Okay, well, I'm going to be less introspective today. :)

As Rob mentioned, on Wednesday he went to install some PC's for work and I accompanied him. Let's face it, I'm a student, work avoidance is my middle name! So I spent two hours stuck in a traffic jam on the M25 with him, and it was the nicest two hours stuck in a traffic jam I've ever had. The time not stuck in traffic jams was also good, mind you..!

We went to Dartford first, which is a trip of (at a guess) 120 miles or so. Then we went to South Woodham Ferrers, which is a really spooky place. The shopping part all looks quite new (late 80's or 90's, I suppose). It all seems to have been built at once, in a slightly villagey fashion, with paved areas, little pedestrian streets and matching architecture. A lot of it seemed to be empty, though, and what made it even weirder was the lack of people. Yeah, there were enough people to help with the "this is the town centre" illusion, but it wasn't convincing. And where were the big shops? I'd have thought there was more to the town centre, but there weren't signs to any other shopping areas. It was eerie. I was glad to get out of there...

After he'd finished there we went to visit my parents, which was interesting. I think they were trying not to be too weird, although at one point my Mum gave Rob a Duplo train to play with. Ah well.

So that was Wednesday.

Thursday I didn't get much work done, but I did a lot of housework. I won't bore you with the details.

Friday I did lots of work! I did pottery related spreadsheets from 10am to 3.30pm, then I walked to Safeway. This turned into a two mile round trip in fairly heavy rain. I was a bit drippy by the end of it. But I needed Safeway bargains, like coffee, and minced beef. They know what they're doing with those leaflets, don't they? Hehe. And I needed some suntan lotion, to make an effort to combat the scorching nature of the sun. And tomatoey sauce for the lasagne I was planning. I always make the white sauce part, but I can't be bothered with the tomatoey sauce part. I don't like tomatoes. They are evil.

So... Friday evening Rob came round and ate half the aforementioned lasagne (I made another one for Ali, because she asked nicely), and we talked a lot, and (scarily) my grandparents phoned up. I don't know what they made of the news that I'd found a "young man". They were probably so shocked that it wasn't Mark that they couldn't figure out what to say! It'll be interesting to see how all that turns out... I wrote them a letter containing more details this morning, so...

Today, then, well, Rob took me to the Forest of Dean. Unfortunately it rained a lot. But I still enjoyed it. People who know me well may have noticed that I tend to like being driven around in cars listening to good music, so Rob could probably drive me anywhere and I'd enjoy it. Plus there's the obvious added thing of Rob's company. I wouldn't enjoy being driven around by just anyone. ;)

That's pretty much it, then.

Oh, the only other thing I've done is reorganise my CD collection. While we were in Southend I picked up all my other CD's. Now they're (supposedly) all in one place. I didn't think I had quite so many. As it turns out I have about 297 CD's (some are double albums, so there are actually more discs than that...). That's approximately 151 albums, 15 compilations, 2 of a friend's bands, 5 CD-R's, 34 soundtrack albums and 77 singles. Oh, and 13 albums I don't want any more.

In 1997, when I went to uni, I'm sure I only had about 15. Which is weird, because I've had a CD player since 1993. I was the first person I know to have one. If you know what I mean. Everyone used to be impressed by my CD player. Hard to imagine people being impressed by a CD player now, isn't it? The first CD's I had were (I think) the Jungle Book soundtrack, Now Dance 1993, and I think Mr Sting's Fields of Gold was an early one too. And Shine 5. Buying CD's is a fairly recent thing, although I suppose having the money to buy them (or feeling able to justify the spending, anyway) is also a fairly recent thing. It's my one major vice, probably. I like my CD's.

Anyway, some of the CD's I never listen to (because I'm horrified at the amount of CD's I have and I need more money to, er, fund my CD buying habit) are now on eBay. This is a weird bunch of CD's, and my item descriptions ranged from to the point so a bit peculiar, but hey. Hopefully I'll make a ton of money. Woo-hoo!

Right, that really is it.

Bye!

I have been mostly.... READING: tales of the jedi (graphic novel) / LISTENING: gotta get through this (daniel bedingfield); hatful of rain (del amitri) / WATCHING: neighbours (bbc 1); top of the pops (bbc 1)