Day 174

Worked on Forth - Only <BUILDS...DOES> to go really in command terms, apart from more 'defining Forth in terms of itself'. It really is an achievement for nine days' work. (not counting the effort that went into the versions which led to it).

Day 173

Cycled into town for a lampshade. Not such an interesting day today. Still, Giro tomorrow.

Day 172

M came round at 3pm and gave me a lift to hers. Varnished a doorstep and window-frame, sanded one window-sill and painted another. She was impressed with my painting technique. Talked about climbing, S and unemployment till 5.30. Borrowed enough for Rizlas and a can.

Day 171

Dad's friend Mr B rang up to say the adult education people had asked him for a reference for me and that he'd sent one. So things are beginning to move. About time too.

Went to Do It All and Sainsburys Homebase for a lampshade in the afternoon, no success. But quite a good day for a Sunday today - didn't even finish the paper.

Day 170

Government looking in nice disarray over Europe. Serve the wankers right.

Day 169

Heavy rain kept me in till about 2 pm, when I went down town on my bike to Sainsbury's and the library.

Day 168

Went to the Workshop: raining, and river very high, but on the way back the sun came out and cheered me up very much.

Day 167

Rain most of the day again, clearing towards the end of the afternoon. Made bread in the evening.

Day 166

I was tidying the room about 3 pm when M rang - we went to town to the library and to the DHSS as she wanted to try and make a benefit claim.

Day 165

M came round at 11.30 and we talked and drank tea. She's relieved at finishing her course but depressed at what seems inevitable failure.

Day 164

Wrote a letter to our old TEFL course tutor about a reference for the adult education thing for the Workshop.

Day 163

Stared into space for a bit after Week Ending, then wrote to D.

Day 162

Massive thunderstorm last night.

Day 161

M rang to complain that I'd put a joke citation into her dissertation, 'Boring 1975'. I had to show her that it was genuine!

Day 160

An exciting economic day: I got my Giro, and interest rates were up 2 points at noon to 12% and at 15% at 4pm: would you believe it? Then Lamont appeared in the evening to announce the pound'd been suspended in the ERM. It's supposed to be worth DM 2.77 and it went down to 2.69. Tories in disarray, Parliament recalled.

M happened to be round when the news came on at 4pm: 'The Bank of England has raised interest rates...' 'Oh, heard it' '..for the second time today...' 'What?' '..to 15%...' 'Fuck!'

Ha ha ha! Tory bastards.

Day 159

Typed up a load of references for M's dissertation, cycled round with them. She was very grateful.

Day 158

Saw Fritz Leiber's obituary in the paper.

Day 157

Got a new high score - over 21,600 - on Tetris while listening to the phone-in.

Day 156

M phoned and invited herself to town with me. She hassled me about a job opportunity at the library. They'd previously undertaken to 'keep me on file' so they were obviously lying.

That same checkout woman in Asda claimed I wasn't 18 again. I showed her my driving licence and the supervisor was called, and I got my way. I told them both I'd be going to Sainsbury's in future. Anyway, she gave me 8p too much change, so minor victory there.

Day 155

Carried on with Good Wives.

Day 154

Finished Little Women, started Good Wives. M rang up to ask bread-making advice.

Beautiful clear evening with a full Harvest Moon.

Day 153

Carried on with Little Women. Went out for the new walk again after The Archers.

Day 152

Discovered a different compiler option in QuickC which makes the .EXE file about half as long - wrote an interrupt vector lister in 6K, shorter even than a Pascal .COM file.
Started making bread in the morning, had a bit of trouble mixing the dough, but it came out all right.
Got bored and depressed later; a warning sign I think. 'Sometimes her boredom took her by the throat'. Let's hope the Workshop come up with a placement soon.
Started reading Little Women.

Day 151

Met M in town, said I was sorry for saying she didn't deserve a boyfriend on Friday night - she said she usually ignored what I said when I was pissed. I told her to carry on. Came back here for tea and computer talk.

The building has had an Anglia/BBC East aerial put up This means when Thames goes down the tubes at the end of the year I won't have to watch its Thatcherite replacement.

Day 150

A grey, damp, rainy day. Staved off boredom with the paper. About 4.20 had to go out for a walk: back at 5.05 when Sunday evening had replaced Sunday afternoon. Started Sons & Lovers. About 8 pm went for another walk.

Day 149

Still very cold. Read the paper and the Quick C book.

Day 148

Extremely cold day. Borrowed M's book on C.

In the evening to the Green Man with M. Julian thrillingly ran his hand down my back. Stupidly went on to the Hazy Bar, but Julian didn't come and I was completely bored. Back at 12.50.

Day 147

Went to the library and the Workshop. Got home to find the Ursula LeGuin book I'd got was actually a collection of women's SF (usually it's got black and white stripes down the side so you can avoid it). Be fair, I gave it a chance, but only Ursula's story/novel was up to scratch.

More C later.

Day 146

Cashed Giro. Thanks to the Workshop cash I had over £6 free after rent, hard disc repayment, miscellaneous debts, baccy and the Weekend Fund. And £2 for the Christmas Fund.

Bought a tin of veg. ravioli. C'd, read Rocannon's World.

Day 145

Did a bit of C then went into town to the library for C books, astrology and Planet of Exile. Meant to go to the Workshop, but didn't.

Day 144

Today being a Bank Holiday I perversely got up at 7.30 am to experiment with C. Made gradual progress throughout the day.