I've been away for a couple of weeks, and am now playing catch-up with piles of email and news.

I can't remember ever taking 2 consecutive weeks off any time in the last 11 years that I've been working (though I may have at some point). I've certainly never taken a week off without having any solid plans for it - and it's been fab.

Things I did:

• Aikido summer school (for the first week)
• Sat around reading a lot: finished The Amber Spyglass (and started Freakonomics)
• Wandered out for Officer Lurve's birthday
• Added a new dish to my repertoire - a fishy one!
• Had lunch and moquito at Havanas
• Took a gander round Sophie's residence-in-waiting
• Went out for a messy indie night at Audio with Donovan and Sam
• Recovered from the above. For about 24 hours.
• Popped into work briefly for a couple of important chats.
• Had an outdoor Aikido class on the grass of Wild Park, necessitated by vandals breaking into the karate club where we train on Thursdays: but "Airenjuku Karate Club"? Someone can't use google to fact-check...
• Went up to London, visited the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Nordic Bar and Ping Pong
• Started rebuilding David's web site (with guilt trip assisted by finally getting the piece he'd done for me mounted in the hallway)
• Saw Vic and her band play another gig at the Sanctuary Cafe
• Went running regularly (not quite every day, but nearly)
• Bit the bullet and upgraded to a K800i. First impressions: nice, but the camera optics aren't as great as I expected and it's a teeensy bit large. I am officially weaned off Nokia, though (sorry Nokia folks).

Lots of people have been busy this week too:

• Nan and Nige were joined by their firstborn, Rory Brady Hosker
• Mr Falletti expanded his personal empire: Luca has a new baby brother, Leo
• Jay and Emm transmogrified, G-force style, into Mr and Mrs Caines-Gooby
• On a more mundane note, my dad's been transforming the hallways of Rosehill (a job only 5 years overdue thanks to my own procrastination), and we had a slight but temporary planning setback in our efforts to remodel the bathroom...

And I failed to get around to:

• Playing with the X10 home automation kit I bought when reading Everyware got me excited
• Visiting Kew Gardens
• Catching up with Mrs Komorowski

Back to work tomorrow, and whilst it's been a lovely break, I'm actually rather excited about getting stuck into FP things again. I've had a chance to think and refresh myself.