I've had a monstrously productive day at work today, earning a lot of brownie points from my team leader. The light is just starting to peek through the end of the tunnel at last. I managed to tick off a couple of "to do" items in my lunch break too :o)

For those joining in longhairedhippy's Castleton trip this weekend but worried about public transport (I'm thinking of morecake here), according to the timetable buses back run about once an hour all the way up 'till 23:20. If the weather's nice though, I'll probably be taking the train to/from Hope and doing the short walk between Hope and Castleton. (This is because buses are Teh Eeevil and make Rich travel-sick.) Trains from Sheffield to Hope are 15 minutes past the hour, every hour. Trains back are 4 minutes past the hour, every hour until 20:04 (with a last one at 22:04).

Okay, Monday wasn't that busy - what with the sleeping in after getting back from the Lordi gig at 4 in the morning, followed by meeting soul_rider and Evie for lunch, catching up with Torchwood and very little else, but the rest of the week was kinda hectic.

It's been my first week on temporary promotion (see here), and Tuesday was spent frantically preparing for meetings in London, Wednesday and Thursday were spent in meetings in London, and Friday was spent catching up and actually sorting stuff out with the three EOs I've suddenly got working for me.

I have, however, eaten well. After a fruitless search for restaurants around Westminster on Wednesday evening (They don't exist), we decided, "Stuff this! We're going to Planet Hollywood!" which was as fab as ever. I also managed to get back to Sheffield on Thursday evening just in time for Chinese food :o)

Friday evening was an ex-colleague's 30th do, so I swapped a night's drinking down the NBT for a night's drinking down the Frog & Parrot. Saturday was a day for catching up on rest, and also carrying on with the German course I borrowed from work. (I'm understanding it all as I go through, but not much seems to be actually sinking in - I'm never going to learn it in time for the Christmas markets trip at the end of the month!) But apart from that, and discovering that Magical Trevor seems to have gone a bit HP Lovecraft, not much else.

Today is again going to be busy. Well, perhaps "busy" is the wrong word, since my plans involve going to Baan Thai for andymariachi's birthday meal, and then sitting in the Fat Cat for the rest of the afternoon while waiting for the fireworks to start :o)

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Finally, has anyone seen goth_pooh_bear? He went to Whitby as he does every year, and has gone missing. Either some nasty heffalump (or woozel) has bearnapped him, or he's gone adventuring and got himself stuck in a rabbit hole again. He may be a bear of little brain, but he is deeply loved and the party scene just isn't the same without him.

Any info on his whereabouts to thegreatgonzo or thedarkfairy

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Today was a somewhat frustrating day at work (lots of stuff that can't be done until people send me stuff, or until senior managers/ministers give us the go ahead - grrr!) so I'm going to post about Sunday instead, which was a much better day :o)

Went swimming in the morning, and managed 50 lengths without feeling even remotely knackered. Yay!

Met up with soul_rider and Evie for lunch at the Fat Cat. The weather was glorious so the beer garden was packed, whilst the pub itself was completely empty. I fed Evie pie and played on the beer garden swing chair with her :o)

Went to see One Man Star Wars in the evening with a whole bundle of other people. Thanks to kaickul for organising, even if I was rubbish at confirming. The pre-show crowds of Stormtroopers (plus Jango Fett and C-3PO) were almost better than the show!

The warm-up act was quite good. A little too reliant on unimaginative "everything is crap" humour for my tastes (Sunderland is crap; the North is crap; the South is crap; telly is crap; films are crap; DJs are crap; Star Wars fans are crap; hecklers are crap; the main act is a sad man with too much time on his hands; etc.), but he was amusing enough and he had his moments - such as the Yoda/benefit fraud gag ;o)

I've got to admire Charles Ross for his energy. Spending a whole hour jumping around the stage like a big kid, whether waving his arms around to impersonate X-wings, growling like Chewie or carrying out both sides of a conversation or lightsaber duel with himself. The genius was in the comic timing, but there were some great asides as well (such as his Yoda: "Much anger in him. Like his father. He was a whiner too.") :oD

Should I worry that I out-geeked him on one point? General Dodonna is not the only character to call Leia "Lee-ah"; Tarkin does it too. Tragic...

Managed to get an impressive amount done in work, not least helped by staying 'till 6:30. Which gives me an easier day tomorrow, and another hour's flexi owed to me.

Then Lard Club with grok_mctanys and edy_. It turns out the Irish Kitchen is only open lunchtimes, so we went to Rossi's instead. Which, as Adam said in his e-mail, is Italian and yummy.

Now feeling full and sleepy :o)

Leaving work.

Not worth going home before Jacquie's meal.

Not meeting people in the pub until 7:25pm.

Boy, do I wish I'd brought a book with me...

Today I am definitely earning my week off!

Like most of the population, I have a strong dislike for Mondays. It being cold outside, no one would let me open the windows today to actually let some air into our stuffy office (Can't wait for the new building with its amazing non-opening windows!). Plus, this morning I was expected to be an expert, not only in immigration law and forgery detection, but also in contract law, employment law, accounting, and several different types of geek IT jobs. I then decided that they weren't paying me nearly enough for all this.

The conclusion that they're not paying me nearly enough for all this may or may not be entirely unrelated to the £300+ gas bill that I've just been stung for. Having been trying to convince the bastards npower for the last eight months to actually charge me for my heating, they've finally taken the hint. And charged me for my heating for the last eight months.

I am currently trying to decide whether or not taking every other Monday off work represents a viable use of my annual leave...

Thursday - York with Gillian, soul_rider and Evie. Christmas markets quite cool. Weather bloody freezing. Mmmm, pig... Barley Hall hard to find. Medieval market worth finding it for. Borders lifts take ages. No snow.

Friday - More trains with soul_rider and Evie. Tonbridge this time. First Class generally wonderful. Out of cheeseburgers though. Train journeys about half an hour too long for Evie. Otherwise good as gold. Lugged masses of stuff across the Underground. Learnt how to attach car seat. Saw Helen and her mum for first time in ages. Bongo drums. No snow.

Saturday - Christmas: Round 1. What longhairedhippy said here. Painted dragon mug. Good food and drink. Even better company. Mountain of pressies. Many photos. Must remember to take round to Ed & Krissy's on Thursday. No snow.

Sunday - Woke up 6am. Violently sick five times. Temperature up and down like a yo-yo. Not good. Wasn't even alcohol-related. Much fresh air needed. Recovered slightly for long journey home. No snow.

Monday - Thought I was well enough to go to work. Made it in. Team meeting in which everyone moaned. Realised I was wrong at lunchtime. Went home. Missed training at work. Would have been useful for once too. Have to rearrange. SNOW!!!

Tuesday - Slept for 12 hours last night. Feeling much better. Managed whole day at work. Had to lead four staff meetings. Not exactly an easy first day back. Tired now. But still better. No snow.

Well, I managed to fight off the lurgy about a week ago. This was rather lucky, as it meant I was able to join kaickul and many others on the mass UGC CineWorld trip to see Night Watch and Serenity, without coughing my guts up all the way through the films and annoying everyone.

Night Watch was very moody and stylish, but it seemed to be lacking something - I think that "something" may have been a plot. It's slightly worrying when the most memorable aspect of a film is its subtitles (although, to be fair, they were great subtitles!). Still, I liked it enough to want to see the sequels when they arrive.

Serenity was ace, classic Joss Whedon stuff all the way. Although for some reason it sparked off a massive anti-George Lucas rant in the restaurant beforehand. Not sure why. I've never understood the mentality of "This film's great, so by extension this other film in a similar genre must be shit." Serenity rocked. Episode III rocked. End of story, as far as I'm concerned. There's plenty of room for both of them on my DVD shelf.

Went to Mickey's birthday party in the evening, at which point geeky interesting, in-depth film conversations continued, occasionally interrupted by geeky nostalgic chat about music, computer games, and the arrival of the Densest Chocolate Cake Known To Mankind. Mmmmmm...

Good party :o)

Sunday, by comparison, I spent mostly asleep. And making some slow progress through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I've still got more than half of it to go, though! Should I be worried that a trip to the pictures and a birthday party tires me out so much that I want to do absolutely nothing the next day? I blame it on the last vestiges of the lurgy. Either that, or I'm getting old...

Work has been a little odd this week. Owing to the general crappitude of other teams backlogs in other parts of the business, everyone on my team has been doing another area of work. Everyone except me, that is. I've got the lovely job of keeping an eye on everyone else's normal work while they do the other stuff. Yep, I'm keeping an eye on it. Yep, it's still there. Yep, it's getting bigger. ;o)

Went round to soul_rider and longhairedhippy's on Thursday as usual for Chinese food, although almost none of the usual crowd were around. This did at least give me the opportunity to monopolise time with Evie, who spent a large chunk of the evening curled up asleep on my chest. She was being very cute. Oh no, I don't get broody. Not at all...

Yesterday evening was, naturally, spent at the HH, although there were a few of the usual suspects missing from there too. Anyone know where bonedancer got to?

Given that my job is presently in a state of extreme dullness and pointlessness, and that I've been meaning to visit my folks for a while, I've taken next week off, so I won't really be around much as I'll be off daarn saarf for most of it. Should still be back in time to see you all in t'pub on Friday, though! :o)