Ssshhh. You hear that? Listen. Harder.

That, my friends, is the sound of Sweet F.A. There has been alot of that lately. In fact there has been so much of it that there has barely been enough time for anything else. So a somewhat downbeat “I will see you tomorrow” turned into 24 days of silence. Such is the way of the world sometimes. Better get used to it or you may as well just stick your head in the oven now (not that it would be very efficient doing that in Sweden - all cookers are electric here).

So what has happened since my last entry you ask? Surely something happened? Surely an international playboy such as myself has some depraved story to tell of the last 24 days?

Surely.

Well, you’d be correct. Although disappointingly I can count the depraved acts I have witnessed or been told about in the last 24 days on the fingers of one hand, and to make it worse I’m bound by various promises to various people not to ever disclose the exact nature of those acts under pain of death.

So what am I left to write about?

Well, I visited England for a week and a half for a start. I had a really busy schedule over there with much meeting of family and friends taking place. I had a good time with everyone I visited and I’m looking forward to returning nearer Christmas. I managed to see Mono Effecto twice (I booked my trip to coincide with one of their gigs - the second was a fluke) and hang out with everyone for a bit which was great fun. I spent much time in my third home, The Coopers Arms in Reading, with my friends. Memories of the Gamestore days flooded back as I found myself wondering the streets of Reading half-cut trying to persuade various people to go to a variety of bars and clubs. Ah…

After that, with a flash and a bang, I found myself waiting outside Uppsala train station for Karin. Not thinking that the weather in Sweden may have actually changed in my absence I was wearing a pair of linen trousers and my summer jacket in an approaching-sub-zero temperature. On the upside I had a crazy man on crutches as company for some of the time - although judging by his continuous mutterings he had more company than I did. I also had an eight foot tall advert for Viagra for reading matter. According to that I’ll be as limp as a prawn by 40, but it won’t matter as I can give Pfizer a bag of money and they can put the spring back in my step, no problem - Phew. Although right there and then, in that temperature with linen trousers on, I doubt that even Viagra would have been able to help matters.

Since then I’ve been out in Uppsala a couple of times with various people, wallowed about in Karin’s and my room, and been thoroughly unproductive. Worrying as that may be I’m taking solice in the fact that this wallowing is usually a preface to getting down to some serious work. My head just likes to mess with me like that.

So what of the last few days? Well I’ve spent a few hours playing Second Life, an online community style game where most of the content is user created. I must say that I am impressed. The technical hurdles it has overcome are large and for the most part it does it well. Those of you who have read Neal Stephenson’s SnowCrash will have a reasonable ideal of what it is if you think of the “metaverse” in that novel. I’m tempted to write about it from a social standpoint but I’m not sure if that will happen anytime soon.

So, to the future? In the short term I foresee much frantic mooching about waiting for the angry energy to return. Once it returns I forsee much work, not much sleep but a much more relaxed atmosphere.

I shall post updates on my progress.

[EDIT: Corrected the sexual dysfunction that Viagra helps - not sure how I got that wrong the first time]