I told Owen in an email this morning that I was declaring October a tobacco and nicotene free month, starting today. All things considered, I don't think 20 Marlboro Lights, four pints of Heineken and a couple of glasses of Pineau are altogether such a bad start. In fact, I'm quite proud. After all, I smoked the cigarettes slowly and sipped at the beer. Sloshed down the Pineau though.

More work on the weather station but to no avail, really. Power's getting into places it should but it's still not working. I've taken the modem out to take it into town and have it tested, but all the shops I've seen so far are happy smiley Mac shops, rather than anything of any substance. I'll try again.

Woke up quite late. A Beechmartin (fouine) has moved into one of the eves and is fucking noisy. All last night it made a din, scratching and fidgeting, so I hardly got any sleep. I might have it killed if I can't scare it away with Abba and Steps. Drove to Chez Christophe (where I had my first fag because his mother almost forced a packet of Gauloise on me) then into town to have Mildred's brakes looked at. Nowt wrong, apparently, although they're squeaking lots. We were rather nasty to the mechanics and left gay things lying around the car (mainly pictures of erections in scene guides, actually) whilst they were doing things. Neither of them bit, though, which is a shame as 'tophe and I were going to share them between us. Oh well.

Must take Mildred in to have her tracking done somewhere. She's pulling a bit to the right without correction (especially under heavy braking) which is probably a bad thing. They don't do tracking at Speedy. Ahem.

Traxx for coffee and chat. Chat was quite easy today and I even managed a few jokes and things. Was a child and went to some arcades with 'tophe afterwards to play Ridge Racer V (whee!), followed by some room somewhere where we played Crash Bandicoot 3 on the PlayStation until some ridiculous hour. Can't have been too ridiculous as it's only 2.30am now...