h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Grambo came round about 11:30am, and we drank lots of strong . Originally, he was coming round to show me his ideas for a webpage design, but as he "forgot" to bring them we ended up researching satellite dish alignment on the web instead.

Afterwards, we headed over to Maplin, where I bought the light bulb I forgot last week, along with a packet of plastic CD sleeves, two LED torches on retractable fishing-line lanyards and a torch-in-a-pen. (for 69p!) I bumped into Amit there, who, as usual, was failing to get his credit card to work properly. I lent him £12 to get his purchases...

Then, we headed next door to KFC where I bought Grambo lunch and perused my purchases. The torch-in-a-pen had leaky batteries, so I stopped in and exchanged it for another one on the way back to our .

Next stop was "Quid's In", where I got a couple of packs of ground , a backscratcher, a metal caulking gun, some reading glasses, washing-up liquid and air freshener. Grambo got some "stuff" too. We parted company there...

I caught another back up to the chemist, to pick up a prescription that should have been waiting for me since Friday. It took them between 10 and 15 minutes to locate it.

Now, I hopped on another (I get my money's worth from these day tickets!) and paid a visit to Amit's shop, where I got my £12 back. I popped in next door and had a with Mike the upholsterer, then headed to home via the corner shop where I got a half-dozen cans of bargain and the latest "Computer Arts".

I got home, had supper, fitted the new lightbulb*, phoned Bob to talk tactics with the website we're working on, read a chapter of "Thomas Covenant" with my new (£1) reading glasses and then settled down to watch "The Farm".

(*...which didn't work. When the previous bulb went it took out the fuse; it may have damaged the lamp too. I don't have anything else to test it in. )

I got an email from Executive Software. They told me to kill the process that's been running on my system for the last week-and-a-half, as it just won't work on a 64-bit processor.

They also told me they'd sign me up as a betatester and send me a copy that *should* work, free and fully licenced, at no cost to myself. I think they were impressed by my stamina.

Overall, a good day.