With everyone in my family out of the country on holiday, and everyone else I know in London, I appear to be the only person not on holiday. It’s even a bank holiday weekend, and still, I appear not be on holiday.

That said, I managed to catch a couple of schnifty pints with Liam and Raj on Friday and am fully intending on a visit to The Smoke next weekend to run into Devito/Swan/Sean etc, so it’s not all misery. Add to that the great weather, my upkeep of early morning daily fitness for over a week and the fact the cupboards are stocked to the hilt with olives, pesto and smoothies – I’m actually quite enjoying this slither of summer.

Deako and I have been in talks about a photography trip to the lakes in the coming weeks which will be the first real walking I’ve done since finishing school but I’m really looking forward to it. With flights to New York from as cheap as they are, I was really tempted by a trip across the pond, but I think that will have to wait – there are a number of other and more essential purchases that need to be completed first.

I’ve also gone and pre-ordered the new Foo Fighters album; after hearing the first track, The Pretender, I’ve got all over excited. Can’t wait.

Why is it that I can’t find anywhere that sells sunglasses that fit my face or doesn’t provide some obstacle to purchase like a gaint cardboard label cable tied to the frames? Probably the most difficult purchase I make every six months (my sunnies invariably get sat on/trod on/dropped/bag-crushed), I have yet to find an easy way of replacing the last pair. After walking into every shop in Merry Hell on Saturday, I couldn’t find anything suitable. My frustration mounts.

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Saturday brought with it the August Multipack and despite all my hopes of having something to show in terms of a new design for the site, events conspired against me and I didn’t manage to finish what I’d started. Hopefully this next month will prove more flexible on the weekends, but what with Devito coming back in the next couple of weeks, a photography trip on the horizon and one or two other things in the diary, I’m not sure it will.

I completely forgot to take any photos of the event, but did manage to capture the action of the beach volleyball going on in the torrential rain in Centenary Square.

I was surprised and delighted to spend 20 minutes this morning unwrapping a parcel I had forgotten about – a set of Harman/Kardon Soundsticks II that we’re one of the rewards of keeping a blog over the past few months. It’s nice to finally get rid of the big CD changer – though it’s done me good over the years, it’s a little overkill and the sound quality definitely isn’t as good as this.

In an attempt to reach a more sensible structure to my day whilst still incorporating my daily pool lengths, I arrived at the health club at 8.00am this morning only to discover my membership doesn’t start until 8.30am. I would have been annoyed had it not been for the fact nobody had yet touched the newspapers in the bar and with hardly anyone about I got a bit of solace before getting down to fitness. Which was nice.

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And so ends two days in Southampton or thereabouts. Aside from being so laissez faire about trains times which nearly meant I spent another night down here, everything worked out pretty great.

I got in before 9am yesterday and was met by DDS in the Peugatti (part Peugeot, part Bugatti) and was whisked back to Chateau Currin for a bacon breakfast and morning meeting. After getting that work out of the way, we spent a while seeing the Beaulieu sights including some classic cars, part of the New Forest and the marina where the sail boat is kept.

The real reason for coming down was the meeting yesterday evening with Lorna, who had come back from London that evening. After some fevered idea-thrashing and date planning over a pint, we came away pretty satisfied and with a list of things to do of the coming days. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Being Cowes week, we couldn’t resist the lure of Solent, and so early this morning we picked up the floodtide and took the boat down river. We got as far as seeing the Isle of Wight before the wind gave up, so we moored up briefly and went for a swim. It wasn’t as bracing as it could have been, but great fun to be back on the water. The last time I was sailing a craft that size was well over eight years ago, and I’ve been dying to get back out on the water ever since. We called it a corporate event, as strictly, this was a business trip.

The rest of the day has been strategising and the rest, once again in the slightly unusual setting of a back garden in glorious sunshine. If only every day at work was quite so refreshing and holiday-like…

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Being that it isn’t actually 7am yet, and that I got up at 4.45am this morning, I’m doing incredibly well. In fact, I’d go as far as to say I’m actually enjoying this train journey.

Two days in Southampton with Currin for a meeting and to hash some ideas together means that I’ve had to set off early to get a good ticket, and on a morning like this, an empty cabin, a table to sit at, the smell of fresh coffee and the early sun streaming through the window panes has made it more than bearable.

I can only speculate that by the time I reach my destination all of that will have been swept under the track, replaced with a squeeze of passengers, the smell of BO and weather that would drown a duck. It’s meant to be wet according to the weather forecast.

I’m made all the more chirpy by the over enthused Apple-fanatic in myself, who has been doing somersaults since yesterday evening when Stevie J drew the cloth back on the long awaiting iMac refresh. I’m also excited by the upgrade to iWork (I think that is indicative of something).

Eitherway the new slimmer enclosures look great, and fairly close to what I had imagined. I had assumed they might have been even thinner (getting down to 2cm flat really would be a massive ID achievement, but there had been rumours of new aluminium enclosures and a lower profile is an obvious direction, even need, now (akin to the expected appearance of video on the iPod a couple of years ago).

The reason I had been so unsurprised at the new design was due to the leaked photos of the keyboard last week. It was quite obvious if this was a real leak (greeted with much scepticism until I saw the level of detail and number of photos) that the new Mac was going to be of the lo-fat variety.

I think the new keyboard design is very sleek, and glad that I had waited out on the purchase of a bluetooth setup a few months back. I’m seriously considering a 24” model (I’ve been waiting for this launch for about six months and sort of scheduled in my final switch to Mac), but am holding back until Leopard arrives in October, maybe even until the first refresh, which I assume will appear just before Christmas (improved chipset I guess, based on previous behaviour).

Whilst on the train I’ve been able to review a couple of the videos that appeared alongside the launch material last night. The refreshed iLife looks very nice, and .Mac has definitely seen a much needed makeover. I still wouldn’t pay for the service, my only real want from it would be the IMAP access on my main email account, and I don’t really see myself switching to iWeb as my editor of choice… The animated online offerings for the photo galleries are stunning pieces of JavaScriptery, and possibly market-leading, even in bespoke web design. Once again the main triumphs of the product is the great attention to detail which just set the software apart from the competition by a mile.

iWork has also been updated, and Numbers, a long hoped-for spreadsheet offering from Apple will ideally be a good reason to not have to renew my MS Office licence. Although Google Docs is fantastic, sometimes internet access just isn’t available, and a streamlined desktop app is what you really need. I’m trying to not get too excited by the thoughts of reams of mathematical formulae (Swan) but this came a pleasant surprise that the jump across should be made even easier.

So resisting the temptation to spend a significant amount very quickly, I’m going to hold for the next couple of months at least, and then decide whether I really do need that extra 500GB of hard drive or 2GB of memory (the answer is no).

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I sent a text to Swan earlier.

“You’ve been in an office selling IT geeks all day. I’ve been working in the Molineux and having drinks with England Caps all day. Who has the better job?”

I shan’t publish his reply.

I do a spot of photography (as you will have noticed), and when I get an opportunity to do a shoot at really cool venue, I tend not to turn it down. I was doing some portraiture for a client of mine which meant we got “access all areas” to the stadium (well apart from the on the pitch – you do not touch the grass).

Not a bad day for it either.

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Now the weather has improved a little and as the car needs some serious attention, bits and pieces of repair work are being done as I type.

In fact, such was the draw of the good weather on Monday, that I sacked off work until the evening and the sun went down, and spent the afternoon stretched backwards in the foot-well reattaching the glovebox to the firewall. Well of course, that didn’t take me all afternoon – the rest of the time was spent taking the bumper off, re-blacking the plastics, switch the indicator lamps, repairing the number plate fixing and filling two small holes in the wheel arches.

I felt very satisfied, although now the whole lot is being sprayed up by Father who takes an age to do these things, but the end job is always impeccable.

I also had my filling this week; possibly the strangest sensation in the world. I was more than relieved to discover that, upon second though, I don’t need my wisdom teeth out immediately or for the princely sum I had initially been told, so now will just wait for a hospital appointment. Five to six months apparently.

Stourbridge has had it’s town clock painted. Not particularly exciting news, but it’s a definite improvement now that it’s been re-gold-leafed and put into the traditional town colours. It’s also nice to see the council making some effort to make the town centre look half decent (which it does right now, which is a change from the ordinary).

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Is it possible to build a Facebook application in a weekend? Yes. I’d show you the (beautiful) fruits of my labour, but I’m not quite ready to show anyone yet. Not that it isn’t finished, just I’ve a couple of other things to polish elsewhere yet.

Aside from learning an API (oh what fun) I’ve spent the past few days sorting out Sister Two’s birthday present, going swimming at least every second day, getting a haircut, writing cheques (old skool), reading the final Harry Potter (yes, I know this is not cool, but since I got through the past six books on resort-ridden holiday two years ago, I thought I’d finish it off) organising trips to the Molineux & Southampton and disassembling my car.

The final one of these tasks is not completed yet. Like with everything in my family, all jobs should be undertaken by oneself rather than paying for anyone else to do it, and hence that is why tonight the front of my car is left grilllless and without lightbulbs.

As it is due in for a service and MOT next week it has been decreed that the touch-up paint work, the bent bumper (not of my doing) and the water-filled headlamp will all be completed beforehand.

Let’s hope I can remember how it all goes back together by Wednesday.

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