Irritatingly, I still feel like crap. Got a little more sleep, but I seem to have developed a nasty cough which hurts! In fact, it's so painful that it's awaking my hypochondria, and reminding me of a wonderfully typical Gissing moment:

"Strange how . . . I am possessed with the idea I shall not live much longer. Not a personal thought but is coloured by this conviction. I never look forward more than a year or two at the utmost, it is the habit of my mind, in utter sincerity, to expect no longer tenure of life than that. I don't know how this has come about; perhaps my absolute loneliness has something to do with it. Then I am haunted by the idea that I am consumptive; I never cough without putting a finger to my tongue, to see if there is a sign of blood."
(Diary, June 1888)

Caught the bus to Burnham for the first time in a long while this morning. It still appears 10 minutes late and then races impossibly to make up time! Walked into Highbridge with mum and briefly saw Mr Tim, before heading back to Weston. Took vague mental notes on the journey in the hope of expanding the A370 entry on SABRE's Roads by 10 project.

Determined to start my holiday week properly tomorrow - planning to spend the evening planning some routes...

Started the week with a couple of appeals, which went well - and I felt more confident and capable than for a very long time. After that, things turned strangely lacklustre and I found myself feeling bitter and irritable. Not sure why, but it all seems to be related to my feelings about Weston nowadays, and some frustrations about how slowly work moves.

Things picked up towards the end of the week, as a major deadline approached. I was pretty much in charge of things, which meant a couple of very early starts and late finishes. Not usually a problem, but I finally succumbed to a cold on Wednesday after watching everyone else sneezing their way through winter. Struggled on, with a head feeling like it was full of clouds and a throat feeling like I'd swallowed nails.

Caught Belle and Sebastian on BBC Radio 2 last evening, which was a pleasant surprise. Tonight, I've pretty much just vegetated - feeling a little better but very tired. I think, with the help of Abe from #lemmings I managed to get this page a bit more palatable for Internet Explorer users too.

I have a week off. I want to get out and about if I can, but funds as ever are a worry. Trying to work out some interesting but reasonably priced travels...

School Admissions Online meeting at Thistle Hotel, near Victoria Station with representatives of Office of Deputy Prime Minister and DfES. Arrived in good time, despite some track circuit problems around Twyford. All seems generally disorganised. Found representative from Wiltshire who are the lead authority in our consortium. Chatted briefly before start of meeting.

Seems the goalposts have moved even further, with ODPM now wanting individual LEAs to 'bid' for development rights of little arbitrary bits of the entire system. No-one except people who already had some sort of system up and running seemed unduly interested in getting involved with rapid application development at our collective busiest time! Left earlier than expected, feeling a little negative - we certainly can't be involved in the development process, but I suppose remaining in the consortium would at least give us early access to whatever gets developed. Vague ideas about inventing our own way of doing things...

A rare thing indeed that I'm in London with time to spare, but I'm too dejected to use it.

Trying to look ahead to my forthcoming week off work and decide how best to spend it. Need to look at some alternative ways of making money for starters, probably as a priority. I've also booked myself onto an utterly nerdy excursion to Brighton on Friday, in a hope of getting the Class 31 hauled service from Bristol. Forty-five minutes in Brighton in total. Madness.

Sort of feel like we've been getting somewhere at work these past couple of days, but still ultimately frustrated by the random removal of bits of my job or changing of goalposts. If I was doing really badly, I'd understand. As it is, its just perplexing. The outcome of the consultant's report on workloads etc. will surface when I'm off work on Friday. I'm sort of nervous - I can't help but feel it will stir up a hornets nest. It reminds me of the one previous time in my life I staked my faith on the outcome of a similar report, and that ended up as a disaster...

A series of strange coincidences over the past week have reminded me how solitary my life can become...not always a bad thing, but worrying at times.