Doing it without protection...

Probably against my better judgement, I'm currently on the internet without any operational anti virus software. My subscription expired a couple of weeks ago and I've attempted to download the 2006 edition twice without success. In the end the whole program corrupted and I had to uninstall it. At present I'm downloading the whole thing again so (fingers crossed) I'll be protected again by tomorrow morning. However, it's going to be a long night as the blimin thing has been downloading for 2 hours and is still only 35% complete. I've pretty much decided that I'm going to buy a new PC so if it all goes wrong I won't stress too much. It'll be a major pain though as I have an assignment to complete in less than a fortnight.

This is topping off a really crappy week by the way. Going back to work after a week off is never great but this time has been particularly difficult.

It all started last Sunday with my aunt and uncle coming to visit. They went to visit Grandad in hospital and popped in for a cup of tea on their way home at around 4pm. My dad was playing in a badminton match and had told us he would be back around 5pm. Time ticked on and dad didn't arrive. Mum had to start cooking the dinner so I had to entertain the relatives. Don't get me wrong I love my aunt and uncle, but they're the only relatives who ever do the whole "mum and dad not managed to marry you off yet" thing to me. They also brought with them the news that one of my eldest cousin's daughters is pregnant. She's the closest cousin to me in age making me next in line. It makes it worse that, like me, she'd always said that she didn't want kids so I just got the "everybody says that but they all change their minds eventually speech". My dad hadn't arrived home by the time they had to leave by which time my mum was really stressed out. Dad doesn't have a mobile so there's no way of contacting him to make sure he's OK. When he turned up at 7pm saying that the match had "started late" I was glad I wasn't in the room!

Monday wasn't as bad as it potentially could've been. Uni was better as we have a new lecturer and a new subject to study. Also, I found out that one of my work colleagues is pregnant. This is good news as she wants a brother or sister for her little boy to play with. I'm pleased for her but it'll be rough losing her for six months maternity leave.

On Thursday we found out that Grandad has cancer. This wasn't entirely unexpected but I'm still very sad about it. At the age of 91 I'd come to terms with the fact that he probably wouldn't be with us for much longer but it's an odd feeling knowing that it will now be sooner rather than later. Obviously, it's difficult for my dad and aunt as they have to make some difficult decisions about his future. At the moment they think he'll be able to go back to his bungalow as long as he has lots of carers to help him.

Friday was just a dreadful day. I often think that Personnel is the wrong career for me as although I really genuinely care about people I have a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Maybe I should go back to my original plan and try and become the Prime Minister's diary secretery. She earns £50,000 per annum you know! I looked at jobs in the Cabinet Office when I was working in the Civil Service but they are usually short term roles advertised internally to Civil Servants and you have to have your line manager's approval to be seconded. I've probably missed my chance forever now!

In other news I got my Dexter Fletcher fixes through watching the next installments of 'The Virgin Queen' and 'Hotel Babylon'. I missed seeing him on 'Richard and Judy' but he now has a new fan in my mum (she thought he was 'lovely'!) 'Faith in the Future' is now being repeated on ITV3 each Saturday so I watched some of that today. I remember my mum loving it back in the mid 90s but I didn't find it all that funny to be honest. Maybe it took a few episodes to get going. I know that Charlie Creed Miles will turn up in future weeks so I'll keep watching.

I also made sure to watch the new Channel 4 comedy 'The IT Crowd' on Friday night as it got a good write up in 'Heat'. It was OK but not side splittingly funny.

I keep forgetting to mention that I'm still watching 'The New Tomorrow'. It's total rubbish but I've been drawn in by the 'Tribe' related storyline and need to find out what happens. I think I've worked it out so I'll be interested to see what happens in the last few episodes. Can't wait for 'The Tribe' series 2 DVDs on the 20th February. I always thought that series 2 was a bit flabby in the middle but the beginning and end were great. Ebony apparantly returning from the dead and threatening a terrified Patsy in the middle of the night is one of my favourite scenes ever.

Oooh, and flicking channels this morning I caught Lucinda Rhodes-Flaherty guesting in an episode of 'Kerching' on the CBBC Channel. Lucinda is well known to all 'Tribe' fans as Lucinda in 'Harry and Cosh' possibly the cheapest TV drama ever made which was often shown before or after 'The Tribe' on Channel 5.

violetcreme has been writing about the CBBC Broom Cupboard in her journal. It's brought back lots of happy memories for me. I wish I'd kept more memorabillia (sorry I have no idea how to spell that and it's not in my pocket dictionary!) from my childhood years. I certainly never would've thought to video shows to watch again. Any stuff I have is from much later on and mainly concerns 'Byker Grove' or 'My So-Called Life'. Seeing Bobby the Banana on display at the late lameneted 'Museum of Moving Image' was one of my highlights of the 90s!

I really should think about trying to make some 'My So-Called Life' icons before I get a new PC which won't play Zone 1 DVDs.

Cardiff Bloke - If you're reading this, our weekend away had better be good. I really need a holiday!