In the last few weeks I had decided that I was going to become a morning person. Hah. This morning however, Paddy woke at six for a bottle and I seized the opportunity to put my plan into action. So it's 6:36am and I'm sitting here with a pint of coffee, typing this. I realise that some of you would consider this a lie in, but my normal rising time is about an hour from now.

I finally purchased my new car stereo. It is, nominally, my birthday present (which isn't for a while yet), but not really. I got it in Argos, which is a cut price budget type shop which sells everything by catalog. They do the usual bait and switch in that the lower priced items are always out of stock and you always end up buying the next version up for forty Euro more. But the one I eventually went for came with 'free' installation (it actually cost me twenty Euro) and it's in now and working.

The previous stereo I had was the original one from the car. The car being a Japanese import meant that the highest frequency on the radio was 90mhz and most of the radio stations around here are higher than that (including the one I listen to most). It also lost the signal about three times between work and home so I was looking forward to uninterrupted listening to my chosen radio station on the way home. Not to be. The new radio does pick up all the stations I desire, but it loses the signal in the same places and I don't know what to do about that.

The CD player does play MP3s though and I'm considering an Audible subscription for audio books. I think I'll buy a one-off and see how that goes.

This morning thing may just work out. I have a list of sites I read every day and if I go there now, that'll save me half an hour in work. Half an hour in which I can actually get stuff done. Or find new sites to visit. Damn this internet.

This is the first post with CityDesk 2.0. I am now using the built in editor instead of an external one as they have solved a problem that made me avoid it (it's too tedious to get in to). This seems to have the side effect of me adding in more links. I don't know why. The interface they supply is not hugely easier to use than coding by hand and I probably shouldn't be giving you any more reasons to go someplace else...

I spent a long time last night updating my operating system with the forty-two (forty-two!) essential patches. It was a slow process and if I hadn't downloaded most of them at work, I'd still be at it. I also have a firewall installed, so all I need now is a decent virus scanner. I'd never allow my work machine to exist in such a state, but this machine is nearing replacement so I'm a little blasé about it.

I mentioned that the car stereo was for my birthday; what I really wanted was this. Well this actually. Well both. All of them.

I have to control my consumer desires.