Last night was good fun. Louisa had organised a house party for her birthday and so we all marched over with a crate, a bottle of Vodka and plenty of high spirits. A number of hours, a few glasses of punch, a plethora of drinking games and a couple of bust ups later and the night was well and truly up and running.

There were lots of familiar faces - many of whom I haven't seen in a while including Nadine, Nature, Sooz, Daisy, Wolf, Ibs, Emma and Duffy, Johnny and Greg, plus others who I do see more regularly like my housemates and Mike. It gave an opportunity for some Fresh to learn some of our best games; One Frog, Bunnies (with a brilliant new 'It's over there!' rule), 21's etc, etc.

Then it was on to Echos where Irish Johnny, the Swan and myself spent the end part of the night pulling some awesome shapes on the dance floor. It didn't seem to impress. Once back at Johnny's house we played Pro Evo 5 until the early hours until I got bored and went home.

I woke up at 12 noon, which in new money is 11am, but still late. I slowly got up, just in time to cycle over to Rosie's for our weekly design studio and then come back for an afternoon of sorting things out like the updates to Tongy's website. All good.

Sean had a bit of a barney earlier when we locked him out of the front room while the game (Newcastle - WBA) was on, but fairs fair as he did manage to block me into the garage this morning just in my nightwear. However, as far as he was concerned when your team is playing it's a totally different kettle of fish. I don't see what the problem is; Newcastle isn't anywhere near Essex anyway.

It only took me two weeks (sort of) but I finally made it out in Lufbra. Both Thursday and Friday nights were really enjoyable, and a big release of pent up energy.

There have also been a number of other developments that have cheered me up a bit - firstly I now have a product for the RSA brief. About this time yesterday I was pretty stressed out, even considering changing my choice of design brief, but thankfully a chat with some other finalists and some sketching resolved the issues and I'm now happy that I think I've got a pretty killer product.

Secondly, last night on the way back from a very enjoyable FND, we found out that Towers fire alarm had gone off (3am - jackpot). We have a pretty good idea how it happened (it didn't come as a surprise) but we thought that we might as well make it a social call and headed into Victory Hall while they sorted it out. Devito and Swan proceeded to have a race in the hall, which didn't go down at all well with Besty who demanded an explanation. Thankfully I got away scott-free, partially because I didn't have anything to do with it, but since it wasn't me in the crap, I hung around for a bit longer to talk to one or two people I'd not seen in a while, and the other slunk off home.

Tonight is Louisa's birthday, which means house party. I'm not in the mood for big boozing particularly, but we'll go and make ourselves know anyway. Last night's ploughing through a crate and a bottle of vodka certainly made for a good evening and a hazy morning. Saying this, I have managed to make myself useful and do at least some cleaning, as The Palace is looking a little non-palatial at the moment.

Bloody Student Loan company. They couldn't organise a loan in a money shop. In fact, my issue isn't so much with Student Loans as the LEA, who informed me today the reduction in loan of £2000 wasn't a clerical error - sending me the £1000 extra in the first place was. Therefore I'm spending my time trying to plan my expenses in regard to my new rubbish budget. Not a happy puppy.

In an effort to drown my sorrows and rejoice at the hand in earlier today I'm going to Lloyds for food and Lianne's birthday. I don't know whether to go out-out. It would probably do me good, but I'll just see how it goes for the moment. Tomorrow is definitely a big night. My housemates have decided I should be in charge of organisation, which is nice, except I have to organise it. More work (well not really, but I just want to chill with the still then go with the flow - if you grasp my drift).

I was up until 3.30am writing out my report on diabetics and how valid my product is going to be. I was quite glad it was sunny this morning, or everything would have been incredibly dull until after lunch and handing it all in. Roll on the weekend.

I've a new lease of life. In a state of total disillusionment yesterday I managed to put off and put off work over and over until just after dinner when I nearly fell asleep in front of the TV. At this point things were looking decidedly bleak for the future of my degree. It was then the thought of coffee struck me - the antidote to student sleepiness, and not quite as taboo as hitting the ProPlus.

To be exact the thought was Iced Cappuccino, probably my most favourite chilled drink in the world. This can only be acquired from one place in the vicinity at that time of night. Tescos.

I knew I had a shop to do, and so peeled myself up with the thought of creamy, iced cappuccino pulling my dawdling body towards those big blue and red doors. Inside I came across Jon (my constant reminder that at least I've done more work than at least one person on the course) before doing a weekly shop, going home, putting the coffee on ice and getting ready for a night of report fun.

And it worked. Several hours later I had the basics of a report and few more pages of solid logbook content. This gave me a strong platform to work from this morning and now I only have to apply some finishing graft to get this all out of the way.

Projects are already mounting up for when I finish. Dynamic Teamwear, StudentXtra, Fragwear, Dandy and today a brand new client asked for some help with some fliers. That is the last one for the moment as I'm swimming in creative work already.

I was approached by a woman this morning as I walked away from uni. She asked me where the medical centre was, and despite how sure of my answer I was ("take a left"), she was absolutely positive I was wrong ("I think it's on the right"). I'm not too sure why she bothered asking if she was positive she knew in the first place. Anyway, she was wrong, so I can have a laugh at her expense anyway.

Okay, so I thought I'd got to jack in that infernal idea about the 'diabetic kit' solution. Turns out I was wrong/mislead/nieve or something as I'm back on track to write a concise and justified report on why this is the best major project for me to do. Hmmm.

This is partially due to:

• A conversation with a tutor
• A conversation with Jim
• A blind sense of drive (that came from nowhere)
• A rush-hour conversation with Butts
• An inability to think of a suitable replacement product
• A looming deadline

Although I did have some attempted assistance to get me on the straight and narrow (Richbrown and Jon), I think I've managed to map a course that means that I can carry on with my initial choice of project without feeling totally ruined by the fact I have had no confidence in it.

Other things of note in my life at the moment include the following. Sister One is no longer visiting this weekend. The plan had been that she would come up to attend an Ultimate Frizbee competition at the uni, but this has been cancelled. Secondly, DDS and I met with Sven from Mythical Monkey yesterday, and they seem pretty keen to work with us. Unfortunately due to this damn handin on Thursday I can't really afford the time to sit down with DDS and write a business plan until after it's all done and dusted, but we're both looking forward to branching out with the added benefit of helping charity (the opportunity sort of leapt on us).

Nick phoned me and told me my business cards have arrived. Apparently there are around the 500 mark, which is one hell of a lot of business cards. Good job though; can't wait to actually get my mitts on them.

I also managed to sort out my bike issues today in one foul swoop. I visited the bike shop over the road where I explained how much a muppet I had been with taking the front wheel off the bike and could they fix it for me. The guy did and told me to tell people I know about them, so here it is; Go visit Cycletrax on the Tescos/Macdonalds roundabout - they fix your bike for free while you wait. Hope that's good enough. I also fixed my moronic bike lock and posted 70 quids worth of photo orders. Sweet progress.

I've just got back from home. Jon drove me back and we had lengthily discussions about polo and then coursework, which the latter is driving me insane. I had a project, but now I have no confidence in it. I am basically trying to design a box, or at least that is what it could easily turn out like. I cannot pursue something I don't truly believe in, but with the proposal report due in on Thursday, I'm waiting on a sheer miracle.

Last night I went to Tom's for his 21st birthday. Black tie and marquees; I took a bottle of champers and upon arrival sampled the local beer on offer. Good stuff. Considering I haven't been out in over a week (the Friday before last) I came away from the event pretty sober. It was a good chance to see some people. Darwus was there, as was Donk, Ozzie, Tim Snelson and Tom (naturally). All the folks were there too - all enjoying the alcohol as much as the younger ones would be a tactful euphemism for them all being as drunk if not drunker than us.

Mrs D (James' mum) was shocked when I tried to flog her 200 cigarettes, so I sold them to James instead. Everyone was also rather keen to know how 'the business' was going. Most people appear to think I've already made my first million, unfortunately nobody has given me the bank account number for this mystery money yet.

Also present were Chris (Tom's younger brother), Ryan Reese, James Evitts, Si Chambers (Donk's younger brother), Louise (Donk's older sister) and plenty of Tom's elder relations. I'm not quite sure how they took Donk's (very, very risqu� amusing) after dinner speech about his mate, but I was in hysterics. Also one of Tom's mates from Manchester got incredibly drunk and was not only was coming on to one of the 65 year old guests (hanging on with his arm around her neck), but also when she said she didn't know what he meant when he started saying "...effing this..." and "...effing that..." he was more than happy to substitute in the real words for her.

Now I'm back in Lufbra trying to sort out my bag of stuff and iron out the creases caused by my housemates on my MSN. The bastards.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. This morning I attended my Dragon's Den encounter - slightly caught off-guard that I was the first person to be called - I managed to apparently (although I'm not sure how) dig myself a hole and lie in it.

I think the first major problem was that the post-graduate member of the panel was diabetic himself. I got the impression that because he allowed himself to reel off a massive amount about his own condition, convinced that as a non-diabetic I didn't know anything about the subject and how-dare-I-even-consider-tackling-it. This did little for my confidence. Especially since I am coming around to the idea that my original idea is basically just turning into a 'nice looking box'.

Contradictory to this, the afternoon tutorial was considerably more positive which means I am now totally confused. Why don't friggin' awesome ideas just come along when you need them? If I can' think of a good change of tack over the weekend I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

The rest of the day was spent entertaining coursemates. Jon has been over three times, and both Rosie and Rich have shown their faces. We finally got around to watching the DVD from Jon's party (really good - but they couldn't get it working on the website) and had a post-movie lengthily debate on the intricacies of relationships.

Later on Jon came back over and we did what I've never done on a Friday night in Loughborough - we went to the pub. Not even the Orange Tree - this was as local pub for local people (The Old Pack Horse). I'm fairly sure the barmaid and most of the patrons were wondering what on earth had possessed us to make such a strange move; but they served some good bitter and it gave good opportunity to talk about girls and the course (something which FND invariably stifles).

Tomorrow I am off home for Tom's 21st. Blacktie and all that. This next week is going to be an interesting ride.