Back home now. Well, currently back at the orifice. It felt empty here after Christmas with Posh Ben gone, but now feels very empty here without Hilary around (she's gone home for a while after her mum died eight or nine days ago).

It also feels strange to be back in an office, although I do have all my things back now (except the diary which I forgot this morning). That's always nice.

In other (me-centred) news, I finished my wee sister's Christmas present to me lastnight: Are You Dave Gorman?. It's genuinely a very funny book, and it kept me sane during my stay up a mountain (and on the trip through Roswell and Alamogordo, more on which at a date in the near future, I'm expecting).

What else...? Oh yeah, Mr Bridger called round yesterday evening, post-rugby-viewing-in-the-Tup. Good to catch up with himself. And Neilo's busy on M&L this week.

I've just discovered that my new Norah Jones CD isn't one. It's another of these fvcking fake-CD articles that won't play under Linux because it thinks all PCs should be Windows, where it can install its anti-copying software.

Breaking news! It appears that if you start GRIP first, and if you rewind back to the start of the first track from the start of the second, then you can listen... Madness, but at least it means I'm not disappointed. I've been looking forward to listening since lastnight when my stereo revealed that it truly cannot play CDs anymore without skipping all over the place. I'll be getting a new stereo, then.

Right after I re-learn how to type.

Still, it stood me in good stead: I've had that stereo for ten years! And it's had a few knocks and moves over the ages. Lunchtime, then!