Strictly today is the end of the standard break. Lectures begin again on Monday, but first thing tomorrow morning I will be heading down to Uxbridge in London for Devito's 21st birthday gathering, which means the day-to-day passing over of work has to stop here.

First thing to do this morning is sign off some proofs, then hopefully I can get on with sketching and coming up with an idea for a major project. Daunting stuff, as six or seven hours of the hardest work will struggle to make up for the three weeks of none.

Yesterday I took time for another swim, a much needed haircut and going out for drinks with Tom, John, Liam and Steve down the Crisp. Once again the world was set to rights and I don't doubt for a second that Tom and my own conversation over pizza at 1am was the most highbrow conversation going on in the room. These sorts of conversations should not necessarily be left for the drunken musings of Loughborough Industrial Designer and an Oxford Microbiologist. Funnily enough, the subject of 'OSH' never reared it's head the whole evening.

My new UPS arrived also, and my Bluetooth dongle, so now I can happily switch off the power and get 10 minutes extra before the WDM dies (will help if Sean manages to overload the George Foreman again), and also make sure my phone stays synchronised, although I'm still not entirely sure of the settings yet.

I was interested to see that Sony have launched an e-Book, and for the first time I was genuinely interested in what they have to offer. They claim that the electronic ink (it's not a standard backlit screen) is as sharp as text and from the looks of the site it could do quite well; almost certainly better than previous attempts at this sort of technology. Only time will tell if it sells well, but I could definitely see benefits, especially when trying to avoid yet another chance to strain your eyes.