Tonight I met up with Tongy for a couple of drinks in Orange Tree. The rest of the day had been packed with things like sending out dissertation questionnaires, collating orders and collecting toolboxes. It was also a sunny day, and as I cycled home it felt a though summer had arrived which lifted my mood considerably.

I also nipped over to Olivia's to make progress on the bag. The visit was peppered with much discussion over the TV programming, but eventually we managed to cut the neoprene to shape and I left her to complete the next stage of the sewing.

There had been a number of lengthily conversations over the phone trying to sort out various bits of the day including meeting with Broomy to hand over the remaining journals that Sean hadn't got back to him and sorting out the IDT Stash arrangements. Things are going well if not a little slowly for my liking, although Nick gave me a buzz tonight and the news that he is heading into Brum on Saturday sounds like I could be able to attend a Multipack meeting that I have been trying to negotiate into my diary. The discovery that Easter is not infact this weekend has also left me more free to get on with work at uni.

I think this is the most work I have ever done in a holiday, and we've only just began.

My 9am workshop start didn't occur because of the sleep button on my alarm clock. Before I left the house this morning I also has to rouse Currin who had stayed in Swanny's room as although Blonde had left him the keys to her house, he didn't want to spend the night without the luxuries of the full Sky Sports Package and the XBox which are available to all house guests at The Palace.

I had been up until 1am talking to a guy called Jimbo off the course who needed to interview me for his dissertation on graphic designers. It ended up being more of a social chat talking about his experience designing websites last year and his travels in South America. I think we covered most of the stuff he needed though, although it didn't start early (10pm) and took me right up to bed time.

I finally got into the workshops at about 10.30am and spent the day wondering back and forth, making moulds, vacuum forming, picking up my (very expensive and not very rapid) rapid prototypes and making a general nuisance of myself. There were the usual faces about; Mario, Jim, Rosie, Gemma, Rich, Plev, Tad, Matt etc etc. It was today I realised that this really was the last chance to be working in a calm workshop and the thought is a little scary, especially considering I've since discovered that my RPs aren't exactly the right size and neither is my former that I've been slaving away at for the past two days. Grr.

On the brighter side Jon has said we will meet up early next week and said I might be able to take a run at one or two more MDP parts in his workshop at home which will really be of benefit. I'm now also being forced to do dissertation as the workshops have finally closed and so I've got tomorrow free to make a move on it. This said, Currin and I are still working on getting this stash train moving and I've got another A5 list of things to do to complete in the next few days. It's going to be fun or hellish. Probably both.

With it being construction time and all, it was probably worthwhile me getting into the workshops to start working on some hard materials, so I'm staying in Loughborough for the first week of the break to knuckle down, turn some aluminium, braze some steel and route some prolab while I wait for my rapid prototypes to get done. Still.

Currently the house is occupied by myself, Devito, Jono, with a special guest appearance for one night only by Mr Daniel Currin esq., who arrived at around lunchtime to print off an epic business plan while I had a kip in between workshop duty. He did buy me dinner for the privilege however; Newshouse Melts keep me ticking over.

Last night Mike, Devito and myself went to go and see The Ringer (that Johnny Knoxville film), and that all my predictions of a watery production were proved correct. Some humour, some plot, all wrapped up in a little package of predictability. I can't say I was all that impressed, but at least I can now say that. Forever the optimist.

This evening is being divided between making phone calls, taking interviews and working up a frenzy over my dissertation questionnaire, which I need to get completed asap. There should also be some logo design work, but this may have to wait until workshop duty is completed, despite wanting to get going properly.

Tomorrow is another early start; hopefully no more punctured bike tyres (total today: 1), no more redone MDP2 parts (total today: 1) and no more midday kips (total today: 1). Tomorrow will be plain sailing (please).

I don't have much to talk about.

Quite a lot has happened since the last time I managed to blog. I've had two nights out, been home, been to see Little Britain Live and seen everyone off for the Easter holiday. It's now the first Saturday of the vacation and I'm sharing the house with Devito.

On Wednesday we treated ourselves to a Hey Ewe. I can't remember the details (not alcohol related, just it's been a few days) but I recall it was a good night, and was intended as the final day that we could all go out as a house before we went back home. In reality we also got last night too, as despite my plan to go home for the weekend, I ended up back here early evening, just in time to make a move out to the final FND of term.

If Wednesday had been enjoyable, Friday had not. Although their was a great deal of excitement regarding fancy dress and that sort of thing, it soon became apparent that although I was wearing surf shorts, the dinner jacket and top hat were making me overheat. I also lacked in money, and was resistant to draw out any more after spending the best part of a grand on flights/travel passes/insurance to Tokyo and Australia four or five hours earlier.

I had headed home on Thursday night after one of the most stressful and chaotic days in my university life. The morning had begun tragically with me missing my tutorial. It then got worse when I lost an earbud for my earphones, I discovered my RPs still hadn't been processed, I missed my afternoon tutorial, my initial good lead for acquiring an ice pack did a u-turn and refused to send me a sample and I didn't make it in time to the bank. I was therefore relieved to accidentally meet up with Lucy (she pulled over and walked into town with me) who was the first person who I had spoken to all day who I didn't have to talk to on the topic of work. We went and bought some yoghurt coated sultanas before I walked to the train station happily munching and feeling considerably better in the warmth of the sun and with the stress of Loughborough firmly left behind.

Little Britain Live was fantastic. I was worried that my taste for the show had changed since Sister One bought me the tickets for the show for Christmas two years ago (a little prematurely), but it was actually really good and funny to watch Lucas and Walliams do what they do in front of an audience. You also got the benefit of the ad-libbing, the mistakes and the countenance, and a show tailored to the locals. I was amazed at some of the stuff they got away with on the audience (Des Kaye's gameshow and Fat Fighters), but it was brilliant and I'm very glad I went. I'd love to give some spoilers but I don't think that's fair on anyone who's planning on going.

The next day I had to go and pick up some new jeans, get a haircut and book my flights. The haircut came first, I then had to wait in the rain to get picked up and just as the ride arrived Nicola from STA Travel phoned meaning I had to pull out all the documentation and cards required to make the purchase.

Just as I was finishing the call we were pulling up to an island when there was an almighty crunch under the car and we realised there was something under the chassis preventing us from moving. I hung up, nipped out, stuck my head under the back of the car and realised the exhaust had partially dropped off and was now acting like cats hair. We couldn't move the car forward and more than irate queue behind was beginning to get rowdy. As Mother slowly tried to move forward some guy in a large pickup shouted from his window to stop or we'd break the underside. I think this was clear as every time the car moved forward the exhaust acted like a jack and picked up the back wheels. I gave it a couple of kicks to try and break the weld, but it didn't work, but thankfully the truck driver had pulled over further down the road and flung himself under the car to detach the lodged metal. It took a bit of force (we had to commendere a steak knife from the pub over the road) but he finally cut the rubber mounting and the rest of the unit broke away. He refused to take any money for his help, but it proved that there really are people out there with a genuinely good and selfless nature. Whoever you were, cheers for the stopping and giving us a hand on your lunchbreak, it was really appreciated.

Today I'm starting on work. Here is where the long slog begins.

Today and yesterday have worked out quite well.

This morning I awoke to find on the news that Terri Dunning had won both a Bronze and a Silver medal this morning in Melbourne at the Commonwealth Games. It was only three days ago that I realised she actually was competing (when her name popped up as 5th in the women's 100m fly), but it weird to think that someone you know (albeit from a couple of years ago) is out there bringing home the bacon for your country.

I also have been allowed to pursue my dissertation change. The reaction from people around me is tending to be a little on the surprised side of shocked, but I'm confident I can work this and I'm actually feeling motivated. Yeh, I remember what it feels like! Well, in terms of the course that is.

I spent today flitting between Loughborough's major industrial sites on my bike trying to track down bits of my project that would help me along. It has become increasingly worrying that my rapid prototypes aren't being very rapid, and this morning I discovered the machine had actually broken down - not a good omen. If anything is playing with my nerves, it's this. Therefore sanity is acquired by pedalling my little heart out for need of O-Rings and sprung steel. The whole trek not only exposed me to a lot of fresh air, but also a huge range of people who can't cope with human interaction, namely the gatekeepers of Loughborough's largest steel processing plant.

There has also been a considerable amount of business planning going on, and there was even some stitching too. A total mish-mash of things, but I do feel like I am achieving - even if I'm not eating much. I've even run out of Nutrigrain bars, so I think I'm going on a Tesco run tomorrow.

Last night was Benji's birthday meal, and so (spur of the moment), I met up with DDS, Amy, Dave, Ginger Rich and a few of the Towers lads for a special evening in Mementos (Lufbra's answer to Lucciano's). After a a swift one in Phantom, we took our table for the next three or four hours and conversed, reminisced and gossiped until hometime. It was nice to eat out.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. I'm a little worried if I have to start finding a new RP company to help me with these major project parts...

OK, so this post should have probably been two days ago, but I forgot to write that this blog has just witnessed 50,000 page views. So maybe not exactly the same as 50,000 unique visits, but it's a good milestone to have hit within three weeks of the site's one year anniversary.

This morning was an early riser by weekend standards as I had to be at Olivia's for ten. I set off with my 80 litre rucksack, packed with neoprene, foam and engineering drawings to get started on the bag. I was a little worried that I would be returning citing problems with sewing the stuff, but her sewing machine seemed to handle the stuff with no effort. That is, until the needle got broken. Hopefully this won't be a recurring problem, as I was very impressed with the small amount of stitching we did manage to get done. This bag is going to look mint.

The rest of the day was spent watching Loughborough win the Commonwealth Games. According to the house statistician (Sean - which could mean this is wrong), if Loughborough University had been a Commonwealth country, we would have been second in the medals table by now. Good effort.

Tonight I am looking forward to a meal of steak and mash, which will hopefully give me enough bounce to complete another section of web-orientated dissertation.