Technovox

I've spent the last two weeks alternating between periods of feverish work and just plain fever. Last week, I had two days wiped out by a stomach bug which left me totally drained. On Friday, I ended up having to abort my journey to work after waking up with a head which felt like it was stuffed with porridge.

Meanwhile, the Big Project that I've been working on - more on this at the end of the week, when I can talk about it properly - continues to crunch away my time. When I wasn't feeling sick last week, I was getting up at four or five in the morning to do a couple of hours work before I actually went in.

The thing is, I'm actually starting to feel too old to do that. When I was news editing MacUser, every other weekend would see me work on Sunday afternoon or evening, and get up at 4am on Monday morning to finish off the news editing which was due that day. Not only could I do it - I actually enjoyed it.

Now, though, it's not so easy. Getting up at that time doesn't feel anything other than a chore, and I'm glad I won't actually have to do it for too much longer.

A pleasant evening of television watching, internet-writing, and plonking a vast amount of Kim's totally amazing corned beef hash. When I say "totally amazing" I really mean it: there were tomatoes!

It sounds like a minor thing, a cut finger. However, when the cut is almost perfectly placed in exactly the spot where you type, and when the finger is your little finger - the one which hits the keys which are furthest away from the centre - it becomes more of a hassle. It's basically halving my typing speed, which, given that I need to do some typing today, is more than a bit of a pain. 

So it seems that I've abandoned Vox. Or rather, I haven't. I just really haven't had that much to write about on a personal level lately. But I'm going to try and change that in the not-too-distant future.

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

And I will fight the man who disagrees with me.

That was a pretty difficult weekend.

On Friday, while I was at work in a meeting, my Mum left a message on my mobile's answering machine telling me that my dad was in hospital, that he'd had a sort-of dizzy spell when he got up and had to be sent in an ambulance to hospital. And then she was sobbing.

So, I dropped everything - thank you, workmates - and headed up to Derby, getting there in time to check that my mum was ok and head to the hospital. In many ways, I was actually more worried about mum, as she has a hard time getting around and would find it very difficult without my dad.

By the time I got to the hospital, the old feller was sitting up in a chair by the bed in his pyjamas, looking more bored than anything else. He'd basically recovered about an hour after he came in, and was simply waiting for the results of some tests. Apparently, he had a very minor heart murmur - news to us, although he's known for years - and that was probably the cause. He hadn't had a heart attack, and there was no deterioration of his heart at all. He was fit and ready to go home.

Kim raced up the next day, dad was fine, and we spent a nice weekend with them. But it was a scare, no doubt about it. fa

How many places have you lived in your life?

Let me see... first of all there was Derby, where I was born and lived until I moved away to college - to Hatfield Polytechnic. Then when I had finished at Hatfield I moved over to St Albans, where I lived for a few years. Then, when Claire got her job at Sussex University, it was down to Brighton, with a brief spell in Hove. And finally, in December last year, I moved to London.

So that's six.

Just one more day of work and then I'll have two weeks off. This is actually the first time that I've taken more than a week off since... actually I can't remember when. It's a LONG time. The last time I had a proper holiday was 2002, and that was only for a week. So I'm not entirely sure that I've had a longer holiday this millenium.

I'm looking forward to it immensely. The first week we plan to do very little, just lots of little day trips to places. The following week, we're off to Norfolk, to a cottage by the sea.

I. Cannot. Wait.

What was the last game you played?

World of Warcraft. Something to which both myself and my love are thoroughly addicted.

What are your plans for the holiday weekend?

What holiday weekend? :)