Today marked a milestone in my life. I sent my first fax. I think I may have actually sent my first fax when my Dad had the office, but this was completely independently, using the old fax machine that’s been in a pile of things to go to onto eBay for months. What made the whole experience more executive was that it was international too.

Thinking I am above the con merchants and rip off artists in the domain trade, and needing to purchase a ‘.it’ (Italian) domain name, I decided to dodge the UK vendors who sell at £30 a year, and instead go direct to the people at the top. The Italians.

Sure enough Italian domain names are considerably cheaper if you purchase them from Italians. However, not being particularly versed in Italian (wish it though I may), the process is certainly made more complicated by:

1. The half translated ‘English’ versions of the Italian domain websites
2. The requirement to supply tax numbers
3. The need to make at least two international faxes
4. The fact that the Altavista Babelfish translator ultimately turns any sensible block of text into an incoherent torrent of abuse to the delight of the foreign recipient

Therefore when things started to get hazy in the sign up process, I resorted to what creatives do best, I drew a picture, and it actually worked. The guy at support sent me a picture back. Is this the future of global communication? Has today, the day I used a technology that reminds me of the era of the American Psycho, also heralded the beginning of a universal language?

Clearly not.

But it was fun anyway, and the buzz of excitement is still lingering while I try and work out if my money has simply disappeared into an faceless Italian coffer, or I’ve made sufficiently few cock-ups that I’ve actually managed to purchase the damned domain in question.

In other news… I met up with Will last night. It’s been the best part of six months since I last saw him, but it sounds like things are going well for him. It’s the first time I’ve been out for a drink with a mate in over three weeks, as things have been very busy and with travels coming up, a scaled economy have been critical to paying for flights and visas and things.

That is why today I am going to London again. Probably a bad idea for the wallet, but I’ve not seen Swanny or Duffy for a month, and Irish Johnny is off the China for a year in a week, it’s only fair I make an effort.

Once again, a very brief trip. I may try and make a couple of visits while I’m down, but this is s strictly one-night affair as I can’t afford the money or the time London so quickly eats away.

For the benefit of anyone who wants to travel London from Brum (and surrounding stations) on the cheap, Chiltern Railways do a fantastic off peak saver that costs £15 open return for 30 days, with no need to book. It’s £9.90 with a railcard, and called ‘Just 15’. They also have just launched singles to London (and other destinations all over) for £5 (book in advance by mobile or by email). Worth knowing if you do some travelling around the country.

Right, preparations ahoy.

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For some reason the impetus that was picked up at the end of last week is still with me, but it also has rubbed off on some others, yielding the following.

Groove Armada, perennial favourites of mine, relaunched their website yesterday with demos from their new 12” and the upcoming album. I’m really looking forward to this; Andy and Tom never fail to impress and after rumours a couple of years ago that Lovebox might be the last album I was dismayed. Anyway, they switched label and are back on track. Of course I could pick the website to pieces, but I’m not going to.

Jumping on the redesign bandwagon, I got all excited to see Halifax bank had launched a new site this morning. Brimming with anticipation until the moment I pressed the Sign In button, I was sorely disappointed to find they still haven’t implemented the long awaited updates to online banking. If they made the whole process just a little bit simpler it would be great, and the banner saying changes coming soon has been there for over a year. In fact it was just a rebrand of the point-of-sale aspect of the site. I guess we’ll just have to wait a but longer for anything of any substance.

I dug my A3 printer out yesterday, and was pleased to find that only the red had dried out (being that it’s been over six months since I last used it, that’s pretty good). Unfortunately being that it’s such an unwieldy object, the rest of my office space had to be adjusted so it would fit in. Until now, all my files-for-print would stack up until I had time to batch print on the laser in the next room, but it just got annoying and inconvenient, plus I realised £40s worth of ink was evaporating away, so it became necessary. If I’ve learnt one lesson from the experience, it’s don’t work in a room with one corner that’s cut off at 45 degrees for no apparent reason… it makes rearranging furniture virtually impossible.

I had feedback from two clients yesterday that was tantamount to being awarded a knighthood. That cheered me up too.

In other news, I’m playing with some very sophisticated PNG techniques at the moment, which I’ll probably document soon as I haven’t seen anyone else doing similar at the moment.

I also tried to iSync my phone yesterday, and for the first time ever, it threw an error. Upon checking the error message I discovered my SonyEricsson wouldn’t take the calendar task “Buy a new phone”, which might be considered quite amusing if there isn’t much else going on.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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