Once again I woke late and got on with things digital. So far I have dabbled in Tongy's website, some stuff for French cricket and am now just about to do a little on Matthew Ball's. Mike Lewis also phoned me today regarding some updates on his, so it looks like I'm getting a free pub lunch tomorrow which will should break up the day nicely.

Also electronically related I had a couple of phone calls from Jono regarding the internet/TV/phone deal for the house. I spent a good hour surfing the sites of all the main providers but getting frustrated with the amount of different angles they take the way they provide their own service. Eventually I stumbled on USwitch which I found to be a brilliant way of solving all my problems. I can't work out who runs it, but this should definitely be publicised more to students as by just typing in your needs and location it provides an instant direction to which providers and packages suit you best, right down to the exact channels you want. Very impressed & pleased that I've now got that all sorted. Looks like it's only going to cost and extra 10 quid per month, which is much better than it could have been.

Devito MSN'd again today. They seem to be having very sparkly weather out there which is a rubbish as ours was terminated by a storm last night. Not being such a nice day today, I decided to tidy my room, which has only resulted in me not being able to get into bed again. I'm going to have to start shifting some boxes.

This morning I went into town. Today is the day The Grandma gets her hair done, so a day is made of it as The Grandma doesn't go so quick any more. After some lunch at The Well I paid a visit to a few shops, picking up odds and ends and ideas for things for the house. I'd forgotten what a wealth of dangerous electrical goods and shockingly awful DVDs that Cash Converters can offer to the unsuspecting low-cost buyer.

I also had a perusal around the Live and Let Live exhibition in the Crown Centre. It is put on by Stourbridge College each year to showcase the final year major projects. There were one or two names I recognised on the boards; ex-primary school types who I haven't heard of in years. The quality on the whole was good. A few made me smile, a few made me cringe and a few I still can't understand now.

There was quite a good standard of book illustration, sculpture and photography, although I did wonder about choice of shooting locations, but the artists had done very well considering. I was a little disappointed that the descriptions were too vague with no actual information on the processes followed/tool used etc etc, however I can't complain, I like free exhibits and I haven't been to one in ages.

When I got back home (walk, via the park) I set about Tongy's website again. Progress has been substantial and the CMS is complete bar the control panel which is a bit fiddly but shouldn't take too long. I also managed to complete my first piece of layered portrait vector art. I used Photoshop, but there is no reason why it can't be ported to Illustrator as all the paths are intact. Quite pleased really. It's for the front page of the website and I think it sits well.

Tomorrow I should be able to wrap up here and move on. Good stuff.

I've spent the afternoon (since I got up at midday, the morning was inexistent) sorting out Tongy's website. It's been progressing well, and I think the general outline is near enough complete. now all I have to consider is the content and the management system. Hot stuff. You can check out the plans here.

I'm definitely regretting not getting outside though. Another glorious day. I think I'm going to call it quits now and head outside for a while. I've really got to head down to the post office to get these cheques off for the house. I don't think I've ever been so sad over the departure of a cheque. At least usually you get something in return normally.

I haven't eaten all day. I think I got a little carried away with things. I definitely need that break. Bye.

Dad finally arrived to pick me up at bout 9pm on Friday night. Despite the initial plan to picked up at 7pm, the usual Higgs Family inability to run on time was ever-present. As I hadn't eaten since brunch we made a visit to Mugies and then got on the road.

I got back at about 1am and crashed pretty much straight away. All the stuff was left in the car as by the time we got back the weather was shocking and I didn't fancy standing about in the rain, lugging the World Domination Machine through the deluge.

Yesterday I woke late; thankfully the weather was better and so I made a beeline for the car which I unloaded until you couldn't see my bed covers, then the floor, then actually getting into the room became prohibited too. Eventually when everything was inside an I went about reconstruction of the WDM. It's taken me the best part of a day and a half to string it back up to the internet. Wireless networking does my nut in. Why can't the whole process be more simple, and why does the signal go up and down, when both ends are stationary and nothing is moving in between?

Last night I headed over to Moseley to see Gwyz. Tom was already there when I arrived, and we sat outside with a few tinnies reminiscing and catching up. I think I'm right in saying it was the first time Gwyz had seen Tom since we left OSH, which is two whole years now. A bit later Gingle showed and we carried on well into the early morning sipping at the amber nectar and discussing everything from uni life to politics. At 4.30am we decided to call it a night (day) and hit the sack. The Mother had already explained to me that she wouldn't be picking me up in the morning, so I made plans to head into central Birmingham with Tom the next morning, then catch the train from there.

Naturally British Rail (or whatever they call themselves now) were running to schedule, but in this situation that was a bad thing. They seem to be able to totally cock up the trains getting here on time, but they sure as hell shut down the whole line spot on time it comes to scheduled maintenance. You never hear anyone saying,

"Oh, I was lucky today - the lines were stopped for scheduled maintenance, but the workmen were a little late and they kept the service going all morning..."

yet alone

"When I want an example of good prioritisation I always cite the work of British Rail"

To be fair this is a little cynical, as Sundays is a day of rest, and therefore you can't expect the trains to run on these days. After all, train staff are all religous, or at least religiously watching BB6 at home.

The one saving grace of the day is the brilliant weather. Once again clear skies and warm breezes make for a beautiful day. I love it when it's like this, and so had a celebratory hamburger in the garden for lunch. I am really going to have to push my culinary expertise up to a new level in the next few weeks, as although possible to survive on, sandwiches and jacket potatoes should not be the staple (only) food in your diet.

This afternoon has been spent with The Mother going through all of my stuff. The Parents insisted this occurred today for two main reasons:

1. The place looks a damn mess and if I don't do it now, it'll never get done
2. I can't actually get into bed

The place isn't looking much tidier, but a lot of my old rubbish and sentimental odds and ends are now earmarked for the loft. There is a distinct waft of progress drifting through these walls today.

Lloyds and VisaVersa were fairly busy last night, although it was definitely not the usual student crowd. Crawling with pikeys the place certainly felt a bit more hostile, but this made no difference to our night which we spent in blissful drunkenness and frivolity.

IDR were strictly enforced after food (we hadn't eaten, so it was a burger at Lloyds) and with Mike's friend Rob, and Mikey's made from Bromley, there were a decent number of us. Also present were:

• The Swan
• Waddle
• Mother Nature (just 'Nature' to the crew)
• Mike
• Mike's mate Rob
• Mikey Ado
• Ado's mate from Bromley
• Jono & Lou (late arrivals)
• Ibs & Daisy (likewise)

A few pints later (and considerable lessons learnt in penny dropping tactics/penny evasion manoeuvres) The Swan managed to persuade me that a shot of Wray & Nephew would be a good idea. At the price, and the percentage volume, he was right. However, the smell and taste leaves a lot to be desired. We knew what we were letting ourselves in for and so backed ourselves up with a full iced pint of water (and another pint of Magner's) which went some way to clearing the awful taste. I swear you could use that stuff to burn through metal. Did the job though.

VisaVersa was full and ended the evening well. Swan and I stopped off for a Rainbows, and when we got back acquired a discarded full length mirror that we found lying around at the bottom of the tower. Then I slept.

By slept, I mean had a light kip, as two hours later I found myself wide awake in agony as my toe protested (with energy and vigour) that it was subject to the start of another friggin' ingrowing toenail. Unawares of how to deal with such a situation, I flipped on the World Domination Machine, only to find it wasn't playing ball, and threw a wobbly which took two hours to resolve. By 7am I had figured out I needed to soak the thing (which I could have guessed in the first place) and was still having issues with the PC.

By 8am I had had a shower, soaked the foot and gone back to bed. There I stayed for another four hours until brunch.

The afternoon has been spent mostly trying to resolve PC related issues and packing. I am now going home tonight (a change in plan) and am looking forward to some decent food. This is my last blog made from the Tower, and without sounding to emotionally unstable, it's going to be strange not coming back. I say that, but then again I probably will never think about it ever again.

Well the floor is quiet. Chris has gone to the casino in Notts, Dizzy and Rich made tracks earlier and the only Luis is doing the same packing in his room. He has donated a small household worth of items to me as he cannot take the stuff back to Spain, but all is appreciated as in a couple of months time, I'm not only going to have a room, I'm going to have a whole house to fill with crap.

Back to the pack.

10.30am this morning and I get a call from Jono.

"Yes, I am awake."

This was a lie. I answered the phone after a good stumble across the room, and quickly arranged to be down on his floor in twenty minutes so we could meet and drive to our house (for next year) and meet the landlady to discuss last minute things to do with the letting.

Jono, Swan and I headed over to Landsdowne Road and ran a few questions past Yauli (sp?) before having one last inspection of the rooms. I was a little worried I had been accidentally conned into paying extra for a room that was smaller than it should, be but it turned out I was just being paranoid. Having another thorough look around has really got me excited about moving in.

Thankfully we have been given a spare key which means we can move some of our stuff in a few days early, which will be really useful being that I don't want to have to take everything home then bring it back up again. I thought we had done that for the last time at Easter, but there was a chance I was to be proven wrong until today.

Most things seem to be covered. The essentials like TV, HiFi and DVD are all being supplied by Jono, Devito says he has a George Foreman, the bathroom is completed and the kitchen will be in a week or so. Things are looking up.

Nick and I met up yesterday afternoon to work our way through the remainder of the StudentXtra stuff. I knocked up some business cards for him along with other bits and pieces. That meant I was free today to help Chris with the new online Fresher Guide for the hall.

We also caught some lunch down at Orange Tree - really nice homemade burgers; I'd heard it was good but never managed to sample it for myself until yesterday, and am very grateful to Nick who picked up the tab on account of the work I did. Not a bad exchange at all considering the current cash flow crisis.

My memory-and-fans-and-things arrived this morning, which I have already installed, and am enjoying an extra 1GB of computing power. I can't say I truly notice a difference yet, but then again I've not done anything on Photoshop or Dreamweaver yet.

Tonight is most people's last night. Looks like drinks in town. Woo yay.

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.