My clients clearly are not familiar with the phrase "..then two buses come along at once". If they were I would be a lot less busy, because not only did the first two hypothetical buses arrive, straight after that there were two coach trips, a convoy of schoolkids in transit plus a large queue of taxis waiting for me.

I have managed in a day to speak to the majority of people I work for, based totally on enthusiasm on their part - nothing to do with me. I've had requests for web banners, flyers, animated chameleons, e-commerce solutions (a current headache due to inexperience) and websites (x4 with the possibility of '...many more...'). Although this would make for a fairly rich Andy (if he had the time), it does not however make for a non-stressed out, happy-go-lucky, not-a-concern-in-the-world-especially-about-the-amount-of-coursework-I-have-to-do-in-the-next-month Andy. I turned down stuff I would have liked to have done sooner.

I've got some serious client/course juggling done to keep on track.

However, today has not been a bad day in the slightest. Although there is a large amount of impending proper work, I have had several nice surprises. Number one, I won the department Christmas card competition. Fifty quid in the bag. Jackers. Secondly, Mike supplied me with what a diabetic might consider Christmas-come-early; all the bits I need to reassure me I can do something towards my major project (which really needs some serious attention). Thirdly, I had a fantastic set of testimonials from a client and fourthly I got invited to Towers High Table, and although the food was shocking, it made for a change of scene and I didn't have to cook tonight.

Finally, I won at poker. Well, sort of. I actually was first out, so admitted I was the major loser in the whole thing, but luckily Sean's attention span lasts no more than half an hour, so half an hour later he said I could finish his game and managed a stunning come back to win out Swan (initial bank values; Andy 100, Swan 400). Note that although the figures were high, we were in fact just playing quids in, which means the jackpot was a round fiver. So I can't really claim I won, but I can claim victory, if you get what I mean.

I also heard from Tim today (his new website), he's up this weekend, as is Sean's dad Roy, so it'll be a good Saturday night on the town.

A day's work, although possibly not as exciting as it sounds. I've managed to acquire a new client, despite my plan to restrict my workflow, but I'm hoping for a let up at Christmas to move things on, plus I'm feeling a bit inspired at the moment, so who knows what creative edge I could be standing on.

Basically I've been asked to come up with a brand identity for a new modelling firm (with a difference) and it looks a sweet project to get my teeth into. Unfortunately it's going to have to sit on the backburner until I get my way through the dissertation first draft and the major project (industrial) design work :-(

There was also some physical and digital housekeeping today. The WDM's desktop is clear for the first time in over a year as so is the real one (the one with my wrists on it). I haven't managed to do the shopping though, which means no lunch tomorrow unless I'm brave and venture out now amongst the skeleton crew of Tescos (metaphorically and literally) at midnight.

Tonight was also poker night; well poker night warm up. Jono's ridiculously large set of chips turned up today (weighing in higher than most heavyweight boxers) and so Sean, Devito, Swan, Mike and myself set about teaching each other the bits of poker we know between us. All good fun, however Devito and I were the only two who were totally sober by the end of the event (not going out) but it made for a good spectator sport. Tomorrow is for money as far as I understand; In that case I'd better carry on playing the way I did tonight.

Saturday and Sunday have been fairly relaxed, although as usual have passed by too fast. I managed to get 12 hours sleep last night after turning in early which left me feeling more awake this morning than I usual am.

I spent the rest of the day working through work with Unipal, BUSN, Andy Ball, Ecobambinos and also booked a new client in the athlete model hire business. Productive then.

The rest of my house have spent the day glued to the box watching their way through every televised match. There isn't much else to add, but tomorrow promises to be a bit more exciting.

Happy birthday Broomy! The big three-o! Well, that's not strictly true (he's 26), but much more fun can be had by adding a few more years and making it look really dodgy that he still goes out on the lash with students. Either that or like Van Wilder.

For the occasion he'd hired out the Fusion bar in the Union for a FND pre-party, and selected the inspired theme of Footballers and Footballers' Wives, which basically just gave everyone the excuse to either dress up Essex style or like a hooligan.

As a house, plus one or two others, we chose to go in our own custom football kit. Some cheap t-shirts, scarves and a marker pen gave me half an hour of drawing on people's chests (unfortunately no girls took part) to complete the kit.

The night from this point on was fantastic - yet another great party. Recently I have been blessed with a string of nights with no regrets and no embarrassment to remember which all in all makes going out a lot more enjoyable. Quality over quantity.

I spent most of the night upstairs moving around the various groups of Towers and ex-Towers - I don't think I saw anyone from the course all night which is odd. DDS, Sausages, Blonde, Benji and Ginger Rich were all about, as were Gina, Hannah, Lindsey and Matt, although this is the third time in a week they've been out but I've not seen Lucy out. In fact I don't think I've seen her in months; need to do a bit of catch up. Then there were the usuals; all my house Tongy, Mike, Joe, Nature, Em, Crazy Rach, Zoe, Jo, Caz and Jonboy.

There were some fairly surreal conversations too. I ended up convincing Lynda (Devito's girl) that I was superman using a series of subtle hints (a strange aversion to glowing green crystals, not being particularly friendly with people called Lex). I have no idea what context this was in, or even where it came from, but at the time it made for amusing conversation. There was also some paper scissors stone drinking games going on which punctuated any attempt at a coherent conversation. Tongy gave me the lowdown on his album launch, which partly consists of going back to Miami for the music convention, and partly meeting Kate Thornton, which is nice.

One of the most odd aspects of the night was that over the period of the evening six or so girls (and a few blokes) approach me independently of each other to ask "Are you the guy who scored that Pro Evo goal from the halfway line?". Stranger still, I knew none of them. Now this can be accounted for with two explanations - either my blog is so widely read that I have a cult following of people who chart my virtual soccer progress, or more likely, my housemates briefed over half the people in the room to do it and then the ones who came up and asked were either fearless, paid off, genuinely stunned or just easy to manipulate. I'm opting for the latter.

I had a conversation with Em about my career aspirations when I was a child (again, my memory fails me on the context). I told her about my initial desire to be a magician, then a policeman, then a fireman, then a scout leader. I went back and elaborated one of these with a quote that I'm living in the shadow of this morning (it's a certain person's MSN name). On my third choice career "When I was young I wanted to be a fireman, then I realised I was weak". I can't see me living this down.

Ibs and I discussed Cardiff once more. I'm feeling incredibly itchy now about getting tickets to see the Foo Fighters gig (how can you compromise on Oasis, Razorlight and The Coral?). I'll know if we can do it in the next couple of days hopefully.

Finally, I found out this morning that Borat has made an official statement about the pending Kazakhstani litigation,

"I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew. Since 2003 ... Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hat and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

Brilliant.

Last night was course social night. This once in a blue moon occasion was organised the second year as a pre-party before Hey Ewe, and being one of the few official events we all get together on a night out it promised to be good.

The main bulk of third years (as opposed to third year/fourth years) was made up of me, Jim, Rosie, Lianne, Nikki, Big Chris, Guy, Dickie and one or two others who I don't properly know. I was the only person from my house yet. Being a pre-party, we had to be in Cognito for 8pm, which is far to early to go to the Union, but as we had no choice, we all obliged. We then ended up talking to the only lecturer attendee for the next half and hour, and were pleased to find out about what all the other lecturers got upto at prior social events.

Rufio is an A Grade prick.

Others around were Nature, Mike, Ads and Joe. DDS never showed despite a promise. It was a good night which terminated with a cheese and pickle sandwich and a milkshake back at home. In retrospect this was not a good move as this morning I woke with a dry mouth and reached for the first liquid I could find which was the pint of warm milkshake which I pretty much downed, and if anyone has ever downed a warm milk, the stomach/throat aches will be familiar to you too.

A dissertation tutorial later, I briefly stopped off at the Tower. Besty has got a new haircut - a Children In Need red mohican dyed bright red, and after some chatting with Nature, Em and Crazy Rach I decided to brave the rubbish weather and cycle back.

Part of the afternoon's activities included watching Countdown, prompted by the news from Swan (he does nothing else but watch daytime TV) that there was a 14 year old boy taking part and yesterday he had rinsed the competition, which he equalled today. I'm not even sure if I know what some of those words he came up with mean; I'm not sure whether he knew either - he suggested GLUMP as one word and you get the idea that despite getting MOTLIER and SOCIETAL he didn't actually know what they meant.

We're building a poker table.

UPDATE: Geek Test

Someone under the alias of Towers Dweller challenged me to take this test, and in good faith (and with some apprehension) I took it. I surprised myself with the result, even I think I'm more geeky than this... I'm only the next category up from Tech Support Nightmare and I answered everything 100% honestly.

Not content with having a ass-whooping from me last time, my housemates challenged me once again to Pro Evo, only for me to come away with a goal they describe as the 'best goal in the history of the game'. Beginner's luck or sheer skill? Who knows.

DDS and I had a meeting last night where we got some market research going for Dandy, and I had another meeting today with Unipal regarding a front page for their website. Nothing heavy, just a splash. I've had some feedback on one or two other projects as well which gives me some incentive to work; not that I don't have a vast amount of coursework to consider anyway.

Today I was also treated to a lecture on concept generation which was illustrated with the scenario of a 70-year-old obese female with both arms amputated, using a chin-up bar in a cave. Bizarre but true? Yes.

Pete from the trek gave me a heads up earlier, as did Luis from my floor last year, but neither had much time to talk unfortunately.

I've really got to come up with this dissertation title asap.

I went home yesterday morning. I chose to take the train in and then the lift from the parents back, as despite the coldness of the past few days - it's actually alright outside when it's sunny. En route I bumped into Si at Loughborough Station, then Adam (a guy off my course - was in the year above but took a placement) at Leicester when we changed for Birmingham New Street. Things didn't go to well though - my iPod packed up again and I lost my ticket meaning I had to fork out another seven quid for the conductor. Thankfully he said he would refund me if I found it before I got off, which I did and so managed to catch him and get my money back. I was still annoyed about the iPod though. I took it into the Apple store in the Bullring and explained the problem to the guy at the Genius Bar who listened to it like a telephone for the best part of a minute before confirming my worst suspicion - iPod heart attack.

The Father collected me from New Street and I went home for roast lunch. Very nice. Briefly saw Sister Two before she went out to see the boyfriend and then later went with the Parents to go and see the new Harry Potter film. It's a little long, a little convoluted (unfortunately they can't pack all the book into two and a half hours) but still enjoyable. Also loads more famous faces.

After a good sleep I got up and almost immediately left to come straight back to Lufbra. I persuaded the Father to take me back to the Apple Store to sort out the iPod (I can't live without music) and it cost me a round fifty to get the old broken unit swapped for a brand spanking new old one, if you get what I mean. I might have considered buying a new video one, but I think I'll wait until I can actually afford it.

Back in the 'Boro and thinking I should do some work. No rest for the slightly tired and uninspired.