I have actually finished the php book (well, skim read a fair part of the last few chapters). But more importantly I have actually done something useful with it. Although the entire point of me learning php was to be able to modify my guestbook and I haven't even looked at it yet.

This afternoon I need to go into Poole to do some Australian shopping. I like being able to come back and shop in Poole because of all the cheap/independent shops that you just don't get in Oxford or Reading. Plus they have an MVC, which may or may not be a good thing.

I have managed to spend lots of money this morning though. On the one hand, ABE Books is a great site. Except for the part where it's very good at parting you with your money.

The other thing I did was book myself into a hostel in London - which my dad found by reading a Canadian Warwick students blog, and she stayed there and liked it. I've stayed in hostels before in Eastern Europe but not on my own, so this'll be a chance to see what it's like before I do it in Australia. Plus I'm going open-air ice-skating on the Sunday, and it's a bugger to get to London (or anywhere) on a Sunday because there are so few buses. So if anyone's around in London on 8th Jan, I'll be about. No idea what I'll be doing, but a pub sounds like a good idea.

Although having established getting to London on Sunday is a bugger, I'm doing that the following weekend instead, because I'm going to the B7 DVDs launch. Although not actually buying the DVDs, because much as I'd like to, I can't afford them.

Saturday was a typical Christmas day - I got loads done. Seven chapters of my (well, technically dads) php book. Although in all fairness all those chapters covered were basic programming concepts. This was after the cat decided he loved me and wanted to sit on my lap and go to sleep. I ended up having to throw him off so I could have breakfast.

Boxing day, in a change to the last three years, I didn't go to the cinema. I didn't go anywhere, in fact. I didn't get as much done, although I did play with a friends computer, sorting out the virus checking, firewall, etc.

Today we've been out measuring printer boxes among the crowds in Staples, Comet, PCWorld and Currys. It really was hideous. I don't know why people have to go and buy things (or more often, stand in the way) from these shops on Christmas bank holiday. All that remains is to decide which printer I want, now that I have counted out those that look horrid or have boxes that are too big.

We started doing a puzzle on Saturday night. Only a simple 1000 piece one of a cottage in Sommerset (sic). We're still doing it. The trouble is that half the pieces look like they fit in, even when they don't. Which is a problem when you're doing a bit that's all the same colour. We might not make it to the second puzzle at this rate. Although we are watching ROTK in two bits today, as there's nothing on, so we might get more of it done!

I am also really looking forward to the BBC bringing in the TV equivalent of Listen Again. If only ITV and C4 did that too I would never need to tape anything again, which would be really useful. Although I suppose there are issues with adverts for the other two channels. I was unsurprised to find they were all furniture sales adverts when I came home. Even though I don't remember the last time I watched any adverts.

It is Thursday today, it is, it is.

I got my hair cut at lunchtime. Because the kids are off this means that all parents feel the need to get their hair cut at lunchtime and go to the shops. So everywhere is really busy. They have all day!

I find hairdressers quite strange places. My parents always had (and still do) someone come round to cut their hair. It's cheaper, in the evening, and all you have to do is provide the chair, hoover up the hair and wash your own hair. But in the hairdressers there are all sorts of weird and wonderful things going on. People having their hair painted in bits of paper, strange rings things circling round their heads. And they offer you coffee or tea. I'm not quite sure how you're supposed to drink it when you have to put your head in a particular position.

I feel like I've achieved lots of things tonight though. I felt all dynamic, put the ROTK soundtrack on (although when the first track started playing I thought it was Harry Potter by mistake, whoops) and didn't end up getting round to The Bill till 9 o'clock, instead of 8.10ish when I usually start it.

I am the only person in my department for the next two days, so I'm hoping for no work (or very little) during that time. Specially on Friday - although I don't think anyone is planning to get any done anyway.

I've been convinced all day, that it's Wednesday today. Perhaps that's just wishful thinking. Someone decided that we were going to have a bit of an impromptu party in our office today. So lunch consisted mainly of crisps

The strangest part though, is everyone talking about all their preparations for Christmas. I think the favourite question at the moment is 'are you ready for Christmas?'. I am. I'm ready to go home, sleep and actually be productive (hopefully). But all the things they're having to do amaze me. There seems to be:

• Turkey, which no-one likes but they all have to have because it's traditional
• Get tree - cue arguments over real or not, and how big, and decorate said tree
• Moan about having to put up with relatives for a whole day
• Spend lots of money on crackers
• Shop for presents. Do not entertain any thoughts of actually asking people what they might like under any circumstances whatsoever. Spend hideous amounts of money.

Preparations for Chanukah, on the other hand, consist of:

• Buy candles
• Find book

Give me Chanukah any day. Although I would like to decorate a tree, it looks interesting.

Dad rung me up at 6.01pm today as they're going shopping tomorrow morning and mum was trying to plan dinners. Although given that she has the really nice sausages (Turkey Viennas, as far as I know the nearest place that sells them is Sainsburys in Whitechapel) that was a bit of a stupid question really. A couple of years ago I was home for the whole of passover and I had those sausages every night. They don't get old, they are that nice.

I felt after the weekend that we'd had Christmas though because we'd had the work Christmas party on Friday and then I spent the weekend watching videos. And I've been watching everything on tape delay so there are no adverts on anything either. The only thing telling me it's Christmas are the lights on everyone's houses I see on my way home. And the annoying people on the way to the leisure centre which has something that starts singing as you go past and frightens the life out of me.

I had forgotten until they said on the radio this morning, that today is the shortest day. It's all uphill from now on.

I had such a busy week this week I had 11 hours sleep last night. Mind you, I also got drunk on Friday (work Christmas party, free alcohol from 12-4pm - never good). I did go to the new Sainsburys in Didcot, which was very nice and big. In fact Didcot itself was quite empty, not surprising given how few shops it has really. I only went because I had no food and wanted to get The Return of the King on DVD. Which ended up costing me about �9 with various vouchers I had.

I am now halfway through it - I was too tired yesterday to get any further. I have remembered what makes DVDs so much better than the original films - you can skip bits. In fact the whole of the first chapter, which doesn't tell me anything I don't already know and is a bit gross.

I've also spent large amounts of time playing the latest Yeti Sports. I've just made it over the 5000 mark!

I read dad's magazine this morning and it talked about extensions you can get for Firefox. I had a look and it turns out that there's one that means you can open a new window (or tab) and it will open the current page with the whole history - like in ie. I couldn't live without it, so I've been sticking to ie so far and only using Firefox to save images (for some strange reason ie seems to think everything is a bitmap). But since I installed this extensions I've been using both. Firefox does look a bit odd though but I suppose I'll get used to it.

We did presents this evening and dad got me an updated version of his php book. So I might get some done at some point! Usually mum buys all the presents - the last present dad got me was 3001 (in hardback).

Yay for this news: McGillion made Atlantis regular

I'm reading Textual Poachers at the moment (well, as well as Unfinished Tales and the second book of Simon Schama's History of Britain) and it's quite interesting. It is american, so based for that perspective (which seems quite odd when talking about Blakes 7, for example). And it's about ten years old, so it's interesting to discover how much everything has changed since then - mainly the impact of the internet. I'm currently reading the slash chapter

I also got the urge to watch some Quantum Leap the other day. I had a look through the list of episodes and remembered I'd seen The Leap Home part 1, but not part 2. And it was good. I even knew what was going to happen but it was still quite heartbreaking - Al essentially chose between Sam's brother's life and himself, and he chose Sam's brother. I can't cope with Quantum Leap slash at all - it feels like people talking about Noddy and Big Ears, which althought funny, feels like spoiling my childhood. But I do like the friendship between Sam and Al, which is especially important to Sam, being as Al's his only contact with the real world and his life.

I've been so busy with work and Rotaract recently I haven't had time to do anything else. But now I'm off till Monday lunchtime. I planned to learn php over Chanukah and Christmas but I don't think I'll get it in somehow. I've made a sizable dent in my inbox this morning (and slept with the cat, which was nice) but I think I'll just go to the cinema instead.

Last Thursday was Victorian Evening in Wallingford. Which isn't very Victorian any more but the shops stay open late and there are charity stalls and fair stalls in the town centre. We were selling chestnuts as usual. We had fun, I stayed warm for nearly 4 hours and ate chestnuts. And we also made �115 for SeeSaw, who are a local charity helping bereaved children.

Then on Saturday I went to two parties One was an FDAS sort of one in High Wycombe where I also got to continue my expedition to Tesco's in various parts of the country, and I saw my second-ever branch of Morrisons. Who are also apparently everywhere round here as well now. The other party was the Rotaract District christmas one. Which included Twister. And various things you could blow and make a noise (mind out of the gutter please!). So oddly enough, not a quiet meal.

Monday was our Chrismas dinner. The crackers this year all had balloons in instead of tacky toys. We quickly found out what happens if a balloon hits a lit candle (the balloon pops) and I hurt my right hand sticking them to the ceiling. I also wrote my Christmas cards for the people who were there half an hour before, and wrote my speech just before the Starter. And I amazed myself by making it without getting nervous hardly at all.

The weekend after next I plan to buy the extended Return of the King (assuming work gives us Smiths vouchers as they have the past few years) then watch it - half on each day, being as I get bored after about two hours. Mum has ordered the extended trilogy so we'll be watching ROTK over Christmas, but I'll cross stitch through it the second time, so it won't be so bad. I have such a short attention span and am incapable of only doing one thing at a time for too long!

I had a bit of a revelation today. I've been enjoying Atlantis recently and I've been trying to work out why - then it occurred to me. It's because I've been watching it on it's own and not straight after Stargate. The trouble is that I like all the characters in Stargate (except for the love to hate ones) and I've been watching it for a few years. Whereas on Atlantis I don't like Teyla and I still can't decide about Weir. In all fairness, I didn't like Teal'c at first so that could change.

Also, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is back on Monday. Of course, my dad, the minute I tell him this tells me I have to remind him. He'd be stuffed if it wasn't for Listen Again (mind you, so would I). I wish TV had the same system - once something had been shown, you can watch it any time within a week afterwards.

I just added December to my template and then realised it wasn't December. Never mind, I won't have to do it later now. In my defence, my calendar has been on December for the best part of a month now and Chanukah starts next week.

This morning I was suddenly really busy with everyone wanting everything at once, and at the same time a friend of mine asked if I wanted a Christmas present from Amazon (I was just waiting for her to ask - she's getting me Douglas Adams at the BBC) and she talked me into going to the Buffy New Year con. I probably can't afford it (well, I can, I'll just be paying for Australia for longer after I get back) but it should be good fun anyway.

Then after all that was sorted it was nearly lunchtime and I had to go to Waitrose to pick up some of our chestnuts. Then I didn't have a lot on after lunch. On the plus side, it's usually the other way round.

The reason I'm writing this entry now is because I couldn't think of anything to do. As I've written it I've remembered I updated my website yesterday and didn't back it up onto a zip disk, I have some CDs to make, I think, and some e-mails to write. I've just got so used to being really busy and having to do the stuff that was really urgent that I can't quite get used to doing things that I merely should do.

And on an unrelated note, that I'm not going to explain in a public place, me and my dad make a great team I'm actually looking forward to going home next week to get some intelligent conversation, which I seem to get everywhere except at work. The people there are fun, but sometimes you just need to talk about something slightly more intellectual, like this weekend when I was talking with someone about how to get a manned mission to Mars, and why we would want to.

I'm feeling slightly more organised now. I'm not entirely convinced we have everything (or everyone!) for Victorian evening on Thursday but anything we don't have we can worry about on the night. I'm nearly there with Christmas dinner as well - I did delegate the phoning of the pub to find out when they wanted money and food orders. Slightly worryingly though, I put the orders into an excel spreadsheet and got it to calculate how much of everything there was. I obviously do too much of that at work.

Yesterday I did all of my Christmas shopping, in Birmingham. I stopped off in Coventry so I could go to the one shoe shop that sells shoes that fit me. Helpfully, they had my old ones (which have fallen apart, hence the need for new ones), which was just as well because none of the others fit. Apart from that, I did really well in not buying things for me - until we got to the Lego shop. I now have a lego R2D2 and Darth Vader to go with my lego Yoda.

Someone was saying at work the other day that they hated Sunday nights because they would think about having to go back to work the next day. I said that I didn't mind because I got bored. And I'm bored. Although not for lack of things to do, just lack of being bothered. Maybe I should play a game, being as I bought a few for the novelty value of being able to play them. I've just remembered I have to phone someone, but I like the idea of Unreal Tournament. Which is rather cutting this post short really.

My delegation skills are slipping. Someone pointed out when we left tonight's meeting that I had a load of things to do I could have delegated. The trouble is that there was hardly anyone there tonight and there are loads of things to sort out. But I think I pretty much just have to ring everyone, so it probably won't take as long as I think it will. Especially if I organise myself during Teachers in a bit.

I did manage to give the job of secretary to someone else, as the real secretary wasn't there. I think all the girls in the club have done the job now I think my entire night is going to be Rotaract though, because we have so much coming up:

• Going Christmas shopping in Birmingham on Saturday
• Going to Burns Supper at the end of January
• Going to the local panto in January (Humpty Dumpty)
• Victorian Evening - which is where there are a load of charity and other stalls in the town and all the shops open late. We sell chestnuts for charity
• The Cheese and Wine Quiz we hold every year for the Rotarians
• Our Christmas dinner in early December

And since December is always busy with various Christmas meals and such like, our next meeting is down the pub. The meeting on 28th is cancelled for obvious reasons And I haven't quite had time to think about Rotaract Week in March (I think) and whether we're going to put on our Barn Dance this year - I need to get most of the above out of the way first, I think!

Mind you, I also have to find someone to be president temporarily while I'm in Australia. I was going to say I already have every weekend in April booked up, but in all fairness, I'm not in the country for most of them.

I let myself in for all of this, knowing full well how much work it would involve. Well, to an extent anyway. But it will be really nice to give it up to someone else in July and do an easier job. But when I get to 30ish and have to leave, I don't know what I'm going to do with my time!

Because Blogger isn't happy about the html in this (it is a bit of a mess, and more of a pain to sort out than I can be bothered to). So, the latest post is at livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/paranoidangel42/45341.html

That lj meme (most of which I had to go to my userinfo to look up):

My journal is called Angelic Paranoia because I thought it needed a name. I really don't need to tell you where it came from, do I?

My subtitle is Paranoidangel's blog because it is.

My friends page is called friends because I've never felt the need to change the default setting.

My username is paranoidangel42, because the answer's here if you want to know that where the name came from. Someone else got there first with the paranoidangel though, so I added a number on the end, and if I have to explain where that number comes from I will be hitting you on the head with a large spade (if you can provide the spade). And then adding you to my list of people who need to borrow my tapes.

My default userpic is Orlando Bloom because fileg is amazingly talented with these things and I love it. Look out for Ewan McGregor when I feel the need for a change.

My LJ "name" is Nic because it tells people who I am.

I feel like I've done loads this weekend - and it's still the weekend! I successfully managed to find Forbidden Planet on Saturday, and bought myself my Chanukah present from my sister - a Stargate calendar. I've had one before, and I hate repeating myself, but it was that or bunnies, and looking at pictures of bunnies only makes me want one all the more.

I also managed to successfully find the pub that the ZZ9 AGM was in! It usually takes me half an hour to find anywhere in London, from the tube station, but both times were far less than that. I impressed myself. I got a bit unsure of myself finding the way back in the dark, but I did quite well.

The AGM was good. I'm very glad I'm not on the committee though - some of the things that were discussed sound similar to discussions we have at HASA and Rotaract. Not similar in the subject, but just the way the discussions themselves go.

I managed not to buy myself a drink either (except for the first one) or a round. Admittedly, I keep forgetting this whole buying rounds thing - I can cope if it's two people and you buy every other one, any more people and I just get confused. I think the last time I went out and bought a round it was half a one. I don't mean to do it, I really don't, it just works out that way.

Anyway, I stayed much later than I planned, so ended up getting to Guildford at 11.30pm and getting to taxi (to avoid the chavs at the bus station). Not that the taxi driver knew where he was going - why he thought I did, I don't know! I saw an hour of Kill Bill 2 and I liked it (although the punching wood bit was clearly ridiculous - how did he expect her to do it when he just let her not doing properly? She was quite obviously never going to punch a bit of wood like that). And the sword fighting bit was equally silly. But now I really need to see Kill Bill 1 and the whole of Kill Bill 2.

And I stayed up to 3.30am. Although this was because we were watching Sci-Fi porn (had no connection to sci-fi. Or indeed to real life). There's nothing quite like watching bad TV, bad writing, bad acting, in fact bad everything, with a group of people - it makes it so much funnier.

I had a list of things I needed to get done really and I didn't write them down. So now I have no idea what they are - which was sort of the point. I can next Sunday's going to be a getting things done day.

I was down to collect money for Children in Need from 7-9am this morning, before work. So I dutifully went to bed early (although in comparison to the times I've been to bed this week, late) and set my alarm for 5.45am to give me plenty of time to drag myself out of bed. I woke up at 6.10am. My travel alarm clock decided, for reasons best known to itself, not to bother going off. I rushed about, managed half of breakfast, discovered e-mails I needed to reply to, and made it into work with five minutes to spare.

At this point, despite the cold and the sun not having come up yet (although it was quite light by this point), I was warm. I was collecting from cars waiting at the crossroads. The road they were coming down from had been shut for three days this week - and the people doing it didn't feel the need to remove the diversion sign. There were temporary traffic lights on, and lots of signs in the road. Which collectively meant I had very few cars and when I ventured into the road, had to keep one eye on the traffic coming the other way in case I got run over. This was not helped by cars parking on the other side of the road and the cold setting in about 8.15am.

The time did go quite quickly in the end, but it wasn't as much fun as last year when there were loads of cars. When I got to work, I had second breakfast (pie from the Bakers Oven downstairs) and a hot chocolate. And eventually managed to be warm enough to take my coat off at 11.15am.

So now I'm quite tired. Or was until I ate, now I've woken up a bit. I can't have much of a lie-in tomorrow because I'm going to the ZZ9 AGM, followed by spending the night in Guildford. And I haven't even thought about the number of things I have to get done this weekend. Possibly because my brain's not quite working just at the moment.

And in a discussion of weather and accents today, the people in my office told me I say Dorset in a dorset accent, apparently. I've nearly caught up on my viewing - I just have Have I Got News For You from three weeks ago left, which I think I might give up on somehow.

Need sleep...

I don't need to write a con report for SG8 because Sel has already done one I will add that Paul McGillion is a guinness, although completely off his rocker. He is also, as he felt the need to tell us many time, single. Oh, and he told me I was a 'saucy thing'. Which took me aback a bit, although I have to admit I was a bit flattered.

Of course, the best bit about any con is talking to friends. And friends of friends, who by the next con are friends. It's a bit like university was in that respect. I now really want to write a Sam/Jack slash fic. Yes, you did read that right - we're talking quantum mirror here to make Sam male.

Although it's not going to be serious (assuming I can think of a plot, that is) it did make me think. If we assume that the only difference in this universe is that Sam has a Y chromosome instead of an X, then she probably wouldn't be called Sam (or Samuel). It is entirely possible that her parents were going to call her some variation of Sam either way, but it would be more likely, assuming she's the eldest, that she would be called Mark. My parents certainly never had any intention of calling me Nick (or Nicholas - although at the time I don't think the shortening of my name occurred to them). If I was a boy I'd have no name because they couldn't agree on one.

Although if I gave mirror Sam a different name, that would no doubt confuse everyone. And talking about Mark/Jack slash, doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Sam/Jack slash

I also thought I'd post my dream. It is weird, but bearing in mind I can actually write down what happened, it's not nearly as weird as most of my other dreams, which I just can't describe.

It involved me and Sel sneaking about a car park trying to get breakfast (in a building, I should point out, probably a hotel of some sort). I ate rather a lot of crisps and had to give out, even though I'd only eaten half a bowl (a big bowl). The reason for this was something to do with Avon's book, which was called The Serbian Montenegro.

Sel was enthusing about it, I think. I discovered that it was actually a series of books (lots of books!) and they were a sort of Lord of the Rings thing. By that I mean there was a family with twin boys and a younger girl, and a brother. The twins were obviously Elladan and Elrohir, and yet the father was Elrohir, and the brother Elladan. I can't make sense of it now, but it seemed perfectly fine at the time.

I also remember that the picture of the father had short light hair. He looked like someone I recognised (ie had seen on TV) but I couldn't work out who. Sadly, my alarm clock went off 25mins early because there had been a power cut in the night and it gets fast on battery power, so I never worked out exactly what was going on.

Yes, I can see the men in white coats coming to take me away - but as long as they include Stargate's no 1 doctor, I don't mind!

I had a good time at SG8, more because of the people who were there than the actual con itself. And I got away from it all for a bit. I came back, of course to crises - they still haven't stopped either. I have a Tae Kwon Do grading tomorrow, but I managed to write my Elrond essay for Idol Reflection.

I'm ridiculously far behind on my TV watching - I still haven't seen Have I Got News for You from two weeks ago. When I actually get 5 minutes to think I'll post more (like about just how nice Paul McGillion was - much better looking than he is on screen - although he is completely off his rocker).

Last weekend I spent in a windmill in Somerset. I even managed to take a picture of it this time:

I had a good time - catching up with people I'd not seen for a while (four years, in some cases), not sleeping, and drinking lots. I went down the pub with Rotaract last night, so I almost feel as if I haven't been sober for a while. I'm going to SG8 this weekend, so I definitely won't be sober for a while.

I had today off work, and I cleaned my room, did my washing, and most importantly, defrosted the fridge. Which may not sound like much, but I'd never defrosted a fridge before today. I meant to ask my mum how to do it but never quite got round to it. So I made it up from what I found on the internet and what I vaguely remember her doing when I lived at home.

I did find an example of what not to do: So you thought defrosting a fridge was boring?

It took me pretty much all day but I have done it. The fridge is now pretty much ice-free. I also watched The Bill on my landlady's TV, which has UKGold. It's really not that long ago but there are practically no characters in there who are there now. Today I saw:

Boyden, Sam Harker, Monroe, Conway, Dave, Polly, George, Tony, Di, Jenny Quinnan (pre-Quinnan), Beech, Jaaaack, Tom Proctor, Kerry Holmes. Spot the odd one (two) out. The preview for tomorrow's has Boulton in, so I will have to make sure I am up in time for that. I'm certainly looking forward to it more than tonights.

And Blogger is being annoying at the moment and refusing to let me post. Grr at Blogger.

This week has seemed so long. It's certainly been busy. First of all, some fun links:

Slap the Candidate (and by candidate it means presidential candidate)

Parking Battle of the Sexes - in which, slightly bizarrely, level 1 is the hardest

Monday

I did order a signed copy of the Tertiary Phase, which mum is going to pay me for, so it's a Chanukah present. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to listen to it over Christmas while doing puzzles.

I also wanted a desk chair because the one I have isn't doing much for my back (she says, after three and a half years). I found a lovely comfy one at Staples but the best they can do, delivery-wise, is sometime in the next ten days. And not on a Saturday. So just one problem with that... I'm going to have to talk my sister into taking me to get it, assuming we can find a date we can both make (I have every weekend between now and Christmas booked up for at least one day).

I also agree to do a Tae Kwon Do grading on 14th November. I hate gradings, they're horrible scary things. And I haven't done much theory stuff recently (or practical, lets be honest). So serious practice and reading of the book will be needed between now and then.

Tuesday

5.15 (we finish at 5.30), and two days before my appraisal, incidentally, someone discovered a mistake in some work I'd done some time ago. So I was there till nearly 7pm sorting it out, and just about made it home for some dinner before Rotaract. My head was still in work as well, so that meeting didn't go too well from my perspective.

On the plus side, I discovered The Dead Zone finally made it to TV. Late enough that there weren't any adverts either, which was good. I didn't watch it till Wednesday, but I enjoyed it anyway. And Teachers was funny, which I wasn't expecting. I barely noticed Brian and Kurt weren't in it any more.

Wednesday

Wednesday was only yesterday, yet it must have been good because I can't remember it. I wrote a macro so that the problem this person had found the previous evening won't recur.

Thursday

I went all over town looking for a 35cl bottle of vodka. Which you wouldn't think would be difficult but Waitrose and the off-licence could only manage 1l or 70cl, which is just too much to carry. I eventually found one in the local corner shop. And then got ridiculously wet on my two minute walk back in rain that was coming down in sheets. I could actually wring my trousers out by the time I got home.

I also had my appraisal. I'm always really scared of them. We all joke that's when you're going to get fired, but in reality they wouldn't wait for appraisal time to do it, if they were going to. It was both better and worse than I expected, which is what happens everytime really. At least that's over for another six months or so.

I am now really tired for no reason whatsoever. On the good side, though, I am off to a windmill this weekend with some friends from uni, which will be good fun. Then I'm back in work for two days then I'm off to SG8. And I get paid tomorrow, which is handy really, cos I'd be so broke otherwise.

I got a bit tipsy on Friday night, which I think is the closest I've got to getting drunk all year. I have discovered, though, why so many people from work get drunk all the time - they drink wine. Apparently it's more potent and two glasses will do it. If I got drunk on two drinks I'd be drunk a lot more often. Sadly, though, wine is really disgusting. I can manage two sips as long as there's enough time in between the two for me to forget how bad the first one was. And that's red wine. White is worse. I think I'll just stick to the spirits. And anyway, watching other people being drunk is so much better.

I was having a cross stitching crisis, now I'm almost having the opposite. I spent a small fortune (or at least it seems like it, as they're so expensive) in Hobbycraft yesterday and now I have three. And my mum wanted to check which ones so if she were to buy me some for a surprise she wouldn't get the same ones. I pointed out the slight problem in that argument to her

I'm not doing terribly well with Chanukah presents at the moment. I can't decide what calendar to get my sister to get me (we have an agreement not to do birthday presents and just get each other calendars each year). This is partly due to the Friar Street Bookshop not having very many in. Their choices were Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Buffy and Angel. None of which were very exciting - of the ones that actually showed you all of the months, at least.

My grandmother has already asked me what I want, but I expect that in October. My mum told me how much she's prepared to spend but there's no rush. Which is just as well because all I have on my list for definite so far is a potato peeler (I'm envious of mum's new one) and a tape measure.

Typically, of course, it pissed it down the whole time I was in Reading yesterday, so I got really wet. Today it hasn't rained yet. If I'd stayed in yesterday and gone there today it would have been the opposite way round.

I'm almost looking forward to work at the moment, but that's because I have a four day week, followed by a two day week, followed by a three day week.

I'm feeling slightly more rational about Farscape now. There was an excellent homage to 2001 in the last twenty minutes. So much so (and bearing in mind we're talking about my favourite film here) that I have no idea what happened in that scene. Except there wasn't enough breathing. It did remind me that I really want 2001 on DVD, but then it would also require a big widescreen TV and surround sound to watch it properly, so no rush.

I can't help wondering how different the mini series would have been if it had been a whole series. And whether it would have been better or worse. But what really clinched it was when I watched last night's Bill earlier and it was a two sick bucket job, at the end. And let's not even mention the whole of the rest of the episode. I should watch tonight's but I've finished my cross stitch, and I can't watch another episode without one, I'll get too bored. Mind you, I'm really tired from going to bed really late all week, so I might be in the right state of mind for it.

I spotted our next Davis Cup match is before I go to Australia, but it's in Israel, which is no help. I hope we get through it and get a World Group qualifying match at home.

I won a packet of jaffa cakes in a raffle last night. Well, I got to pick the prize, but frankly everyone in the room was eyeing them up, so we shared them amongst the club. We also came fourth in the quiz, which was fairly respectable, although Langley and Iver beat us again, annoyingly.

Half term started today. We're on the new six term system, which I forget how it works now, except that half terms are longer, summer holidays are shorter and all terms are six weeks, regardless of when Easter is. What it meant was there was no-one around when I walked to work today. Which only goes to show how much of the rush hour traffic is school-related (although this is only a market town, so rush hour pretty much means there are cars on the road. Apparently this wasn't the case before they built the bypass).

Ever since the article in the Guardian Online the other week about workplace bloggers I've been reading two of them that particularly interest me:
The Policeman's Blog - who has some good advice about how to deal with crimes and the police, and lots of stuff about what really goes on
and Doing Less Harm - who works in IT in the NHS. Today's entry in particular made me laugh, because I come up against similar stuff myself.