It's good to know that things just don't change on IRC. Sure a few people come and a few people go, and some change their nicks, but in general they're just the same as they were when I was a regularly some three years ago. Has it really been that long? Well, I was probably IRCing less than three years ago but my habits were certainly slowing down. Particularly with the introduction of blogging.

I got to catch up with some of my favourite IRCers today. It was nice just talking to them about nothing in particular. I had some tech support from one, talked NaNo with another, and found out another was in the country (well, England, so not technically the same country, but still). It's amazing how much I'm suddenly realising I missed it.

Although not as much as I missed the boiler, which seems to be working fine now. We had a bath and the house really felt warm. When the heating first went on there was this warm smell - you could tell that the house was heating up for the first time in ages. I'll never complain about the cold again. It's amazing how much you appreciate a boiler when it's gone. How much we take for granted.

We're hiding in the back of the house tonight away from the kids. I did answer the door to one incredibly cute pair of trick and treaters while their mum was waiting at the bottom of the steps. I gave them a packet of crisps each and sent them on their way. Awwww... so sweet.

I was playing with Flock earlier. The new Firefox-based browser. It looks quite cool.. I look forward to the non-development version.

It's hard to keep my chin up right now, but everyone work is great and that helps. However, having to repeat my problems several million times doesn't. Hopefully this will be the last time.. and I might be able to pour my heart out this way.

Firstly the boiler. It is still not fixed. While they ordered the right part yesterday an "alternative" was sent since they don't stock ours. The alternative being a completely different circuitboard. The gasman is going to see if someone can get him the correct part from Cardiff today. If not it will have to be ordered from the manufacturer, which could take anything up to ten days. So he said he'd bring round two fan heaters tonight. Doesn't help with bathing but we're planning to pop round to Rat's mum's tomorrow. At least the house (or two rooms of it) might be a bit warmer.

The roof, however, is much more of a problem and no longer covered by the insurance since it's a "workmanship" problem. Apparently some bricks are missing in the wall and so the flashing can't be secured. There could be two reasons for this: at some point work was done (the bay window?) and the bricks weren't put back, or there is a more serious problem (perhaps with the lintle) and the bricks have dropped off at some point. If this is the case it could be "silly money" to fix. I'm basically sticking with the people who the insurance company went to because they know the situation.

The first problem, however, is that they can't even find out the problem without taking the roof off. This needs a full scaffolding because of the situation of the house and garden - something that worries me in general because the wall holding up the garden isn't perfect and I don't know how much weight it would take. But then they should be able to work out what they're meant to be doing. This investigation of the problem will cost a fair bit because of the scaffolding and they're meant to be getting back to me today to tell me how much. Then they have said they will give me a quote for (a) fixing the leak and (b) fixing the underlying problem. We can probably scrape a grand or even two together with overdrafts and credit cards, but not more than that. And of course that delays things like double-glazing. Of course, the lack of bricks probably isn't helping with the noise and the temperature so it could help that considerably.

The next issue is do we complain to the surveyors? If it's only a small problem to fix then I won't bother. But if it's bigger then why didn't the surveyor notice something was wrong. I don't think he even noticed the flashing was odd and that's something even I could tell. My worry is that he could turn around and say "I had no access to the bay roof". But then, the fact that there had been a leak in the past was fairly obvious. I wonder if the contractors will provide us with photos as proof is we do take action? Is it worth the solicitors cost? Have we even got a case. Everyone says that we should take it further but the whole idea terrifies me, and I'm scared of this whole thing enough as it is.

The past week has been putting a strain on our relationship too. Well, the whole moving house has. As people say "what doesn't make you split up just makes you stronger" and I'm sure that we aren't about to split up. But I've felt that we're less close than we were. Thank God for all the good TV that is on right now.. that helps.

The good news is that our router turned up today. The line was sorted yesterday. So assuming the tests that we have to do on the line go okay then we should have broadband by the end of tonight. Let's hope our line isn't problematic. I don't think it should be. At first I thought it sounded a little rough but it does seem okay now. Assuming that Rat will allow me use of his Guildwars account then I may be able to play that pretty damn soon. Or if not, there is always Neverwinter Nights online. And I will be able to upgrade Fedora. So our "holiday" next week won't be totally dire.

The other thing that is bothering me right now is that I haven't heard from the guy who asked me to do the website. Actually, I haven't even checked if the first cheque they gave me went through. Maybe they've decided not to use me? Although I suppose it could be that they're so busy with having just opened that the website is the last thing on their mind. I'll pop him another email over the weekend. I'm tempted to finish the program even if it isn't needed just so that I've done it. It would be satisfying to prove that I can do it.

Those of you who were with me around 18 months ago may remember my asking a magic 8-ball about the future of my job. It successfully predicted that I would be losing the job I was doing at the time and that Rat would be getting it. I think it also predicted that I would get the job I now have, although it was incorrect in that prediction since I got it not through the interview I had then but through a temping job I got later.

Well, I suppose it should have been no surprise to me when, having asked the 8-ball if (a) the roof would get fixed and (b) the boiler would get fixed on that particular day, and the 8-ball saying "absolutely not" and "forget about it", that things wouldn't go too smoothly.

The roof isn't fixed and when it will get fixed is very unknown. I'm waiting for the insurance company to improve the new work schedule, but the contractors won't be putting in a new work schedule until they've taken photos tomorrow (which surely they could have got yesterday or today). So at the earliest approval will be tomorrow afternoon despite assurances earlier in the week that the work schedule would be completed by yesterday. Assuming it does actually get approved (I can't see that it won't, and if it doesn't I will be mighty pissed since I could have got my own builder in and done by now) we then have to wait for decent weather. I have been assured that we won't be "at the back of the queue". While I know we won't have to be there for the work to take place I would rather be there to ensure it all goes smoothly. So I'm hoping that it will be able to be done when we have time off next week. It'll mean another week with an occasionally leaky roof, but since it's been several weeks already one more week for convenience won't hurt.

The boiler is a little closer to being fixed. The gasman came again today but still had the wrong circuitboard. He phoned up the manufacturers, as he had the day before, and this time got a sensible response. The person from the manufacturer described the problem perfectly and said "you need a new circuitboard". After telling him the two circuitboards he'd got he was then told the correct part number. So tomorrow, after five, someone will be coming round to install a new circuitboard. He even promised that he'd come round himself if he had to, despite tomorrow being his day off. So I'm hoping all will be well tomorrow. I'll be leaving at 3pm to ensure someone is home.

Despite all the hassle I'm remarkably calm and non-stressed. I guess it's because I know it's out of my hands.

This week has also been a rather stressful week at work. I have been working on helping to put together a tender. Not only is this the first real tender I've worked on but it's also a massive and complicated one. At first it was really really bothering me and last Friday I was ready to scream. This week hasn't been so bad because I feel a little more in control and that I know what I'm doing. While I've been complaining about it bitterly all week, I plan to tell my boss that "actually, it's been okay" because I do like this kind of work and it's nice to be involved in the higher level stuff. I've been thanked by one of our partners and had the lilting tones of our London-based tender expert calming me down. It's almost been rather nice. And, in fact, getting the CMS that I'm working on configured properly has almost been more hassle and stressful (if more enjoyable).

It is Atlantis and Lost night tonight so I fully intend to submerse myself in TV watching and wrapping up in blankets on the sofa, after a nice bolognaise supper. I can enjoy the little luxuries at least.

I wonder if I should ask the magic 8-ball if dinner will be nice tonight... but I suppose that will be tempting fate. I'm really beginning to get superstitious about this magic 8-ball. And if there is one thing I've never been (except perhaps in jest) it is superstitious.

Well, yesterday was a waste of time.

The decorator came in the morning and sorted out the plastering with a promise to come back either in the evening or today. However, the roofer didn't turn up until this morning and that's another story.

The gasman turned up and while he was great he couldn't find the problem. All we know is that the fuse had gone. He tested different things and nothing seemed to be causing the problem. He finally left just after six having booked in an appointment with us tomorrow and ordered a new circuit board. The board alone would have cost almost £200 and with the gasman's time we would have been looking at a fortune for this work. Thank God we got British Gas Homecare. At something like £25 a month it'll be at least 8 months before we've paid for this work.

So Rat's at home this morning waiting for people to turn up. The roofer arrived and managed to break the guttering and has done some form of temporary fix - until I get home I won't know exactly how bad, and until it rains heavily we won't know the real extent of the damage. They then discovered it would be a bigger job than expected and have to get the okay from the insurance company. I've phoned the insurance company and they are waiting for a change to the schedule of work to be completed. They've flagged it up to check later. Hopefully they can okay it soon so that they can come back and do the work tomorrow. After that we'd have to start booking more time off and with the rain we've been having we want it done asap.

I've just heard from Rat that the circuit board that had been ordered for the boiler is the wrong one. This isn't surprising considering the circuit board looked nothing like either the instructions that British Gas supplied nor the instructions in the manual that was left to us by the previous owners of the house. However, he's been on the phone to the manufacturer and there may be a simple fix to the problem. I'm waiting to hear back so watch this space.

So all in all things aren't going too well. It's great that we aren't having to pay gigantic sums of money for the work to be done. And it's kinda good that we have some comeback if anything goes wrong. But nothings fixed like it should be and so we still have a cold house and leaking roof. It's almost as bad as waiting for landlords and agencies. And far more stressful.

I've had a nice hot dinner of tortellini with a cheesy sauce. The sauce didn't smell too great so I added in fried mushrooms, onions and garlic. I'm hoping that I'll retain at least some of the heat from my dinner to keep me warm through the evening. But other than the tip of my tongue, which I managed to burn, the rest of my body is rapidly cooling down.

I won't be sat here in front of the computer for long because, while my room is probably one of the warmest in the house when the boiler is working, it's one of the coldest when it's not. You see when they did the pipes to the boiler they managed to expose some of the stone beneath the plaster and there is a hole that goes right through to the outside. I get a draft sat here even when the boiler is on. Now feel frozen solid while I sit here.

I was watching Gremlins but I'm not sure I can really be bothered to watch the rest. The thing is, I don't much feel like watching or doing anything. I feel like wrapping up in bed and going to sleep. Not that I'm tired yet and it's far too early for that. I guess I'm just bored and don't feel like doing any of the things I could do. It's definitely too cold to do some stitching - although I've really got to start again or I'll never get back into it. I've had a singing/piano session so I shouldn't bother the neighbours with my screeching any longer. I may try writing but anything I write tends to be crap and nonsense. And I could play on my Gamecube.. I suppose I could try and find out how to get past the various things I'm stuck at in the various games I'm meant to be playing. I really don't know what I'll spend the rest of the evening doing. Probably getting steadily more bored. American Chopper is on later so that's at least an hour of TV I really want to watch. I think we must have missed American Hotrods last night.

If only Rat could have left later. If transport wasn't such a hassle he could just about be leaving now. I wouldn't have eaten so early and I would only have to waste the next four or so hours. As it is I've had three hours to waste on top of that.

I'd ask for suggestions to alleviate my boredom but I suspect I'll be shutting off the computers once I've done this so I won't have to worry later tonight.

Rat's going to be spending tonight at his mum's because he has to be there early tomorrow morning for when a gasman comes to fix the central heating. Meanwhile, I have to spend the night here ready for the guy who is coming to fix the roof.

Any thoughts of pampering myself with nice hot baths and warm blankets are unfortunately going to have to be forgotten. I came into my room this morning to turn on the computer and discovered that the boiler was off. There was no green power light. It was still on at the wall so we set about investigating. I tried a light in the plug socket while Rat tested the fuse in the boiler's plug. Both were working fine. But the boiler just doesn't want to even switch on. So I've called British Gas Homecare who will be sending someone out tomorrow afternoon. It's a good thing I have the day off. And Rat has the next two days off so if there is a problem that takes more than an afternoon to fix he'll be around. I'm kinda glad it's probably an electrical problem rather than a gas problem, since I'm paranoid about gas and who knows what might have happened if it were a gas problem. I suppose it could be something to do with some of the inbuilt security features but they don't tend to stop it working permanently. Let's just hope British Gas can fix it soon because I'm already finding it bloody cold.

I have some work to do for work that I was planning on doing on Monday before I remembered that I won't be in. It's only a little job so I was hoping to do it from here and send the work on to the office. But unfortunately I can't get into my work email. I'll try again tonight but if not I think I'll be sending long instructions to Lesley and I'll probably have to be on call in case I need to talk anyone through the work. This is such a bugger because I really wanted to get it done so that people would be less stressful tomorrow.

So today is going to be cold and probably unproductive. We have to tidy up so that the workmen can do their thing in the morning. But without Rat to cuddle to this evening, and without any heat, I think tonight could prove to be fairly depressing.

I never got around to uploading my OCC/American Chopper picture that I made the other night. I was really just playing around with Gimp effects - although I did move Jnr and Snr so they were closer to each other and I'm quite proud with how good it looks. It's something I've never done before. I think it goes at least some way to demonstrating my obsession with the program.



I checked our joint account today and was greeted with a little good news. We have had our bond back. Or at least some of it. We have had something like £447.38 out of a total bond of £560 plus a few extra quid that they owed us as change. While being £100 down isn't fantastic we're just glad to have some of the money back and to not have to worry about it any more. We're finally done with Darlows! Well, let's hope we are. Considering we didn't even get our bond back from the place before losing out on £100 isn't too bad.

I failed to mention my watch problem. I think it was Wednesday night when I was taking off my watch and discovered it was saying 7:30 and wasn't moving. I shrugged and went to bed with the plan to get a battery at the weekend. But when I woke up the next morning and turned on my mobile phone so that I could be sure I was leaving for work at the right time, I discovered that the time on that had somehow unset. I ran upstairs to set it and was in a panic all morning.

I find it horrible not wearing a watch when I'm so used to it. Checking for the time every few minutes and finding that there's nothing on my wrist. The watch has removable faces so that you can change the cover and I'm always unscrewing it and playing with it. But of course I couldn't do that either. So you can imagine how eager I was to get a new battery.

It wasn't until trying a second battery that the people in the shop figured out that it was the watch and not the battery that was causing the problem. Their battery tester had been turned off and so was showing batteries as dead. So after wasting several minutes of their time I walked away feeling fairly down-hearted. I have this bad habit of buying (or getting other people to buy) new watches when the batteries run out. Watch shops are one of those things I fear and watches are so cheap from places like Argos and The Gadget Shop when it existed. I've got several dead watches lying around that I should get batteries for at some point. I'd decided this time to get a battery and save a bit of cash. I haven't had the watch for all that long really - it was far too soon for a replacement.

But a replacement it would have to be. Rather than getting the cheapest possible watch I opted for a £25 Sekonda that looks fairly smart and should last a little longer than an unamed £10 watch. The problem is that I keep trying to unscrew the face and for some odd reason it doesn't work!

The shopping trip also involved buying Rat (and me) the Guildwars Special Edition set in preparation for our broadband being sorted in the next few weeks. If there is now a problem with the line or anything I will be mighty pissed! But hopefully in a matter of weeks we'll be playing Guildwars. Huzzah! Unfortunately we have a load of trips semi-planned for our week off so we might not be spending much time online then.. but I suppose that's a good thing as we'd just be fighting over who would play the game. I'll have to investigate playing NWN online so I can perhaps play that while Rat plays Guildwars (and vice versa).

I'm just glad it's payday next Tuesday. And that money from Darlows will come in useful!

I suppose I should write this before my views on Stargate get wiped from my mind. However, be warned that I'm not particularly in a creative mood so my writing may not be at it's best. And I'm going to get myself a cuppa before I get started.. so I hope I manage to hold my train of thought.

This is actually spurred on by a comment from a friend on how he wasn't enjoying SG1 and was enjoying Atlantis much more. Now bare in mind that I've only seen two episodes of the latest season of SG1 and a mere one episode of Atlantis. And my opinions are highly biased by those of Lucie and Rat with whom I partake in regular Stargate conversation.

I had great doubts about the replacement of Jack for several reasons. Firstly, he was replacing Jack. Secondly, he was from a TV series that I thought was rather crap from the little I saw of it (and so it's likely that the actors from it are crap). And thirdly, he looks far too much like Daniel. And in the first five minutes of the episode my fears were confirmed. I hated this guy. I did however love Beau Bridges as the new general. Fantastic character.

Slowly the new guy (who's name I haven't get learnt) started revealing his reverance to the SG1 team; his desire to work with them. And suddenly I loved the character. He was funny and quirky, a little like Jack, but not a lot like Jack. In fact, he's different enough from Jack that he'll never be a complete replacement.

I have absolutely loved the first two episodes and only two things have annoyed me: (a) they keep on saying "to be continued.." - I'd like the episode to wrap up now, and (b) Romy (Andromeda) as the new doctor.. I'm not sure. I have this general dislike of doctor characters in these shows as the doctors can always do so much more than a real doctor can do. They don't specialise in something: they are all good at surgery, diagnostics, and creating new super cures. Frasier was my least favourite doctor of all and I was quite happy for the show to no longer have a main character doctor. But to have someone I like in one role play a character type I hate.. that's gonna grate. Besides, there is then the natural jealousy I have over her because of Daniel.. *cough*. Okay, to get away from the girly reasons, I just not sure yet. But I'll see.

Now on to Atlantis. Skinner was cool. Tayla wasn't too grating. Rodney and the Czech were fantastic. But Ford. I've never been a big fan of the character at the best of times but the whole storyline with him sucked. To the extent that it really spoilt the episode for me. I'm glad he's gone (temporarily) but I know that when he reappears he'll just piss me off.

So yeah.. I'm loving SG1 but having doubts about Atlantis.

I've been wanting to use the "link" feature for Blogger for some while. Here's my chance. The link leads to Memeorandum - a site that collates lots of technical or political (depending on the section that you look at) articles from other news sites and blogs. It links related ones together and links to blog discussions on these things. How cool?

It's already introduced me to Flock which I plan to download as soon as I have broadband.

Edit: Link option doesn't appear to work.. the link is: http://tech.memeorandum.com/

The good news is that I may have broadband before the 4th November - the day after my two week break starts (although admittedly part of that break will be spent at my parents' where I will definitely have broadband but will hopefully be driving around with my brother). This means I'll probably be buying Guildwars for Rat's "other" anniversary present this weekend.

This is assuming it all goes according to plan. Their order confirmation gave the wrong delivery address for the router even though I'd specifically asked them to send it to work. I've corrected that now so hopefully it will come here rather than the house which we won't be occupying!

The other problem though, is one I'm more worried about. The email confirmation said something along the lines of "we only accept your order if the person names is the person who has the phone connection". The phone connection is in my name; the ISP account and thus the order is under Rat's. They assure me that this is fine but I have my doubts. Anyone have experience of this (well.. anyone in the UK who has adsl)?

I really haven't been doing much other than watching TV this past week. How my life has changed. I should have technically been working on this website but I am waiting for information, or at the very least some indication that they like what I've done so far. I haven't heard anything in what must be over a week and I'm starting to get concerned that they may change their minds about wanting the software. I hope not since I've put a lot of time and effort into this and while it's been a learning experience I need the money. They have literally just opened up shop so that might be why they're being slow about it. As soon as we've got broadband I also have to start work on Cheryl's site; or rather carry on since I've started I just have to do the finishing touches! This should be quite fun to do but until I have fast access I don't want to consider playing around with Lycos' slow filemanager.

I have planned to write a Stargate update with my first impressions of the new SG1 and Atlantis seasons. But since it's the end of my lunchtime I'll have to do that at another time.

I've been meaning to open this up and start typing all day but haven't had the chance until now. It's been a busy but productive day. It has also felt incredibly incredibly long.

It's the second episode of the new season of SG1 tonight so Lucie and I had a "geek-out" earlier. Debbie, who sits by Lucie, gave us a strange look as we squealed about "what's on TV tonight...".

But as well as the geeky Stargate discussions I've been able to talk to other people about TV-related subjects. Yes, my geeky tendencies are lessening to some extent and I am watching other things!!!! One conversation involved our favourite "Little Britain" sketches. I'm afraid to say that other than some of the sketches (particularly Bitty and the Women's Association ones) I actually enjoy this program. I laugh out loud at it - something that normally happens when I'm watching geeky programs that I absolutely love, not when I'm watching comedy programs. I normally stare blankly at the box when it comes to comedians. But when it comes to Little Britain.. the computer says no.

The other discussion has been with Nic as she's discovered my love for American Choppers. I suppose it must sound like the strangest thing: a self-professed computer nerd and sci-fi geek liking a program about MOTORCYCLES. For heavens sake, what is wrong with me? To be truthful though, I've always had a love of bikes and always wanted to learn to ride rather than to drive. What stopped me? Complete and utter fear. Hell, it was hard enough booking myself my first driving lesson. I'm far too much of a wimp to try to ride a bike where I only have the protection of a helmet and some leather padding.

I don't know much about bikes - I had a long-time joke with a school friend that I'd marry him when he got a Harley - but I never really knew what that meant. I knew that Harley's were "the thing" when it came to bikes and they looked kinda nice, but that was all. I'm slowly learning more since my addiction to American Choppers.

It all started with American Hotrods, which is much more like a soap opera than a program about building cars. And really, while I know when I like the look of a hotrod, I couldn't care less about them. But I was soon into the program when I was introduced to American Choppers. With less "characters" and more interesting products, it was far easier to get into. It's half a love of the Teutel family and Vinnie and Rick that keeps me watching. But also a love of the bikes they produce. Nic is trying to get me to go to biker rallies next summer and I'm very tempted. And I now have a Mikey Teutel desktop background that cheers me up when I see it. It's so bright and funny.

And now I hear that there is going to be a Doctor Who spinoff. TV is getting addictive again and I'm getting less and less time to watch it.

I get a little something done and I feel very relieved. I take a break and think about what to do next. Only I don't do it yet. I've succeeded in one thing - let's not fail in another. It might not be the best way to work but it keeps me sane. I'm slowly ticking over rather than crashing and burning.

I got my select buttons to work but discovered my "forward" and "back" buttons in the calendar weren't working. I thought I had them fixed but it decided to jump back and forth weirdly. I think I've now got that going "right" but I still have problems. One problem after another. I think I'm past making any sense of this right now. Something damn weird is going on and I don't know what.

Trouble-shooting has been especially hard since Apache doesn't want to show PHP errors. I had them working the other day after changing php.ini but they're just refusing to show again and I can't think why. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as I prefer to program on the server that the software will be working on. But with limited dial-up it's hard. I've finally managed to get a reasonable length of time online so that I could at least start trouble-shooting. I think the solution to this problem will have to wait until the next online window. Maybe I'll have a go during my lunchtime tomorrow. I just can't think why the variables I'm needing are suddenly disappearing.

Argh.

But things are progressing - and quite well I think. There are still vital bits of information missing inhibiting progress. There are also other bits of information I think I know, but can't be certain of. I need complete clarification. I want to get what I have working and presentable then I can explain the problems while showing the program.

I've been getting lots of compliments on me new haircut today. Everyone is really impressed - especially when I explain how cheap it was: free. In fact.. the only person who hasn't seemed too impressed with it was the hairdresser's mother: Rat's mum.

You see, on Friday Rat bought some clippers or whatever they are called to give himself a much needed haircut. It's probably been a good four years since he's been to a hairdresser, and only hacking at it himself has kept it from being incredibly long. He finally decided he needed to do something a little more drastic.

So after helping him with the back of his head I decided that he should cut mine. It needed cutting desperately. So standing in the bath with sopping wet hair (not the best way to cut it, I know, but I'd just had a bath and couldn't be bothered to towel dry it properly) he started cutting away. Firstly he took about an inch off, and then cut off more so it is short enough to not annoy me and only just long enough to put in a tiny ponytail. With only one mirror of even slightly decent size in the house I couldn't really check the back but I didn't really care. I'm not particularly vain and as long as my hair doesn't annoy me and doesn't look too odd, then it's fine.

So we were in Rat's mum's car on Saturday as she was about to drive us to the bus stop. After discussing Rat's hair he turned round and asked what she thought of mine because he cut it (or something along those lines). "No you didn't, it's too nice" were her response. After telling her about three times that he had cut it she finally accepted that and then asked me "is it straight?" Of course, if it really is too nice then she wouldn't have needed to ask whether it was straight or not - so she can't have really paid any attention. On the other hand, if it weren't straight she would have soon commented.

But other than that, as I've said, everyone is really impressed. I've been joking that he should become a hairdresser (half seriously). People have said that he should come and do their's. It's gone down rather well. And what a saving!

I don't think Rat's colleagues are taking his haircut in quite the same way. One apparently said it made him look tough or something. But his boss has made the inevitable jibes. Not all that surprising since they've never ever seen it long. It must look rather odd to them.

I feel like I've made some progress today even though I didn't even start doing anything until recently. The fact is that I am still waiting for some important details and while I can make progress without those details everything is subject to change until these are confirmed.

However, as I said, I made progress. Most of it is in making the form look pretty. I've also finally gotten the content to have a scrollbar when it's too big for the box - while this is quite simple css it only works when the position is either fixed or relative (can't remember which) and the div I was trying to get to scroll was the wrong type. A nested div did the trick.

I've written myself a very small to-do list of things I want to do next. The first is to get my select boxes working - I switched from check boxes to select boxes mainly for display purposes, but none of my books had proper instructions in using select boxes and I wasn't online at the time. I now have written notes on how to get that bit working.

The other thing I have to do should be fairly simple. Write a page that adds all the data to the database and prints a paypal button saying "buy now" which will be dynamic depending on the cost of things.

After that there is a little tweaking to do. There are three different pricing structures: a weekend pricing structure and two daytime structures - one for students and one for non-students. I've already got much of the code in place to cope with these but I haven't done it officially yet.

The next thing after that is to, once the times that bookings can be made for are officially confirmed, make sure that all the times are accurate. I've got a feeling weekdays may get a little complicated because timeslots are three hours long. The original plan was to allow people to book a start time of any time, but with the slots being three hours long this now makes it very difficult. On a weekend they have to go with specific start times and I'm hoping this will still be the case.

And then the final bit on that section is to change from sessions to cookies - so that the stored information can be deleted when the browser is closed. At the moment I think that information is being stored because each time I go to the page it starts at December rather than October - I want the program to always start on the appropriate month.

Then I have to wait for details on things people can hire and write a page to deal with this.

And finally.. I have to write something so that the people running the business can see/edit/delete all bookings. Should be relatively simple? No?

It's only 6pm and I feel absolutely exhausted. I guess it must have been a tiring couple of days but I don't really know why. I slept pretty damn well last night. Maybe it's the high-energy fast-to-burn-off foods I've been eating recently.

I want to skip back to Thursday now. I was working on sorting out a CMS for an online resource I'm testing for work. There were some very simple things I wanted it to be able to do and I'd been recommended MD-Pro. I wanted to use Mambo but MD-Pro looked more promising for a bilingual website. I installed it on my personal host on Thursday and started trying to configure it. By the end of the day I was tired and frustrated and my eyes were glazing over. It just wasn't working out. I left about five or ten minutes early despite knowing that I wouldn't catch my bus any sooner - I just needed to escape the office.

So on Friday I didn't have much hope that I'd get anything done. But after Welsh class, and after finishing a few minor jobs, I got started on the CMS again. I did a few google searches and investigated the MD forums and the work was soon underway. Halfway through the afternoon I was proudly showing my efforts to others. This might just work.

Today was a shopping spree day. I bought myself a new purse and a new handbag - for a total cost of £10. Rat bought me an early anniversary present - a white gold ring with lots of tiny diamonds - for a total cost of £80. I win on the spending only a little money and in the getting great things competition. Unfortunately I can't think of anything equivalent to get him for our anniversary. Except for the promised Guild Wars what the hell can I buy him?

I'm currently buying train tickets for my trip to the parents' in a couple of weeks. I guess this means that I won't be able to back out. It's not helping me to stay awake, however.

And other than that.. the only thing to say is that I am totally and utterly addicted to American Chopper. Who would have thought it?

Rat's not back yet and probably won't be until close to 9. While it may only take two hours to get home from London, it takes a helluva lot longer to get home from Worcester even though it's less than half the distance. Of course, Rat doesn't work for a generous company that will pay extortionate amounts for a taxi, which doesn't help on the getting home at a reasonable hour front.

When I got home from work today, utterly exhausted for reasons I'm not sure of, I started shuffling through the papers that had been pushed through the letterbox. I was greeted by a little black shiny nasty thing - an earwig. I have a bad history of earwigs which I shall explain now (and quickly since I'm not meant to be online for long and was just diverted from this for ages...).

Once upon a time (a good six years ago) I lived in a house in a road called Harriett Street. It was a student house which I shared with my ex-boyfriend Gav and two total strangers whom we'd interviewed after advertising around the University: one was called Darren and was a law student who I frankly wish I'd never met, and the other was called Nick. About all I can remember of Nick was that he knew Penny, the daughter of the rector of my old church back home, through very convoluted means.

The house was very similar in layout to the one I'm living in now. I had the upstairs middle room which is the equivalent of Rat's "office". It was a nice enough house (except for when we had the mouse problem), although my memory is marred by the fact that when I last entered the house it was in the process of being redecorated. It was looking much better then than it had when I lived there.

I had a single bed in my room, but I had also acquired a double mattress from my friends who had lived there before. So between bookcases and cupboards taking up most of the floor was this double mattress - a comfortable place to sit and somewhere to sleep on the many occasions that Rat was visiting. In fact, I often slept on this mattress even when he didn't stay over. The mattress later became our bed when we moved to our next flat.

Anyway, it was one night when Rat wasn't staying over and I'd just waved him goodbye. I was about to get into bed (the double mattress) and I saw this little shiny black thing crawling over the quilt. I absolutely freaked (bare in mind I'd only been living away from home for three years at this point and was still new to the idea of fending for myself) and whipped the quilt away to get rid of the earwig. It scuttled under the other bed never to be seen again. I soon decided to sleep in the single bed! It took a lot of coaxing to get me near the mattress.

For years after Rat would try to catch me out and make me freak by saying there was an earwig in the bed (don't get any ideas...). I've never been happy with the idea of the little creatures since. Fortunately today I didn't go quite as mental - I think I was far too tired to worry about a little creepy crawly. But it wasn't the most pleasant welcoming, particularly when I have several hours to spend alone in the house.

I'm on my own again tonight as Rat has a course in Worcester tomorrow - so he's staying overnight with his mum since that's so much closer to the train station than where we live. I'm waiting for my potato to finish being nuked so I can have the ever exciting meal of jacket potato and spaghetti hoops. Oh, I like to live in the lap of luxury when home alone.

At 11o'clock I'll be watching Lost. Before then I have to eat, have a bath, speak to Rat on the phone, and get loads of web work done. I was wondering "how the hell will I manage that" and then I calculated the number of hours - three and three quarters - until Lost starts. Okay, so technically I should be able to get lots done before then. So I'll nuke the food, then jump in the bath, and then get to work. I've already done my "recreational browsing" for tonight.

It's so quiet in the house, which is a silly statement to make since it often is quiet. Just the hum of the computer and the growl of the boiler. That's the wonderful thing about the back of the house - you rarely hear the traffic and the kids. If only we had the big room here and we would always have a peaceful night's sleep.

The potato must have finished by now so I'll go downstairs and see to it.. I'll carry on writing this later - probably after the bath. And there goes the ping... be back soon...

Rat managed to ring me just as I was getting in the bath. I'd texted him to tell him not to but he didn't get the text message until afterwards. So dripping wet I ran to the phone and told him I'd ring him back. Only now my slippers are soaking wet. Instead I'm wearing his slipper socks which are just a tad too big...

Okay, I give up with this program for tonight. I've got the pages I'd already written looking good inside the normal look of the site but it needs a little tweaking. I really need to do that before I write more new code. And I'm not yet sure how exactly to do the tweaking. The first problem is getting the date that the person is trying to book highlighted in the calendar. The problem is that I've just cut and pasted the calendar code from the "pick a day" code to the booking page. This uses specific functions to print the day of the week - and these functions aren't quite right for the second page that shows the calendar. I'm not quite sure.. there are just a few things to work out. I am contemplating showing taken timeslots on the calendar on this day so that there is a visual representation. The biggest problem with this page is that I think certain variables will get very confused.. it is hard to explain.

I am having to avoid using 's because for some reason that keeps pulling up Firefox's find box.. it used to do this and I fixed it. Now it's been doing it again although apparently not now.. weird.

One of my biggest problems is that now that I'm using session variables you won't necessarily see the current month when you first go to the website if you've been there before. I've tried a "destroy sessions" if the site has been visited more than a day before but this didn't seem to work. I want to use sessions because I don't want big ugly buttons everywhere and don't really want to store everything in the urls.. but then because sessions don't die when the browser gets closed.. I'm thinking I might have to switch to pure cookies. I didn't want to but I suppose, since cookies are often used for forms like this, it makes sense. Anyway, yet another thing to mull over..

Rat just rang me. It's horribly lonely without him, which is weird because I'm not doing much I wouldn't normally be doing. When I spoke to him earlier I just didn't want to get off the phone - although that could have been avoidance tactics. Although I did want to get off the phone this time I still regreted "leaving him". He's popping to the shop to buy milk and coke and I thought "how nice it would be to be going with him" and half contemplated going to our local Spar myself for no other reason than that's what he's doing. How bizarre.

I'm feeling much much happier about the website I'm doing right now. Last night before I finally shut down I did a quick search on paypal stuff and discovered I can do exactly what I wanted. So I'll have a go at that tonight with the paypal sandbox. This is why you shouldn't start panicking over something until you've really researched it.

I'm also much happier about the code in general although there are still some gaps in my knowledge of what is wanted. I'm going to get something working in the correct style doing what I want it to do tonight. Then I'll work out the exact details so it fits their requirements afterwards. This way I can get them seeing what I'm planning and it might help me to explain the problems. If I can get something basic working I can then work on the backend. In working on the backend I will be able to make things more dynamic and make some changes.

The biggest hurdle right now is making sure that everything gets inputted into the database correctly - it's the one thing I haven't tested because I haven't set up the database correctly (I created a dummy one which doesn't have all the correct fields). It shouldn't be a problem but it is the one thing I haven't done yet. I'm also not sure whether to do this before or after the paypal bit. I think before since not everyone will be using the paypal option. I can set whether they've paid or not to "no" and then switch this over once the paypal transaction stuff has gone through.

There are a few other things I want to tweak. The code I used for the calendar isn't quite what I want. It was good for a kick start but doesn't work exactly the way I need it to to do what I want. I keep saying what I want far too much. Let's just hope what I want is what the customer wants. Not that the way the code works really matters to them as long as the code actually works.

I'm not sure if I'm back in the "enjoying the work" stage - but I'm looking forward to figuring the paypal stuff out and getting it looking nice. I really don't like databases/SQL at all and so just having to remember how to access them/update them/etc really annoys me. Once those bits are done playing with the PHP code is great. I just get bogged down in having to sort out the databases.

In other news, my roof didn't leak despite the heavy rain and the water is now definitely not brown.

Which reminds me.. I'd better ring the insurance people to find out why they haven't rung me with a date to fix the roof.

Today has been a really good day. But not because anything exceptionally good has happened to me. It's the little things that have happened around (and to some extent to) me.

The first thing that made me smile was the little boy who, not more than three years old, got off the bus and said "Thanks Mate" to the driver. It was just so cute.

And then, while waiting for the bus, Radio 2 decided to play a song by one of my favourite singers - who also happens to be one of the more obscure people I like. It wasn't even off her recent album. And it was one of my favourite songs! (For those that are curious it was Take the Money and run by Juliet Turner). I couldn't resist singing along and had to try and keep the volume down in case I got some strange looks.

Work was work. I had a meeting in the morning which seemed to go fairly well and drew on my IT expertise, which is always a nice thing. I think I got a few things in motion and a few other things sorted out. There was talk of a Project Officer role for a big tender that we're going for which could be interesting, although I'm holding out for a more ITcentric role - and there were comments that maybe possibly suggested there might be a chance perhaps. I won't hold my hopes up but I can't help but wish for it.

My first bus on the way back was really late and with the pissing it down rain this wasn't a good thing. However, the driver of my second bus made up for it by stopping and letting me on while I was still halfway to the bus stop. I had run like hell up the hill but knew I'd never make it (it's a bloody steep hill and I'm too unfit to run that far). So I was beginning to slow down, looking over my shoulder at the bus in hope, getting slowly soaked through.. and he stopped and let me on. Not the best of places to stop either! Considering the driver of the first bus hadn't done something similar for someone I regularly see on the bus I was quite impressed.

On the bus I overheard some women discussing the dirty water problem so I chipped in. It was nice to talk to a few random strangers! I often sit there wishing for at least a smile or something when I get on the bus. So that was nice.

And to top off the rather nice day we discovered that the first episode of Stargate SG1 was on tonight. I quickly texted Lucie and put the video on just in case she misses it (which she has).

I haven't, however, got any other work done. Rat's away tomorrow night so I'll have a big go at it tonight.

The problem is that every time I think I've got somewhere the goalposts change. I think I find a solution but they don't like that. I felt like I'd achieved a fair deal when I finally gave up with website stuff for the evening. But they've changed things again. I'm not 100% I'll be able to get paypal working as they'll want. It's just such a fiddly little thing. The idea sounded simple but then it got complicated with their various requirements and desire for paypal. It's just really frustrating.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a few answers and be able to make some more headway. I'd like to start integrating the code with the site style tomorrow. I think I might leave out error checking temporarily though.

I wonder how easy it would be to colour-code the boxes of the calendar depending on how many slots are booked.

I've also got to work out how not to show a link when it's prior to the current date..

I'm beginning to regret taking on this website design that I'm doing. No, the design bit is fine, but the booking system is a little more complicated.

It's not really the booking system thats the problem. It's the integration with paypal. I think I'm going to have to use a shopping cart system to allow for the different payment options. The main issue is that you can book for multiples of one hour and there isn't a way to set the price as you create the button. I think I'll have to create different buttons for different values and then print the appropriate button depending on how many hours have been booked. It's certainly doable but not as easy as I'd hoped. I'm going to have to play with the paypal sandbox account to test it. But I'm not even at that stage yet!

Unfortunately I don't even have half the information I really need yet. I only have vague "this is how it's going to work" rather than exacts. So I'm doing as much as I can with very little info. And I'm meant to be getting the whole thing working fairly soon. It's certainly a learning experience, both from the coding and business point of view.

I'm also hard-coding quite a lot.. but I do plan on make it more dynamic as soon as I can. But that can be done after when I tweak the backend. Let's get the customer-facing pages right first.

I discovered yesterday morning (at around 10am I think) that the water in the loo was brown. Thinking there might be a blockage I poured bleach down and warned Rat to let him know. He decided to check things for himself and found that water from the tap was brown. We spent quite a while getting worried. All we need right now are dodgy pipes. Logically, I didn't see how it could be us, so eventually we stopped stressing and headed into town. Where we stressed about the little choice that was available. Iceland is shut on a Sunday which isn't the best of things - we had planned to do quite a big shop there and instead did a measley shop in Tesco and a slightly bigger shop in Morrisons. I hate Morrisons and Tesco have very little range. We got home and tried the water some more - nope, still not working.

We spent much of the day playing Zelda and the Four Sword or whatever it's called, with American Chopper running in the background. We've decided that if we do ever win the lottery we're getting a hotrod from Boyd Coddington and custom "his n her" choppers from Orange County Choppers. Of course, the likelihood of winning the lottery is slimmer than the likelihood of me completing Zelda (which is slim enough). Actually no, we've probably more chance of winning the lottery since that's just luck dependent... I don't think I've ever completed a game in my life so based on experience I don't think there's a chance of me completing Zelda, while there is at least a slight chance of me winning the lottery.

Anyway, the water problem wasn't solved by evening and Rat was putting hot water through our water filter so that he could wash his hair. Mine's greasy as I really couldn't be arsed with the fuss - my hair is too long for that sort of thing. I rang up Dwr Cymru this morning and apparently the problem was Caerphilly wide. It should be fine tonight - so I can have a nice relaxing hot bath without having had to worry about dirty water and hair washing.

I've been rather good at getting things done today: I've phoned Sky and cancelled/reduced various packages, I've sent off my forms to set myself up as self-employed, and I've done work of course. I'm putting off a hellish job on the work website. I'm putting off a lot of web-related jobs right now. PHP/MySQL is doing my head in, Contribute is a pain in the arse, and I'm not having as much fun doing web stuff as I thought. I think it's the lack of freedom though. I still want it as a career.

And at home the many millions of new Nintendo games that I have been buying are too tempting...

We've found that our Internet calls aren't horrifically costly: 11 hours for about £3. But we're not going to tempt fate. So expect more sporadic entries until we get dear old broadband sorted.

I'm struggling with PHP and HTML forms right now, and I need a break. My head is swimming. The code should be fairly straight forward but I'm having minor little problems. I need to walk away but I really want this code finished by the end of the day. I know I have plenty of time before the day ends but we do have to go shopping at some point which will take a few hours out of the day.

Over the past few days we've seen lots of films (well, 3). I'll do a quick summary as is my want. A History of Violence was disappointing. It might have helped if I'd liked any of the characters. Nightwatch was cool and I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Serenity was Serenity. Considering I only got into the series last week I was really really excited before seeing the film. And really really impressed (and still excited) afterwards. Even with my small knowledge of the series I loved it. Joss Whedon is brilliant (if evil).

I shall stop waffling now, have a cuppa, and then contemplate getting back to work. I need to play around with colour schemes, so that might be a good thing to do while trying to ignore the PHP stuff.

I got an email from Lucie today. As I started reading it the grin began to grow and grow until I was close to cracking up. I jumped up from my desk and ran to Lucie's room so that I could burst into laughter. Both of us were quite red after the ensuing hysterics. The cause? Stargate. It was a wonderful email that really made my day.

Not the only exciting thing of the day. While a colleague of mine has plans to do interesting stuff like Scuba Diving for a living the excitement of my life revolves around TV programs and insurance claims. Yes, I heard from my insurance company (well, I contacted them) to find that they would cover our leaky roof after it's storm damage. This made me very very happy and I had to run into Lucie's room - but this time to tell Rhys the good news (he recommended the insurance company, you see).

Other excitement of the day included talking about American Chopper - which I am missing just now so I will not be typing for long. I like that program.

I have Welsh class tomorrow. I'm not sure I know much from the last lesson but I do now remember how to count to ten. I can tell you where I work (Dw'in gweithio mewn swyddfa yn Hreforgan) assuming I got my mutation right. I can tell you my name (Fran dw i) and that "he lives in Cardiff" (Mae e'n byw yng Nghaedydd). I can even ask you a few questions about you (Ble dych chi'n byw? Beth dych chi'n hoffi?) but I can't say I'm confident yet. It's a fairly formulaic language (so far) and is phonetic once you know what the letters sound like. It's not that hard really.. but the pronounciations aren't the easiest and I've not got the confidence to say words to other Welsh speakers (although I have no problem with other learners). Geez, it's only been two lessons - I shouldn't expect to have the language perfect yet! It's quite fun to learn - I just wish I could have more lessons a week.

I also get to do a talk on blogging tomorrow. Joy. I'm not a big public speaker. Especially when it's about something I'm so passionate about. Tomorrow could be an interesting day...

I was digging around my room trying to find my NHS medical card when I came across a piece of paper with a list of old passwords on it (not an unusual find - I must have hundreds of these lying around). But the top one said "blogger" with a username and password sat beside it.

Considering work has just started a work blogger and various friends there are beginning to become interested in the whole thing I though that maybe I'd see if I could log in. I'd been toying with the idea of starting up a blogger for a while now. You see, I have my more private journal and while there is nothing there that's public that I'd mind people I know seeing, I kinda like it being separate from my real life. But I've wanted a journal of sorts on my webpage for ages. I had considered writing my own software - something that I did a long time ago (just as I gave up using this blogger), but embedding an rss feed from here seems so much simpler.

It's very weird to find I still have this blogger lying around. It wasn't published or anything because back then you had to pay to get it hosted. The only way to have a blogger for free was to have it ftp to another site; I used my DALnet website at the time and then I think I switched over to ftping it to my lycos page. The DALnet page is long dead (they stopped giving away home pages and besides, I haven't been a regular on DALnet for years - much to my regret) and lycos has been superceded by a paid-for package. The last of the big spenders: I pay £4.70 a month for a decent host rather than putting up with lycos' shit.

It was most interesting reading my past blogger entries because they cover an interesting period of my life, although it may not seem like it if you read back a bit.

We were both unemployed, money was tight and our only joy was the ability to go to the cinema virtually constantly. I was still doing things like roleplaying and ircing - things that I do miss. But I was poor and bored most of the time. It's not surprising that I through myself into things like blogging and my website. Two things that have definitely been an influence on my over these past three to four years. But the thing of most importance that this blog covers is perhaps the scariest night of my life. The night when a fire started in the flat downstairs. It doesn't come across as scary as it was; I wrote a very quick summary about it. Probably because I was telling people on IRC about it. But yes, it was scary and I'm glad I have some written record of it.

Shortly after I stopped blogging here I got a job. I've been employed almost solidly since March 2002 with one change of jobs. I'm now a home owner with all the pros and cons of that. I'm beginning to take a charge of my life finally and I'm enjoying it for the most part. There are highs and lows and it's been difficult at times. But I'm still here and able to reflect on my life with some positive thought. I throw myself into things like blogging or playing around with Linux, just like I used to back then, but I think I do it differently now. I don't know. I've certainly changed. And yet, I've stayed the same.

I'm still a wannabe computer geek.