Today, we went to see the bank about a mortgage. Then we went out to a store and purchased a rug and a pot plant, and looked at a selection of beds. After that, we went to some other stores and purchased very similar tops and bemoaned that they didn’t have my size of socks in stock.
This evening, I shall be wearing my carpet slippers and smoking my pipe.

Sometimes, bad news comes along in bunches. One of Hels’s friends has lost a baby late in pregnancy. Her sister has lost her job. Her sister’s husband has cut his hand badly in a DIY accident and will be off work for at least ten weeks. Another of her friends is feeling a bit down and depressed with life.
It’s easy to focus on the bad news, to get maudlin, depressed and discouraged by it all. There is only so much support and counselling that a person can give without it taking a toll. But I think it is important to focus on the positive. Hels’s sister is resourceful, so I’m sure she’ll find new work soon. Her brother-in-law’s accident could have been far more serious, and he will make a good recovery given time. Her friend is well in spite of the loss of her baby, and has much to look forward to. The other friend is attractive, strong and intelligent, and will find things improve in time, I’ll be bound.
And there are lots of good things going on, much to anticipate. Another of Hels’s friends has just got a good new job close to home, so will no longer need to commute to The Smoke each day. Other friends have a happy healthy new baby. Yet other friends have the excitement of a new puppy in the house. And then there are all the things going on in our own lives too.

The question is, how do you avoid the negative aspects of life swelling up to overshadow the positives? It’s easy to get swamped by the negativity, particularly when others are seeking support and solace in their own difficulties. Should you even try to be everyone’s counsellor? It’s difficult to say no to a loved one.

Definitely the end of an era, and certainly something that broadcasting will never see the likes of again.

I’ve just got my latest mobile phone bill, which includes the periods that I was in France and Germany. It’s a good job that I was sitting down. It seems that when I’m abroad, calls home work out at around £1 per minute, including VAT. It seems that I made around 100 minutes of calls whilst I was away. Hmmmm.

Though Letter From America is now, sadly, gone from the airwaves, that other gem of British broadcasting remains. From Our Own Correspondent allows BBC journalists the chance to inform and entertain on subjects that we either do not normally hear about or, more usually, on a more human level than general news reporting allows.
Justin Webb, perhaps with an eye to the Letter From America seat, gave this insightful and amusing piece at the weekend, which I commend to you.

It’s ages since we’ve had a new Pong variant. Here’s one that’s dead hard when played with a touchpad.

Last night I got a quote for carpet. £680, or so. Today I got some new advice and a second quote. £328. Hmm.
Last night I put the first coat of paint on the bathroom walls. This morning I painted the radiator in that room.
Later this morning, I had a half hour meeting with an Israeli nurseryman.

Life is still on that edge.

New Weebl.

Last night, we went to see a play – the first play that I’ve been to see in absolutely aeons. It was Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of The People – certainly thought-provoking stuff given events that have been in the news in recent months. It was an amateur production by The Trinity Theatre Club, and was every bit as good as many professional productions that you might see – the actor playing Dr Stockman was particularly good. It’s on until tomorrow, so if you can get to see it, I commend it to you.
It’s a particularly timeless play. Although it was written many years ago, and Miller’s adaptation was intended to reflect on McCarthyism in the 1950s, it still has resonance today – (as the publicity material suggests) you might watch it and think of the Kelly affair. It also shows that heroes are rarely without taint and flaw.
In that respect, it reminded me of one of my favourite books, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – science fiction in its day that now seems to be only too true. So, a bit late for Book Day, which was yesterday, but there are a couple of recommendations for you.

Safeway may be the cheapest place in Tunbridge Wells to buy a loaf of bread, but if I cost in the time I spend queuing because they only ever have four tills open out of the twenty or so that are there, it becomes incredibly expensive. I think that, in future, I’ll go to the nice deli across the road.

We’re going to see the vicar this evening to discuss our forthcoming nuptials. Should be interesting.

The best thing in Blogdom last month. Official.

Why the PM may need to change his toothpaste.

Well, meeting the vicar went well – actually a friendly chat more than the interview that we had feared. Which is good.
And, more importantly, was followed by beer with Jo and Bob, with the idea of a Cocteau Twins disco for the wedding. Whaddya reckon?

Inspiration #1.
Inspiration (of sorts) #2.

…in bullet points:

• grumpy
• parents
• Homebase
• Sarah and Paul
• Waitrose
• painting
• still grumpy
• washing walls
• grumpy
• Bill and Rosemary
• Homebase
• grumpy
• painting
• Lu and Kev
• grumpy

I am, officially, utterly utterly utterly fed up with bloody decorating. I’m also pissed off with never having enough money, energy or time to do the things I really want to do.

• grumpy

…by imagining that headlines such as "Howard offers historic choice" or "Howard promises lower taxes" or "Howard challenges Blair to fisticuffs in Parliament Square" are not about the leader of the Conservative Party, but are, instead, about that annoying git from the Halifax adverts.

Scientists develop vaccine for diarrhoea. The article helpfully tells us that around half a million people die from diarrhoea each year, but I wouldn’t mind betting that no more than half a dozen of those are tourists from western nations or members of our armed forces. More likely they are people living in squalid conditions in the Third World with no access to clean drinking water, for whom an expensive vaccine like this is really likely to make little or no difference.
Guh.
Not only that, but those of us in the west are becoming so protected from illness and viruses now that we will soon have no resistance to anything at all – as soon as any sort of disease comes along, it’ll run like wildfire through the populace. A little dirt and a little illness doesn’t hurt.

Dave confesses. And draws my windows. Nice man.

Keppy-uppy, table tennis stylee.

The funniest aspect of today’s news that Brian has left WestLife was listening to Denis Murray’s brilliant "Kerry was crying, so I gave her my hanky. And it was clean!" comments on tonight’s PM.

Castle Cat, complete with Daffy Duck voiceover.

…Greg, Paul C, Paul F, Kearn, Simon and Dave. Last night, obviously. Not this morning. That would be excessive.

There were all sorts of things I wanted to write about today. The stupidity involved in hitting yourself in the eye with a pair of headphones (don’t ask); the beauty of my newly-painted kitchen cupboards and the wonder that is the gloss roller; mispronounced words; when beige is not beige; the immediacy of blogging; and half a dozen other "fascinating" subjects.

But ideas of writing about such frivolity seem fairly inadequate in the light of today’s news.
Now, I know that I have ranted before about things that go on in the world that are tragic and yet do not make the headlines, and how we shouldn’t necessarily always focus on the headline tragedies and react in a knee-jerk style. But I’ve also been interested by the low level of reaction to the bombings in Madrid today in blogs in general. I’ve taken a bit of a straw poll of my regular reads, and none of them have mentioned today’s events so far.
When the Twin Towers were hit in 2001, every single blog devoted gigabytes of content to the subject. There was speculation, discussion, argument, discourse, opinion and even some on-the-spot reportage. But since then we have seen a succession of terrorist acts and other tragedies – the Bali bombing, the Casablanca attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, several bombings in Turkey and much much more. Maybe it is less shocking now – perhaps the death of more than 170 people in a terrorist attack that is not so far from home is no longer enough to move us to outrage, revulsion or even to think and write about it. We’ve become numbed by it all and sit blankly transfixed by the news images on television or the articles on news websites.

If that is true, then it is a shame. I think that the content of blogs is a reasonable reflection of the subjects that are being thought about by people at large. Subjects which feature prominently in blogs are also likely to feature in conversations in bars, taxis, cafes and at dinner tables. If people are thinking about these things, by extension they care about them and are likely to come up with some sort of opinion about them. It’s our duty as voters in a democracy to think about the affairs of the day and consider what our opinion is, otherwise how can we ever hope to influence governments so that they truly represent the will of the people. For, in order to do that, the people must have a will to be represented, based on more than the ideas spoon-fed to us by the corporate-funded idealogues that make their pronouncements on the glowing box in the corner of the living room and in the rags that pass themselves for newspapers.

Basically, what I’m saying is this: THINK.

Update: English language blog in Madrid.

Over the weekend, I received around twenty comment spams at this website. Whilst I was tempted to disable comments across the entire site as a response to that, I decided not to, not least because sometimes there is some good and erudite discussion in the comments boxes, such as there has been in the last few days in response to my piece entitled Inadequate. Having said that, I object to being called a wanker just because someone is incapable of expressing their argument clearly.
So the comments remain, for the time-being at least. Thank you to those that use them well – you make maintaining this site very enjoyable.

Over the weekend, the following was achieved:

• lunch was attended
• our mortgage was secured – house-hunting can now begin in earnest
• we travelled to London to meet up with my cousin Gemma to celebrate her birthday, meet a few of her friends and then head to Brick Lane for a splendid Bangladeshi meal
• we explored new home possibilities
• we introduced my parents to Hels’s parents over lunch, which turned out to be much easier than we had anticipated
• we clambered around the ramparts of Lewes Castle
• we went for drinks with Lord Percy and Lady Bren, with sightings of Malcolm and Paul F
• we did some painting in the kitchen (oooo! paint! rollers! emulsion! gloss!) whilst Dad fitted replacement taps and a new bath panel in my bathroom
• we ripped up the carpet in the living room (not a euphemism for anything, honest)

Fun. Packed. I can tell you.

The Life of Yaks. An "educational" film.

Pictures of Chernobyl. Well worth a few minutes.

Government "ignores" space threat.
Whilst Neos may not be a huge concern to many people, I think that this story is completely symptomatic of the current government’s attitude to just about anything and is an example of the way that they handle many issues:

• people have concerns
• government sets up a task force to investigate (note: may have a different name, such as independent review, inquiry, panel or committee)
• task force makes recommendations
• minister promises that recommendations will be implemented
• three years later, somebody points out that nothing has been done, but by then the issue is dead so nobody cares

Don’t make me list all the examples where this has happened.
I’m sure that our government is by no means unique in this regard. I think that this is a major contributing factor in voter apathy. Speaking of which, there was a good report on the subject by Dan Damon on this evening’s PM programme on Radio 4, but unfortunately I can’t find any web links for it.

This site is now running on the most recent version of Movable Type. If I’m really lucky, the upgrade will have fixed the annoying gremlins.

UPDATE: nope. Sigh.

Like dub? Like playing about with gismos on the web? Then you’ll love this. Turn up the sound and play!

It looks like itsagoal.com is finally rising from the ashes. I predict much wasted time ahead. Thanks to Benj for the headsup.

I’ve got a grotty cold. Can’t be arsed to write anything here. I’m off to bed.

New Weebl.

How irritating. And is that last line supposed to convey contact details for the sender and an indication of the price per minute if I call? If so, it is less than clear. OFCOM should clamp down on this.
In addition, I’ve had five new comment spams since yesterday evening, countless email spams, a bunch of junk mail and a couple of telephone cold calls.
It may be time to become a hermit and live a communications-free existence.

Tunes. Who knew?

Penguin. Yeti. Sea lions. You know the drill by now. I’ve just scored 337.79 (total 1288.18). Beat that.

The builders who converted the Nursery Arms into two flats, one of which is now my home, liked Smith’s salt and vinegar crisps. I know this because they left a packet under the floorboards.
Future generations will be utterly misguided into believing that I read the Guardian because I used some pages of that newspaper to plug some holes.
Domestic archaeology. Such fun!

New Weebl. Better out than in.

Attributed to the scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, but oh-so-true in so many aspects of life.

It looks like things are progressing with the home-moving, as Hels has a tentative offer on her flat that is acceptable, and will hopefully be confirmed on Monday. There are also plenty of other people interested in it, so that is very encouraging.
My flat is progressing too, with the bulk of the decorating work likely to be finished this week, and new (cheap and cheerful) carpet to be laid on Wednesday. Hopefully I should be able to officially launch it onto the market around March 28th.
We’ve been exploring the house market for the last few weeks, and have seen a couple of places that we like and can afford in areas that we would like to live in. We should even have room in our new home for a cat or two, and even a little bit of garden so that I can actually have some plants around my own home.
I’ll be working from home in our new abode, so I’m going to have to get used to a life with less social interaction than I have now (there are usually people coming and going from my parents’ place, which is where my office is based now). I know that quite a few homeworkers read this site – any tips on sanity preservation?

It comes to something when, as I check my overnight emails first thing in the morning, I discover that the spam left in the comment boxes of this site outweighs the general spam email by two to one. In particular, I’ve now blocked three IPs in the series 213.91.217.xx, namely 13, 14 and 15, which were being used to send large numbers of messages promoting online drug stores. If you run MT or some other commenting system that allows you to block IPs, I suggest that you block these three pre-emptively.
The next version of MT will feature a system whereby users must register before they can leave comments. I’ll be adopting that as soon as it becomes available.

Yesterday, we stirred ourselves early in the day in order to go for a walk at Bedgebury Pinetum, followed by lunch at the Oak and Ivy. In the afternoon, we explored Rye before embarking on some windswept stone-throwing silliness on Winchelsea Beach, followed by a visit to my future brother-in-law and his family on the way home.
The main thing is that we actually spent a day relaxing, just ambling about. We need more days like that, but I don’t see many of them being possible this side of moving home and the wedding.

Vaughan on the mystery of Belle de Jour.
I’ll be quite honest – I was quite fascinated by the Belle de Jour site. And, in a way, it has brought blogging even further into the mainstream, as the tabloids (and the broadsheets) get their fishnets in a twist over who may or may not be behind BdJ. I’m sure that it was the high quality of writing and insight into another mind that drew me to the site, and nothing to do with sexual depravity and voyeurism at all.
But now, I find the whole thing a little tiresome. The content at BdJ has veered towards embroilment in the whole "is she a she, or isn’t she, and who is she anyway?" thing, and has become quite tiresome. Some other blogs have become fairly tiresome on the subject, but that tiresomeness is fairly widespread in the blogging community right now. It reminds me of the whole Salam Pax thingy, a good weblog that was spoiled by people busying themselves with trying to unmask the author, rendering the whole thing …well, tiresome.
Thankfully, readers of this site have averted tiresomeness because your author has never made any secret of his identity, and I think that should be the model that all bloggers follow. It’s much more simple that way, and makes it easier for publishers to come running with their cheques for the book deal.
Doesn’t it?

I haven’t done the journey between Tunbridge Wells and my office by train for a while, having had the use of Hels’s car for the last few weeks. This morning’s foray into the world of rail was met with a late running train, a filthy train, a train that was cancelled but still ran anyway, a train driven by a driver who only knew how to drive in the "on-off" style of accelerator and brake usage (or whatever the train equivalent is), new rolling stock that shows what shocking state the line is in as passengers are alternately hurled from one side of the carriage to the other – amongst other travails. As compensation, there are some fine views to enjoy, particularly in the Arun valley, which remains one of the finest train journeys to be had in the south of England, and I’ve also been able to get a fair bit of work done, something that is impossible when at the wheel of a car.
Giant pain-in-the-arse for today is that the offer on Hels’s flat has fallen through. One wonders if people go around saying that they will buy a property, purely to raise the vendor’s expectations ready for pin/balloon type deflation, merely as some kind of perverted sport.
And, for added misery, H has got a cold. I’m sure the pseudo-purchasers left the germs around the flat (absolutely nothing to do with the streaming torrent that I’ve endured for the last week or so).
Cripes – what else can we find to moan about? I’m in the mood for a good rant.

It won’t be health, education or Gordon’s flower borders. No, the subject of the rant will be the cost of wedding car hire. How much??! Suddenly I see the attraction of Worra and his "beautiful Nissaaarrrn!" – it would certainly be cheaper. OK, I can see that vintage cars might cost more than a modern car to maintain, and there is the cost of a driver to be considered. But it looks like it might make a fair dent in our budget, as our previously volunteered car has been withdrawn, as the owner/driver is not sure he wants to drive it the thirty or so miles that it would have to cover. Ho hum.
And when I say a fair dent, I mean a bloody great huge dent. The sort of dent that, were it to be inflicted upon a wedding car, would render it unroadworthy. Permanently.
Ironically, the cheapest element in the whole wedding plan is the church. Vicars seem not to respond to market forces by inflating their prices on Saturdays like florists, car hire companies and reception venues tend to do.
So now I’m looking around for other volunteers who might help us out with vintage cars. I’ve got a contact into the world of oily rags and spanners, although he is based around Chichester and so probably doesn’t know anyone in the Kent borders area who could help. All very frustrating.

Kodak DX6490 versus Olympus C750UZ. Any advice/recommendations?

If I was still single, I’d go on this – not least because it is organised by my lovely friend Charlie, and I know her culinary skills to be excellent.
Anyway, it’s just an idea for any single people in striking distance of Brighton who want to give it a go. At the very least, there’ll be a laugh or six and some good food and wine.

We like simple games. Oh yes. But infuriating ones?

At last, a major step forward has been taken in the refurbishment of the flat – new carpet has been laid today in the hallway and living room, and it looks really good. I’m kicking myself for not touching up the paint on the skirting whilst there was no carpet here, but I’m sure that can be overcome. As it is, I’m padding back and forth around the flat, enjoying the warm softness underneath my socks. All good stuff.
With that hurdle overcome, and the carpet in the bathroom and kitchen likely to be finished by tomorrow night, or Saturday at the latest, I’ve arranged for two estate agents to come around next Wednesday and give me their best patter. One of them will be rewarded with the chance to sell this place, unless I get a cash offer in the meantime from one of you lot (I’m not holding my breath). I think the flat looks cracking, and once the windows are done (application going in just as soon as Dave sends me the drawings), I reckon that this will be one of the best one bed flats in Chichester.

What about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10? Panasonic is not a name I’d associate with cameras, but I’ve read a couple of good reviews.
I really should add a little about what I’m looking for here. I need something that is fairly fully featured, and would suit someone (i.e. me) who is fairly camera-savvy but likes something that is reasonably easy to use. It will mainly be used for work, so it needs to have a good macro capability, allowing me to get a full-frame shot of an individual flower or flower head. It also needs to have a flash so that it can double as a general workhorse for record shots and day-to-day snapping. And, because the photos are likely to be used for posters and larger size printing, 4 or 5 megapixels would be preferred – 3 is not enough.
One of the problems that I have with all three of the cameras that I’ve looked at so far is their size – the Panasonic in particular is quite bulky, and since it will often be carried with me when I’m travelling, it would be useful if it was small enough to slip into my laptop bag. I think the Panasonic fails that test.

More research needed.

As I walked down South Street this morning, I passed three typical looking teenage boys in school uniform, waiting outside the convenience store. Nothing unusual in that, you might think.
But there was something hugely disturbing and terrifying about them. Yes, the world needs to be warned…
THEY ALL HAD MULLETS!
What the hell is going on? When did the mullet come back into fashion? It probably has something to do with the abomination that is The Darkness, who have become popular for reasons that completely escape me.
Next thing you know, everyone will be listening to Donovan records again.

So Britney is the sexiest woman in the world, according to the annual FHM poll, the results of which were announced today. In second place was Rachel Stevens, making her the highest placed Briton. I heard her on the radio this morning, saying that she couldn’t understand what people saw in her and that she wasn’t sexy, blah blah de blah. Bollocks – she knows she’s got it, and she knows that she can flaunt it and make money. She wasn’t picked for S Club 7 for her singing talents, I’ll be bound. Faux modesty fools nobody.
Of course, they both trail by a long distance in my personal sexiest woman poll. My winner has beauty, brains and genuine modesty.

"Holy —, Batman!" phrases by Robin, via Darren. My favourite is "Holy contributing to the delinquency of minors, Batman!", which is pure genius.

Major fire at Portsfield Peugeot – this is on the main road by the railway line, and both have been closed. Apparently train services are "very messed up" (technical term used by the guy in the ticket office at Barnham), which should make my journey to Tunbridge Wells later a little interesting.
Four injured in bus crash – for those familiar with Chichester Bus Station, you’ll feel, as I do, that this was just a matter of time. The drivers often drive recklessly and far too fast, in my opinion. From what I’ve heard, the bus didn’t stop as it approached the bus stand, went through the railing and into the front of the bus company office. Passengers would have been standing between the railing and the office, under the canopy, waiting for the bus. Maybe something will happen now to slow the buses down, although it would be a case of shutting the proverbial stable door.

How handy! How confusing! Guaranteed to leave you with no idea what type of music it is that you are listening to, but written in such a way that you’ll have a good laugh finding out.
On IDM (a.k.a. Intelligent Dance Music):

Excuse me whilst I go and turn up my Amon Tobin album.

I could write a long and not particularly interesting moan here at the moment, but to do so would leave me open to accusations of being an ungrateful, complaining, miserable git. I’d be less inclined to moan if certain people would undertake to fulfil the promises that they have made within the timeframe that they suggested without offering weak excuses and then getting on with their own thing, a thing that their weak excuse should preclude them from doing. As it is, I’m feeling cheesed off and a little under-supported.

It is strange that Hels and I often experience the same moods at the same time. She’s fed up too, and being 65 miles apart renders offering solace somewhat difficult. You can’t hug over the telephone, no matter how hard you try.

Anyway, it seems that the flat will not be finished, or even close, by the time the estate agents come round on Wednesday morning. For those that hadn’t realised, that is the source of my pissed-offness. Comments like "at least they’ll be able to see that the work is being done" do not help at all – the whole idea was to make the flat look its absolute best in order to make the best impression.
On the good news front, Greg has made available a sofa for loan that will look good in the living room, and give me something soft to sit on for the first time in weeks.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to defer the estate agents until after the weekend.

There’s nothing like retail therapy to cheer yourself up. In my case, I’m still at the planning stage with the retail therapy, but I’m still cheered up.
This morning, after visiting the council offices to get the forms I need for the windows planning application, I went to a couple of camera stores to try a few cameras out. I tried the Minolta Dimage Z2, the Olympus 760 UltraZoom and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10B. I wanted to try the Kodax DX-6490, but nobody had one in stock.
The Olympus lost out straight away for two reasons – firstly, it has only 3.1 megapixels, which is probably less than would be ideal for me. But more importantly, the LCD was really quite small, which is a hindrance when a lot of what I’ll be doing will be in the macro range. It also lacks a hotshoe for a flash, which might be a problem if I subsequently decide that a flash would be useful for pro-amateur studio plant portraits. On the plus side, the Olympus was wonderfully small, so if you wanted a camera with a good zoom lens that would fit into a (large) pocket, then it would definitely be worth a look.
The Minolta also was dismissed reasonably quickly – firstly, I didn’t find the controls comfortable. Secondly, I didn’t like the general grip of the camera. Being left handed, I often grasp a camera in my left paw. This one is definitely designed for righties, with nothing much other than the lens to hold on the left side. I also thought that the LCD was a bit coarse.
The Panasonic was by far the best. Of course, it’s a little more expensive, so that is barely surprising. Although the reviews describe it as being huge, it isn’t frighteningly bulky. It’s roughly the same size as my current vintage Olympus OM-2n SLR, and is only a fraction of the weight. Big positives for me were the large LCD and viewfinder, both giving really good definition; the fairly easy grip and left-handed-friendliness of the camera, although a slightly sturdier right hand grip would have been useful; the ease of use – without reference to any manual or instruction from the sales assistant, I was able to grasp the basic controls in a matter of seconds – since Hels and I will want to use this camera for pleasure snaps as well as for work, this is an important consideration; and the lovely 12x optical zoom lens, which is fun in itself.
Of course, I’ve been doing my homework. I’ve read two in-depth reviews online, plus the reviews at Dealtime. I’ve also looked at the pictures posted at the Alive in Kyoto weblog – some of them are beautiful, and they give a good indication of the camera’s abilities, particularly in low light conditions. On that subject, the optical image stabilisation system is another strong plus factor for this camera.

I’ve also researched the price. The Jessops in-store price is £30 cheaper than their online price, and my local branch has one on the shelf. But I’ve found other online suppliers who can offer it for £45 less than that. But they don’t have it in stock. Jessops offer a "price promise" that says they will match any price on the High Street, but would that include online competitors? It did when I purchased the nursery’s Kodak DX-3900 from them – all I needed was a printout of the website with the URL on it. Anyone got any recent experience?

A double dose of obituaries:
Peter Ustinov
Alistair Cooke

Oh, and tut-tut BBC! This Alistair Cooke tribute page is marked "Last Updated: Thursday, 13 November, 2003, 12:38 GMT" – I’ll bet that gets fixed sharpish.

Thanks to the model of efficiency that is Dave, I now have the necessary drawings for the planning application for the new windows in my flat. I’ve just filled out the forms (in quadruplicate) and, aside from a couple of quick photocopies (well, three actually) of the site plan and elevations and the small matter of a cheque for £220, I’m ready to go.
With the delay of a week on the estate agents, the bookies are offering good odds on the planning consent coming in before the flat sale, particularly as the said fenestrologist (new word!) is determined to give it a push if he can. The spectators watch in awed amazement.

How to build a computer for almost nothing at all. Complete with rabbit.

Today’s achievements:

• accountant spoken to and meeting arranged
• speaking gig arranged
• bank spoken to, no useful advantage gained
• invoice raised
• event applications processed
• licensee assisted
• planning application submitted
• hair cut
• carpet tiles completed and two doors hung (with assistance)
• new toy purchased

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play.

I’ve got the new toy working, but I’m not ready to show you any results yet. May take a day or two, as I’m a bit time-poor at the moment.
This morning – two doors painted with their first coat; sofa installed (after a struggle to get it in); rubbish taken to the tip. And there is still plenty of time to get more done yet.