It’s not often I have bad days, or even pretty awful days - I generally am upbeat even if most things conspire against me. I like to think I’m a committed optimist on the whole. If I wasn’t, I don’t think I’d be doing the things I’m doing, or enjoying myself at all.

It therefore comes as a nasty shock when you have one of those days, and today I feel has been a pretty abysmal one. Shit, you might say.

Unfortunately if your curiosity has peaked, I’m not going to divulge exactly why today has proved disastrous - needless to say, what started as bad, just got worse. Even the things I would normally brush aside as those annoying day-to-day facets of life, but each one of these tiny things just prickled so much more today with everything else going wrong. It was like falling off a motorcycle; the initial experience of hitting the ground really hurt, but to add insult to injury you rolled off the road and into a ditch full of nettles, and then found you were sharing it with Hannibal Lecter, a canteen of sharp cutlery and a bottle of chianti.

The one positive I’m aiming to take out of this is that I haven’t had a really bad day for a very long time. The last one this bad was likely six years ago. I know that seems extraordinary, but most of the time my off-days are interspersed with glimmers of joy. Today lacked that little luxury.

I think perhaps I may have even predicted this. I couldn’t sleep last night, and that’s pretty rare too. I also knew exactly what was going to go wrong (at least for the first part of the day) - all the other stuff that happened after just appeared to be the bonus ball.

Tomorrow should be better, but there is still dread looming. None of the problems thrown at me today have been resolved, so I’m going to do the best I can, then sloop off to London for some catharsis.

It’s been at least a year since I went to my last proper match, but when I got a phone call out of the blue from Flash (who also incidentally I hadn’t seen for over a year either) with tickets to see Newcastle take on Worcester at home I couldn’t turn it down.

Turns out it wasn’t a bad way to get back into live rugby - the weather was great, the Sixways was busy, and Worcester put in a resounding victory against a side which included Wilkinson, Flood, Tate, Noon and the rest. It couldn’t have been better spectating.

Yesterday I went over to TIm and Stacey’s for an evening meal and can’t say I was disappointed by that either. Thai green curry washed down with a mixture of beer, wine and inevitably, business chat - made for a really pleasant evening - so hats off to the Site Doctors for their hospitality work too :)

It was sad to hear of the death of Humphrey Lyttleton today. Over the years he’s done so much for both jazz and radio comedy that he truly was an under-acknowledged great. I’ll now make an effort to get through the second half of his biography which has been lying by my bed for over a month.

I’m quite relieved it’s the weekend.

Well I’m hoping this has worked, but one more slice of the virtual pie has moved off shared hosting onto a virtual host which should really help out with the old speed issues. I’m also hoping that my decision to put some expires headers on things especially the large images that appear on this site in places mean anyone coming across this properly will have a slightly less bandwidth intensive visit. My apologies for this not being done earlier, it’s just one of those things.

The past few days have been pretty technically/business focussed by anyone’s standards. What with insurance, wholesale backup solutions for me, my clients and a bevy of meetings to boot - it’s been extremely productive but not overly exciting.

I’m really pining to see some folks I’ve not seen for a while, so I’m thinking impromptu trips. There isn’t anything stopping me really - except that nobody seems to be available when I am (yes I’d thought of that too, but I’m hopeful it’s just scheduling conflicts) - so I may choose to dart off at a moment’s notice and come back at an equally odd time in order just to get some variety in this week.

I’m also strongly thinking about car right now. The old Polo footspa, although refreshing, needs some urgent attention and I’m thinking get myself sorted now for the summer and beyond before we all end up in a giant recession and I’m forced to sell it. I’m still hopeful we won’t get to that stage (in fact if you asked me seriously I’d probably tell you we’re going to see a lot more web based growth if everything else slows down - even if the effect is only delayed).

Currin has been volunteering suggestions for what I should get - a Lotus Elise or a mock Ferrari perhaps? I don’t think so.

I thought I’d managed to kick the habit getting too busy with stuff to not write for over a week, but it turns out I was wrong.

Last weekend was Multipack once more, and as well as the usual faces there were some new ones too - Sam finally made it down, but I’m unsure how much he had reckoned on debating the correct height of a building you need to throw a cat off (don’t worry - it was all theoretical - but the answer is 7 stories). Si bought along Flickr stash which naturally went down well, and Tim bought along Site Doctor stash too, so my bag was packed full off goodies by the time I got home.

En route I had an opportunity to also see Tim’s ridiculously large media system, complete with (and I think I get this right) a 96” screen. It is vast and completely stunning in full HD.

Aside from collecting things and watching home cinema, I spent most of the rest of the week filling out forms, in the bank and asking questions about insurance and accountancy. Not what I would consider truly gripping, but a necessity unfortunately.

On the flip side I got to have a few drinks earlier in the week, and a new book of Moo stickers arrived which can’t do anything but put you in a good mood. Not even a up-until-four-in-the-morning work stint for an emergency brief managed to really dampen my spirits, although I’m really hoping I get a chance to see some people I’ve not seen in a while soon. It occurred to me that my travels to London have not been so frequent of recent, so I want to correct this.

Mike got in the paper.

If you are looking for something to amuse yourself for a while today - check out this awesome site by Uni-Qlo. I generally don’t do these sorts of things, but this one is just so ridiculously catchy…

Does it really seem three years since I penned my first blog post? Actually it seems longer if anything.

This year I made a re-discovery that means that it probably has been longer. I didn’t realise it at the time, as the phrase blog probably didn’t exist back then, but I kept a fairly loose journal on my DeviantArt page for a few years too, and I joined up there in 2001.

It took over a year for me to post anything on it, and I opened simply, saying “I’m not much of a big writer”. But within a week I’d posted another, and it wasn’t regular, but I kept it fairly well updated.

I think I considered moving the content into the beginning of this blog when I switched to EE, but decided against it as it never was meant to be published here.

The anniversary of the blog marks another couple of important personal anniversaries for me too - admittedly not on the same day, but a few days either side, so it’s quite important for me to remember it. Most other people don’t seem to keep track of when they started writing like this, but it’s something I don’t really want to forget for various reasons.

This is the third full incarnation of JustBeyondTheBridge in three years. I wonder what platform I’ll be typing on next year?

If you haven’t already seen the new coinage, you are in for a treat.

Matthew Dent, a graphic designer who won the competition to do the first major redesign of the full collection of UK coins since decimalisation in 1971, has come up with a delicious and contemporary new look.

There is something very solid about the coin, and this is a rare opportunity to make a very significant impact with design. I would describe British currency as a design classic in itself (not discounting some of the other great coins I’ve seen around the globe), and would place it in a similar camp to stamps in terms of distribution and gravitas. It’s funny to reflect on this, but I suspect if you ask many people what makes them British or gives them British identity, apart from drizzle, tea and Nectar points, the queen’s head on our coins would probably surface more than a handful of times.

That’s why this redesign was very important, and I’m pleased to see something that really can be commended on all fronts.

The outlines and weights have been retained, a sensible idea. The reduction in the size and weight of the 10 pence, 5 pence and 50 pence pieces in the past 15 years have made our coinage fairly manageable, and when making such a dramatic change to the faces, it seems only suitable to retain this major identifier.

Secondly and most importantly for me, the cut of the design is beautiful. Even someone who shifts pixels for a career, I can only begin to imagine how much agony went into getting the design and typography ‘just’. I’m so pleased they have spaced the design out as much as they have, it defies the obvious wonderfully.

The subject matter (the royal heraldic shield) cleverly ties up the problem of finding a separate identifier for each coin. In a time when there is so much debate about what truly justifies itself as being british or inclusive or whatever, it seems far better to use a symbol that is both recognised and less contentious than some other icons. I’m not saying there aren’t connotations, but I think this is a good way to go, and assuming we don’t become a republic in the next 40 years they should last too…

I’m interested to know what will be printed on the circumferences, but really I’m keen just to see them minted. Stacking coins will never be so boring again.

One slight question that still remains is whether completely removing the numerical value from the coin face will work. I’ve been to many places and it’s usually been the one sure-fire constant. On the other hand, maybe it couldn’t be a stronger representation of the British need to assert ourselves by requiring the user to understand English in order to purchase even the cheapest items…

It’s been a long weekend.

I took Friday as day at the motors (mixing business with pleasure) and with a bit early morning travel managed to get down to Brands Hatch for 9ish. I had been hoping to get to see more than just practice day, but as things happened, the weekend was already booked up (I will explain later) and so I was only able to stay for the one day before having to head back home.

In simple terms, a client’s son (Adam) competes in Formula Renault (think next is Formula 3, then GP2, then Formula 1) and he invited me to come down to watch the opening race of the season. It’s been a couple of years since the last time I got to watch (at Donington) and it’s something I really enjoy so was more than happy to get down there, especially as last weekend didn’t prove to be much of a break in the end.

Will also came down and we had the full day slinking around the pits, paddock and stands. It’s great to get full access to these places, and to get really up close with the kit, especially as I’d taken the SLR down. The weather conspired against us however, and most of the day it bucketed it down so I spent a lot of time collecting puddles in my camera bag. Despite this it was still bloody great, and although not an official race day, Adam’s results were good and looked promising for qualifying on the next day.

After making an epic journey back home, the next morning Deako turned up at 10am ready to get over to Wales. After the success of our photo trip to the lakes six months ago we’d decided to plan another, this time to the Elan Valley.

We were staying in Rhayader (a place which I’ve visited/walked/camped around several times before) and made it our base to get out into the valleys. Unfortunately the weather followed, and we spent a good few hours at the top of the incredibly full and impressive dams contending with pretty heavy conditions. It wasn’t good photography weather, but we managed to get a few locations in before the evening.

Thankfully Sunday was brighter and we traced the second, longer chain of dams and reservoirs. If you don’t really know about Elan and these structures, essentially if you live in or around Birmingham, the water you drink came from here. Most of the five or so dams were built between the last decade of the 19th century and the early 1950s, and they are really impressive bits of architecture. Several valleys were flooded to make way for the new reservoirs and one lake alone contains enough water at any one time to supply Brum for up to 15 days. Eerily, several villages and substantial large houses were submerged in the process, and they still sit at the bottom of these vast pools in which you cannot sail or swim. The scenery is stunning, and after the heavy rainfall, all of these structures were overflowing with run off. It’s a very impressive sight, especially from the base.

In the afternoon we had reached Devil’s Bridge, but as the weather had started to deteriorate again we took a trip to Aberystwyth where it cheered up and we met up with Damith (one of James’ old housemates from Loughborough). We took an unplanned trip to the beach and my first ever experience of home-cooked Sri-Lanken food (which was delicious and despite containing copious amounts of chilli, I managed without a problem).

This morning required some coordination as both mine and Deako’s phones were out of battery (mine unfortunately wasn’t just out of battery it transpires) but we eventually managed to organise getting to breakfast at the right time (our hotel rooms were in different buildings on different streets) and get all the way back out to Devil’s Bridge before we realised neither of us had handed our keys in at checkout.

Thankfully we had planned to return at lunchtime for one final photo opportunity in Rhayader, so after tackling the waterfalls and Jacob’s Ladder, we returned the hotel, handed in the keys and spent the last hour filling up our final memory cards with photos of red kites - a bird of prey that thrives in the Elan Valley and can be relied upon to arrive at the right time every day to feed in a field left with carcass scraps. The hardest thing to do is convert 200 shots made in quick succession into just three or four prize photos.

And so I’m back, with a really broken phone and a very long list of to-dos.

I was finally able to find out that Adam Christodoulou finished first and smashed the Brands Hatch lap record on Sunday in the opening race which is a great way to start the season.

This week is going to be full on.