Day 1300

In for ten. Did some C notes in the libe. Had a Computer Ethics lecture.

This is the end of Volume Thirteen of this diary; from the start of hope in February to hope now. I planned for my New Day and came through the night to it.

Day 1299

Didn't wake up till 10.30; decided to stay at home and do the ANSI C reading. Got through 2½ chapters so did pretty well. Went into town in the afternoon to the library and to get some file dividers.

Worked on my WHERAMI C prog, which works out what directory a prog's been run from by examining PATH. Went well.

Read The Hobbit again - found some good parallels between Bilbo and me; 'This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found herself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.'

Back to Effolk tomorrow. This effective 3-day break has done me good. Tried to ring T but she wasn't in. I'll send her an e-mail tomorrow evening, she can read it when she gets back to work on Wednesday.

Day 1298

Woke up at 7am when they came back. Talked to T till Star Trek - the 2nd ep ever - came on. Left about 1.10, engineering on the railway, home just after four. I had some of the usual anxiety on the journey but I rose above it and did quite well.

It was a good visit but there are forward moves I could make, like knocking off the diffidence a bit. All in good time.

Day 1297

Woke up at eight and read Complicity (not bad but typical Iain Banks Aren't-I-clever stuff) waiting for everyone to wake up. Went to the pub with T, then all her friends came round and they all made ready for their rave.

They went at ten and I had a lot of wine and watched the first four X-Files, all in a row. Went to bed at 1.30.

Day 1296

Got away early enough to get the 1451. Got to Mugsborough at 1507, got a ticket, got the 1524 on to London.

I was coming out of the station about 4.30 when I ran into T coming back from Sainsbury's. Had her to myself till six; then Una came round, and also B, who I think I used to know through Richie at Lowlands. Everyone was smoking blow and I thought 'In for a penny, in for a pound' and joined in. Nothing untoward happened.

Day 1295

Up at six, to campus for nine - 3 hours' solid lectures. I had to sit on the floor for the second till someone kindly moved up.

Interesting email from Natalie. In some ways I think my silence and diffidence are as much an affectation as her bright colours and noise.

Left just after one, got the 1351, full to the gunwales. Had to stand up all the way, but we made it non-stop in 16 minutes flat.

Tidied up, made all ready for the trip tomorrow.

Day 1294

Borrowed mum's car and drove to Dulchester. It took a whole hour, and was much more frustrating than going by train. I'll carry on letting the train take the strain, I think.

Did some UNIX practice, got an Access Fund form; came back at two via Sainsburys and the doctors. I couldn't get an appointment till next Wednesday; still that'll give any chest infection a chance to develop, or disappear.

Rang up T re her e-mail, had a good talk.

Day 1293

Lectures etc.

Got an e-mail from T - she wants to go to a rave on Saturday, so I could experience Loved Up at first hand. Or rather she's going anyway and offered me to stay in with the cats if I didn't fancy it. I think I'll do the latter.

Day 1292

Put in some solid work in the lab, on TODO and a UNIX script (batch file) exercise.

Got the 1351 and got back to Mugsborough at 1407 - 16 minutes for 25 miles - very good.

Got £25 out of the building society for Friday (the £13 for fares can come out of the bank), went to Boots for Vitamin C and paracetamol. Came home and nursed my cold. Got some database notes done too.

Had a double Scotch during The X-Files to ease symptoms.

Day 1291

Worked hard on my TODO Schedule Scanner. Got it working very well. Read Rocannon's World, made lots of database notes.

No computer science lecture tomorrow, so I can go in in my own time and potter about in the lab. Tomorrow is the 12th working day of the new dispensation; if I last it out it makes it more successful than ABC. It already seems like 500 years since the course began. Really I'm doing very well, all the travel and work are quite manageable.

Day 1290

Went into town; renewed Rocannon's World, and got an earlier edition of the software engineering book.

Worked on my TODO program, adding an insertion sort to order the events and suppressing the printing of buses that go before the last lecture finished. I'm quite pleased with it so far.

It was a quiet day otherwise. Started composing a reply to T's e-mail.

Day 1289

Got in for the Prolog lecture. Worked on TODO afterwards.

In the evening went up to the Crown with M and S, had a very deep conversation. Philosophy, religion, science, it was all grist to the mill. A deeper conversation I cannot recall, certainly adds a dimension to them both.

Walked back under enormous stars, Vega and Deneb very bright and Orion coming up sideways in the North.

When I got back I couldn't drink any more. Listened to the radio instead. There was a girl who'd fought to be allowed to sing at Winchester Cathedral. She said it was a big step forward for girlkind. Blimey!

Day 1288

Did some UNIX pottering, got the careers thing E wanted. Got the 1.35 bus back, got the fast train, home by 2.35.

Wrote some Elmasri notes - first work I've done at home. M looked at them when she came round to get the careers thing.

Day 1287

Took the Giro to the building society, then caught the 11.10. Worked on the TODO prog I conceived yesterday. Started sitting on the non-smoking side of the coffee shop; it's good self-denial.

Looked up the name T mentioned in her e-mail, in Who Was Who in America. He was director at Mt. Wilson 1903-1924. Sent her the details.

Made good progress on TODO, learnt about UNIX in the process (so it counts as work). Managed to transfer the files to floppy disc to bring home.

Got the 3.35 bus, home at five. More TODO.

Day 1286

Went to the Prolog lecture. Had a terrible database 'class' (=seminar) in the afternoon, by a foreign PhD student; didn't learn much but I've got the hang of the relational idea.

Got the 4.35 bus, back in Mugsborough by 5.39. Very quiet journey.

Watched Is It Legal? again - really quite good.

Had a great idea for a mighty prog to run on the lab machines and tell me when the next bus or lecture is, using a weekly data file. I'll start it tomorrow: no lectures so a leisurely trip.

Got the final Giro of my 4-year DHSS 'course'. £86 of that will go in the building society.

Day 1285

Train a bit late due to a broken-down train at Ingham. A London train came in to the Dulchester platform. Anyway, I was there well on time.

There was a 'lab' in the afternoon, I wasn't sure quite what we were supposed to do so I went through the C exercise I'd printed out in the morning. There was bad overcrowding too, I couldn't get a terminal for 45 minutes so I went to the libe.

In the evening managed to FTP to Effolk; the correct name is helios1.effolk.ac.uk. Watched a very good X-Files - Scully is back.

Day 1284

Installed C, C++, perl, LISP etc onto LINUX, also EMACS. I might get into LISP if I have time.

In the evening I intended to do some work but could find nothing to do. I'll just concentrate on getting to Effolk for 10 am to pick up the UNIX notes.

Day 1283

Went round to M's to collect the Linux book and CD, had a spot of breakfast there. Went into town for a new watch and new diary book; came back and spent most of the day getting Linux to work. Finally did it about 6pm.

Curry in the evening with M, E and Jo Jones. Walked home through the fog feeling pretty positive.

Day 1282

Went to the Prolog lecture, just out of interest. The Software Engineering one was packed out so he cancelled the lecture. If this keeps happening I'm going to claim some money back. It's bad enough having to sit with a load of pig-like second years as it is.

Went home early, and got an earlier edition of the very hard to find Database book from the Mugsborough library stacks.

When I got back I remembered something someone said in the lecture about Public Domain Prolog: got onto Compuserve, went to the IBM File Finder, found it, downloaded it, plus ARC.EXE to dezip the documentation. IBMFF is worth its weight in gold.

M came round briefly about 9.40 to borrow my Compuserve and said she'd lend me the Linux CD tomorrow. (Be excellent UNIX practice).

Think I'll have a few now.

Day 1281

Saw the loco University of Lowlands zap past on its way to Eastchester while I was waiting at the station in the morning. Last time I saw it I was coming out of the Jobcentre. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.

The bus was well late: just got to campus by nine, but wasted 25 minutes looking for the room. When I found it there were no chairs, and I nearly gave up, but I went out and got one from a corridor and went back in there. I didn't come to Effolk to bottle out. Sent an e-mail to to the lecturer to explain.

There were 2 more lectures in a row, both horribly overcrowded. I really resented it, also having to pay for photocopies of lecture notes. And why is there never anywhere to sit on campus?

An e-mail from T cheered me up; did some more UNIX experiments, got the 2.26 back. Home by four. Sun had shone through the mist by then, which helped.

Rested, did some UNIX reading. Watched DS9, would be no good without Kira. Lots more e-mail from T, printed out everything since Sep. 18.

Day 1280

Lay in till nine, what luxury! Went off in a misty, moisty morning to endure a 30-minute wait at the station. But I made the connection and got to campus by 11.30 or so. Experimented in the lab, wrote a UNIX C dump prog. Got some course books from the libe, also a much-needed UNIX book. Did some more experimenting, got the 2.28 home. Read the UNIX book all the way back to Mugsborough.

After season ticket enquiries at the station, walked home; the Sun was just breaking through the mist.

My blisters are much improved: I wore my white trainers for added comfort.

Day 1279

Up at 6.40, limped to the station, just managed to catch the 8.08. Got to campus surprisingly early at 9.05, did three lectures.

In the Sun lab in the afternoon, started teaching myself UNIX (GNU really, but it's the same). Used the C compiler, did the assignment, which was to e-mail the lecturer. I used the 'Of all the fishes in the sea the mermaid is the one for me' line.

Met the Labour bloke, and discussed forthcoming events. I said I'd attend a few and see whether I wanted to join. Got the 7.33 back.

No Pris, so carried on with The Two Towers with a couple of cans I bought on the way back with Pris in mind. Blisters might just be starting to get better.

Day 1278

Got my options form done after going into Dulchester for a padlock for my graduate locker. Saw a poster for a Labour Club meeting. Decided to go; found myself fired with enthusiasm.

Rang mum to ask her to tape The X-Files. When I bought the phonecard the woman commented humourously on how tired I looked.

Got the 9.26 train back, home at 10.40.

Day 1277

Still quite tired. Revived with the news that a Tory MP had defected to Labour, the first ever to do so directly.

M rang in the morning and came round to have a Compuserve demo. Talked for a bit.

I hope tomorrow goes OK. Got to plough on with it I suppose.

Day 1276

Woke up hungry - didn't eat much yesterday. M rang up to see how positive I was feeling, I said 'quite'. I suppose I must've seemed more agitated than I was, last night.

Scanned through the newsgroups; changed my Compuserve password, worked on a master timetable for getting to Dulchester.

I worked out a lecture timetable too: it's none too heavy, 11 hrs/week, and that's including all modules for the 'sampling period'. I don't know about seminars as they're separate. I'll check on Monday.

Day 1275

Exercise and the walk to the station got rid of my hangover. Got to campus, wandered around a lot looking for the registration place, found it finally. There was some argy-bargy about whether or not Mugsborough was more than 25 miles from Dulchester (it isn't) and then some more about whether I'd paid or not, but I told the bloke I certainly wasn't going home for the receipt and I was duly issued with a registration card.

Half of lager at the union bar £1.17: 'How much?' I asked the woman. 'Is it too expensive or too cheap?' she asked, expecting the latter.

Intro talk at four, then a grim cheese and wine party: I had 3 glasses of white wine on top of the lager and was practically falling over. Various staff members were deputed to come and converse with me; I told them I was quite happy and merely suffering culture shock after being unemployed so long.

Walked down to the station in the windy night. It was deserted; got the 8.33 from there. Walked through rain to M's and then home.

Feel old with tiredness and young with the reminders of events seven years ago. Even the posters brought everything back. I kept expecting everyone from O-Block to walk into the bar.

Day 1274

Lovely weather for the 1,552nd and last day of unemployment. Went shopping, computed, gave The End of the Tour another listen. Into town about 5.35 pm, got the weekly season after some argy-bargy;.

Sent T a scan of the X Files article in the Radio Times I bought last week after the funeral.

Will probably not feel too well tomorrow first thing, but eras have to be ended in style.

Day 1273

Improved my document deleter. 1,551 days of unemployment down, 1 to go.

Day 1272

Looked in at the Jobcentre for the last time, inquired about weekly seasons at the station.

Could find nothing to do in the afternoon. Tony Blair made an excellent Conference speech, quite moving. He invoked the 'white heat of technology' idea like Wilson - Mrs W. was on the platform. Very optimism-inspiring. He said he wanted to rule Britain for a generation and change it for good.

They let O.J. Simpson off. I reckon [redacted] though.

On and off had delicious visions of a prosperous future.

Day 1271

For the last week on the dole I've revised town days to tomorrow and Thursday, so stayed in and arsed about. Listened to some of the Labour conference.

In the evening watched The X-Files. I don't like Scully being mistreated.

Day 1270

October at last! Applied myself gently to VB. Began to feel quite excited about Friday (5 days to go).