I’d definitely say the highlight of the weekend was slamming my middle right index finger (mostly the nail part) in the front door this evening. I have never been so thankful for frozen peas and arnica in all my life.

Apart from that spectacular and ultimately regretful piece of malcoordination, Saturday and Sunday have been generally all-round less painful. Multipack turned three this month, and so to celebrate Trev bought a large bag of lovely, crunchy badges with the logo on. I had to leave the meeting early, so missed out on the planned meal, but as usual there was plenty of discussion although once again I proved my ineptitude by forgetting to take any photos, so I can’t prove any of it took place.

The reason for the early departure was another spur-of-the-moment roadtrip; this time Bristol to see James and the new flat. Coincidentally it turned out both Andrew and Paul we’re coming down at the same time, so it ended up as a bit of an unplanned Australian adventure reunion. A few beers in Clifton and some late night Mariocart was definitely a good way to relax, and being probably the last bright weekend we’re going to get this year, I was pleased to get a sunny drive there and back. I managed to completely miss the Grand Prix as Helen and the others indulged in watching an entire three hour X-Factor marathon this morning - a programme which I have discovered is capable of bringing out in me, a Cowell-like vindictiveness and ability to criticise a singer’s choice of song and dress, that until now I wasn’t aware of.

My finger still hurts and I will continue to moan like a hypochondriac child until what I will over-embellish as ‘the horrific bruising’ decides to subside.

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It’s been a while since I last was in Cheltenham, but (not much) earlier this week Flash asked me to do a presentation on logo design to some of the fifth form at his school, and as that sort of thing is good fun and pretty interesting, I agreed and spent yesterday evening helping out in a bit of a workshop session.

Thankfully the good weather once again this week made it an enjoyable drive, and the school itself is really nice (well it would be, it’s Cheltenham don’t you know).

One thing I had forgotten about for two years was the smell of DT workshops, and it call came flooding back (that mixture of sawdust and carcinogenics). I was also treated to a specially put on meal for this week’s winning team of Flash’s ‘Apprentice’ competition (wine and all).

All in all, yet another slightly out-of-the-ordinary event for this week. Good stuff.

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On Saturday afternoon I was trying desperately to avoid getting on with things - the weekend isn’t for working and you can only wash the car so many times.

I quickly came to the conclusion that the cure for my boredom should be cheap, simple and quick to get into. It was at that point I drove to Southampton.

Maybe my plan didn’t meet all the aforementioned criteria, but it worked out just fine. The beautiful weather made for great driving and three hours and a bit later I was in a pub with Dan and Steve, who I’ve not seen for a good few months, and it’s been over a year since we met on their home turf.

On Sunday Dan and I played a sneaky nine-hole at the local golf club, had some lunch, bought him a Mac, watched Massa ruin his race at the GP then head on home in time for tea.

I was a little surprised how much I managed to eek out of the weekend. Usually, if I plan to do something big or chunky timewise, I am bound to think it must be tackled on Saturday morning otherwise it simply won’t fit, but I was wrong. A late Saturday departure and six hours driving in glorious sunshine there and back made the whole weekend last much longer.

I might try that again sometime soon.

Not content with just a holiday this week, Will managed to persuade me to drive him, Henry and Taffy down to Silverstone today for the penultimate race of the UK Formula Renault season. Luckily we had additional passes today, which meant the full BRDC hospitality. Spent most of the day in the Clubhouse surrounded by the driving elite (Damon Hill etc). You can’t complain.

Adam suffered mixed fortunes, finishing second in the first round, but then unfortunately succumbed to some really bad luck in the second round which means it all comes down to the next two races.

The final meet of the season is at Brands Hatch in a few weeks time, when the Championship will conclude. I’m not sure if I’m going yet, as it’s a bit of a trek, but either way I’ll be watching carefully - it’s set to be a nail-biting finish. Come on you Christo.

For all the years of cheap lager drinking that went on at university, I have always preferred a pint of something with some flavour and body to it, so I’m a little surprised that I’d not made it to a beer festival before, but then again I didn’t really know anyone who was interested.

It’s become apparent in recent months that George is a very big fan of proper beer, as is Tom, and they both are fully paid up CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members, and I jumped at the idea that a Saturday afternoon could be spent in a tent in the middle of Worcester Racecourse surrounded by a silly amount of good quality alcohol.

It turns out it was a bit of a washout outside (though not as bad as last years complete submerging of the festival in the floods) so most of the time was spent hopping between the occasional bit of hard flooring over the mud, clutching at the ever-precious sampling glass.

I really don’t know how many barrels were in the place, but there were a lot - and a massive choice of bitters, milds, porters, ciders, perries, pilsners etc etc. I’m not exactly sure how much we got through in the four hours we were there, but needless to say we didn’t have many tokens left between us and it certainly was very enjoyable. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel it at all this morning.

Might be tempted to do one of those again in the future.

So the weather wasn’t really ideal for Geek In The Park, but that didn’t stop the forty or so alcoholic web-types descending on Leamington for a bit of a social and some icon-making, microformat-implementing fun.

Big thanks must go to Trev for organising the whole things, and of course a tip of the hat to One Black Bear for sponsoring it all. Jon and Drew’s talks we’re really informative and great chance to quiz them about their methods.

Of note, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many iPhones in one place in all my life.

The week since has been pretty intense work-wise for various reasons, and I’m looking forward to some respite - on Wednesday I jet to Spain with Sean to go and upset Devito for a week. Looking forward to it a lot.

Raj interviewed me for a radio production not too long ago and I’m interested to hear the final results sometime soon. I think I was just overwhelmed at how simple it is to get high quality audio using the very expensive stick mic he has. Nice toy.

I went and splashed out on a DualHead2Go last week, and for those not in the know (probably most people), it allows you to add another screen to your iMac or Macbook, that is, when you already have two. The result, three screens. It’s all powered by USB which is useful, but has the unfortunate downside that the two additional screens it allows must sit side by side, turning my dream setup of central iMac with two satellite screens into a total rearrangement of my office. Also, it’s best to attempt it with two monitors of the same shape and size, as my current setup is a little mind bending when it comes to following the cursor. I maybe in the business of buying a new monitor soon. It looks like I’m running the Matrix. Badly.

Today is a beer festival in Worcester, so it looks like I’ll be smashed enjoying it all afternoon.

Adam was racing again last weekend, and so in the blazing sunshine Will, Henry, Alan and myself sat and watched a good full day of motorsport at Oulton Park (photos here). It couldn’t have been any better, with Adam clinching two further victories, and the excitement generated by eating two Magnums in one day. Yes, two.

After all of that, George, Tom and myself took ourselves out to a pub on a hill in the middle of nowhere (on the way out to Leominster) and discussed music until the sun was well and truly set. It was a good weekend.

And so far this weekend has followed suit. Mike and I took trains down for a night out for Swan’s birthday in London last night - quite a few familiar faces, including some I’d not seen for a while. Duff, Jono, Richie and the rest. I think I went to some effort to convince quite a lot of girls I was a helicopter pilot, but it all got a bit hazy later on, so I’ve no idea if anyone believed me.

This morning after a well-deserved fry up I got back on that train and now find myself back in the ‘Bridge and hoping for some sunshine tomorrow.