We have a team meeting today, i'm expecting bad news. I hope it sin't, as I have to pay for my kitchen. Everything else should be covered by redundancy insurance...

i'm rather excited about my new kitchen. I've even picked out a colour for it. I wanted a bluey grey, but most of the colours i found were either too grey or too blue. I found one called platinum which looked just right, but in fact came out more blue on the wall. But as it happens it looks really good. I think it looks a little cold, but with the wood from the kitchen. i think it will look great. Plus i will end up putting pictures on the wall, so a lighter colour is definately better. And the blue goes well with silver, giving a fresh, clean look. I'm hoping to get some silver into every room, so that there is some sense of continuity, but in a subtle way. I'm also sticking to lighter tones of colours to again give a very fresh, clean feel.

Of course, i'm now really poor, my cheque for my shares hasn't come through yet.

I feel I should have an official opening for my new kitchen...

OU work (yes it's rather boring journal-wise, but it's what i'm going). I've finished the unit on art. I don't like Rothko's work
anymore than i did, i just don't see that he sees. I might try and squeeze in a trip to the Tate Modern to see his paintings, but my first free Saturday is in a months time!

I just have music to finish off (i'm onto early music revival now, which i am enjoying), then a quick flick through block 7 before i make a start on the tma. I hope to get that started this weekend so that I am well underway before Monday's tutorial, but not so far that I have the wrong end of the stick it won't be too much waste.

I'm also getting back into Stoning again. I had forgotten how much i missed the community. People who are into the same things as me, and don't find anything weird about spending a year tryign to solve something!

So more on the Gathering. I set off around 10:30 and made excellent time. I got to Teddington after only one wrong turning at about 12:40. I spotted a few people with Stone around their necks and met Portia (who i "knew") and Kinky Boots and Gid (who i did not know).

We enjoyed the sun outside for a bit. Then we went inside were i had a rather large glass of wine which was not a good idea on an empty stomach. I mingled and met so many people.

Then we had some nibbles which were rather nouvelle cuisine! I then got dragged off for my interview which didn't go very well since the wine had gone straight to my head and lowered my iq by about 100 points. oops.

Then we got split into teams and had six puzzles to solve, my team was very close to winning, but was narrowly beaten to it. But i enjoyed pitting my wits against these people!

Then i headed off to my hotel to dump stuff and get changed. It took a lot longer to get to the hotel than i had anticipated, but fortunately I found some other waifs and strays there so I ended up having a curry with them. such delightful company. Then everyone went back to Holiday Inn Heathrow where the bar shut ridculously early, but a good time was had (by me anyway).

In the morning i left early as i wanted to have a look around bicester (although i didn't buy anything) and got home just before 1pm.

I had a great gathering. I met friends old and new, helped solved some tricky puzzles (one of which i still don't really understand) and got renewed interest in the stone and also my interdisciplinary studies with the OU. I'll write something fuller later!

The music section is certainly a lot more fun, I've watched the tv prog for it and am making good progress through it, and thinking about what I can write for my TMA. I hope to do more tonight, although I don't think I will finish it. I do hope to have the whole block finished by the end of the bank holiday, which gives me a lot of time to make a good start on my TMA.

And i should start going to the gym again, I have become so big lately, but it'll wait until i return on sunday. Maybe there is a class i can go to during the day on Monday?

I've been struggling through the block on the sixties. The science section was very hard going. I'm onto music, which hopefully will be easier. I want to get a good way through it before stonefest 2003 (this Saturday!) so that I can start my TMA early. I have so much planned for weekends over the next few weeks that I don't want to rely on them. And I know that I can easily write a few hundred words a night, so the sooner i start the better. I enjoy music and art, so i'm hoping that they are much easier to take in. A couple of hours study tonight should put me well on the way.

I'm a bit scared about attending stonefest, since i won't know anyone, but it's good for me to get out and about. And a change will definately do me some good.

I bought a Kitchen, and now I am feeling rather poor. I can afford it, that is true, and have sold some of my shares to pay for it (hope the cheque arrives soon), but it is still a lot of money. But there you go, it needed to be done, and is a good investment for the house (the current kitchen is shocking). But, oh how I would like a widescreen telly.

Maybe for Christmas...

It's been a while since i have written. During that time i've been to summer school, got 73 percent on tma07 (Pleased with that, it means my average is a good pass 2) bought a pda, spent way too much money.

Just those usual humdrum things that make up life.