More timetable checking, leaflet designing (people like it!) and funky music really. Bentley Rhythm Ace to be precise, both their albums. Also been to the post office to post a map and that's all I have to say about today.

Spent large chunks of last night playing Shadows of the Empire and Mario 64 on the N64 so nothing much to say there either.

Got to go to a meeting in a minute about the Ipswich Nightbus. Something I have no knowledge or interest in, but that's life.

Hey hey, managed to get approval on my revised livery for the new P&R buses so if I can get this poxy computer to stay on for more than 20 minutes at a time without crashing I will get a bunch more printouts of the design and shop for quotes. Actually, now I think about it quotes aren't needed as I'm going to have to put up with adverts on the buses through the sponsorship deal, so will just get whoever does the adverts to do them to save multi-visits and cock-ups.

And we have also had the first batch of files back from Pindar for all the new services to check. Which means that apart from sitting around restarting this piece of junk I have actually been able to do some useful work today. I feel quite refreshed by that.

Joan much improved today but still staying off until next week. I had to take a message from her to the acting manager at Ipswich store today. Who also happens to be one of my old staff from Newmarket. Good to see her getting on I guess, but rather her than me. At some point every day I still find time to thank fate that I don't work for Argos any more. Mind you, she is probably earning more than me now as Ipswich is a big store in Argos terms. Plus she is claiming mileage from Newmarket and back every day while here.

Another vegging in front of the telly evening last night. Well, it was Holby and Waking The Dead so I guess we have an excuse. Still, hopefully Joan will be up to a resumption of our evening walks at some point if not the full bodybalance experience. Although that would be a complete restart from scratch if we did go back. Not much on tonight though.

We have finally got round to watching The Osbournes too. Been meaning to since they started showing it but events have conspired against us. Top quality "reality" tv (well, how real is the life of Ozzy for cripes sake??). I do enjoy his bewilderment.

Apart from the in-car Maiden (now on to A Real Live One but will be missing A Real Dead One as I only have it on minidisc) I have mainly been listening to stuff from the internet today. First two minidiscs full of Bassic which I found and recorded last year sometime. Really good ambient floaty trippy stuff that assisted my passage through proof checking and lunchtime. Now some bits by a chap calling himself Cruel Brittania. A bit like Diffusion - a mix of original dance stuff and unofficial remixes/cut 'n' paste jobbies. I do like the web some days, it provides me with sanity-preserving entertainment, wise words and some good games to play. What more could I ask for?

Oooh, just bit into a Kit Kat Chunky to find no biscuit in it, just lots of loverly choccie. Haven't had that happen for years. Mmmmmmm.

Another day of waiting for things to happen really. Well, a morning of that so far anyway! To pass the time I have finished re-jigging my Park & Ride leaflets and not until after printing them for others to look at found the most glaring error - on both of them. A stop on the wrong side of the road now they are all moving. How could I forget to move one? That's why I'm re-doing them for pity's sake. Oh well, if that's the only error I'll be happy. Now if only some timetables would come back for checking we would all be happy.

Had a quiet afternoon yesterday doing much the same as this morning which lead nicely into a quiet ish evening too. Of course there was a bit of shouting in Waking The Dead but then there always is. Looking forward to part 2 tonight!

Am getting nicely in to ...Shimmerism and wish I could just blatantly pull it out of my bag to read now while waiting for stuff to arrive. I haven't had the courage yet to sit at my desk in a busy office with a book and claim to be on a smoke break (well, if the smokers can stop working for 10 minutes in every hour why can't I?) but I have been known to browse in quieter periods when every other slave is out. Of course when I was at Argos (especially in Newmarket) I generally managed to get everything for the week done early so I could spend most of Friday afternoon turning pages in the stockroom between sending things down the conveyor belt. But then I was in charge of the stockroom and able to decide if I needed extra help or not. And I didn't have the internet there for proper time-wasting.

Joan is feeling a bit better again today - less pain and less swelling - but has been to see the Doctor anyway. And now I can't get hold of her by mobile or normal phone so I don't know what he said. I'm sure there is nothing sinster to worry about and she will probably be OK to go back to work next week - if she will refrain from lifting the heavy stuff - but I'd still feel better if I could speak to her. EDIT - she's called now and is doing OK.

Update the Irons!: to mangle a phrase from their sleeves. Anyway, since coming back to work last week the car has been full of the sounds of Somewhere In Time, Maiden England (live video which I have a CD of the soundtrack for - this stood in for Seventh Son... having only just listened to that), No Prayer For The Dying (which I seem not to have listened to for years and had forgotten just how good parts of it were) and now we are on to Fear Of The Dark which was Bruce Dickinson's last album with the band before he re-joined a couple of years ago. Again, I seem to have neglected this one too. Naughty Simon! Probably due to having obtained these on CD in the first place rather than vinyl that has since been replaced - and the replacements have got played more to make up for not having a proper record player available. Or something.

Time for lunch now...

The weekend worked out not too bad in the end. OK so we couldn't go out anywhere as Joan was still in reasonable amounts of pain half the time (and is also now sacred of being "spotted" now she is on sick leave) but we were together and that's what counts in my book.

Saturday was a very relaxed day. I popped in to town in the morning to deliver her Sicknote and pick up some shopping etc. They all seemed to be genuinely concerend in Argos and not just annoyed because they are 1 pair (v capable) hands down but I could be mis-reading the signs there. And I was very good and didn't buy any DVDs!

In the afternoon we had a bit of a games session. Joan tried to teach me some card games (and perhaps with a few more years practice I might get the hang of them) while I recorded some music off the PC and then it was time for a few more levels of Tomb Raiding. Not sure about the method they used for number two of making it harder by including lots more people to shoot as that can just get frustrating when you keep dying, but all the other improvments over the first one are doing their magic on us. Especially the way the background music has been tweaked to fit the locations more. Very atmospheric it has to be said.

And then Casualty was back for a new series. And yes, they did live slightly up to my expectations by glossing over one of the two cliff-hanger endings to the last series, but overall a thumbs-up experience.

Yesterday was more of the same really - relaxing, music and ironing. The music I have been recording has been stuff obtained from the internet. Legally mind you, only tracks that the artists in question have put up themselves for public consumption. In this case the artists are Machinae Supremacy who do pretty good Heavy Metal with a twist (as well as guitars and so forth they also have a Commodore 64 in use) and Diffusion who does lots of dancey stuff and also remixes TV theme tunes to comic effect. Two Minidiscs full with another Diffusion one to do soon and two MS tracks leftover - hopefully they will release some more in the coming months to allow a second disc too. OK, so I cheat slightly by downloading the MP3 files from work which is strictly speaking against the rules, but no bugger has complained yet and it is so much quicker than the modem at home. Also got up to level 34 on Gridrunner++ so perhaps I will get to see the end one day.

And today I am back in the office with Joan at home. The day started very well though. I finished reading The Light Of Other Days over breakfast (absolutely superb book overall, they must have had some real fun writing it and deciding which bits of history to play with) and as I was debating what to start next the postman provided me with the answer via a package from America. So the next book will be The Rise And Fall Of Shimmerism by James Kracht, who is also known as dtj on the Llamasoft forum. DTJ stands for Distance To Jupiter, under which name he has also recorded 153 tracks over 8 cds, which were also included in the package (as MP3 files on 1 disc, before you start thinking about postage costs). The book is Sci-Fi and deals with religions among other topics - looks very interesting and a thumping good read (even if it will put the fiction/non-fiction sequence out!), while the music seems to be mainly ambient electronic stuff. I like what I've listened to so far. Will put it all on minidisc eventually to make listening easier.

Workwise things are building up to a frenzy about all the gyratory stuff. We are waiting mainly for timetables still to get the books finished, but I also need to sort out my Park & Ride leaflets. So that is what I shall have a crack at now.