I could have sworn I said that I wasn't going out last night under any circumstances, but just as I was winding down to a good, healthy, early night I received a phone call from Pennell asking if I wanted to meet up for a sly one as we'd not seen each other in a while.

I naturally couldn't turn down the offer; despite Paul & Sam living a matter of minutes from me, we still very rarely see each other, and as I hadn't got anything better to do I quite happily agreed. Five minutes later and I'm in the car en route to Lloyds where settled myself into a pint of Magners. This is my new drink. Devito introduced it to me the other night, and after trying it decided it tasted too much like the Bulmers Cider I fell in love with back in Ireland. It's not like Strongbow or Woodpecker, far more refined, and it comes in a substantial bottle, served on the rocks for just two quid. Bargain booze.

We were later joined by some of Paul & Sam's friends, and despite their every attempt to change my mind I manage to steer clear of the Place of Misery that is Pulse.

It was good to catch up, and it looks like I'll be doing some more of that this weekend. Gwyz has been in touch, as has Wellsey, so it looks like we could all be meeting up this weekend when I get home, which is nice.

In the meantime I am having little in the way of luck with the Fresher T-Shirts. Despite my outright optimism that 'Today is the day it's over', every day for the past two weeks something new has cropped up. Today's issue is colour spec issue. Nick phoned me up and told me the printers want to charge something ridiculous for a double full-colour print (front and back, despite them doing the same thing last year at silly-low-cost). This means converting the artwork to three colour. Well I say three colour, but I can't actually do that without losing all definition in the damn artwork, so it's going to have to be five. See attached image for a general idea of the way it's going (blue is the base t-shirt colour).

But something has really rubbed me up the wrong way this morning. As I peeled open the curtains this morning to a glorious day I peered out over my department building to notice a crane lifting a big steel box onto the room. An air conditioning unit. Placed directly above the electronics lab. This is annoying. Less than three weeks ago I was sweating my ass off in that place (there are no windows, only skylights) under immense pressure to finish the project. Now, after I decide to jack the whole module in, they decide to fit the bloody A/C! It's not like anyone is even there in the summer! Six weeks earlier I'd be pleased, but no, they waited until we'd all gone through purgatory, hell and back before they did anything. Grrr.

I think I'm going to have a Mullerice to calm myself down.

Despite my best efforts to avoid spending any more money before I go home on Saturday, I went out last night. The final Monday night out at Echos this year.

It was a good Towers gathering considering there are but a handful of people left here - Devito left yesterday, and that means it's just me, Mike and Swanny plus extras. We've also spent some time with Slimy Tom and Little Steve, playing drinking games up in the common room before we headed out. It's been a while since we've done that and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them; it's all down to that damn Playstation and ProEvo.

I've started to panic about the amount of money I have/need. We've got the first payment on the house coming up on the 1st July; a cool £845, which clearly is a blow to the the bank balance. That is especially true when you consider that I'm not going to be living there for most of the time I've paid for, but there's not much getting around that.

Today I've mostly been confined to my quarters trying to sort out a multitude of little things. I'm trying to crack this photo gallery design in Flash (Actionscripting. Urgh.) and also fiddling around with the freshers shirts (which I recall thinking I'd knocked on the head). DDS and Benji also made an appearance before they disappeared off home, and I followed DDS into town for some food, making the final visit to the 35 York Road Abode before his brother Joe showed up to take him back to Derbyshire.

The Mullerices are still piled high, however I am making a considerable dent in the supply. I chomp my way through them while trying to burn CDs, talk to friends, entertain visitors and worry about rice pudding overload. All this is being done to the backdrop of the James Blunt album, Back to Bedlam which I'm really appreciating right now. Also cycling through my playlist is a bit of Chemical Brothers, Jack Johnson, Donavan Frankenreiter, Gorrilaz and Ben Harper's cover of Strawberry Fields. All that and the Foos of course, I couldn't do summer without it.

After only 4 hours sleep last night I'm feeling a little on the tired side. An early night maybe?