This afternoon I'm meeting up with Dave to sort out some business related things. In the meanwhile there are a packet of emails to respond to and a couple of txt messages too (sorry if you've been waiting on a reply but I often have to stack txt messages unless it's urgent. I prefer a call anyway).

Yesterday evening I managed to meet up with Jon before he goes off to Argentina on Wednesday. Despite our initial plan to get some food somewhere out, we ended up over at his house for a couple of beers and some food. Also, despite feeling pretty crap all day (for no good reason, I just woke with a headache and feeling like I'd just contracted the lurg) I felt much better by the time I got over there and it appears to have completely passed this morning, which I am very grateful for.

I got a reply to an email yesterday from someone I'd not spoken to in about six years. Friends from holidays in Devon before we were teenagers, Tom and I spent most of our time on the small beach digging holes and making dams until one day, mid-dig, a the Royal Marines mounted a beach landing, armed up to their teeth and with smoke grenades. It was fantastic. They even bought a hovercraft. Probably one of my most enduring childhood holiday memories. It's odd how easy it is to catch up with pretty much anyone using all this technology malarkey.

Some fantastic news for the family is that Auntie Kiki has (finally) gone and bought a flight to the UK and will be arriving on Saturday. This is the first time she will have been over from Canada in eight years (I think) so it's a pretty rare occasion. Looking forward seeing her :)

Yesterday was The Multipack's first birthday which made the whole thing a little more special. In fact, so special we all got free cake and wine. @media eat your heart out; if anyone is going to get web geeks fat and drunk it's going to be Multipack.

It was good to see the usual faces plus, and there must have been about twenty of us in total patronising the Wharf10 bar, which is in a fairly nice part of the town from what I could establish. The only other time I've ever been to Walsall was for the illuminations, a bastion of culture in the West Midlands.

There are a considerable amount of jobs I need to sort out today for friends. I've got some university samples to email, some people to phone (Jon where are you?) and one or two other things critical to me surviving the weekend.

I think I forgot to mention that on Thursday this week I went back into OSH (the old school) on request of my old technology head of department to speak to some fifth years about uni and what it's like. The next day (I don't know if coincidently or not) I got a letter from their new head of business asking if I would like to be of any assistance to them. I enjoy passing on the knowledge, so I'll be replying.

I spoke to Currin yesterday, and so I need to correct something I said earlier. I was totally misguided when I said that as a result of this enterprise programme he would be spending time at Berkley in California. Apparently not. Instead (once he's finished dining in parliament and meeting the cabinet) he will be spending time at Harvard then at Stanford Business Schools. Nice one. I think it's fair to say that boy has landed on his feet; well done DDS :)

Sometimes events around you become far more in-focus than what's going on in the general myopia of day-to-day life. Has anyone else noticed that in this last week:

• The UK's highest profile politicians have started putting up their hands and answering questions that nobody was asking, just to drum up some self-publicity in light of renewed job prospects
• That a plane crashed into a New York high rise building that had the hallmarks of a tragedy, but somehow wasn't because only two people died
• That a lot more people are dying in Iraq than we thought, and still nobody can make a critical decision about what we should do because we've always been good at setting targets but never been good at achieving them
• That we physically can't fit anyone into a prison anymore
• That one of the world's most arcane and antediluvian powers has apparently developed a weapon that makes it invincible, but yet manages to pose more of a threat to itself and it's own people, than it does to the rest of the world

.No? Just me then.

The last 24 hours haven't been piled with action, but I did watch Death of A President last night and was quite impressed. I don't really know what to think of the idea of doing something like this; it has a macabre draw to it and like a lot of Channel 4 programming is designed to provoke thought on the boundaries. I know why some major US cinemas are blankly refusing to play it, although I do wonder if it would have so much of a stigma if the idea hadn't come from outside of it's own borders. Technically most of the shots were stylistically strong, but at times they had created footage that wasn't entirely believable, mainly CCTV footage and when the actors made particular comments that we're out of place as they lacked subtlety. It was also strange to consider that amount of information or access to high profile persons would ever be made available after such an event. Verdict, interesting for the format more than for the content.

Today I took a trip into OSH while on the way back from town. I decided to call in to see tech, as it's been over a year since the last time I went down to my old department. Mr Plant, Mr Williamson and Mr O'Neill were all around, and I've organised to go in on Thursday morning to discuss university with some of year 11 in a couple if days.

The rest of the day has had my nose firmly against the grindstone.

Another weekend, another night out nowhere near The 'Bridge. I phoned James on Friday to ask a question about travel dates and ended up driving to Bath on Saturday morning. Another spur-of-the-moment visit, but all together worth it, although he still hasn't answered the bloody question.

Anyway, I arrived at Bath rugby ground just in time for kick off and to meet the first of four billion Bath students I was to have conversations with over the two days. It was the first time I had met Paul who had been travelling with James and Heather in New Zealand just before I had taken his place in Oz. For the duration of the ill-fated match I was sat next to Claire and Car (sp?), the only Neith supporters (Clarie wearing her bright red Wales top) in the whole of the stand. It was a good game, although not necessarily for Bath who came oh-so-lose to making a recovery, but in the end were let down by poor kicking and being the weaker side.

Two beers in and I could already feel the effect, which indicated to me that I really needed some lunch and so happily agreed to some post-match Wetherspoons. Heather popped up out of nowhere and after food we walked back to James' where preparations were going on for his house party. Apparently I had picked a good night; Bath was hosting at least three house parties, and James instructed me that we would be visiting all three. After making myself useful (by shifting ridiculous numbers of bottles of red wine out of the way, and being introduced to a second slew of people, mostly housemates and friends of housemates) it was eventually time for the guests to arrive.

Despite protestations by the other housemates etc (Andrew, Jen, Jack, Sarah, Nicole, Ruth et al) that James was deserting his own party, we went to Joe's house for party number two. House party number two was clearly not going to be a standard event. Firstly, to both our surprises, Joe wasn't there, nor was he in Bath at all. Instead the evening was being hosted by remaining housemates Marcella and Dave, who had organised what was billed as 'speed dating', but initially looked to be 'speed segregation' as we were quickly reprimanded for speaking to the girls when they arrived and soon all the blokes in ended up in the kitchen, and all the girls in the lounge.

After a worrying wait when the blokes were outnumbering the girls nearly 2:1 there was a sudden influx of females and the numbers balanced. Now, I have to admit the idea of speed dating has never really appealed to me, but there seemed little other option and I was actually quite curious. It was made all the better when it turned out that the girls were not exactly disappointing. What was quite amusing was that I was probably the only person there who genuinely didn't know anyone else. Speed dates got underway.

Probably one of the most entertaining things I've done at a party, it certainly made for a good time and despite it all being over very, very quickly, Dave and Marcella had done a great job of organising it. Challenges set in certain rounds made it all the more amusing, and despite being a person who isn't keen on the pickup line tradition, it all got unbearably cheesy at times.

We made our excuses and left pretty smartly before results had been posted, as James had promised we'd be back at his house party within an hour. By this time the chocolate fountain (poncey, but not a bad shout) had all but been consumed and I spent the next part of the night coming across even more people (Sara, Re, Uncle Ian, Fran etc etc), drinking Cherry kirsch and talking biscuits for a couple of hours before we had to head over to Paul's for his housemate's birthday party.

In the process of getting over there Uncle Ian managed to sprain his ankle and James decided he was too drunk, so we only stayed ten minutes before heading back and rejoining the party where there were even more introductions (Helena, Dougal etc etc), beer, kirsch, gratuitous dancing and appalling flirtation.

I woke up feeling alright considering. In true pathetic style and to much praise from his housemates James had managed to hoover and clean most of the kitchen by 9am. The process had started the night before at around 4am while the music was still pounding, but due to the complex nature of recycling he'd been stopped and sent to bed. No stopping James though, it was spick and span by the time bacon butties had even been considered.

To recover there was a double bill of pre-recorded X-Factor (apparently Bath is hooked) and then into town for a reconstituted roast chicken lunch before I needed to head to the station to catch the only train of the day that was going to take under five hours to get me home. En route we bumped into Heather again and spent my remaining twenty minutes in Bath looking at shoes, which in retrospect, was highly predictable.

All in all an awesome time, and has only proven again that spontaneity is the best way to good weekends.

This time, Bath. Looks like I'm back on the train for a third weekend.

Unfortunately Friday came at the wrong time of the week as I was only really just getting started. At least I'm going away for a day or otherwise I would have probably been back on the WDM this weekend, crusading on through a pile of design work.

There is a load of music I need to get,

What's better than a 27" High Definition TV? Probably a 32" High Definition TV; hence I am elated. This new little toy arrived on Monday morning and I wasted no time on the instructions, whipped it out of the box and into position. It's not as though I really needed a big plasma flatscreen, but the opportunity presented itself and being a technophile, I couldn't refuse it. The idea is that when I do eventually get a place of my own at least I will have once piece of really decent furniture (with inbuilt Freeview and HDMI; even DFS can't offer that).

I have watched a number of interesting propositions and projects emerge in the past few days. After thinking my days using Microsoft Access had finally come to an end, I was somewhat surprised to have to tame the beast again over the past two days. I had a phonecall last night from a friend who I haven't heard from in a very long time, presenting another work opportunity. Finally, Currin has been bouncing his brain around and come up with another idea we're probably going to run with. Cracking stuff. If only I had made more tracks into my other projects I would feel a little happier, however it feels like I'm on the brink of gaining something good, and I can't wait to find out what it is.

I tried to install Vista RC1 on my Mac the other day but it didn't work. I don't know why, but it is bugging me a bit. It only gets as far as the loading bar on the install appearing before I get black and an eternal hang. Rubbish.