Had my head down for a couple of weeks. This may mean nothing to you, or it may mean something, but I'll tell you anyway. The fruits of my labours over the past month or so have been 30,000 lines of C++ code, 20,000 lines of Java and nearly 200 pages in Word documents.

And now I need a new laptop, since I've absolutely buggered the keyboard on it.

Big Chief Sitting Management Bollocks went into um battle today. He, me and my gangly friend were at it over the kitchen table last night working out what we were going to do and how. Chief put on his Armani suit and his best aftershave and in he went to meet with the Head of Development at the place where my Gangly Friend and I work.

This has not been without its fun either - at one point Chief and I were going to punch eachother (which would have been interesting since he's six feet odds and weighs a million stone) and my Gangly Friend and I have shared cross words quite often.

Whilst Chief sat there in his suit, my Gangly Friend and I done the whole prairie-dog thing - popping our heads over our screens and sniggering at eachother in the way you would if your mum was helping your teacher out in class.

I think we might have got a result too - at least Chief is coming back next week to do a spot of lunch and further discussions around the details of the contracts.

And me, I'm fucked. Completely and utterly fucked. That lever there on the left is the clutch, and I am pulling it in for a bit.

I declared to The Missus last night that I am taking Friday off to go trail riding with AJP. She was actually so glad to hear me say this. For the past god-knows-how-long, she's fed me and fanned me and watered me whilst I've rattled away on this latop making the keyboard sound like a bag of bolts in a washing machine.

So I figured that if I was going to go trail riding with Martin then it might be an idea to tell Martin about it - that would certainly help. Martin was delighted or, at least said that he was. There was dicsussions about whether or not there will be enough bikes, punctuated by lots of "it'll be fine". Usual stuff.

Imagine that you've been locked in this horrible room full of sulphur and smelly stuff like that and no sunlight. Then, all of a sudden, you step outside into a lovely summers day and breathe the fresh air. Knowing that I am riding on Friday kind of feels like that. I can already feel the tension slipping away from me, and looking forward to what is always a complete laugh out on the Plain. A bit of cat and mouse with the Land Warden is exactly what I need.

By the way, the picture I didn't post the other week - when I asked "what is going on here?":



As I said to Chief - I lost my balance. Now it's time to redress that a little. Apart from that, I've got Dawn to Dusk in 10 days time and I could do with the practice. There's an argument that says I could do with the practice anyway, and I'd have to agree with you.

Part of being able to deal with stuff is knowing when you need to back off and take some downtime. I've never been able to do this - this is one of the reasons why I've ended up in hospital. One of the reasons why I've never been able to do it is that I've had nothing to do it with. I've never really been passionate about anything, except the things I'm passionate about - if you follow me.

And now, I've got my bikes and I've got my friends. I've been given the gift of being able to go out with AJP if I choose and know that Martin is delighted to have me there. The guys who are going along to learn will be grateful that I am there. I get downtime, Martin gets help, the guys have a brilliant day. Everybody wins.

Come 10pm next Sunday, I'll be setting fire to my enduro gear and fighting with my ITM and Martin over who gets the matches and petrol first.

But even being able to look forward to set fire to my gear is a long long way from the places I have been. And an even longer way from the places we are going.

A Big Thank You to The Missus for the feeding and the fanning though.

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