Having thrown my hands in the air about the book, I took two lovely days off to enjoy myself. A trip to Hobart started with a visit to the University - I am participating in a study to consider the effectiveness of cigarette warnings on smokers (none, in my case I am sorry to say). It involves having a mobile phone on which you record each cigarette and respond to various surveys (all pretty identical as to what you are doing, how you are feeling and so forth. The first day it drove me crazy as it asked these questions every bloody time i had a smoke - as a result its results are not a reflection of my normal habits as its intrusions resulted in me deferring cigarettes to avoid having to fill in the survey, lol.

The reason I signed up was because I thought it would be a good way to focus my consciousness on my smoking instead of letting it be just something I did and in that way would help me to prepare to have the Neurolinguistic programming I keep promising myself. Fortunately it has now become more relaxed and is not insisting I report in at hourly intervals to answer additional questionnaires. This week is establishing the datum, and from next week I will be applying new labels to my cigarette packets to test their effectiveness. That will go for an additional fortnight and then it will all be over.

From there I ran around the northern suburbs stocking up on dog food etc, and had afternoon tea in Bunnings as I couldn't be bothered looking for a cafe with parking and filled in time till it was time to return to Hobart for Divali - which had some interesting dancing and a variety of foods from a diverse range of countries - not much in the way of curry which was disappointing. The Paella was a little out of line, as at least most of the other countries represented presumably have some sort of Hindu presence - but Italy?

Then to Barbara's where no-one was home so I let myself in and settled down to wait for the dog to wake up. Dinner was KFC then to bed.

On Saturday we went to Currency in Lindisfarne which is in the old Commonwealth Bank building and had a poached eggs Benedict which filled me up so much I did not need additional sustenance till dinner time. Picked the dog up and headed home. He smells sweet as he has had a bath, so much so it is a little overwhelming. I can't imagine he enjoys it at all.

Today was the History Room and only two visitors, but I have recruited a new volunteer who can fill in on Mondays while our usual unreliable volunteer is off on sick leave. I took advantage of the peace and quiet to draft my email to the author of the book and have just sent it off to him - basically - what do you hope to achieve? Your aggressive approach is only going to inspire backlash, not a concession that she was wrong. And by the way, here are some serious errors in your own assumptions.

I copied it to Steph as it points out her error in arranging a meeting between him and me before she arranges an Executive meeting, but also points out that it may be she simply confused my request and my discussion paper.

The two days off were a huge relaxation and gave me time to refresh my soul which has been a little bruised by all the drama.

And I have unblocked the toilet which has been playing up a little of late, and flushed out the entire line with a hose down the pipe until everything has gone into the Septic (so many inspection hatches to work out what progress I have made), so now have drains that run freely once more.