You may have noticed one or two things about the blog (in fact the whole site) recently. The first is obvious, and that is that if you checked here in the past two days, well you wouldn't have seen much at all. Secondly you might notice that this page is a couple of paragraphs short of a weblog.

To say I'm a little annoyed would be an understatement. It turns out my trusted web hosts managed to burn out the server my website, and the Echos website was hosted on during an upgrade, and for three days failed to get any replacement up and going. At the moment I am still encountering some technical difficulties while they reconfigure everything to the way it was before the apocolypse.

Number two, which you may have to be slightly more observant to spot is that the last couple of entries have totally dissappeared. In fact, before I did my little salvage job (I love you Google cache), I nearly had lost a weeks worth of entries when I discovered that the entire database was corrupt. The only non-image file that was corrupted by the whole process.

I have spent the best part of the afternoon downloading then re-uploading the files that were not corrupted on to a new server (hopefully 'Bishop' is going to be a bit more reliable than old 'Fantomex' was), then then replacing all the images I lost.

This next bit of this is going like the part of Blue Peter when they sit the dog down next to the Totaliser and tell you what you have to do to help some poor helpless soul. If you, or anyone you know, reads this, can you just check that you haven't got a cached version of this page on your computer somewhere please. If you know a way of online data retrieval aside from the Way Back Machine (I tried it to no avail) please could you get in touch. I would really appreciate picking up the missing entries - all I need is the text and the date. If not, those fabled verses are consigned to the great infinite internet dustbin. Truly rubbish.

As I wasn't able to post my usual communique for three days, I will do my best to recap the events with as much detail as I can muster following this prolonged period of idleness.

First thing's first with an update on the house, which I slavishly worked away at on Monday. After playing the ISP version of musical chairs, Jono and I finally settled on ordering all our multimedia services from NTL. Despite my better judgement (which says it's a bad idea) they do in fact offer the best value for money, and we are not ordering the cheapest of their services so we may just be alright. We have opted for the full works as far as digital televisual entertainment goes; 70 channels plus the sports package. Then for the internet connection, a 2MB broadband link which has to be split between five and is capped at 30Gb a month, but should do us provided we don't get obsessed with too many US TV series. Finally we get a phone line thrown in with some deal on evening and weekend calls. Should be good, could be expensive, but should be good.

It looks like I will be heading up there on the 25th July for a couple of days. We have ordered everything to be installed on the 26th, so someone's got to be in to let the man in, and with Jono doing all his coaching malarkey, it's going to be muggins. I had hoped The Swan could join me, but alas, he informs me today that it's not going to happen. he can only do weekends and it's not going to be the ones either end of that week. Oh well, life once again poos into my pencil case of destiny.

Which brings me swiftly onto the state of the room. After considerable talks and some international intervention (The Father) I have manoeuvred the majority of boxes, books, files, folders, papers, documents (assorted), spare stationary supplies (hence the link) and childhood memories into the loft. Finally I can see some carpet which I now remember is green. There is still an A3 printer, a 3ft inflatable VK bottle, a scanner, two boxes, a large bag and a the entire collection of my university works obscuring my entry to the wardrobe, but progress is being made and Rome wasn't built in a day.

I phoned up Apple to try and get my iPod battery replaced for free, but after speaking to the Aussie on the end of the phone (WTF? Turns out Apple Tech Support is no longer in Ireland, but has moved an entire 180 degrees around the pole. Surely you have to turn spin the touchpad in the other direction on that side of the globe... how useful are they going to be?) I discovered that they didn't know much about it, except that it had happened in the US, and if it was going to happen there (here) we would be emailed about it. Hmm. Great. I can't believe I'm going to be seeing a new battery for a long while. Not like it actually matters; I've run out of space on my little 20 Gigger so the minute I get some touchable dollar, that's getting an upgrade.

I've been a busy bee while the website has been offline, sending emails here there and everywhere in attempt to grab funds from every pocket available. My latest venture has been enquiring as to when the student accommodation deposit refund will be put back in our accounts, as today was the day The Cheque went out, and my credit now has more digits on the left hand side of the decimal point than on the right. No reply as of yet.

Yesterday I took a phone message from a friend of the Parents. Rona sounds like a thoroughly nice lady (in the most aristocratic sense of the verbiage) who would probably give the Queen a run for her money at an Awfully Well Spoken contest. She informed me that she would be serving cocktails by the pool starting between seven and ten past seven on Saturday, that Mother and Father were graciously invited, and that I sounded "...the most deliciously dependable chap..." and she was sure that the message would be passed on in due course. Deliciously dependable. I mustn't forget to put that on my CV.

In an attempt to amuse myself last night I did a search on Technorati for "Lufbra", to see who else the in 'Burra blogs. Turns out that I am representing the educated masses of the town, as this is the incredibly common drivel that turned up. Just because you can txt talk doesn't mean you should avoid use of any vowel except for the letter O, which is probably worn out on their keyboard with the mass of LOLling and OMFGing in your blog. I would suggest to the authors "ritten by sophie n nikki" [sic] that they might like to reed a buk or summit. These sort of people should be ignored until they start using the net properly, like searching for porn.

I was bemused this morning, and it wasn't the first time. No, My Hero hadn't been commissioned for a new series, it was in fact a hygiene related issue. My hair needs a cut and so I took myself to the bathroom mid-morning in order to wash the wax out of it. Now the same thing strikes me every time I go to wash my hair in our house, but until now I had just accepted it; I use the red bottle of shampoo. After taking a few moment to read the front of the bottle this morning it suddenly occurred to me that I have been washing my hair in Revitalising Anti-Aging shampoo for over a week now. Clearly something that belongs to one or both of the Parents. Therefore I had a look around for the plain shampoo. You know, like it washes your hair and stuff. It's green or red or blue, a bit see through and is definitely called shampoo. Apparently not. All I wanted to do was wash my bloody hair and all I bloody got was 'NutriCerimide R', Original Lavendar Source Conditioner, Tea Tree Extract Conditioner, V05 Moisture Soak (would have, but it was empty), Dove Revitalising Conditioner, St. Ive's Apricot Scrub, Pure Zone for Continuous Purity (I think that one is for your hands, but for a while it looked like an option), Brilliant Brunette Volumising Shine Release, Linco Beer Extra Cremey (?), Sunsilk Silky and Smooth and a bottle of Cif. The Cif was the closest thing I could find to friggin' straight forward plain hair washing shampoo. I would have used it as well if the thought of smelling like bathroom furnishings for a month hadn't stopped me.

I watched the Olympic decision this morning. I kept half an eye on it as I flitted in and out of the lounge trying to get the wireless internet kick started again. Eventually, link re-established, I sat down to watch the final announcement. Paris vs. London. Who is is going to be? Turns out we pulled off a little coup (to steal something else French, sorry chaps). It'll be awesome to see the Olympics on British soil for the first time in over fifty years. There are cynics out there, but this will be good for British Sport, and despite you thinking my total lack of prowess and fairly strong disinterest in sport would indicate that I don't advocate such funds being wasted, but come on, it doesn't happen very often, and it'll all be good fun. My favourite part of the whole thing has to be the bid video, which is a really nice piece of publicity. Probably didn't do any bad thing for Heather Small's career reinvention either, but that aside, I'm genuinely happy. It's a bit strange to think however, I'm going to be 27 before it actually happens. 27. That's nearly thirty. Wow, that's a way off.

I watched Bill Bailey's Part Troll yesterday, and was once again impressed. The guy produces another great routine. Admittedly I couldn't understand the regurgitation of material from Bewilderness, but on the whole a positive vibe.

I then went on to watch an episode of the A-Team. Now despite the whole "cult classic" thang with this programme, I'd never actually watched a whole episode (or at least not while I can remember). UKTV Gold is such a wealth of entertainment. Last night however, my world was changed forever. It was superb. I love the lack of a valid story line, the quality of acting and the relationships between the characters. Also the fact that Hannibal's disguises might trick anyone at all.

Right now that's out of my system, I can get on with life and you can have a look at this, which is a brilliant demonstration of music and animation. It's worth reading the about page too (cheers to Scott Wills for posting this ages ago, despite the fact I totally overlooked it).

At 5am I was woken by Sister One. We said goodbye and off she went to Canada. Right now she is somewhere mid-Atlantic eating something vaguely distinguishable as reheated rice and meat from a little polythene tray. Lovely.

This is the start of her five week trek around the best bits of the Canadian provinces. It's not quite as adventurous as James and my trip a couple of years ago - most of it has been preplanned - but it should be a really good experience for her and her friend (Hannah). I think their general plan is something along the lines of flying into Toronto, staying with Auntie Kiki for a week or so and exploring the city, then flying internally to Alberta. Here they will land in Calgary and then travel down into B.C. eventually coming out of the Rockies into Vancouver and then Vancouver Island. Sounds splendid.

From my time I was out there the best bits were mostly at either end, but one place I loved that all the guide books said we shouldn't was Winnipeg. I think it was mostly due to the Fringe Festival and the amount of entertainment we drained from that, but it was the only place that we stayed two nights in a major city anywhere between Ontario and Alberta. They won't be seeing that, but I think they may be getting a better deal on Vancouver Island. We only got as far as Victoria (we were only on the island for a day), but they are staying for around a week taking part in various activities, mostly water based I think. Something I've never done, but would love to do. Sometime I will.

I could have written a blog entry yesterday; I was sitting in front of the WDM all day. However, when it came to spending another minute sat in front of the damn screen I simply couldn't take it any longer. I spent most of the day trying to sort out a new payment system for the StudentXtra site. It drove me mad. It's mostly in place now but there are still a few holes I need to patch before I can set it live.

This is my first true e-commerce site - the concept being that people will be able to buy their cards and renewals online, but you try to get the damn thing to work. Oh well. I really need to start earning some hard cash as there still has been little in the way of money progress. Even going down the pub is going to be a struggle at this rate. Grrr. It's not even like their aren't any projects lined up, it's just getting around to finding the list which I wrote down, or tracking down elusive clients. It'll all fall into place soon. I hope.

The night before last I indulged myself in one of my great passions when I am at home. Most people would rather stick pins in their own eyes than actually have this passion themselves, but I do get a bit addicted to spectating on politics and things, so sat down to watch QuestionTime and This Week for the first time in ages. Everything seems in check, so thats me done.

One thing that did catch me by surprise this week was the death of Richard Whiteley. Not that I'm a Countdown viewer or anything, just I thought if there was any man with true stamina and who would outlive us all it was him. The guy seemed to have persevered for decades and the only thing that had changed was his tie. I think I heard an audible gasp of air when they said they might not be making any more episodes of Countdown, which unfortunately due to the age of the audience might be the last thing most of them did. R.I.P. Richard. You truly left a legacy, even if it's the best part of Britain's (remaining) elderly population kicking cans around in the streets and spraying vowels on public toilet walls for a lack of anything else to do.

State of the Room: Still a state. The mother has just come in and berated me about it. Something has to be done. I still can't see the floor and I was informed yesterday I'm having the carpets changed. Ok.

Right, I need some lunch.

I'm quite pleased that I've finally got around to posting some new work on DeviantART. I used to live and breathe that place a couple of years ago, but ever since the Great Apocalypse (where all the good artists got swamped out by the not-so-good ones, I have very rarely done much than spectate on the main articles and Daily Deviations. Despite my lack of involvement I have always remained proud that I was there from pretty much straight after the start - I remember coming across it when looking for a new wallpaper. It was just about the time that I had discovered Photoshop, and afterwards began submitting my own digital creations. That was in 2001.

Not that I wasn't as bad as all the other 15 year olds now, just it wasn't so busy, and people were a bit more generous with their time. But things change, so that's that. I'm not going to abandon the place, but I think I'll be lucky to get more than two or three comments on any of the work I've just submitted.

I had Subway for lunch; the first visit to the new and fabled Stourbridge shop. It was lush. It always is. One of my friends tryed to pollute my mind with propaganda the other day that the bread contains nothing but reconstituted potato starch, but even if that is true, my ears have been sealed from the start. Give me another.

Another great food re-discovery I made the other day was GrapeNuts. Not the most tasty sounding of breakfast cereals, but it has to be my number one - right up there with Lucky Charms. Trying to come by either of these is usually stopped by the prohitive price tag, the fact they stopped importing them, or simply in the case of the GrapeNuts - the box is too small to notice in a supermarket.

I ran into Brian Carpenter this morning. This is the first realisation the year is over - now two years on after I departed OSH. He seems to be doing well, and Neil, his youngest, has just finished up at OSH. It won't be long before he decides to retire I would have thought. It's funny that in just the two years since I left there has been a distinct shift in staff. The Old Guard are handing over to the new. Quite strange to think about it really. By the time I'm twenty five most of them will have hung up their Dry-Wipe markers.

Nothing really has moved on the work front today as Mike called to cancel our lunch appointment and move it to tomorrow. I spent this afternoon browsing through my photo collection and holding casual conversation with Gwyz over MSN. Lazy days, but it's sooo nice.

I still haven't replied to all those emails in my inbox. If you are waiting on a reply, please give me a kick. I wan't to get on. The only ones I seem to jump to are the ones involving amusing conversations with people e.g. Emily and Waddle. Despite my inertia, everyone else seems to have a bit of the same too, so I can't totally be blamed. The number of emails and phone calls I'm waiting on is innumerable. That's what the summer does to us all.