Yesterday was payday, which makes everyone happy, so we booked ourselves into Carlton for lunch on Monday. They are very smiley and friendly in there every afternoon, and chat to us as they make our tea, so asked if we’d like them to get in any special food for us, and whether we’d like to make it a nice long leisurely lunch. Unfortunately we can’t, but they seemed genuinely excited to be having us in for more than just tea.

If I ever stopped working in Soho, I’d miss them. I’ve been in there every afternoon at four o’clock for years, and know all the faces and half the names. They even give us free cakes or croissants with our tea now and in the past have subbed us on the office-run when we’ve come out without enough money. There’s not many Soho cafes would do that.

On either side of that was a whole day of editing. Raw stuff, and words already laid out on the page, which is not so bad. It means you can plug yourself into an iPod and forget about what is going on around you as you buzz through the words. I still ended up bringing a load home, which is sitting in my bag right now, calling softly and reminding me it is still waiting to be done some time tomorrow.

Last night, though, rather than sit in and put red pen through small black words, I headed off for dinner with Helen and Mike while Paul installed their new computer. I didn’t see it, but from what I hear it’s rather snazzy, and all the necessary bells and whistles chime and peep fairly quickly. It means I ended up sitting through the final of Big Brother, which considering it was the first and last time I’d seen an edition of the fourth series was quite a surreal experience. I had no idea who the contestants were, but the guy who won seemed nice enough.

Today was Mardi Gras, to which Trevor, Jon and Paul headed. Not particularly my kind of thing, to I stayed home, did some work and spent five hours working on my photos. Actually, working on one photo. Admittedly the finished thing is 21cm x 47cm, and it took a lot of work and retouching, but I’m very happy with the result, and it was great to get a whole afternoon to work on it. It has been sitting around waiting to be finished since September last year - a full ten months.

I’ll get it properly printed on Monday and then roll it away and store it with the rest. I need to find some extra wall space to put them up. As it is, then sit rolled loosely into a Sainsbury’s bag - the longest, 180cm, wrapping up all the smaller ones inside it.

After so much time working on it, my eyes were fried. I flopped down in front of the telly and re-watched Life Less Ordinary as I ate some dinner. I’ve not seen it in years.

I’d forgotten quite how… mediocre (is the best word, I suppose)… it is.

1. That was a busy weekend
   It started on Saturday morning when I suggested Paul and I went to Bluewater, by way of Ikea so Paul could look for a bookcase....
   
   
2. Is it working?
   The first day of the rest of the year. January 2nd 2007: back to work. Ugh. It was indescribably difficult to get up this morning....
   
   
3. Working girl
   Why is going back to work never painless? I arrived in the office this morning to find my computer dead. There was a power spike...