The promotional people are playing games with me. This morning, the second last morning I’ll be going to work via South Yarra station, there they were again, with freebie passionfruit yoghurt. It’s as if they’re trying to entice me to stay… "look… free yoghurt… tomorrow it might be free shampoo!…" Sorry, it won’t work. My new contract is signed and sealed.

So tomorrow it will be goodbye to the park with its randomly placed sprinklers. Goodbye to avoiding those little old ladies walking on Toorak Road who somehow seem to occupy the entire pavement by themselves. Goodbye to overtaking people in their BMWs stuck in the Toorak Road peak hour traffic. Goodbye to meeting my neighbour on the train and comparing corporate computing horror stories. And goodbye to my St Kilda Road view, just in time to avoid the inordinate amount of noise that accompanies the Grand Prix in Albert Park.

• Diary Mar ‘96: Last year’s Grand Prix

The 40+ degree heat continues… And last night we lost power for the first time in ages. Just us, a neighbour, and half the street. Probably someone somewhere decided to turn on one airconditioner too many. All the lights, everything went off at 9:45 - in the middle of Ruby Wax, very annoying. So after much fiddling with fuses and meters and making sure it wasn’t our fault (remember last time!) we rang up the electricity company and enjoyed their hold music for a few dozen minutes.

They got it fixed long after bedtime. Of course, I had turned everything off, and forgotten I had the mains switch turned off too, so when I got up in the morning, I thought for a few seconds it still hadn’t been fixed.

"Yes, we are back!" "3 Saturdays and Sundays left!" "Lease ends 9th of March!" These, and even an after-hours phone number (for Terracotta Emergencies) adorn the windows of the Pot Spot today.

But will everything wind up on the 9th of March? I don’t know. After almost a year of closing down sales, I’m just not sure I believe them anymore.

Diary Jan ‘97: Original Pot Spot entry

The word is out - I’ve got a new job lined up. Not that I’ve been looking, but these things have a habit of finding me. Alas, my current employers were unable to offer me the promise of any work after March, and when a three month contract at Coles/Myer popped up, well, who could resist. Especially with the chance of working with some groovy new technology, learning new things, and meeting new challenges. Not to mention the dosh.

This being the contracting world where an intricate web of little companies works for slightly bigger companies employed by bigger still companies, just about everybody has a company. For this new job I have finally taken the plunge of forming a company myself rather than working through someone else’s. It appears to me to be a bit of legal mumbo jumbo to make the big company’s lives easier when it comes to hiring contractors. And for me, it’s just a bit of fiddling around with paperwork.

But my workmates (who of course also all have companies) have claimed how easy it is, and even recommended accountants. And yes, it has been very easy so far. In fact, the hardest part was thinking of a company name.

After much debating and humming and hahing about serious names that people would look up to and think "hey, now there’s a mob we can do business with" and all those other power-shoulder-pad type concepts, I elected for "Custard Communications".

So, last week, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, ACN 077 351 707, was born. The accountant (yes, gasp, I actually now have an accountant, what an uncool sell out heavy vibe merchant I am) balked slightly at the name.

Strange thing was, when I went to open the bank account, the lady at the bank didn’t bat an eyelid. Maybe her previous customer wanted an account in the name of The Very Big Dong Of My Brother Frank And Company Pty Ltd or something equally doubtful. You just don’t know.

This weekend I even started work on cooking err, sorry, that is keeping the books. Suddenly my brain let loose with all that high school accounting that it’s been storing away somewhere at the back of my mind for the day it would come in useful. Amazing.

The signs at the Pot Spot during the week were: "Last day Saturday", "All stock must go". But the notice that leads one to believe that finally after eight months the Pot Spot’s closing sale might actually be coming to an end, is the planning application in the window for a printing shop. Maybe things really were going to wind up on Saturday.

Sure enough on Saturday, they were open, with just a few pots and so on remaining in a small part of the shop. There didn’t appear to be any actual genuine customers in attendance when I passed by, so either people were well stocked up on their pots already, or they doubted the truth of the statement that "All stock must go".

By today (Sunday afternoon) there was no sign of activity, but it seemed like Saturday’s efforts to clear out all the stock hadn’t resulted in a single pot, statuette or other garden accessory being sold. More news as it comes to hand…

Today’s the day… Valentine’s Day, or VD for short, as someone at work suggested. Perhaps not.

I remembered the card and present. Hopefully other blokes everywhere did. If not, it’s not too late to rush out and get something. It’s recommended if you want to live to see the end of the weekend.

No, don’t get plastic flowers. And no, the poppy from the last Remembrance Day is not sufficient.

Just thought of a good practical joke to play, that is if your better half is in the right frame of mind. Midway through the day, ring him or her up and say "Wow! Thanks for the incredible balloons and flowers!"

Presuming they didn’t send balloons and flowers to you, they’ll say something like "What balloons and flowers?!?"

"Just kidding!" <Click>

Someone was whinging to me today about having a dog. I told her I have no sympathy. With a human child, you can’t just leave him locked up in the house all day with some food. At least, not if you don’t want the Child Protection people after you. Dogs don’t grow two sizes of shoes and clothing a year. And most children require a little more interaction than a short walk every evening.

Pot Spot Update: "Last day Saturday".

An update on the Pot Spot, the shop down the street that has been having a closing down sale for almost eight months now. The sign "Closing February 6th" has been updated to: "Closing February."