Elfin Electrifiers Embezzling Time,

I’ve learned that my self-diagnoses aren’t credible to most people. On this occasion, I know the problem and it’s something of a Catch-22 situation.

I’ve been trying to write a report, which is due in February, and I spend nearly all my hours that I don’t spend in the laboratory trying to write the thing. This stresses me. The more I don’t write the more I become stressed. I became ill.

I spent a day in bed, emerging only to play with CDs and make a Classic Cuts CD (a mix CD, volume 23). Making the CD made me forget about stuff for a while. I assembled 47 great songs – enough for two volumes. I know from experience that I should still only make one volume from the assembly, otherwise, I might end up with poor segues or a stinker could sneak onto the final selection (volume 4 still spooks me). I make sure each junction between songs is smooth, that the volume starts and ends with a corker and that every possible second of the compilation is used. Most Classic Cuts volumes serve as excellent reminders of what I was listening to in any epoch of time.

On Wednesday I invited brother to a gig. He declined. On Thursday, he felt he’d outdone me by booking tickets to see Gonzo and the Razorlight boys. Razorlight are the most regrettably wasted opportunity in today’s music industry; the music is great but that clown, Gonzo Borrell, insists on whimpering like an elk all over the top of it. I don’t want him to fall down a crevasse of a glacier, but I’d like to see him fired by the band; they could do instrumentals. I don't know how I can remedy brother's ways.

I watched a documentary about the rise of right-wing nationalism in contemporary Japan.

I discovered that The Tears - Suede by any other name and still as annoying - have a song called "Apollo 13". It’s not the same.

I attended a lecture by one of the guest lecturers called “Did Life on Earth Begin on Earth!” I thought it was rather interesting and just like being back at Embra because they talk about diverse chemistry there. It was all about solving the problem of where the phosphorus required for life came from. The lecture was slightly ruined for me when St Andrews phosphorus guy prolonged the event with his questions, phosphorus guy didn’t endear himself to me; he makes phosphorous-containing compounds and puts them in jars, then he publishes papers claiming that he made those things in the jars, despite the fact he has no interest in whether the things in the jars have any useful applications in the world outside those jars.

I’m plodding on; I can’t see why anyone would want to take holidays at this time of year. I’m knackered but I’ll be forced to take holidays because of Christmas and New Year anyway, those will suffice and I’ll take some decent holidays in the 2007. I think I’d like to disappear up north for a week or so when the weather is more amenable; it’s just an idea at the minute.