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 want them to is pushing their luck a bit.

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 new fangled ideas on the shelf.

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 figure out what’s going on in the Archers, and I always struggle.

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 a lot of rubbish. It’s not Goldhill, it’s a street named Gold Hill, and it’s in the town (not village) of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

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 fair, I was doing really well!

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 important memories that I do remember.

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 videos that my brother lent to me so I could catch up, and now it’s all over. I don’t know why it made me sad, it just did… I’m weird like that.

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 been exercising for an hour. I really, really wanted to be learning something new so I had a peruse through some courses. Psychology, Economics, that kind of thing. To help me see if it was for me, I picked up a copy of The Economist and I loved it! It’s weekly, though, and that’s not fair because it’s taking me to get through it. Mr C says I should just read as much as I can and then get the new one each time because soon I’ll be understanding it more and more and finding it easier to read, so when I finally manage to finish it before the new one comes out, it’ll be a momentous day. I went to the cinema on my own and saw the third Matrix film. I thought it was really good. I’ve heard people saying they thought it didn’t end properly and didn’t explain all the things it opened up in the second film. Now, I’m completely positive they should have just left it at the one film because that one was a classic and changed the way films are made today. The second one left a lot to be desired, but I thought the third made up for that totally. It answered all the questions I have and it seemed to end properly to me, the action was great (especially when Agent Smith’s face goes all slow-mo and wobbly) and there were only a few corny bits which I was thankful for. Basically, my opinion is that if they had to make it a trilogy, then they ended it well, even if it lacks that extra something in the middle.

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 is a little excited about it.

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 have all the computer battles going on and the historians are really passionate while the presenter is really funny. I’d never seen anyone win before today, they were always defeated but today (although I think it was just because they had tons more troops) they were victorious. Well done.

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, what with all the driving I’ve been doing and I can’t work out whether I like it or not. I like half the songs, and I only really rate Chris Moyles as a presenter, and probably only him cos of Comedy Dave.

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. My favourite auctioneer is Peter Simon - he used to be on kids tv!

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 the name storyteller.

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 a lot of it actually, despite my warnings that it was basically pure sugar. Needless to say, he felt a bit sick afterwards.

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 to Borders, to their Paperchase section, for wedding present wrapping paper, but we ended up browsing through all the books and DVD’s and the computer magazines. I wouldn’t let Mr C buy anything until he convinced me that if we both bought something, that would be fair. I couldn’t find anything I wanted though!

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 out for the best, but it’s a worrying process.

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!

I bought some envelopes today but forgot to get stamps so that’s not good… but anyway, the guy I bought them from was trying to talk to me but he wasn’t saying anything normal. Conversation that I expect from a salesperson - “nice day, isn’t it?” or something relating to my purchases, “Have you tried the self-sticking envelopes?” That kind of thing. This guy was going on about how he got fired from working on a newspaper and now he was stuck selling the damn things. Then he looked at me for a comment.

I’m feeling kinda good about myself today, my hair is behaving - that helps. Mr C and I watched the Eurovision together last night, and I got a bit drunk while we were watching. Way to go UK - nil point! I missed my mother a lot while we were watching it because it’s sort of a family tradition that we watch it together. Perhaps we’ll just have to start a new tradition.

From one extreme to the other. It’s raining. I like rain but not today. Definitely gloomy.

I asked my mother what mood she thought I was in and the answer that I got was “You appear to be quite jolly!” So I am. I went for a walk today, along the river and through the woods, it was very pretty.

An old friend sent me a long email filling me in on everything she’s been doing in the two years it’s been since we saw each other. It’s almost as if nothing’s changed. It was just like old times, but it’s also completely different. I’ve moved so far away from those days but sometimes it feels like I’m still right back there. And in a way I am. But aside from that, it’s a gorgeous day. The sun is out, which I love, although it’s too windy to go to anywhere exciting. I did venture to the supermarket though. A guy was in the car park and ran over a cone, it made me chuckle because the top half got knocked off and rolled away and the guy just drove over the bottom bit. The car park attendant was not happy!

I was inside and I decided I wanted to go sit out, so I got out the blanket that I sit on and everything, I just got settled with my notepad to write some poetry and then just as I started getting creative, it started to rain. Damn the English weather!

A very sweet man at the petrol station let me in front of him in the queue, because I just wanted to pay for my fuel, and he had a whole armful of stuff.

Okay, so each second that I’m living is going about as fast as a snail, and yet I never seem to get anything done. Not that I have anything that’s particularly pressing to get done but it’s kinda annoying. Mother and I just watched Now and Then that I recorded from yesterday, I love the music in that film!

Today, I was driving through Dartmoor and winding around those intriguing roads. Into my head popped an amazing story, and I was visualising it being adapted from the book to television, on the BBC. Of course, the big obstacle is writing it, but at least the dream is there.

Deep Blue Sea was on last night and I hadn’t seen it before. I knew, however, that Samuel L Jackson died in the middle, and time was ticking on and I complained that he hadn’t died yet. Two seconds before he got eaten. Oops.

We went to see Final Destination 2 last night and it was really good. It wasn’t as good as the first one as there was less plot and more gore, but any film that shows a man getting a ladder in his eye, a boy being squashed by a sheet of glass and a guy being sliced into pieces by barbed wire, that’s gotta be pretty damn good. Of course, I had a nightmare afterwards and it takes a real film to stick with me that badly. The only other was 28 Days Later.

I hate computers… I updated this once already today, well, yesterday and it just disappeared. Typical. Today was the longest day of my life, second after second ticked by slow as ever. I even wrote a poem called Bored. Says it all really, doesn’t it? When I got home, took a nice shower then settled down to watch some Buffy. Looks like I’m gonna have to speed watch and get through all the series’ before I lose access to them… It’s unlikely I’ll manage to finish them. Never mind.

I don’t feel so good today. I had the day off and slept most of it and still all I want to do is crawl back under the covers. In more positive news, we just watched Ocean’s Eleven and Brad Pitt has never looked finer.

I’ve spent most of the weekend sorting through all the junk I came back with from my trip home. I found a poem I wrote when I was eleven, I didn’t realise I wrote stuff when I was that young. I thought it was a recent thing. We were also looking through this old tin box with toys and things in and then we came across these really old exercise books, dated September 1913. In them, written by my dad’s grandma, lots of poems and songs and things, in lovely flowing handwriting. I could have sat there and read them for hours. It was a real find.

Insomniacs are relentless about time, about night-time, because each minute is another grain of sand through the hour-glass and into your head for the next day. Time For Bed, David Baddiel I’m no insomniac, but I can understand that. I could not sleep at all last night. I grabbed an hour between 11 and 12, and then I watched the clock tick by until about half 2. The rest of the house settled into sleep, then I watched the clock tick by some more.

Okay, first things first? I can’t get any of the Queen songs out of my head and I can’t stop listening to them! Oh no! I really should be glad though, because they’ve stopped me going down the destructive path I was headed on - the liking of U2! So thank you Queen and Ben Elton!

Friends was on yesterday - a double bill and all! It was completely chuckle-full and brilliant as usual. I have a whole day ahead of me today and have no idea what to do with it.