Today has been totally unremarkable. I should have written up a load of observational stuff for the RSA brief but I didn't. Instead I tried to mend my bike and failed, did some shopping and spent the rest of the day either in lectures learning about my intellectual property rights or printing off the house photo (which, by the way, looks superb).

I just watched Dr. Strangelove which was interesting; what I expected, but not as hilarious as it was billed. More thought provoking than anything, and it certainly has dated.

This is all I can think to say so I'm sodding off to watch the TV. Goodnight.

As if two hours isn't sufficient time to get up and out of the house promptly this morning. I woke at about 10ish then pummelled the snooze button until I managed to drag myself from under the covers, make soup and a cheese sandwich then head for Rosie's house for the road trip.

Cleverly in my haste, I managed to forget to take my camera battery with me, so my photography was limited to using my old Kodak DX4530. I was disappointed that I didn't get chance to check out real life performance of my new toy, but then again it's harder to shoot from the hip with a SLR so it worked out ok in the end.

We didn't end up in Birmingham in the end; due to group consensus we chose to visit Nottingham instead and spent four hours prowling the streets taking photos of as many people going about their everyday lives as possible. Unfortunately this was a bit limiting - ideally I would have loved to have got into an office or some other place with some alternative scenarios, but at least it's a start and I've got something to drop into my folio work under the heading of observational research.

Tonight I find myself exhausted once again. For some reason 8 o'clock seems to be nightmare stay awake time at the moment, so an early night is needed. Thankfully my first lecture isn't until 11am tomorrow so I don't have to rush up and about, but that will give me some motivation to get on with the work after I get back.

Last night was good but nothing extraordinary. Probably one of the most memorable parts of it was Irish Johnny's face when I bought him Echos tequila. In retrospect I think this may have been a little evil, but at the time it seemed a sensible repayment option on the last bottle of 'XXXX'.

Apart from that there is no reason to talk about yesterday, and so I find myself rounding on the events of today. I managed to arrange with Rosie a meet up to discuss coursework (yes, it is a Sunday, but no, us IDT students are hardcore) and at about 1pm we descended upon the Kingfisher estate (Jim, Lianne, Mario and myself). After four hours of constant design related activity I walked home and collapsed in front of the TV. This sort of thing is exhausting, although we did manage to arrange a 'field trip' tomorrow down to Brum. As part of the project we have to observe people in a non-stalker sense of the word and so we thought that it would be most appropriate to go and terrorise the locals of a city far enough away that it would be exciting, but close enough that we wouldn't have to pay through the nose for petrol.

We had our weekly house meeting and I finally got us to head outside for the Official House Photo(s). I came back with a really good selection of photos and we've picked this one to be made into a 8' x 5' poster for our front room. We're also having a party very soon. More details to follow.

Considering that it is 2.12pm, today hasn't so far seen much action. Aside from the random tramp (who looked like David Bellamy 'let himself go') who ran up our drive this morning yelling at us in his urine-wetted trousers, I can't say it's been to exciting. I cooked stir fry for lunch, washed up some of the piles of crockery stacked in the kitchen and managed to burn the back off one of my knuckles due to the evil grill.

I think I'm doing well on the work front in that this morning (afternoon) as I sit down I come to realise that the only major project still left uncompleted is the Andy Ball website (need to get on that) and the tail end of the Old Ed Club project. In a rather jovial state last night I also let myself agree to design a website for Rachel Horton - paid of course - and another artist based project. It's nothing big (if she had wanted anything more than what Mike has then I'd have turned it down) but most of the structure is in place already so as long as it isn't going to interfere with my coursework that's my next little venture.

Aside from procuring work last night I spent sometime playing drinking games, sometime doing laps of the piazza and sometime talking to people who I don't know and people who don't know me. I was however a little annoyed from being mugged off by people on more than one occasion. I'm not holding any grudges - but I just hope those people know who they are and why I'm a little frustrated by their actions.

Mike invited the entire membership of the house to go to Lincoln today. I can't remember whether I agreed or turned it down last night, but I do know that I'm not there now. Although I've never been there and it would be good to get away for a day or so, at the same time I can't afford to splash out on train journeys when feasibly I'm going to have them the next two weekends running.

I think I've just realised the real reason why the number of time I have managed to update the blog in the past couple of days has reduced of recent. A new factor has entered my life since arriving back in Lufbra - cooking. Thinking back the critical 'blog time' of old has now been replaced with feeding myself, which although I am enjoying it thoroughly, also clearly has it's drawbacks and I'm having to find new slots where I'm free enough to sit down and spill my brains.

Tonight is Friday, and so the house are celebrating it as such. We are heading to the Union (for only the second time since I've got back - the queues are ridiculous during freshers' week) and I aim to enjoy. Today has been pretty good activity wise and so I need to reward myself.

Devito and I went to buy tickets for the Editors today. They are playing the union along with (I discovered five minutes ago) We Are Scientists. It's going to be fantastic. They've been on my playlist for months, well before anyone else I know had even heard of them. Come on Thursday!

Actually - maybe it isn't such a good thing to call Thursday on. I've realised also that today is the official end of week one, semester one. That means we are already 1/12th of our way to the Christmas holidays already. Ridiculous isn't it? I think I'm finding some direction in the two big projects my course has thrown at me, but no definite answers yet. Maybe the weekend will yield something. I think I'm going to try to be extra keen - it's the first time I've felt like there is something I can really get my knashers into to for bloody ages.

If you are a student one of the best things that can ever happen to you is getting a free drink, and it's even better if you get paid to drink it. Imagine the sheer delight of my housemates and I when we heard that a market research team wanted a number of candidates for tasting four new sourz shots, and then get a tenner for doing it.

Attending the event did prove difficult - a 7.15pm arrival time was tricky considering Scott turned up to sort out the finalities of some print work just as I was getting ready to go out. I worked the changes as my lasagne slowly went cold on the counter in the kitchen, quickly ate it once the CD was burnt and then all jumped into Scott's car for the ride to the Ramada Jarvis where these mystery student-pleasing events were occurring.

We had to fill in a fair whack of paper work and sign alot of pieces of paper - thinking back I don't think I read the disclaimer, I was far to interested in the room at the end of the corridor to worry about things like that. In fact the wait was definitely worth it. The fruit sourz shots we had to try were really nice. Jono couldn't stop singing the praises even though we weren't meant to talk - sitting in our little white cubicles with a cup of water, three crackers on a paper plate and list of 'rules' and the tasting instructions taped to the wall in front of us.

I found the whole process totally surreal. There we all were sitting quietly along the outside edges of the room, facing away from each other, sipping (and I mean sipping) these shots then filling in a two page questionnaire on each, while a possie of fifty-something year old women whisked back and forth with the completed paperwork and little cups of the luminous liquids. How far away from the situation you would normally encounter this type of drink in was it? Jono was first and did ask whether should drink it the way he would in a club. The server said no, as he should leave a bit for the end questions about appearance. Schoolboy. Nothing was said about when you'd finished the questionnaire the server would whisk it away. I quickly drank the remainder of mine while she was gone picking up new paperwork for Jono.

In other news, I started the Internet and Interface Design module yesterday. I am pleased in the fact I'm finally going to have at least some qualification in my 'area', however this is total basics. I think the best thing I can learn is about usability and accessibility which I would like some formal education on. Seems straightforward enough. The other module I took the opening lecture for was Innovation and Enterprise. I was impressed. The lecturer seems to know what she is talking about and although I did get repeatedly picked on (I owned up to running my own business) I really think this module is 'me'. DDS and I agree the reason that the number of people subscribing to it has doubled on last years numbers is purely down to TV programmes. The fact she used Sir Alan Sugar as an example is only testament to The Apprentice as a year ago the only people who knew who he was were Spurs fans and they probably didn't know what he did.

Still working my way through my metaphorical in-tray, I hope to knock most of this on the head quickly. Coursework is going to bite me if I'm not careful. I've also got to repair my bike which I managed to screw up while trying to reinstall the front wheel.

(Second attempt - power cut)

For some reason the number of entries in the past week has been inversely proportional to the amount of time I've spent sitting in front of the World Domination Machine. I've mostly been working on BUSN projects, but also my business card, and several other projects I should have done a long while back.

Sunday was re-registration day and so we headed over to the EHB where we got our new NUS stickers and met up with a load of other returners both from the Tower and IDT. Afterwards I went around to see Nick and Scott in the innovation centre to discuss a few things before coming back for a house meeting. We had decided that we needed to establish some rules - mostly food and washing up related. Examples of our productivity include:

If someone catches you leaving your light on when you are out you have three options as punishment:

• A slap to the face
• A pound fine to the house kitty
• A shot of whatever spirit we have in the house (currently JD's and Absynthe)

Swan thought this was ridiculous,

"So if I leave my light on I can either get hurt, get poorer or get on the lash?"

Forever the optimist.

We also have established 'Fat Bird of the Week' and have agreed to the purchase of a giant house photo for the living room. Life in Number 67 is good.

Yesterday I waded my way through 20 minutes of course introduction before going up to see DDS in his new room. He spent sometime working on the labcoat project although it sounded like there had been some initial issues although that side of the business isn't really my concern - I've limited myself to Graphic Artist responsibilities.

I was also meant to be meeting with Dan from Tours4 yesterday, but for some reason it never came to fruition, and my attempts to get some of the BUSN work knocked on the head have been delayed by a logo hold-up. Looking back, quite a lot of things went wrong, but I didn't notice too much. This may have been something to do with the little fact that I have Mondays off. In fact as of today I discover I have Tuesdays off as well for the next 2 weeks. Jackers. However I have come to realise that this time is going to have to be wisely spent - and in all seriousness I am intending on working hard. The real issue is not the motivation - it's just the time management. I'm going to burn off these residual projects as soon as I can and get cracking.

I met up with Tongy for a drink last night round at Orange Tree. Good craic. I've got some work to sort on his site, but apparently he's had some fantastic feedback - right from the top. I'm hoping for some testimonials.