Being that it isn’t actually 7am yet, and that I got up at 4.45am this morning, I’m doing incredibly well. In fact, I’d go as far as to say I’m actually enjoying this train journey.

Two days in Southampton with Currin for a meeting and to hash some ideas together means that I’ve had to set off early to get a good ticket, and on a morning like this, an empty cabin, a table to sit at, the smell of fresh coffee and the early sun streaming through the window panes has made it more than bearable.

I can only speculate that by the time I reach my destination all of that will have been swept under the track, replaced with a squeeze of passengers, the smell of BO and weather that would drown a duck. It’s meant to be wet according to the weather forecast.

I’m made all the more chirpy by the over enthused Apple-fanatic in myself, who has been doing somersaults since yesterday evening when Stevie J drew the cloth back on the long awaiting iMac refresh. I’m also excited by the upgrade to iWork (I think that is indicative of something).

Eitherway the new slimmer enclosures look great, and fairly close to what I had imagined. I had assumed they might have been even thinner (getting down to 2cm flat really would be a massive ID achievement, but there had been rumours of new aluminium enclosures and a lower profile is an obvious direction, even need, now (akin to the expected appearance of video on the iPod a couple of years ago).

The reason I had been so unsurprised at the new design was due to the leaked photos of the keyboard last week. It was quite obvious if this was a real leak (greeted with much scepticism until I saw the level of detail and number of photos) that the new Mac was going to be of the lo-fat variety.

I think the new keyboard design is very sleek, and glad that I had waited out on the purchase of a bluetooth setup a few months back. I’m seriously considering a 24” model (I’ve been waiting for this launch for about six months and sort of scheduled in my final switch to Mac), but am holding back until Leopard arrives in October, maybe even until the first refresh, which I assume will appear just before Christmas (improved chipset I guess, based on previous behaviour).

Whilst on the train I’ve been able to review a couple of the videos that appeared alongside the launch material last night. The refreshed iLife looks very nice, and .Mac has definitely seen a much needed makeover. I still wouldn’t pay for the service, my only real want from it would be the IMAP access on my main email account, and I don’t really see myself switching to iWeb as my editor of choice… The animated online offerings for the photo galleries are stunning pieces of JavaScriptery, and possibly market-leading, even in bespoke web design. Once again the main triumphs of the product is the great attention to detail which just set the software apart from the competition by a mile.

iWork has also been updated, and Numbers, a long hoped-for spreadsheet offering from Apple will ideally be a good reason to not have to renew my MS Office licence. Although Google Docs is fantastic, sometimes internet access just isn’t available, and a streamlined desktop app is what you really need. I’m trying to not get too excited by the thoughts of reams of mathematical formulae (Swan) but this came a pleasant surprise that the jump across should be made even easier.

So resisting the temptation to spend a significant amount very quickly, I’m going to hold for the next couple of months at least, and then decide whether I really do need that extra 500GB of hard drive or 2GB of memory (the answer is no).

I sent a text to Swan earlier.

“You’ve been in an office selling IT geeks all day. I’ve been working in the Molineux and having drinks with England Caps all day. Who has the better job?”

I shan’t publish his reply.

I do a spot of photography (as you will have noticed), and when I get an opportunity to do a shoot at really cool venue, I tend not to turn it down. I was doing some portraiture for a client of mine which meant we got “access all areas” to the stadium (well apart from the on the pitch – you do not touch the grass).

Not a bad day for it either.

Now the weather has improved a little and as the car needs some serious attention, bits and pieces of repair work are being done as I type.

In fact, such was the draw of the good weather on Monday, that I sacked off work until the evening and the sun went down, and spent the afternoon stretched backwards in the foot-well reattaching the glovebox to the firewall. Well of course, that didn’t take me all afternoon – the rest of the time was spent taking the bumper off, re-blacking the plastics, switch the indicator lamps, repairing the number plate fixing and filling two small holes in the wheel arches.

I felt very satisfied, although now the whole lot is being sprayed up by Father who takes an age to do these things, but the end job is always impeccable.

I also had my filling this week; possibly the strangest sensation in the world. I was more than relieved to discover that, upon second though, I don’t need my wisdom teeth out immediately or for the princely sum I had initially been told, so now will just wait for a hospital appointment. Five to six months apparently.

Stourbridge has had it’s town clock painted. Not particularly exciting news, but it’s a definite improvement now that it’s been re-gold-leafed and put into the traditional town colours. It’s also nice to see the council making some effort to make the town centre look half decent (which it does right now, which is a change from the ordinary).