So, Wednesday slipped in without too much fuss or an abundance of lubrication. I'm sure old Woden would have been proud of himself. And a date in history to be reckoned with, or not, depending on how bored you are I guess:

1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails Pacific Ocean - think he's the bloke wot discovered monkeys
1916 - Great Arab Revolt begin - so much potential for 'revolting' jokes here, but I'll not stoop
1939 - Barney Bear, cartoon character, by MGM, debuts - That was no boo-boo!
1957 - Harold MacMillan becomes British PM - so there's historical precedent for a change of leadership on this day. Mr Brown, take heed!
1977 - Apple Computer ships its 1st Apple II - spooky - just got an iPhone! I still maintain Macs are best suited to dirty old men

And it's Judy Garland's birthday. She'd be 87, but still scared of lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Yesterday started out with promise, as so many days often do, but had a very real slump around lunchtime when I was poorly sick again. Don't know what is causing this - it is most peculiar! No real notice - this time I was sitting in the garden, sling-shot in hand, waiting for unsuspecting slugs to dare show themselves - and blop, there I am, with pre-nausea mouth-watering and unable to coax breakfast back down again. Oh well, maybe slugs like macerated poached egg on toast. Not looking forward to endoscopy, whenever that happens, as have terrible gag reflex anyway and even cleaning my teeth too far to the back of my mouth can end up with unpleasantness. Also, naturally, worried that they might find something else wrong with me. Doctor seemed to suspect an ulcer, which would be fine and dandy to cure. Send me good thoughts and healing energy and lets get this thing sorted! The gardening time was also spent sowing out the pea seeds that I soaked yesterday. They swelled up fine, to look like just-podded peas, so I'm hoping that extra umph will give them a chance to germinate quickly (or at all). Some outside, some on kitchen windowsill, some uncovered, some in plastic bags for heat and moisture retention. Think I have covered most bases. Bound to fail!

Spent some time working on a few more t-short designs and sent them off in first draft for my mate to see. Hope he likes. Was a very sketchy brief. Speaking of briefs (as often I seem to do these days), three pairs on display in window opposite yesterday. So that's 6 pairs in 2 days - which seems an excessive daily throughput by anyone's standards. And I've seen the ads on telly for knicker bolt-ons designed for ladies with leaky pluming, so she can't blame a faulty valve on her flow regulator causing conspicuous pooling either, least not in my book! While I was fiddling around with PaintShop I re-visited the poster I'd designed for our club night which coincides with Manchester Pride in August. (Friday 28th for our night and that weekend for the Pride march if you want to come along and throw fruit at the passing, er, fruit!) Made some of the text 3D with bevelled edges. Looks quite good, so I went on and produced a postcard version too, suitable for promo in advance of the event. Pride is our busiest night but also our most costly. The cats, bless them, are currently fast asleep on David's sofa, in the 69 position, with their heads up each other's arses. They may just be gay.

We got the iPhones! I wasn't sure if O2 would give us a contract, having previously been on Orange and with with a credit rating that must be "You're having a laugh" or maybe "There's less risk involved in flying Air France"! But no problemo! All sorted. We had to leave hefty deposits (that could sound rude), but we'll get that back after 3 months. I have to say that so far the iPhone has not in any way lived up to my expectations. Which is a good thing! I was expecting it to be awful, feature-deprived, troublesome and fussy, but so far it has failed to tick any of these boxes. It even syncs to my laptop (and therefore my calendar, contacts and web favourites) without any difficulty. Different interface to anything I have used before but it is generally quite intuitive. Great screen size and the photo quality is much better than the HTC Touch I've been using to date. The garden image was taken this morning. Can't complain at the quality from a phone camera. I've got things set up for Facebook and Twitter, so can update on the move, and the photo integration to both seems very straightforward. Maybe there will be some good photo opportunities in Hungary and I can upload a few decent pictures during the trip. Can't change the image resolution though and need an app for any manipulation, but its not MEANT to be a laptop/PC replacement. Web browsing is cool - FAR superior to the HTC, faster and renders pages properly.

if I have any faults they would be:

• Keyboard not fantastic and easy to miss-key. That might just be that I need to get used to it.
• No on-phone file management. Seems odd that. Yes you can manage photos, apps, music and video via iTunes but there is nothing to deal with other types of documents. Methinks an app-search is required

Just been having a fiddle, as you do, with Flight Control. OMG! How hard?! I'll have RSI before the end of the day! Beef casserole for dinner - or stew if you don't profess delusions of grandeur! David's out training, so it has to be a quick turn-round and so something that just needs whipping out of the oven and spooning into a bowl is ideal.'Spose I'd better do some spuds though, 'ya wee maan' being from 'de emerald isle', so he is. But he's NOT Irish!

Need to do lots more playing so I may add a bit more to this entry later today or if not, then tomorrow.