hello folks, its been a while. adebayor has gone, vermalen has arrived, nasri has got crocked - typical arsenal close season. what's happening in my world?

well i'm writing.. 13,000 words in the last two weeks so i'm meeting my self-imposed target of 750 words a day. the ripper book is building in stages even if i'm not that happy with chunks of it.

i've just shaved my beard and tache off. i do this every five years or so. it feels weird. i did it today because i dont really need to go back into work until september now, which gives me loads of time to grow it back.

on the romance front things are still moving along. last week she graduated - she looked great in the mortar board! so that's a sort of ending. mr angry is still giving her a hard time and she's still giving it back in spades.

we spent five days together last week, i left on monday morning becasue i needed space and we would have imploded otherwise. i'm much less out of control than i was and if i can keep this up i think i can get what i need from the relationship. i'm hoping to escae to paris at the end of august and she might join me for a few days