Looks like they’ve recruited Mitchell & Webb to do some UK versions of the Apple Get A Mac Ads .

I’ve got a ridiculous pile of things to deal with today.

This week, according to someone or other, it meant to be the dreariest of the year. It’s meant to be the best time for suicidal urges and feeling down about things, but I’m hoping that this is setting a good precedent for what my 2007 is going to be like. If this was my dreariest week of the year, then things are looking up for a good 12 months.

On Monday it could have been summer. In fact, I had the window open it was so hot while I was working. Clear blue skies and bright sunlight made it feel like June, and I was more than happy to be basking in summertime.

I’ve also managed to get a fair whack of driving in – Sister One coming back from uni and a few runarounds means more time on the road and with my test not so far away, any extra practice is welcome.

And today working on projects that appear to be gliding along. Not so often does everything tie itself up on a Friday morning, but I’m feeling optimistic that by 5pm things are going to be well and truly straightened out just in time for the weekend.

As an aside, I was going to mention that Google managed to get up my nose this week when they suddenly went all javascripty with their image search , but managed to miss the target and blow up usability by accident. Anyway, my plans to have a rant were scuppered when Gaz blogged it before me – but my sentiments are the same as his – so if you want to know how Google have cocked it up, read this .

If you’re a Ross Noble fan, you maybe interested to know his standup at various places is currently back on BBC Radio (Listen Again) and being a 2 hour show condensed into 30 minutes, it’s all the best bits.

One of the interesting side affects of being a webdesigner and working with other companies for a period of time is the evolution of not only your own business, but also the evolution of theirs.

Today I tried to contact a long-standing client about an email I sent last week. It was just a request for a domain renewal, but I hadn’t heard anything so I gave them a ring. The number was dead. I tried the mobile, the same again.

The client is Echos nightclub in Loughborough. A staple of student life; when I was in my fresher year, this was the only place to be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. After I designed the Towers Hall website in 2004, Echos soon approached me to do the same for them.

Not being able to make contact with the boss, I enquired at the Font of all Loughborough Knowledge (Nick) and was shocked to discover that Echos is no more. The club closed for a small repair/refurbishment last week, but after discovering the initial problem was more serious than first thought, the landlord pulled the plug and club became non-viable.

And so that is the rather pitiful end of Echos. No more are the days of sticky shoes and sticky bars. Gone are house ‘tequila’, ‘whiskey’ and ‘vodka’ shots for a quid. Gone are nights and nights of free entry and queue jumps.

I’m sad that ‘Chos has gone. It may have been the fading starlet of Loughborough town nightlife, but most people will still hopefully look back and remember it in it’s heyday – the good times, the fun times and most of all the sticky-and-smelling-of-cheap-spirits times.

In between work, I’m having to scrape together my remaining free minutes and seconds and mould this time into some usable space. With a number of projects racing along at once, and meetings here and there (one this morning in Birmingham), organising my international travels is having to be done in slices.

I went to the surgery yesterday to find out about injections, and despite arriving an hour early, the nurse was able to see me straight away (which prevented much frustration on my part).

It turns out I’m going to be dodging malaria, yellowfever, rabies, hepatitis B and encephalitis. Nice. Thankfully all other diseases are covered by my existing jabs, but the ones named above all come with a price tag tied to the needle. Malaria and yellowfever are manageable, but the other three apparently are a rather weightier £100 each. At that cost, I may just take my chances and avoid taunting any rabid dogs I happen to see.

I am worried that I am on the verge of a purchase breakdown. For some reason, I’ve got that buying itch, and my wishlist includes a Mac (woah, tres expensant), a bigger hard drive for my Macbook, some live saving immunisations, some flights to other countries (it’s just dawned on me that it’ll be six new countries I visit this year), some carbon neutralisation (of all things) and a couple of trips to see friends. I need restraint and I need it quickly before I get anywhere near eBay which has been proven to trigger these types of sprees in the past.

Swan phoned me earlier, as did Devito and Sam. Swan is still jobless, enjoying the company of Mike and his alcohol in Lufbra. Devitio is still terrorising the Spanish and Sam was in her office making the most of free calls. Sean text me at 8am and asked if I had got around to decorating his CV. Funnily enough, I hadn’t.

If you are near a computer at the moment, Gaz has finally launched his site . He started building it in 1996 and now it’s ready for you to look at. Good job Gaz.

Not that I often blog twice in a day, but it’s worth mentioning that despite everything else being dwarfed by what Apple gets up to, Swan has dropped out of his PCGE, Dan flies to America on Sunday and Butts was officially appointed as product manager.

I spoke to Flash last night and he seems to be enjoying his time teaching Design & Tech (the one teaching job I’d consider doing), while on the other hand Swan is considering going to the bookies. Normally this would be considered a typical money-squandering Swan-like-action, but this time he is looking for work, thinking of doing the odds. I think he’d fit in perfectly.

Work is thick and fast, and I’m enjoying the ride.