wow - pretty sky - taken from my balcony a few minutes ago!

another nice weekend, but more chilled than last.

stayed in on Friday evening, after a crazy week at work. Although I handed over the project to the PM on Thursday, there is still much to do, so it will be a few more weeks before I can get back to doing work that I enjoy and know that I can do (less of the feeling that I've been given enough project to hang myself with would be nice).

spent yesterday mostly doing nothing apart from watching Season 4 of DW - it's even better after you know what happens to everyone and very sad.

today went to Regent's Park with Gourou and his lady which was lovely - and I learnt to knit! May even start going to Stitch and Bitch! Gourou also advised me about which new lappy I should get - Although my main one is good, it's big and heavy and I'd like something lighter that I can actually carry around with me - I'm probably going to get an 11.5 inch Toshiba of some kind - very light. It will also mean that I can take it to Chicago easily (although I'm still pondering whether to encrypt everything on it, or send a USB key ahead with my data on it, following the court ruling that US customs can copy everything on it without a warrant when I enter the country...).

this week is going to be busy, with lots of personal training, pilates, seeing friends, and the Free Summer Screening of Marriage of Figaro on Wed which should be great. I was trying to work out the last time I actually saw it all the way through and I think it was more than a few years ago!

lovely weekend...

... but need sleep now.

Friday and Saturday I was a judge at the National Finals of Debating Matters - an amazing debating competition for sixth-formers. All the debates were interesting and thought provoking, especially the final one, about presumed consent for organ donation - Do we have civil liberties after death? Does the State own our body or does our family? How do we increase public faith in doctors, and do we need to?

I seriously urge anyone interesting in raising the level of intelligent debate in the country to get involved next year - either as a judge or how about entering a team from your school if you're a teacher?

today was also great - a pilates intensive. Four hours of tuition, a reflexology massage and a delightful lunch - couldn't have been better (well, actually, a sunny day would have been nice!).

back to work tomorrow, but now I just need sleep!

UPDATE (22.48): ok now I need to go to sleep - stupid interweb!

I knew there were many reason why I love Neal Stephenson...

... and this is one of them - a fab Q&A he did for Slashdot back in 2004.

and a hat-tip to Neil Gaiman for pointing the way!

I may have mentioned this a few times before...

... but I hate tonsillitis - grrr...

even more upsetting is that I haven't been able to wear new shoes yet, as am having enough trouble staying upright in flip-flops right now. This is not helped by the fact that I've had to be in work every day as the rec project goes live next week and there is no-one else who can sign-off on all the creative and print stuff...

in other news, have booked my apartment in Chicago - yay!