Yes, well, the novelty soon wears out . . .

Hello, to all those Google and Inktomi web-bots out there who keep reading this crap.

Today is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! Also, it's Matthew's wedding today. Who's Matthew? Matthew I met at secondary school, when I was about 11, so that's . . . over fifteen years ago. Whilst we haven't been brilliant at keeping in touch over the years, we see each other occasionally and send the odd e-mail or two. Anyway, that's where I'm going today. I thought I'd be hiring a Vauxhall Corsa yesterday, but the freaks gave me a frigging great big Mondeo instead. 1.8 litre engine, but drives like some kind of Eastern European . . . no, analogies are bad for me. Must avoid analogies. It's not nice, anyway. Horrible big and clumpy car.

I forgot to mention a lot recently. On the way back from Unity Day (I think I was with M****, Gav M, Rich, Anna, Penrith Dave, Security Dave and Tania), we popped into the playground in Burley Park itself. That was fun. Playgrounds are definitely far too much fun to be left to the children. But, anyway, on the way out, I was running, thinking I was heading straight for a gap in the 1 metre high metal fence that surrounded the playground. But, of course, I was just heading for a part of the fence that was darker than the rest (thereby rendering it pretty much invisible in the near darkness that we were in). I ran straight into the fence, the fence didn't budge, and I almost went head first over the top. I think my right knee took most of the impact. So, the next day the knee was all swollen and stuff, as it would be, but I kind of ignored this, as I was still able to walk on it. I think it was only on Monday when things got really bad. I had just walked from my house to M****'s, after lounging around a bit at my house, following a day of work, when I realised that something very, very painful was going on at the base of my spine. I got to M****'s and all I could do was lie flat on the floor, in agony. Not good. Anyway, that seems all better now. I guess I was unconsciously walking in a weird way because of the swollen right knee.