Off site this morning I had to suppress an urge to lean over the table and squeeze a man's head till his eyes popped out like corks. I just want to shout into his face to stop it, and to look at himself sitting in a room round a table in a big, big office, in a country full of other people all sitting in their offices in a world crammed with offices like this one stuffed to retching point with self-important toads like you... etc.

I decided I needed a holiday.

Safely back to Hammersmith, and after haggling and negotiating, I decided to get a grip and booked a holiday and a ticket to see my beloved MJ. Suddenly felt a wave of cheerfulness and MJ was delighted too. I will have a holiday. I will see my baby. All is well again.

After work I met Bob at Charing Cross. We found a quiet corner, watching the last few minutes of the knife-edge finish to the third ashes test match, and had our laughing gear poised above our pints when Carl called. Carl said his business was going well, and Ellie was fine having won a school competition. A shame we could not spirit him down from the north to be there as the three of us have not been together in a pub for a long, long time now.

Then off to the Salisbury for another beer and then to Pacifico's for a Mexican meal. Generally put the world to rights with Maddog till the call of the seagull grew strong in me.