My weekend was very good, even by general birthday weekend standards. I spent it in Sheffield with Sean and Tongy, and I think it’s fair to say you’ve all lifted yourself out of studentdom when all three of you decide that the cheapest vodka just won’t do any more. Even at Waitrose.

I went up on Friday in order to spend the day working with Rattle, who kindly supplied me with cake (if only all clients supplied cake) before heading onto West Street for a quick drink with Sean. Tongy met us and we found a bar with a decent view, nicely positioned over the Indian where we had a really decent curry.

Saturday, my actual birthday day, was spent at Meadowhall and browsing the vintage clothing shops. We headed out after a vicious game of Mullets top trumps (yes, it really does exist) and spent some time exploring the bars and clubs. All good stuff.

Getting up early on a Sunday isn’t fair at the best of times, but I had to get a cab to the station for the train journey back. Sisters one and two had bought me tickets to see Buzzcocks host Simon Amstell do his stand-up show in Wolverhampton and it was very enjoyable. I don’t know exactly what I had expected, and was a bit concerned the audience didn’t seem to warm very quickly, but the second half picked up the momentum and it turned out well. The support act Arnab Chandra was also very good, although I did know some of the material already. Still; very good stuff.

I’m looking forward to next weekend already…

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Maybe running my own business is one of those things I’ve taken for granted for a long time. Recently more and more people seem to have been asking me for advice about their own enterprises, talking about their wish to make a break, or just their intentions of one day being able to go it alone.

I really enjoy what I do, and it’s not just working with great clients, or on exciting projects (which are big factors) but also I think learning by doing is one of the most engaging processes and keeps the job fresh. It’s been just over five years since I first became self-employed, and after thinking I knew quite a lot about running your own affairs, I then decided to incorporate this year, and it’s brought along whole new basket of activities and concepts to learn.

Administration is not my favourite pastime, although I do like knowing how it all works and why you have to do it. Last week (with the aid of Stacey and Tim) I set up a payroll, and it struck me that this isn’t normal for a 22 year old - in fact most 22 year olds probably haven’t ever filed a tax return I would guess. I think sometimes I get too engrossed in what I’m doing to pay attention to the bigger picture, so over the past few days I’ve tried to do that. It’s only ever made me more excited about what the future holds. I can’t say I’ve really been planning anything, but just having a think about what might happen next.

This probably has all been triggered since I bought my car, although as anyone who has spoken to me about it knows, I can’t actually bloody drive it for another week and a half which is driving me insane. I’d been aiming to get this sorted for so long (my sole goal since January) that after I’d done it, a giant vacuum appeared and I’ve had to start reappraising my medium-term goals and targets.

Aside from all the business stuff, I’ve got a really good few weeks lined up. I’m spending next weekend in Sheffield over my birthday, then going to see Simon Amstell do stand up in Coventry. The following weekend I’ve got Foo Fighters in Wembley (my first visit there) and then over to Silverstone for the Formula Renault the next day. Good stuff.

The bank holiday has been pretty well spent already. Will and I spent the afternoon with some bevvies sat on the grass in Mary Steven’s Park on Saturday, then yesterday George, Tom and myself met up in Wollaston. Everyone should finally be coming back home in the next few weeks, and then the summer really can begin in earnest.

Oh, and one final thing - if you haven’t seen Mad Men it’s just finished showing series one on BBC4, but is definitely my hot recommendation, so if you get a chance, watch it.

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Like Indiana Jones, yet potentially more action-packed, Multipack’s Geek In The Park 2008 makes a welcome return this year, and will be pitching camp in Royal Leamington Spa on Saturday 9th August.

The format will be the same as last time; an afternoon picnic in the wonderful Jepheson Park (friends and families welcome) will be followed later in the evening by a discussion based event, with some top-notch speakers. We’re not disclosing the line up yet, but rest assured, you won’t be disappointed.

And of course, there is one other reason why GITP is always worth a look in; once again it’s free of charge.

For those wondering how to get to Leamington Spa, it’s easily accessible from the motorway and regular, direct trains run from London Marylebone and Birmingham.

For more details and to sign up for a reminder, visit the Geek In The Park 2008 website, put together so masterfully by Trev and Lloydy.

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Last weekend I headed to my second motor sport event this season. I was mainly there for the Formula Renault, but of course the BTCC meet was also on, and some pretty spectacular collisions made a morning for good spectating. I went over with Will, Henry and Alan, but later in the afternoon, Dan, Psycho, Yaz, Chicken and Charlotte arrived to watch the final races, and an unexpected Spitfire fly past. The weather stayed pretty dry, so there was no soaked-to-the-bones repeat of Brands Hatch; just as well really.

On Wednesday I met up with George and Will again for what is becoming a semi-regular comedy fixture. After probably the most disappointing pub meal I’ve had, we went to see Perrier-nomintated Daniel Kitson in his new two-hour standup show at the Wolves Civic. I’ve seen some interesting comedy routines over the years, but Kitson’s was certainly the most intense I’ve ever witnessed. It was delivered with no interval and no bar-access once it started, plus the themes were mainly societal. When it was all finished and I felt like I’d just been to a lecture or talk - that’s not to say it wasn’t funny - Kitson mixes humour with poignancy brilliantly, but it was hard to keep up sometimes because of the speed and complexity, and it certainly wasn’t a relaxing experience. I think I’ll need some time to wind down before I’m ready see him again.

Saturday brought good weather and May’s Multipack meet. We ended up on the Waters Edge at Brindley Place enjoying the sunshine until impromptu rain forced us inside for food. Once again a good turnout and plenty to catch up on.

I still feel like I’m juggling finances, paperwork and car, but things are looking brighter, and the summer appears to have started (at least for the meantime) so roll on next week.

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Not much could have been worse after Monday, and as luck would have it, it wasn’t. Since then things have been going far more smoothly.

After work on Tuesday I headed down to London for a few drinks with Swan (probably a few more than a normal weekday). As he’s spending most of the coming month on the Costa del Holiday, and the folks are taking a few days in Venice I was pining to get out of Stourbridge so thought it was a good opportunity to catch up and relax, even if it was midweek.

The great thing about train travel between here and London are the sockets. Laptops just don’t die, and even without wireless I can get on with things, rather than waste two hours wondering why my iPod runs out of battery after half an hour, or skips tracks intermittently.

I’ve finally also had the opportunity to get some design work done this week. That might sound odd coming from a designer, but for some reason it seems like an age since I have been asked to do anything really creative (I mean from scratch - there has been plenty of tweaking and editing).

I also managed to catch up with Jon yesterday too, before he heads off on a three month polo-truck driving mission. It sounds too much like a lot of socialising with a little bit of commuting in between - potentially finishing up in Spain, so you won’t be surprised to hear that I’m even more itchy to get some travelling in. A year ago today I arrived in Pokhara to discover Sammi and myself had been featured on sitting on an elephant on the front page of a Nepali national newspaper. In contrast, today I enjoyed a delicious chicken and bacon pannini. I can’t help thinking the level of exotica in my life is currently at a low.

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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.

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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.

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