Late

For some reason the traffic went insane this morning. I thought it was pretty bad but when we got to the roundabout on the westway where it usually thins out it was actually gridlocked! I ended up not getting in til 9:50! Trouble is, when it's like that there's not much you can do about it. The driver told me that the bus which had left Oxford at 5:45 (i.e. an hour earlier) ended up only being about 15 mins earlier than us! I guess that's good as they can't start making a case for me actually getting up even earlier. The other really big plus is that my brain seems to have twigged the routine and has started to wake me up pretty much in time with my alarm so I don't feel so exhausted. I still doze on the bus but I'm not nearly so zonked in the morning even though I was out til 12 last night which was cool. The only thing is, once I get my laptop (a couple of weeks hopefully) I don't quite know how I'll react because the days I'll be working from home will be quite random probably. We'll have to see.

Had a really nice evening in the end. Met up with Alex early for a meal in the pub before the hoards arrived (forgetting of course that some of them always turn up early) and we sat around and hugged and stuff. He always makes me feel good - I love that 'looked after' feeling I have when I'm being hugged. I think we're going to try to have a quiet night in with a movie on Thursday which should be cool - we had a really good time with Charlie's Angels. I think I'm going to skip out on the beer festival though on the grounds that I really don't like beer! I can sort things out for Mum & Dads visit - I really ought to hoover and I haven't got the duvet and stuff yet either. I might try to go and get those tomorrow lunchtime although they might be a bit of a pain to hump home on the bus. I wonder if Oxford has a late night shopping night...

Spelling

The spellchecker suggests HCarlies and Char lies for Charlies but not Charlie's. Hmmm.

Odd

I seem to have had a very disjointed day in the end. Lots of little things seemed to manage to intrude themselves between me and actually sitting down and doing some sustained coding. Just one of those things I guess but its left me feeling vaguely odd. We even had a fire drill which was very strange. We were all standing around in the courtyard over the road sure it was a drill but still there was just this faint undercurrent of nervousness. Strange days in the city. We even had an e-mail yesterday saying that if we got any strange handwritten envelopes to report them to security straight away! Somehow it all still seems so surreal - I can't really take stuff like that seriously. I find it especially hard to worry about the anthrax because it seems like such a targeted weapon and so nobody's actually going to bother sending any to me. Its not even like I work in the same building as anyone on our board so I'm not even really at risk from infection via the ventilation system. I'm flying to Edinburgh and back next week though so I'll have to see if that makes me nervous.

On the up side, we've heard that we're moving out of Wood St (of the skanky canteen) to Fengate house, right next door to the proper cooked food and stuff. Unfortunately we'll have to pay for that stuff from next year (cost cutting) but still, I'd rather pay for the stuff they have there than for the Wood Street food. I have a vague idea that they may actually be moving us all out (they'll eventually be clearing out the whole of Wood St I understand) in order to let the lease on the building lapse. I think it's a great idea - no one really likes Wood St very much. It's much less nice than any of the other offices I've been in and I guess what with the staff cuts there are quite a few spare desks dotted around - rationalization really.