Incommunicado...

... life has been exceptionally busy these past two weeks. I should open by saying the problem with accounts was swiftly resolved, although one more payment went through my old account, which I was happy with as at least I knew the overriding problem had been solved. I do hope that future missives about self-employed questionnaires are worded more coherently though.

Harriet continues to develop at a furious pace - from clapping her hands properly for the first time a week last Sunday when the family met up in Cambridge for lunch, she has really put on a spurt. One slight dampener occurred during her nine-month checkup where a possible hip problem has been spotted - it's nothing noticeable (she's clearly not in pain, and there's no restriction on her mobility), just an occasional "click" when one of her hips is rotated. She was referred to the doctor who has referred her to the hospital for a specialist check-up, but we're not too worried (yet!) as if there is a problem it's almost certainly a minor one. Better safe than sorry is the opinion in all quarters.

Work has picked up - August and September are looking extremely healthy and September will be the first time I've broken through a particular ceiling in terms of income for a while. But there are some potential dark clouds on the horizon, so I won't be going on any splurges!

And SupportPCs - the web site I run with my friend Joe - is starting to really come together. Having abandoned one redesign attempt, I've discovered a program (DBQwikSite) that basically allows us to store our content in various databases, and then design pages to pull the content from those databases. It means future redesigns will be quicker as we won't have to recreate the content each time. It's been a steep learning curve in places, but breakthroughs are trickling through and I'm really happy with what's happened so far. Hopefully this will result in a site that attracts more visitors and generates a bit more income for us both.

There, and not even time for a rant. Although saying that, the actions of the EU in allowing its fishermen to encroach on other territories to avoid making hard - but clearly necessary - decisions on sustainability make me wonder how anyone in the West can think of ourselves as "good" and "right" (see here). At the end of the day, we're just another brand - ironic, considering our consumptive ways - of evil.