Sorry about that - bit of trouble with network settings and what-not. I guess it's working now then.

Yes . . . all very strange. Seemed like my computer had 'forgotten' what it means to be told about ones default gateway ("It's there! You fool! Downstairs!") or, at least, wanted to be told in a different way. Why is that? What happened? I don't know. One minute I'm trying to re-install gcc, the next minute some weird ATI driver fails to install, then I'm removing anything to do with ATI drivers . . . then I reboot, and I can't connect to any site outside of my network. What's a graphics card driver got to do with, erm, well, network settings? I don't get it. So I tell it manually about the default gateway, point it in the right direction ("Oh, right . . . yes, that"), and then work out how to do this permanently. I don't understand why the format of these network configuration files has suddenly changed - it doesn't make sense. Meanwhile, joining in the fun, Apache and my secure shell daemon decided to 'have the day off', as the network seems to be down. It's only when I get home, do a port scan (port 80 'closed' but visible?!) that it finally clicks and I restart the lazy, good-for-nothing servers. Grrrrrrr. So yeah . . . . that's that, I suppose. Is it? Yes. Oh, and our washing machine has given up . . . gave up some time Monday (or the weekend?) and now just leaks everywhere. Stupid thing. Still, it was there when I moved into my house in Leeds in 2002 (and god knows how long it had been there for) and received heavy usage following the birth of A******, and managed a move over to Lancaster and a few months of further heavy usage (to define: three full loads a week, or thereabouts) before finally creating enough excuses not to be used to warrant a replacement. Sure - we could pour water in the drawer to help fill up the drum, but we bought a new boiler as a means of efficiently heating up water and . . . damn it . . . I've lost how this sentence ends . . . and can now stand up without support for several minutes at a time, though hasn't fully grasped the unsupported concept of walking, as yet. Yeah. I go now.