Day 1817

Perfect Bank Holiday. Spent the morning tidying the place up. Parents came round in the afternoon, bearing a model terracotta Roman lamp for me.

I have really enjoyed this 4 days off. I might well take up M's suggestion that I use my holiday allowance to create artificial Easters.

Day 1816

In the afternoon watched Channel 5 being launched. That was a pile of shit I must say.

To the Crown at 9 to meet M and E. Came back looking at the comet.

Day 1815

That colour printer is great.

Watched Carry on Spying, was struck by the similarities between Kenneth Williams in 'Snide' mode and Chris Barrie when playing Brittas.

Stars, comet and Mars all splendid again. Sort of clarity of vision you only expect in winter.

Day 1814

Realised that my AOL screen name entitled me to 2 MB of web space, so set it up with links to my Cserve site. If one had an AOL and a Cserve subscription, you'd get 10 hours free a month for £12.50, plus forum access - ideal for me. Will give it thought.

In the evening went out and looked at Comet Hale-Bopp - very clear, massive tail. Orion right round in the West now.

Good day's holiday.

Day 1813

Went out at lunchtime for Esperanto books and hot cross buns.

Got very windy later. Inspired by The Diary of a Nobody, indulged in a brandy & soda.

Day 1812

Ran out of clean linen so had to buy more pants at lunchtime. Finished watching Nashville - great stuff. It finished with an assassination, as I thought it might.

Day 1811

Cooked a 'masterly yellow curry' for tea, a real triumph. Watched last week's Quantum Leap (the clever bigamy one) and 25 more minutes of Nashville.

Day 1810

In the evening made stir fry, went surfing. I must change either my pricing plan or my ISP to reduce costs. Still, even at the moment it's only the price of a quality newspaper, and twice as useful.

Got a bit worried about lack of opportunities for meeting the perfect partner; the three previous ones I all met at parties or through mutual acquaintances. We don't seem to go to parties any more, so I'll have to look to the latter. Had a worrying thought on the same subject recently - would I fancy a man who was the equivalent of me?

Day 1809

Listened to Alastair Cooke in the morning, he sounds much older these days. Watched more of Nashville - still good.

Learnt some useful things about Corel Draw in the afternoon. Also got some Esperanto stuff off the net. I'm never sure about it, it's such a horrible-looking language on paper, and the suffix system makes some words hard to recognise. Also I worry that reading such an easy language will make my Latin rusty.

Day 1808

At 11am M and E came round - E accused me of being a hermit. He should've seen me two or three years ago.
Talked about mortgages again. Thing is, I need (say) 3 grand to make up the difference between 3x my salary and the cost of a decent place. If I'm saving that up, I won't have cash to move out of here and rent a place with.

Watched that film Nashville on vid - the first 40 mins of 220 anyway.

Day 1807

Somewhat more constructive day's work, had the good idea of drawing a state diagram for my form. Had a detailed conversation about calories.

Got paid, £811 this time, wish the amount was a bit more predictable.

Met C at lunchtime, he was coming out of William Hill's (where else?)

Round to M's in the evening, watched the 'anorak' Dr Who documentary. Also indulged in general chat, I repeated F at work's remark that the people at Arthur Anderson all knew 'f'ing nothing'..

'The weekend is back.'

Day 1806

Beautiful weather today. Made a bit of progress on the form. Worked out I run a daily calorie surplus of about 50, at least - must be remedied.

C came round in the evening, watched Blackadder III vids and Men Behaving Badly.

When he'd gone I had some more of the brandy M brought me, and carried on with Keep The Aspidistra Flying.