in need of much TLC. Not a good way to ingratiate yourself with a new set of staff. Having just spoken to her, Joan has said a few things today which will hopefully ease the situation but she wouldn't give me the full details so I will just have to wait until I get home to find out more. Fingers crossed.

We then finished off after calming down with a fab stir-fry from our new wok (The old one having bit the dust recently) and a bit of Casualty. Nice.

Yesterday we did another trawl round all the big DIY stores looking at doors. I had completely forgotten that we had set the process of getting the interior doors replaced before Christmas (as mentioned on Friday). They are to be done this Friday now (provided I can get them in the car tomorrow) so that buggers my New Year's resolution of not touching a paintbrush this year. We also had a tasty junk food lunch out (Mmmm, double rodeo burger, you are my friend) and looked at some cute birds in a pet shop.

Then it was round the corner to Ma & Pa's for tea. That went very well and they managed to avoid the work issues for most of the night and then skillfully change the subject before it got too stressful when it did come up. A good evening on the whole.

Today I have been thrashing in new and revised timetables to go off for printing. Some big changes coming up (again) which will need a supplementary booklet preparing (again). One day I'd love to have a stable network.

Didn't go out at lunch time today due to excessive water hurling itself fromt he sky. However, I have been out now as there were some films to post off to Pindar in Preston. Our in-house post people can't handle special delivery so it means a walk to the post office whenever we have something in production. This did mean I was able to take a quick look in Out Of Time but though tempted I managed to resist buying any cheap CDs.

New Boook! I am now progressing nicely with Tunnel Visions by Christopher Ross. Very good. A mix of his experiences, anecdotes and reflections garnered whilst working for London Underground interspersed with other tales from his travels, bits of psychology and other rambling passages. Just the kind of book I'd end up with if I was trying to write about this job I expect.

OK, time to go see if the Felixstowe Homebase has the doors we settled on or if I've got to come back to Ipswich after work tomorrow.

Spent yesterday out and about in the van with Ray - taking down the Park & Ride Christmas signs and delivering some books. Lovely sunny weather made it a very pleasant experience, and I even managed to take a gorgeous picture of the river Alde up at Snape. Oooh, I love having my camera.

Last night was odd. I got home early enough to take Joan up to get her back cracked, we then did a bit of shopping and dropped some stuff off for Helen. By the time we got home I was feeling really spaced out, and it didn't help when we had an unexpected visit form (another) Ray to talk about hanging some new doors for us. Ended up feeling all over the place but at the same time detatched from myself by the time we went to bed. Still, I did squeeze in the last few pages of ...Maurice which I have now decided was very good. Just not the rib-tickling humour of the more adult books. ER was also very good again.

Today I went to a Car Parks meeting in the morning, which was nice as I actually had something to talk about for a change. Yup, the third P&R site finally got planning approval yesterday so we are now about to get into full building mode and go for it. I have to say I'm quite looking forward to it, and hopefully can really get into the thick of things this time. Still not sure how the actual operations will work, what with strong commercial services running along much the same route but I guess we'll find out as the year progresses.

Then this afternoon I have had another big clear-out in readiness for the move. This is now likely to be in the next couple of weeks so I thought it was time I got on with things.

Not sure what will be happening tonight as yet - Joan will be working late for the new Catalogue launch and Tracey has left at lunchtime leaving the new boss Gill in charge. There shouldn't be any major problems I'm sure but you never know. I think I will just stick some big spuds in the oven and wait for the phone to ring. And then hopefully I can have a relaxing weekend.

Don't know whether it was just Joan talking about work couple with me being tired, or the fact that next week will be five years since I last worked for Argos/went off sick with all the stress and depression but had yet another "back in the old job" dream last night. As usual it was at Newmarket rather than Stowmarket where all the hassle happened, so that was a relief at least. And for once this one actually ended with me telling the Manager that they couldn't possibly pay me enough money for me to go back there from what I do now. So that was a nice resolution for a change. It did, however, leave my head in an Argos mode when I woke up leading to a bit of the old self-recrimination/could I have done it better stuff that has bugged me since. I thought I was finally clear of that but it seems not. Must think nice thoughts this weekend and relax and enjoy myself I think.

Musically I have really enjoyed the Police all week. OK, so listening to it all in one go did show up the fact that they did let one or two duff tracks out there, but on the whole a sound body of work. Now going back to random selections interspersed with working through a few artists in their entirity but not all in one go, if you see what I mean!

That'll do I think - this has been a recorded message, brought to you in association with Kit-Kat.

Don't you just hate it when you only get part of a story? Mitchell has just been down and announced that he has filled most of the vacancies (with a copule still to interview/accept) and that our new boss is an ex-London Transport chap. But won't tell us his name. Crazy system!

Anyway, Joan had a good time out last night - a kind of informal just her & Lesley saying goodbye to Tracey sort of meal. And Tracey paid as well, which made it better.

So I did go along to see the Brother. Played a few games, a bit of chat that sort of thing. Nowt startling though.

Today has otherwise been an average Wednesday with nothing else to add due to staying in this lunchtime. Hurdie ho.

Well, I didn't go out last night in the end. Decided to kick back with some music (finally got the next Wonder Stuff MD recorded to send to the USA) and a bit of Super Monkey Ball. Which was good as I finally got to enough play points to unlock one of the mini games. I did have 2 of the 3 available before the sodding memory card decided to eat my SMB details (left everything else OK) so having to re-gain them is a pain. Went for Billiards as it was the one I'd not played before. Very good and will get lots of play I think. Anyway, Joan is out again tonight and I think I will make the trip round the corner.

Today has proved to be pretty much an average Tuesday so far with nothing really to rave about. Managed to avoid spending significant money whilst mooching about town over lunch.

Today is also the second day of a manager-less office in the main as they are finally doing some interviews for the five vacant posts we have. Quite whether these will result in any people joining the team before Easter is another matter entirely of course. Hopefully there will be some decent ones to help ease the pressures people are beginning to crack under. Of course them being nice, understanding and not wanting to change everything on day one will be useful too while we are at it.

In car entertainment has been wide and varied from the CD selection of late so this week I thought I'd settle on a band. As such I'm in for a complete works run through from The Police. This is of course made simple by having the box set of everything! Not listened to some of it for a couple of years so am enjoying the driving thoroughly. Although not to the point where I am looking for traffic jams and hold-ups in order to stay in the car longer.

Not really much else to add. Am trying to make more time to read again, but am still on ...Maurice at the moment. I guess the fact that it was intended as a children's version of Discworld could explain it, but I'm not feeling quite as enthralled as I have been by other Pratchett stuff of late. Caught a few extra pages yesterday when I was on the Park & Ride buses, not that I plan to make that a regular part of the day either just to get some words absorbed. Hey ho.

A very good evening ensued yesterday. There was obvioulsy the planned viewing of the conclusion of Messiah (which was absolutely superb and kept me guessing literally right to the very end - much my preferred form of detective story, rather than the Columbo style where you know whodunnit from the start and just watch the police going through the motions). However, we also managed to fit in my first ever viewing of Look Who's Talking which was pretty good (thanks, Sky Movies) and Joan's first ever of The Wizard Of Oz. I was amazed to learn she'd never seen it before. And from the DVD it looks superb. The only shame is that widescreen hadn't been invented when it was made!

Plus I made a rather tasty dinner. Grilled chicken on a bed of multi-mash (a ring of potato, cabbage and raw onion mash encircling a portion of carrot and parsnip mash). Followed by ice cream with a superb toffee sauce on it.

All in marked contrast to the chaos of this morning which saw me sleeping through the alarm. Not a good start to the day leaving me getting up an hour later than scheduled. So a quick exit from the house met with horrendous traffic trying to get out of Felixstowe (never did find out why, probably just loads going down to the docks). That meant I'd never get a space in the car park here so I diverted to Park & Ride instead. I did have an excuse to go there as we are having drainage problems and that meant there was a hole I could look into and take pictures of. Leading to arriving in the office at 10. Oh well, back to normal from that point with bits and bobs to do on assorted topics.

And now off home again (well, off to get my bus now anyway). Joan is out tonight and I may go round to see Richard, but may just sit in playing games instead. Will see how I feel at the time.