Home life

The wife has got a new computer game. She says she has been working all day but I'm not convinced since she seems to be much better at it tonight than she was last night. I can't even try and put her off - when I try and tickle her the dog thinks I should be tickling him as well and then he tries to drink my beer!

Will power & stupidity

I have will power! I have resisted from loading Theme Hospital onto my new comp, and will not do so until my thesis is submitted. During my last obsessive phase I had managed to get two levels further on than my previous best, but now all that has been lost and I would not be able to sleep at night if I went back to the beginning and spent all that time trying to get back to where I was, for the guilt of it would be on my mind (I'm even starting to convince myself here)! I have however bought a Rugby game but as Scotland are my team, after three games I am getting too frustrated and don't like it already!

In other news, someone somewhere at work has done something stupid and bought a really useless piece of equipment instead of the really very useful piece of equipment that was recommended by the experts i.e. the people who do the work and have to use this kit. I have yet to figure out what the consequences of this are for me but it isn't an ideal situation. Grrr!

Modern technology

My laptop died this weekend. It wasn't very well last week but I managed to get it going again and backup most of the important stuff. But then it lost its hard drive. And of course it would happen on a day when I was really motivated to do some writing and all of the shops were shut (even B&Q , and surely that can't be right on a bank holiday weekend). So first thing Monday morning I toddled off to a computer shop with my credit card burning a hole in my pocket. So now I have a super speedy, shiny new laptop that runs so fast I can hardly keep up. It also means we can now have a wireless network at home so that I don't have to hog the wife's computer or monopolise the phone line for several hours at a time just to check my email.

Work

I’m working at a collaborators site at the moment which means I have a lot more freedom to come and go as I please which means I tend to be more motivated to get more done. Also the advantage this time is that I am not at the other end of the country or in a foreign country, instead I get to go home each night. In fact it is quicker to get to and from this place than my normal work place. The other advantage is that they get an extra two days off over Easter – today and Tuesday! Yay - beer and chocolate!

Breakfast

Is it me or have BBC Breakfast started repeating the same things each hour these days? Admittedly I don't know what goes on before 8am but from then until the end they do seem to be repeating themselves a bit. If I know I'm not going to miss anything exciting I might start leaving for work at a reasonable time!

Alzheimer's treatment

I sincerely hope that the NICE guidelines suggesting that the key treatments for Alzheimer's disease be withdrawn are ignored. NICE acknowledge that the treatments (including Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl) are effective but at £2.50 per day they are not cost-effective. In human terms, £2.50 is too expensive to allow people to remain independent for longer with a better quality of life. And it's not just patients themselves affected, the burden on families and carers is also greatly reduced by treatment. You only have to look here for some personal stories.

R & R

Ahhh don't want to be back at work after such a fab weekend relaxing with my other half. We haven't had as much time for each other as we should recently. The pressure's on for her on the course she's doing and she isn't getting the support she needs from her tutors, plus she cares too much about the kids she's teaching. I on the other hand have been trying to find the motivation to write and foolishly have just agreed that I would have the first draft of the first chapter of my thesis to my boss by the end of the day. "Working from home" really should become working from home, unlike last week! I shall procrastinate no longer.

Sleep

I'm feeling sleep deprived. I have had been waking up at 4am recently for no apparent reason. Perhaps it's due to all the stuff going on at the moment, perhaps it's because I do nothing but sit at my desk all day and get no exercise. Perhaps I'm drinking too much or eating the wrong things. Perhaps I need a holiday (we have booked a holiday this week but that's not for another 128 days - but I'm counting)!