So here we are, and it’s 2005. I need to make a couple of posts on the Summer Madness website, I think.

There’s not that much to talk about before yesterday really. I got a lock for my new bike because I was going to have trouble getting the lock off my old bike due to rust on the screws on the bracket…

So Thursday I was working on the XtremeEvents website again. I now know 95% of what I need to know to make it all work properly, but I need to get a little more advice from a couple of websites… but it’s going to look quite funky. I also e-mailed Dixons again about my own laptop which they’ve been doing nothing about – needless to say I am not impressed.

Friday I was back at work, to discover a small pile of stuff to do from my bosses, half of which I need to talk to them about on Tuesday… there were enough other odds and ends to be done to keep me going until 3pm when we all disappeared. No phone calls all day, which was great.

So I went to my grandma’s, where I put my head down for a while, then went off on my bike and got some messages in Tesco’s. Got a phone call from Lyle in Tesco’s to say he’d just found out they wanted the stewards at the Ulster Hall early, so I got back to my grandma’s and onwards to the Ulster Hall by 6.30pm. A quick 15 minutes down the bypass…

The night was good, distributed a few business cards (well, you have to!), chatted to fishgill. lkactually, and assorted others including Infectious Word (I now know who they are, and not just Billy…), and stuff. Heard a bit of the Whitewell Youth band and saw most of the YFriday gig – about an hour or so around midnight. First time I’d ever seen them live.

Cycled back to my grandma’s by 2am to have some supper, watch Dangermouse and go to bed. *hehe*

This morning I got back on my bike down to the Europa Buscentre, and got the bus to Carryduff for some Clay Pigeon Shooting with Phil Maxwell. Managed not to give myself any scars (very good idea, considering what happened to my nose last year), and hit five out of 20 clays (better than my usual four out of 35!) before rain stopped play. It was great, saw loads of people I hadn’t seen in ages, and met a pile of others. Phil’s girlfriend Debbie is not pleased that I think she’s the spitting image of her mother – should have kept digging myself into a hole and pointed out that it meant that in twenty-odd years she’d still probably look the same as she does now… *hehe*

After we were rained off, Phil and Debbie gave me (and his dad) a lift back to his parents’ house where all but a few of those who were clay pigeon shooting had lunch. One of the other guys left me and my bike on Montgomery Road before he went off to watch Ulster beat Connacht 23-14 at the Rugby – very handy, I just had to cycle down to Grand Parade and down the North Road back to my grandma’s, largely in the dry before it started raining again.

And now home. Playing in church tomorrow, which should be good. Meantime, I’m going to record the Vicar of Dibley, and watch Casualty and Tom Brown’s Schooldays – and it’s staying cold and wet. Just as well I know how to stay warm!