As anyone who knows me well (or even just vaguely) will probably be able to tell you that sport isn't really 'my thing'. I have been know to dabble from time to time; golf, rugby, hockey and giant bar jenga (Hall Champion 2004) have all been unwittingly attacked by me, however no other sport matches my complete ineptitude more than Football.

When I was at primary school I was in the school football team. Position? Left back. Not even the joke version '...in the changing room' - I was in the team though in retrospect the fact there were only eleven boys in the class may have had something to do with this. We didn't even have subs. On one occasion I seem to recall being brought off for a girl from Year 5, which must have been the lowest point in my football career to date.

Therefore I have no passion or desire for the game, unlike many of my friends and colleagues who are infatuated. However, I was not going to pass up a free ticket to see a local game if I could avoid it. My trip to the Baggies this afternoon was my first 'home' game, being that the only other 'proper' match I have ever attended was in Milan at the San Siro, which although was enjoyable, was also very high up, very cold, and performed entirely in Italian. It was then a relief to attend a local ground, in warm weather, where everyone speaks English (or something close to it) and to be able to see the players without the Hubble telescope.

The game went well for the blue and white team (which Adam told me were the ones we were meant to be supporting. Joke. I'm not that ignorant) and not so well for the away team which happened to be Portsmouth. It was probably something to do with their vile kit which could be described as bloody nose with a cold. The fans thankfully had more taste and were wearing only the blue home kit.

The final score was 2-1 and it was good to feel a bit more part of the atmosphere than last time. We very nearly were not part of the atmosphere at all when as we walked to the train station that morning we discovered that the trains were in fact, surprise, surprise, not working, but thankfully we hitched a lift with an anonymous man back to Stourbridge where we were able to get a connection to The Hawthorns.

Now home and fed I'm going to get on with some more work odds and ends. Grr. I spent yesterday conversing with DDS about our little business proposition, and guess what? I've generated some more work for myself. We've got some fairly cool ideas so we'll have to see if the effort 'pays' off.

Yesterday allowed to to get on and make real headway in the OEC website - I got back into the nitty-gritty coding stuff after a week break but everything seems to be fine so I was quite pleased with progress.

I sat down yesterday to try and pick what IT products I would be getting next. Unfortunately I don't think Neil has exactly what I need right now so we've come to another agreement which means a little more effort on my part, but does mean that I can buy exactly what I want.

Exactly what I want covers a few things - firstly I need a new camera. I say need; that's probably a lie, but I found out the other day that DDS's brother Joe has just bought a ridiculously cheap SLR, a brand new Canon EOSD 300 (Rebel). I had a few words with him vis-a-vis the quality/is it worth getting one. This has spurred me on to pick me own up, but I'm a bit unsure whether I can afford everything to go with it at the moment. I'll see. Another important thing I need is a decent graphics tablet. My old one is pretty shocking and after having a fiddle about with Tom's Wacom Graphire 2 I'm sold, however I think if I'm going to spend the dollar I'd rather do it on the Intuous 3.

Other investments I'm toying in but clearly cannot afford are a wide format printer and an upgrade of PC hardware. Sister One is going to uni and she's going to need a computer so a new motherboard and processor(s) are needed so I can build her a machine.

Along the same lines, it was A-Level results day yesterday and Sister One headed into school to pick up her grades. There was no particular expectation for anything, except she really quite hoped she didn't get her first choice accepted, and instead would get to go to Aberystwyth. Well it all panned out well for her and that's where she's going.

In my conversation with DDS yesterday we got onto a new business proposition which tied in quite well with my explorations of the WWW earlier in the day and we are going in 50:50. Despite the fact I'm self-employed/run-my-own-business I still don't consider it an enterprise (probably because I've been doing it so long) even though that is exactly what it is. This promises to be a cool little venture - all I need to do is get some designs drafted up.

In the evening I met up with Adam who I haven't seen in over a year. We headed to The Station in Hagley which I've never been to before, but would easily go again. Quite a lot of eye candy about which is unusual for the pubs I end up in generally, and it was good evening of story swapping and lad talk. Also it looks like if I've got some time on Saturday afternoon I could be off to watch the Baggies; Adam being a die-hard fan with a spare ticket and wondering if I wanted to tag along. Should be a good laugh, and I've never seen them play before.

On with the day... this is incredibly spritely for me being the morning after a few...

In an effort to avoid embarrassing myself (again) for the meeting at the Old Ed Club today, I donned suit trousers, shiny polished(ish) shoes and a shirt. Looking sharp. The meeting went well and progress is good. It looks like we can aim to launch on the 1^st October, providing everything carries at the pace it has been.

I've got one or two issues to resolve, hopefully avoiding having to learn new languages (ASP.net, hmmm). I've also tried to make progress with all other clients on the books. Nick spoke to me earlier - another leaflet, and provided I get the info in time I'm going to do it. Dan says that tomorrow he is going to speak to me which will hopefully bring about the conclusion of the Tours4 project and then this evening I've spoken to Tongy and ended up knocking together some business cards.

Although today has not been entirely straight forward. Apparently 85x90 is not the same as 90x85, and it wasn't noticed that the SX advert for the term planner was the wrong orientation until today. This was then followed by DDS requesting the files for the lab coat in Corel Draw format (urgh). I like drawing lines under projects and this upset my organisation of the day.

I ended up deciding to postpone my drink with Adam until tomorrow, which coincidently is Sister One's results day. Looks like there is every chance she will be down the boozer anyway so it could be quite busy in Hagley tomorrow.

The Pocket Rocket passed it's MOT which is a huge relief. Not that it shouldn't have done, but our F reg Golf is not getting any newer. One day I even hope to drive it.

Had another BBQ today which was good. Also got a chance to converse with Rufio who showed up on MSN early evening. Still enjoying the USA, still getting up to mischief by the looks of things. Can't wait to hear the stories when he gets back. Also abroad at the moment are the Swan, Devito and Mike who are abusing the Spanish and Portuguese. Mike sent me a fairly confusing email that sounded like Swan had managed to forget to wake up for the flight out and they ended up flying first class to Valencia. It's alright for some. Dicks.

One observation in Ireland that I was pleased about was my discovery of a new addition to the Ballycotton grotto. Common to anyone who has visited a predominately Catholic country will notice these oddly placed shrines to the Virgin Mary on the sides of the roads, and Ballycotton village is no exception. However, Ballycotton had certainly gone one extra step over any other religious point of worship seen to date - a sort of 'Pimp My Grotto'. Normally you would expect little blue LED features on a Nova with a 'spoila', body kit and 'mazzif rims', but not in the south of Ireland. No, over here these novelty lights have been used to create a fantastically bright blue halo around the Virgin's head. It does make her look a bit like an oversized Christmas decoration, but then again, I suppose that's what she is meant to be. Xzibit would be well impressed.

Jono is also on holiday from this Saturday which means that on the 25th when I fly out to California we all (The Palace Crew) are going to be out of the country. I don't know how the people of Britain will cope. Maybe with a party or something.

Extra: Just had a random email in with a business proposition come in from someone I don't know, but quite keen to work with me. Could be interesting...

So being away in that place sometimes referred to as Eire (depending on how political you want to get) I discovered that although it has a definite benefit to my progress in photography, it also has a habit of filling your inbox with junk.

I haven't touched (let alone seen) a computer in a week, which has probably proved very good for me as this is the first time in at least a year I have been able to take such a long term break (relatively speaking). Now that's all over I'm back in the thick of it; sitting in a quagmire of communiques. Incidentally, if you left a voicemail for me earlier this week, I didn't get it, so please try again.

I've come back with a fantastic array of memories and the like, most documented on digital which you can see the raw versions here under 2005 > Ballycotton Ireland. I have been very impressed with this set - an impressive 130 photos came back of a least some quality and I think I am making progress with the one-shot wonder technique. My camera is the only thing holding me back now (even if it has surpassed itself once again).

One of the most memorable things for me on this (the fourth) journey over the Irish Sea was how impressed I was with 'the service' at the restaurants and cafes we ate at. There is something about those Irish waitresses that is just a bit too irresistible. Anybody who says it's just the accent is wrong; you don't tend to only pay attention to the way they talk.

The break also allowed me to do one thing I never do and that is immerse myself in a sport. I watched the third test with the Father and got quite excited as the tension mounted. For someone who has never watched cricket before, it was something of a steep learning curve, but an enjoyable one anyway, watching what looked like the decline of the mythical Ozzies. Turns out we all had a nasty trick played on us, but it doesn't matter. I'm enjoying the game more now that when I first arrived at secondary school, was kitted up with two 'essential' sets of whites, only to attend the first practise and be sidelined to play something that didn't require so much coordination like sitting still or something similar.

We stayed in a little place called Ballycotton (Baile Choitin) near Cork on the south-west coast. This was out third visit to this sleepy fishing town where The Mother used to spend her childhood holidays while her father visited people he had known from before the war. I didn't actually realise it until this visit, but the reason my family started going there (back in the 1930s) was mainly because that's where a bit of my family is from. You learn something new.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the Old Ed Club at 2.30pm which I am really unsure what exactly I can do to prepare as I don't have anyway of bringing the site to them digitally, so look like I will be printing out things tomorrow morning. Later I'm planning to meet up with Adam for a drink as I've not seen him since he started uni last September. Jesus, that's a bloody long time.

I have this foreboding feeling I'm going to be spending what free time I have tomorrow and Thursday on the phone and emailing people. Back in the hotseat for one last week before James and Andy hit California...

More fun today with a variety of different things to attend to. Uncle Stanley and Auntie Judy came over today. Strictly they are great-uncle and great-auntie, but for the purpose of simplicity we miss out the grandeur.

It's the first time I have seen them in probably just over a year. Tim (their son) also came over and as expected the afternoon was really nice. Stan and Judy are now getting on, Stan is somewhere in his eighties and his eyesight now failing badly. Aunite Judy is a bit younger, and Tim is around the same age as The Mother and The Father.

I noticed this morning as I prepared breakfast (Lucky Charms - one of the few pleasures of a sister who has just arrived back from Canada) that the space around the fountain in the garden had mysteriously been filled with pebbles. This may not hold much significance in other households, but with the Higgs family, if something is done that has not been done but should have been done a long time ago that means only one thing. Visitors.

I think The Parents think we have to make an extra special effort when this side of the family come over as they tend to do the same when we land on them, except the one difference is that they live in a fantastic, ancient, beautiful chocolate box house with all the trimmings in the Cotswalds next door to the Queen's gynaecologist. Not that this actually matters when they actually get here, as everything descends back to the normal chaos within the half hour.

Lunch was Al Fresco, and we had fantastic sun for a BBQ and salad meal followed by a good afternoon in the garden with conversation to match. I managed to explain to Uncle Stanley what an iPod is and tried to give him some reason to accept digital art as genuine art form. Unfortunately I couldn't illustrate the point as his sight is now so bad things are no more than a blur. Once upon a time he had been the greatest silversmith in the country (not an exaggeration; he won the awards to prove it) but the strength of the welding light damaged his retinas and despite a cataract operation a couple of years ago, the situation has deteriorated since. I like to talk to him though, he is always interested/interesting, but I would have loved to see him work too. Unfortunately that never will be.

Once back inside (following relatives departing) I went back inside and finished off the project I had started this morning. I am well chuffed it only took me a few hours to knock out this website for Mike; a sort of favour for him doing a drawing of me and the other lads.

Oh yeh, I'm off to Cork for a few days, so unless I figure how to do this while I'm away in a tiny little sleepy village on the south coast of Ireland, it maybe a little quieter than usual.

Transferring from one webhost to another is always a bit of a hassle, but this time it seems to have gone fairly smoothish. I have had one or two issues today with some faulty security settings, but Luke from Tech Support reckons it's fixed now, which is nice.

I had a lovely email from my sister's boyfriend first thing this morning. As far as I was aware we were having a purely business based relationship, but for the second time this week I may have become embroiled in a sordid case of mistaken identity, as my sister's boyfriends don't usually entertain me with the opening line "i wuv u o so muchness babycakeseys rah". I think it might be wise for him to sort by first name in his address book so that I don't sit right next to my sister to avoid further confusions. After I notified him of the little slip-of-a-click he did later admit "ahhh yes thats just a bit embracing really inst it". Poor lad, and I accepted the apology (like I needed it, I was too busy laughing and trying to bring it up in conversations where my sister was present).

I took the bike out for ride today and realised unbelievably sans-athletic I have become. However, I was surprised at how well I rode considering it's been years; I've decided that it definitely will be coming up to Lufbra with me.

More work on Tours4 and Old Ed Club stuff, but it looks like I could be tying the bow on the former tomorrow which will be a much appreciated relief. Oh, one thing I don't know I mentioned previously but I'm quite excited about is that Neil from MMDownload got back to me ont he topic of payment. He doesn't reckon he can do much in the way of iPods or cameras (which is a bit of a shame), but it looks like I could be getting a considerable hardware upgrade coming through. I am quietly hopeful about what might turn up - there aren't that many things that can make a modern computer fly...

Today is Sunday, but if I didn't know it was Sunday, I would definitely think it wasn't. Today has been full of things that don't happen or don't happen often.

For example we went to Ashwood for food. This experience is one that harks back to my childhood, when we didn't realise that being carted along to a garden centre for lunch wasn't exactly cool. Nowadays if the Mother cannot be bothered with the hassle of Sunday lunch and Grandma still is due to come over we once again resort to Ashwood Nurseries.

There is one draw to eating at the nurseries, which is that they only employ waitresses, and I'm fairly sure whoever does the employing is male and has a good sense of taste in regards to the picking (on the whole). It is the one true saving grace of a place where the size of the drinks are too small and the portions of lamb not quite big enough. The last time I saw anyone the same age as me but not clearing away the dirty plates was probably around the time people used to use the words 'Street Cred'. Garden centres really don't do that much for 'Steet Cred'.

Later I washed my bike - a necessary task as it hasn't shifted from it's position in the garage in well over two years. I doused the whole thing in water and fairy liquid, and tried to scrape away the layers of grime to the best of my ability. After my first attempt I discovered all I had done was to liberally wet the top of the grime, and so tried again, this time with a bit more gusto. The bike looks fairly sparkly now. Following the aesthetic aspects I thought some air in the tyres might be appropriate as riding on vacuums isn't much fun. There was literally nothing in either tube and I think both may have punctures (a long standing injury that I never attended to). As I finished up oiling it, Nick arrived and so I haven't even sat on it yet.

The afternoon was spent sorting out the last of StudentXtra stuff before I go off to Ireland. I had thought that Nick was due tomorrow, but clearly something got lost in translation and we sorted things out today. Busy, busy, busy. Midway we took a break for some athletics (Nick knows Kemal Thompson) and food, then it was back on with stuff until about 9.30pm when we called it quits.

Also today is the day the servers switched on this site. That means mass inconsistencies, things going wrong, panic and anarchy, me having to rewrite half the scripts for my pages (why isn't there unilateral implementation of ASP components? Grrr) etc etc. Thankfully the people here have been ditched. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

TV was crap tonight. Why can't they put something decent on?