Imagine somebody squeezing your arms tight against your body.  They're doing it from behind, so there's not much you can do about it.  At the same time you have an awesome hangover - your head is too tight, you can't really focus, and it feels like you just want to sleep and get it over with.  But this is early in the day and sleep isn't an option, because you're in work.  You want to concentrate on something... anything, but you can't, because everything is slightly surreal, as if you were stoned.  It all feels a little gritty, like sand in your clothes.  You can't scratch it though, because your arms are pinned.
That's what its like to be on Zyban and give up smoking.  I can't say I'd recommend it, but I haven't smoked in four days.

ouch... Another earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

We were in greenwich yesterday, as it was such a lovely day.  We took the camera with us and came back with a couple of gems, some of which I have added to the "Out & About in London" set.

"The Sky is on Fire"

Haven't seen one of these in a long time...
From :Akin & Associates.
(Barrister,Akin Williams)
Solicitors And Advocate
#16 Canal Street Ikoyi
(Lagos Nigeria)

Dear White,

Before i start,i must first apologize for this unsolicited mail to you. I am aware that this is certainly an unconventinal approach to starting a relationship,but as time goes on you will realize the need for my action.

My name is Barrister.Akin Williams,a solicitor and the personal Attorney to Mr John White, a citizen of your country, who work with an oil company in Nigeria. Here in after referred to as my client. On the 21st of april 2003, my client, his wife and their three children were involved in a ghostly motor accident along sagamu express road. My client and his entire family unfortunately lost their lives in the accident.

Since then i have made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's extended relatives, which has proved abortive after these several unsucessful attempts, the need to contact you. My main reason for contacting you is to assist me inrepatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they are confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where they are deposited/lodged. Particularly, the Bank. Where the deceased has a fixed sum of Eighteen Million United State Dollars. The said bank has issued me a final notice to provide the next of kin of my client or they will be left with no other choice than to confiscate his funds, a copy of the said notice which i will fax to you on getting your reply.

Since then i have been unsuccessful in locating my client's relatives for the past 2 years now i seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of my client going by the fact that both of you has the same last name and nationality, so that the said funds as stated above I.E, the sum of Eighteen Million United State Dollars can be paid to you instead of leaving for Bank. We can take part of it and leave the rest to Charity.

I have all necessary legal documents that can beused to back up any claim we may make all i require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this arrangment through i guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangment that will protect you from any breach of the law.
Please give me your confidentail phone numbers for easy communication

Best Regards,

Barrister,Akin Williams.

If you don't already know, this is the infamous Nigerian scam, where they ask you to send money to aid the transmission of funds to your bank account.  Wankers.

I knew I was supposed to drink water before I went to bed, but I was too pissed and had already been asleep on the couch.  Great night though :-)

You know what the worst thing is?  Not being able to sleep.  I hate that, I stay up all night and my sleep cycle gets fucked around.  So now its 01:35 and I really should be asleep, but I just don't want to.
Andrew & Anthea are getting married in June :-)  I'm not sure about scheduling yet, but it looks like I'll be over there for seven or eight days this year.  U2 are playing on the 24th, and the wedding is on the 19th, so I'll have to figure something out.  Its strange to think of Andrew married, but then I guess I haven't seen him that much in the last five years, and things have changed since he met Anthea.  Even more so since they had Cliona I guess.  Oh yeah, Anthea had a baby girl last week :-)  How strange is that... they're the first of my close friends to have a child.  Now, all we need is Max to... nyah, that'll never happen ;-)  
I keep getting asked when we're going to have kids too, and I have to say that we just aren't ready for them yet.  Anna is still in university, and I don't want to have children in London anyway, so we'll wait for another four or five years yet.  Maybe.  Perhaps things will change tomorrow, and we'll decide to go for it.  Who knows what'll happen.  And that ethos is the core of it all for me - I don't have any fixed plans, no reason to "settle down and have kids", nor any serious desire for them either.  Its not that I don't want children, but just not yet.

I didn't get much done over the weekend with the photos update.  Anna asked me why there weren't back and forward buttons on the pictures pages, and I was thinking about that for a long time.  Its actually going to be a bitch to get it done properly.  There isn't an easy way that I can see of navigating back through a recordset, you can only go forward.  LOL... "only going forward 'cos we can't find reverse", just popped into my head right now.  If you know the reference you'll know what I mean.

The photos page is undergoing an overhaul at the moment.  A lot of it is back-end stuff, things that will allow me to post and link images with greater ease.  More about it when its finished, but from your perspective, you should begin to see more images posted faster than I had been doing them before.
We've just booked our holidays too - Anna is going to Arizona on a dig later this year, and we're taking two weeks out to tour around Arizona and Nevada.  I'm not sure yet if we're going to make it up to Reno though, have to see how we are for time.  We'll definitely be taking in Las Vegas though :-)

Photos of Christmas in Munich are now up on the Photos page.