Have they fixed the roof then? Have they heck... I got a call this afternoon: "...the thing is he did say he was going to be in the area but now he's not going to be available 'til thursday."

I had rehearsed for this. I wasn't going to stand for it, but on the spot there and then, I did my "Mr. Nice Guy" trick and gave it all that "OK, well that's fine I suppose as long as it does get done as soon as possible..." Weak. If I were my dad, I'd have it fixed by now and I'd have a letter of apology from the landlord... Gah.

The same thing happened last year. Then I waited for about a week then someone went on the roof and shuffled a couple of tiles around. It's not really rained heavily much since.

It has stopped leaking now but I don't trust it enough to move back into my room in case it starts dripping again in the night.

Oh the joys....

GR.

So bored! I'm working onsite at our major retail client's HQ again today... It's still very dull and corporate. I think this computer was constructed in the stone age. I actually have nothing to do at the minute, so I think writing this is a completely legitimate use of my time.

I got a good night's sleep last night - despite having to sleep on my sofa due to the roof leak. It's actually a sofa bed, and I think it might be more comfortable than my own bed. Maybe I'll move permanently to the living room. I had a strange dream about going with my brother to an amateur dramatics society meeting, housed in a small room, under some rubble... The ceiling was very low and it was lit by a couple of old gas lamps. I introduced myself to everyone but didn't get as far as doing any acting before waking up. I also had a dream about crash landing a huge passenger jet in the middle of a city.

GR.

Apologies if some of this seems a bit needless, but I'm keeping a record of how I'm feeling over the next few days to enable a clearer analysis of any effects at my next homeopathy meeting.

Right now I'm feeling kind of stressed and I seem to have a high heart rate. I've just gone and blitzed the flat because I just can't stand the mess any more. I think the fact that 90% of the mess is the result of my housemate's absolute inability to tidy up after himself, coupled with the fact that he spent the time sitting in his room listening to music instead of helping, has added to my annoyance (though I don't think the dripping sound behind me right now, at an increasing frequency, is helping). I feel I may need to broach the subject with him AGAIN fairly soon.

I may feel stressed but I also feel quite energetic and like I want to get things done. I'm looking forward to going out for Sunday lunch with some friends later; hopefully then I'll feel more relaxed.

GR.

I didn't get to sleep until 05:30 this morning because of that darn dripping. It's falling right next to my bed by my head. I would have gone and slept on the sofa but my mate T was staying over so that was taken. I tried several techniques to dampen (no pun intended) the dripping sound, such as tying a piece of string to the source hole so the water poured down the string. The pin kept falling out under the weight. I eventually managed to break the fall with a pan lid propped up inside the bucket. That dulled the sound enough for me to sleep.

I feel much better today. I did eventually get to sleep and I seem to have now emerged from my bad mood. It's STILL raining though. I don't normally mind the rain but when it's dripping into your bedroom that's a different matter.

GR.

Drip...


Drip...


Drip...


Drip... God that's driving me mad already!

So where are we up to? OK so I was chatting to her again on Wednesday, on MSN Messenger and it was driving me nuts so I just dropped the question, "Do you want to meet up tonight?" She said yes. We met up. She was cute and we got on as well as we had been over the net, but there wasn't really any spark there. We got some food and drank in a few bars in Covent Garden. We ended up doing shots in an Aussie bar. We got very drunk. It suddenly started to get a bit awkward and I was aware that I kept glancing over her shoulder, to where these guys were doing crazy motorbike stunts on a widescreen TV, just to avoid her gaze.

She asked me what I was thinking and I thought, "What the hell", so came out with, "I was thinking, 'do you want me to kiss you?' ". She said yes. So, to cut a long story short, I kissed her and we got a cab back to hers and, well, I didn't get ANY sleep. It felt good.

I was worried that she'd think I'd sort of used her, but she said she was worried about the same thing. I think the feeling was mutual - it had been a while for both of us, and we just wanted a bit of fun. We're still in touch on the texts and stuff so that's all cool. She is cute but I don't think it's relationship material. Still, it's a good experience for me; I've never been on a date with a stranger before.

So, yeah, I had to go straight to work from her house on Friday morning. My clothes stank from sitting in bars the previous night, but I felt good. To be frank, I don't mind getting no sleep when it's because I've been having sex all night...

- - - - - -

I got home, very tired, on Thursday to find that my homeopathy remedy had arrived. I had some food, got changed, relaxed for a while then took remedy number 1. I had been sent three of them - tiny clear tablets like plastic granules. The instructions said to take one today, one the next day and to keep the third as a spare, for possible future use after my next appointment with the homeopath.

I took the tablet, watched some telly, hung out some washing to dry and went to bed. I had a difficult night's sleep; I was quite excited about what effects the remedy would have. Despite having had no sleep the previous night I think I was awake till about 2am.

I awoke just before my alarm told me to, at 7.30am. I felt very alert and sprung out of bed (no usual three uses of the snooze button). I even had time for breakfast, and so went to work feeling very chirpy. I was looking forward to what further effect the second remedy might have. I told the homeopath, by email, about how I was feeling and was told that I should now hold back on taking the second remedy, as it usually either works or not - i.e. it's not incremental. This, I guess, makes sense because the idea is that the remedy contains a tiny amount of an active ingredient and it's the smallness of the dose that's important.

I spent the rest of the day actually getting gradually pissed off (I think due to the fact that I had shed-loads of work to do). I got out at about 19.30 (on a Friday, yeah - thanks) and went to meet up with a couple of friends in Clapham, one of whom had come to visit from my home town for the weekend. We had a few pints then went back to my mate's house for a few reefers.

I woke up this morning feeling uncomfortable (and sleep-wise unsatisfied) on his living room floor. I caught the end of the Rugby World Cup final (we won, yay!) and we all grabbed an unhealthy café breakfast. I made my way home and spent the day working on my new website, and trawling a couple of dating websites for potential matches (after the sucess the other night, I think this could be the future for me).

Tonight we went out to a local cheesy 80's night. Throughout the afternoon I seemed to fall into an incredibly bad mood. I thought at first that it was because I was hungry, but I couldn't shake it. I'm starting to feel a bit let down because the initial apparent effect from the homeopathy has gone and I'm starting to wonder whether it's worked at all. Maybe I'm expecting too much...?

Anyway I just left the club early because, frankly, it was doing my head in. I left my mates there. I couldn't be arsed waiting around on the off-chance that they would play something god like an old Michael Jackson record or some other 80's gem like Ride On Time by Black Box. 90% of it was just pissing me off.

So here I am... And water is dripping from a crack in my ceiling into a bucket. Drip... Drip... Drip.... Aghhh! It leaked last winter and the landlord claimed to have fixed it. Yeah, right. It bet it just seemed fixed because the rain stopped.

<sigh>

OK, well that's enough from me. Sorry if I sound a bit negative but I've just had a few beers and I'm quite tired. I'll probably log on and take it all back in the morning ;) Now I just need to try to ignore this DRIPPING SOUND and get to sleep. Goodnight.

GR.

Not written much recently as have been busy chatting on messenger to a girl who randomly contacted me. She seems really nice. I've not got much work done though.

OK then, so it was my birthday on Saturday (I'm now 26). I had Friday and Monday and Tuesday (today) off work. Thursday night was a company meeting followed by free bar. People discovered that it was my birthday on Sat, and also that I had Friday off, so made me drink lots of tequila. Lets just say: I woke up somewhere in Upminster. That's the END of the District line. Arse. Got in at 4am. That's the second time I've done that. Arse Arse.

AAAnyway, had a great weekend. Both my brothers were round and we had a party. About 30-40 people came along. We had the decks set up and several people DJ'd. It was great. It went on till about 7am when I finally removed the last of the revellers and crashed out.

I've spent the last two days getting my brother's website up and running. That's all done. Looks good. Apart from that I've been chatting to this girl A LOT, and texting. Looking forward to hopefully meeting up with her soon.

Back to work tomorrow so now sleep...

Night night,
GR.

I went to see the homeopath last night. It was just round at her house. I spent about three hours telling her, with some prompting, everything about myself and my upbringing. She asked me what things I didn't like about myself - things I'd like to improve. These are exactly the sort of questions that I'm not very good at dealing with, so I think it did me a lot of good just to talk about it with someone impartial.

I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders when I got home afterwards... and I've not even had my treatment yet! The possibilities are quite exciting - the chance to exorcise all my skeletons - I just hope what she comes up with works!

GR.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention; I've got a homeopathy appointment tomorrow after work. It's with a friend of a friend who has been studying it for a few years and needs a case to work on as part of her course. I get a cheap session (only £25) in return. Hopefully it will help me sort my life out. All that stuff I was ranting on about (slightly over-dramatically) a few weeks ago needs to be ironed out. Besides all this though I'm really quite interested in the idea, and whether it does me any good or not I think it's worth a go.

GR.

I've stayed in most of this weekend and made a lot of progress with my brother's website. I just need to code it all up now... Went round to my mate's house last night. We had a few beers and watched Nuts In May. You MUST see this film before you die - it's absolute comedy genius. My favourite bit was the "I want to see the zoo" song. I nearly died with laughter.

GR.

You've heard of Blogger.com, well now there's Blagger.com. It's my mate's new site. The idea is that you can check out who's good and who's not in each industry sector before hiring a company. You can submit a new company or add comments and ratings to exisitng companies.

GR.

I'm absolutely knackered; had to work late AGAIN. I suspect it may be my own fault though for not working too hard throughout the day recently. The website I'm working on was supposed to have been finished by tomorrow but that just ain't going to happen. Then again we're still waiting the client to send us some assets so it's not entirely my fault. I'm off to bed. Lots to get through tomorrow...

GR.

My parents came to visit on Saturday. We went on the London Eye with my brother. It was surprisingly enjoyable; the view from the top was amazing. My dad bought me a new monopod for my camera (it's my birthday on the 15th) so I got some really good photos. We all spent the rest of the afternoon in a pub near Dulwich in South London, engrossed in some unusually jolly family banter.

An old mate of mine and my housemate's came down to visit that evening and we went out to Fabric. I was having a really good night up until my day's drinking caught up with me and I ended up falling asleep, slumped in a corner of the dancefloor. I don't remember much from then on (owing to being asleep), but apparently I didn't want to be moved. Gah. I must try harder to stop doing this.

Sunday involved a delicious roast chicken lunch, courtesy of my female friend Q. This was washed down with a generous helping of red wine then - am I an alcoholic ? - we all ended up in a pub in Stockwell.

So, I think I ought to get down to the gym this week - it's been too long!

GR.