Someone has too much time on their hands ...</a>

Today, the Christmas decorations finally came down - well, I've been calling them 'winter decorations' for the past six weeks or so (they're all snowflakes, so it's plausible. Honest). Too little time at home, too much to do, etc and all the rest of it. My sister came round - we went to the opening of the new Borders here in town this morning - and decided that they just had to come down, which they duly did. I had thought it would take me another week as my knee is not co-operating with this reality at this moment in time (optimism was, this morning, defined by the fact that I bought a book on marathon training. I will be running again, and soon. Or else).

Current Mood: drowsy
Current Music: Friday I`ll Be There-Erik Sumo-My Rocky Mountain

Dear reader, I gave in.

I now have a shiny new 12" Powerbook - so I have just enough willpower, or common sense, or whatever to have refrained from blowing the extra for the backlit keyboard. So now I've got to transfer favourites, applications and all the rest of it over.

Current Mood: working
Current Music: Black Coffee-K.D. Lang-Shadowland

I'm supposed to be writing a report on stamp duty so, of course, I'm looking at the Apple web site and trying not to convince myself that I need a new Powerbook.

Because, of course, I do need a new Powerbook. Everyone needs one. And mine has started to fritz - ok, not seriously. Refusing to read CDs and DVDs does not render a Powerbook entirely unworkable, although it's a bit inconvenient when you want to load new software onto it. Which is what I was trying to do on Friday when I discovered that it just doesn't want to know about them - not the end of the world, because I could shift the necessary software over from the G5, but that's not a quick process. It also doesn't deal with the fact that I use the Powerbook as a DVD player when I'm away from home.

Ok, I could buy a portable DVD player instead but ... if I'm going to spend several hundred quid, I think I'd rather put the money to buying a new Powerbook.

I feel vaguely disloyal, because the Powerbook has been brilliant. But it's also something like four years old and has been seriously used in that time - it's somewhat startling that it hasn't started to go before this, in fact. It has four years of scars (notably, the silver colouring is peeling - has peeled - badly where my wrists rest on the front of the machine; the screen is a bit battered from being jammed against the keys when it's in a bag, the keyboard surround is loose and wobbling, and the Powerbook generally does rather look like it's been hauled all over the world. Which it has).

And it's been 18 months since I last bought a computer - which, I suspect, is at the root of all this Powerbook-acquisition angst. Well, that and the fact that I have an Apple 10% off card burning a hole in my wallet. Plus I'm generally pissed off with work and my usual response to that sort of thing is to either eat or spend money (although, of course, would also I spend money on eating). On the whole, I'd rather keep the weight off, although I'd have to eat rather a lot - or a little very expensive food - to spend as much on food as I would on a Powerbook. Because, yeah, I like the 12" Powerbooks, they're beautiful. But my laptop case & sleeve are 15" and - heh, got to love the maths - I'd rather not have to spend another £100 or so on new cases. So I'll spend another £300 on getting the 15" rather than the 12". Heh. Well, that and I like the backlit keyboard on the 15", the 12" doesn't have that. And I can't quite bring myself to buy an iBook when the Powerbook isn't that much more expensive (compared to, say, the US national debt).

Sheesh, I'm so shallow. And I don't need a new Powerbook. Not really.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Samba da Benção-Bebel Gilberto-Tanto Tempo

5am is not the time for cats to learn new tricks - but the kitten has learnt that if she bats at the light switch, hey, the lights come on! A neat trick, and one I might have admired more if she hadn't learnt it when I was still asleep - and if I didn't have glass doors.

Current Mood: Decaffeinated
Current Music: There I Go Again-Vinx-More Music From Northern Exposure

Think I may appoint Dominos as my personal chefs; would probably be cheaper in the long run.

Work is still insane - it's 8:30 in the evening and, before I go to sleep, I have to write a presentation to give tomorrow morning and prepapre two client reports. I'm stupidly overdue with a 3,000 article as well, although that's half written, and the other half is not going to get written until the weekend.

On the plus side, I spent a great afternoon with a friend (who is also a client, which helps) at Dukes' Hotel, having afternoon tea and putting the world to rights. Gossip is good - actually, more or less essential to keeping me sane, given the way this week/month/year has gone. Have also succeeded in sending off (at last) a fax to ensure that I don't get sued tomorrow - long story, involves an accounts department that lose letters.

I've booked a head MOT for Saturday afternoon - external, not internal. A month-overdue haircut and colour (because the grey is awfully obvious now), plus a facial and eyebrow shape. I can do (and do in fact do) basic maintenance but once in a while, someone needs to do it all properly - and it's 3 hours of doing nothing, in a middle of the first weekend at home in far too long, and a schedule that involves a lot of cleaning.

Weekend also involves rehearsal - last night's rehearsal went well, with the director having little to comment on/complain about, which is good. Scene changes went surprisingly smoothly, considering we hadn't rehearsed those at all, and I'm now free until Sunday afternoon when we do it all over again - tomorrow night is a tech rehearsal which I don't have to attend and I have to miss tomorrow evening's rehearsal in favour of a works dinner. Fun, fun, fun.

Now, where's that pizza got to ...?

Current Mood: Hungry
Current Music: Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)-Pet Shop Boys-Disco 3

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable

Hadn't realised it was quite such a long time since I last updated. I went to the States - and drove across them - and cheered on my marathon-running friend; a year later, I ran the marathon myself. Not something I could, or would, have contemplated at the time I wrote that last entry. I'm going to run the Edinburgh marathon in June, with training just beginning again now.

Right now, I'm procrastinating. I have a report to write, promised to the client for today. He will get it today, but it may be 23:59 before it's sent at this rate. Work seems to be taking over my life, and not necessarily the way I might like it to. I'm trying to schedule treats, but they're proving elusive ...

... and, just to complicate matters, I'm assistant stage manager for a play. Shyeah, right, I don't have enough to do so - hey! - why not spend 15 hours a week at the theatre in the evenings after work. Ho hum, some lessons really shouldn't need to be learnt!

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Tant de belles choses...-Françoise Hardy-Tant de belles choses

... although, in reality, I would need to have more of a life to have more entries.

House redecoration is basically done - a couple of lights need to be put up, but I need to be able to clear a path to the back of the garage to be able to switch off the electricity at the mains and, so far, that hasn't happened. So it won't happen just yet, and likely not until Christmas - I'm off to the USA on Thursday, driving from New York to San Francisco (just because). The trip will be blogged - and rather more frequently updated than this journal is - at http://www.apple2apple.com (which isn't up and running, although it is registered, at the time of writing).

NY - to see friends, to watch a friend run the marathon (and I need to eat my words, because I was skeptical about his committment to this and he is actually doing it - in fact, he's on a plane out to NYC at the moment, somewhere just off the coast of Maine at the moment. So, apologies for doubting you, Andrew).

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: On Up-Tiefschwarz-The Blue Bar 3

Still working on the house - a good collection of bruises gathered & 14 buckets of tiles removed from the bathroom and carried down 2 flights of stairs to the skip.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Workman hammering in the kitchen

.. knees protesting, back protesting, but the floor's finished. And the curtain's almost finished (ok, there's another one to do, but halfway is good).

Too tired for anything else.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Silence

It's wet - finally raining. It's that time of year again; I want to see autumn, to curl into sweaters on crisply cold mornings.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: Musak