Don't assume, because you are going to a pool full of water, that you won't be thirsty when you get out. Chlorine is not thirst-quenching. Don't wear your most precious jewellery to the leisure centre as the heart attack that ensues when you can't find it, even though you know you stuffed it right into the toe of your trainers, is not fun. If you find that the person before …

The end of Friends - I'm stocked up with Doritos and tissues, just in case. I was driving home and it's been a mega stressful day, there was nothing on the radio so I was flicking through all the stations. I have pre-programmed all of the available slots in my car, despite the fact that I never listen to them. So, I picked a completely random station and lo and …

Although not a day to be curled up inside, I felt like watching some films. I thought instead of wasting the weather, I could manoeuvre the television and sit in the sunlight. Now, you should all know that I'm quite a big Queen fan, if not you obviously haven't been reading this journal for very long. I was recommended to watch Highlander, the film which 'Who Wants To Live Forever', …

Well, that's the plan anyway, swimming is my new favourite hobby. I thought I'd forgotten how to do it, but yesterday, I actually started to feel like I knew what I was doing. I'm a little annoyed though because he egged me on, saying "Of course you can open your eyes underwater, there's nothing wrong with it, your eyes will get used to it." And, I can't fault his truthfulness, …

I woke up early yesterday morning with a sudden thought that I couldn't figure out the answer to. You know Coronation Street? (If you don't watch it, stick with me, because it's a universal soap question really). The character of Bethany (a little girl of about three) is played by twins, so that it's not too stressful for them, all the long hours and such. But what happens if the …

I'm sure you remember a couple of posts back, I was commenting on the silliness of the people taking part in the London Marathon. And while I still uphold that view - 26 miles is just insanity! - somehow I have taken up running. I thought that by suggesting a walk, it would be a nice casual stroll with Mr C. Um, no. Somewhere along the line, the devil stole …

Today, I almost managed to finish reading the whole of The Economist. I'm getting closer and closer every week, but my worry is that I won't ever actually reach my goal. This week's edition had no surveys in it and had only the basic sections, two special reports, stories from different countries plus business and finance. If I couldn't read it when it's at its smallest, when will I ever …

Three adverts have caught my attention and not for good reasons... Firstly, the second instalment of the Yakult Bacteria guy. I actually quite appreciate the idea of the advert and think it's really nice that the girl is sticking up for her geeky friend. BUT... those Yakult bottles are so expensive, you just WOULD NOT give one away like that. Not even to a friend! And especially not to two …

So, I'm watching the crazy people running the London Marathon, I do not understand how anyone can manage to run that far... I have trouble running to my car when it's raining! I think it's great though, all those people raising money for charities and coming together to do something worthy like that. Even Iain Duncan Smith's running!

I think I knew before we went, that the replacement wouldn't live up to the outstanding performances of my favourite Tony Vincent. But I like to think that I was willing to go in there with an open mind and give him a fair shot. And he pretty much blew it. I just think his voice wasn't clear enough to pull off the songs and I didn't notice but Mr …

Seriously, what does it take for someone other than Schumacher to have a little luck? He's already got a gazillion titles and trophies, surely it's someone else's turn? But... I have to say, I'm not sure that I didn't just dream that whole qualifying, because I thought that I saw Ralf Schumacher driving last (he's usually rubbish!) and before that, Sato beating Button?? That's not right at all...

It's only been a week but it seems forever. I hope everyone had a great St Patrick's day, plenty of Guinness was flowing, I hope. The very last Sex & The City was on Channel 4 last night and it was brilliant. Everything happened just as it should and I thought the ending, when she just sort of melted into the crowd was brilliant. It tied up all the loose …

Did anyone else watch If the lights go out? I thought it was going to be really good, eye opening, scare us all into doing something about the use of all our power sources. But it actually did nothing of the sort. First of all, they didn't show that we were using a ton more electricity than now. The girl was playing a video game. Er, we do that now …

I wanted to go in today, but it was kinda insisted that I stay in bed. Of course, I got itchy feet and was up a few minutes after the house was empty. But I guess it was right, it's probably best that I'm at home today, I'm still a bit poorly and I'll definitely go back tomorrow, and there'll probably be lots of work to do, always a plus. …

Well, I'm snuggled under a duvet, with a mug of hot orange squash (was anyone else brought up with that as the staple hot drink to recover from a cold?), and half watching my favourite James Bond movie. I know, I know, I should be in bed, but sleep rarely finds me in the middle of the day and if I go there, I'm only going to lie down and …

Rant No. 1 I do not understand birthdays at work. If it's your birthday, at many offices you have to go out and buy some cakes or donuts or cookies, or a selection of all three. Everyone very graciously wishes you happy birthday and thanks you for the sweet treats. It's all nice and pleasant. But my birthday means nothing to me, I'd rather the day just went by like …

I wanted to watch Unbreakable last night because I just knew any film with Bruce in it was going to be worth watching... I was wrong. I suddenly realised it was over and I'd not been touched by it at all. Both actors were good, the settings and scenes were all mysterious but they didn't stitch together properly. It spent so long trying to persuade Willis' character that he's unbreakable …

I've just returned from the most magical of shops, a new discovery of mine - Hobbycraft. The adverts on the TV are typically annoying but they obviously worked on me because I hotfooted it over there and could have spent hours and hours in that store. Unfortunately, I managed to only stay there for an hour because I (very sadly) wanted to catch the end of the Coronation Street omnibus. …

There's some very interesting work going on at Pixar: The Incredibles looks very good, and the cute lamb in Bounding is especially sweet. I'm glad that Pixar are splitting from Disney after the next couple of films, because it seems completely unfair that Disney get to do whatever they like - as long as they pay the right money. The right to make sequel after sequel even if Pixar don't …

I have such a sore throat, it's not fair, there's no sniffles or cough or anything, it's just my throat is so sore. It feels like I've been swallowing knives although the last time I checked, I hadn't joined the circus.

I bought a new toothbrush just recently and although a mundane thing like that shouldn't warrant a mention in this place, I thought I had to comment on the amount of choice there is these days. Now, I haven't bought a new toothbrush for a while, and the last one was purchased for me simply because it was purple (my favourite colour). So, I was dazzled by the array of …

Both Mr C and the receptionist at work said that one of the lights on my car was out today but when I got home and checked, they both seemed to be working... weird.

I fell asleep kinda early last night but I was listening to Radio 2 and I managed to listen to it all night, it was great! But at about 7am this morning they started doing religious stuff, so I fell back asleep again.

So, today's the day. I'm sorting out my website again, once and for all. I've decided that it needs updating and I have a whole weekend on my own with no distractions to get it done. Except that really good book that I started yesterday. And the television. And the trip to town and the supermarket I have to fit in. But yes, best get started!

We've been inspired by educational TV again, this time it was Days That Shook The World on the BBC. So far I have learnt about the plane that came down in Scotland, and also about the Chernobyl disaster. This was before my TV decided to stop working though. Sound is no problem, but there's no picture. I was trying to "watch" Coronation Street yesterday, but it was like trying to …

The calendar that sits on my desk at work has pictures of Britain on it, it's very pretty. However, I was bored and flicking through it and came across August, and a picture of that hill in Shaftesbury. The calendar informed me that it was a picture of the pretty Dorset village of Goldhill that was used in the Hovis adverts. Hovis - correct. Dorset - correct. The rest is …

Friday was an okay day at work. Saturday, I read a lot of The Economist. Sunday, I discovered all the groovy games at the BBC, which I have much fun playing and more importantly, they work on the Mac. But I don't want to go on about the BBC too much because they lost all my Celebdaq shares just because I forgot my password and needed a new one. Not …

Every year I buy a diary that has two days to a page and I fill it with nonsense details about what I had for dinner and where I went during my lunch hour. Things that aren't particularly interesting to anyone else, but are interesting for me to look back on later. I can never remember the little things like that, but whenever I do, it brings back the more …

Yesterday was the last ever Buffy and it made me cry, not because it was sad or anything - it was good but nothing fancy. It made sense and everything worked out okay, but it seemed to go out with a whimper instead of a big bang... in my opinion. Anyway, it just made me cry because I spent the best part of this time last year watching all the …

I just finished reading the whole of the Heat special double Christmas issue, with all the TV listings and I'm sulking because I can't find Mary Poppins in there anywhere. I know she has to be in there someplace, but I can't find her.

Okay, so here's the lowdown on what's been going on recently... My love of Queen is still going on unabated, I listen to them a lot and have recently started singing loudly to Bohemian Rhapsody and falling in love with it all over again. I got a workout DVD, which is mostly dancing which is great because you're so busy concentrating on getting the moves right, you barely notice you've …

I thought it'd just be a sore throat, a bit of a cold but no... has to turn into a full blown bout of flu or something. Today I've been ordered to stay in bed and for once, I'm not actually complaining about that. Right now, we're watching Steve Jobs, the guy from Apple that 'booms' and 'poofs' telling us about the new iTunes stuff, Apple are great! Mr C …

I'm really annoyed because I've been driving up and down so much and working all day and stuff I haven't had time to learn anything or I've been too tired to read any of my books. We just finished watching Time Commanders and I really love it. We've discovered a passion for educational TV and at least it's not mindless soap like Emmerdale. But TC is really good because they …

Who watched Eastenders? I have to put my two cents in and say that the whole nation would have been watching the episode and not even bothered concentrating on what was happening with Sharon and Little Dennis, when they knew who was going to appear at the end. And could it have been more predictable? "Hello princess" and roll the drums... I've been listening to Radio One a lot recently, …

All I wanted was a box of Old El Paso Nacho's and Tesco's Finest white choc cookies. Do you think I could find any? I had to go to three different Tesco's and an Asda Walmart, which took me over an hour. Dammit!

I'm such a muppet. I don't really remember doing it but I managed to walk into a door handle and now I have a huge angry bruise on my left hip. It hurts really badly but every time I complain about it and show Mr C the various shades of purple it's going, he takes great enjoyment out of prodding it. Big meanie.

I just booked for us to go and see We Will Rock You again!

I thought it was just a hangover, but my killer headache rolls on to today, so perhaps that's not the reason. I've been learning stuff today, and although not good for my head, I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing for another whole day.

Today I watched James Bond - one that I haven't seen for ages. It's such an institution, it always cheers me up. Yesterday, I wrote a lot of notes for the software testing that I learnt and I also started a new book on UML. My hands are hurting from too much writing! I've been a little obsessed with bid-up.tv the last couple of days, it really draws me in. …

The Grand Prix today was so good, mostly because we were rooting for anyone but Michael, therefore we had a good chance of being happy. Ralph was my driver of the day because he fell right behind but then caught up and overtook his brother (something Mr C has always said he won't do). And of course, it was pretty fantastic to see Michael get lapped!!!

I'm trying to do lots of things with this page, but I'm getting confused with all the folders and stuff. Mostly, it's just experimenting which is fine, but I have lots of things that I want to use and no real outlet to use them. I also need to think of a new name, given the lack of stories that have appeared on this website, I can't really warrant having …

I learnt so much PHP today, and I finished off reading the software testing book that I started, so my brain is full of wonderful facts and figures. Today, I got a hangman game to work (only broken because of a damned ampersand!). It's not aesthetically very good, there are no spaces between the letters so it's hard to play, but the point is - it works!

I met up with my brother today, and we went to the cinema to see Pirates Of The Carribean. It was really good, although a little unsettling, that I went to see Orlando Bloom in a movie – see if he could shake off the elf-ness – and came out loving Johnny Depp instead.

I did so much learning yesterday, my brain's in a bit of a spin. PHP and Software Testing and I was doing stuff on my website which is always teaching me new things. Thankfully, it wore me out so I slept okay. I woke up a bit too early for my liking, but that's just the way it is.

I came home yesterday, and it was raining and really nasty weather, just at the time when it's getting dark. I hate that time because you have your lights on but they're not really doing anything, although it's still hard to see. Over the weekend, I tried my hand at making my own fudge. It wasn’t a complete success, but Mr C did attempt to eat it. He ate quite …

Argh, Tomb Raider is so infuriating! We've got to a bit with a lady who's a bug... sort of a ladybug! But she's really hard to defeat. In fact, I've travelled to visit my parents to get away from it! We're looking at photos of me as a kid, and the nice parents that they are let me choose which ones they can embarrass me with. What a choice!

Things that are getting on my nerves: I can't stop listening to Queen. And if it’s not Queen, it’s We Will Rock You. I'm currently playing Tomb Raider 2 in an attempt to kill time before the new one arrives. I got stuck in Venice (level 2). All those waterways! Once I'd got through that, I breezed through the next four levels and now I'm stuck again... grr... We headed …

We Will Rock You rules!!! That is all.

Isn't it weird how everything can change around in one day? Not even a day, just an hour. Mine has been doing that so much recently, you'd think I'd be used to it, but I'm still not. A lot of the time, I'm quite easy going, but I've been forced to make instant decisions that are huge and really should take time to think about. So far, it's been working …

Mr C kept telling me I was getting the germs and I kept trying to deny it. As it turns out, he was right, my throat is sore. Today is Friday 13th as well. We went to London yesterday and saw a guy in orange trousers playing guitar. The music was very good, the orange less so. I drove back through London when it was still busy. We survived!