Start of week seven. As of 3pm, no PCs. At this point, most of us gave up for the day and went home to continue surfing oops errtechnology investigation on our own PCs. (Maybe we can charge the client for electricity?)

We’ve decided to compare our situation to those onboard a ship. The iceberg was dead ahead, but the steering committee couldn’t seem to make the obvious decision to avoid hitting it.

Once we’d hit it, the ship started going down. There’s plenty of lifeboats on the ship, but the Captain tells us there’s at least a six week delay before we can have them. And even now, the crew are still arguing about whether or not the lifeboats that only contain passengers but don’t hold any crew, should have oars in them.

On to other matters…

It’s hard to believe that this Friday will be my fifth wedding anniversary. The cynics amongst you will be thinking that what’s even more unbelievable is that I, a fully fledged bloke, know the significance of the date without having to be reminded on the day with the threat of physical violence.

Ah well, perhaps that’s what gives me the edge. I always remember when the anniversary is, even if I’m hopeless at getting L a suitable gift.

The fifth anniversary, according to custom, is "wood". Theoretically, I should get something that’s wooden, though in past years we haven’t really stuck to this rule. I don’t actually recall what we got each other for our third ("leather"!), but I do remember it wasn’t anything involving B&D gear. (And no, I don’t mean Black And Decker.)

So I’d better take a some long lunches this week to find just the right present. I’ve got a few ideas worked out, but a public forum like this (one that L reads, too!) is hardly the ideal place to reveal anything of this nature.

Quite amazing. Here we are, at the end of our sixth week, and we have finally got phones. They even work! Relatively clean and newish, too.

But, what, I hear you ask, about the PCs? Last week we were promised them by the end of this week. Now they’re saying Monday. But they’re now also debating about what software is going to be on them.

Is this ludicrous? Yes. Is it a joke? I hope so. To hire half a dozen people to come in and do a job, then to piss around for (at least) six weeks before you give them the tools to do it… what can I say, I’m flabbergasted.

Charles’ funeral was today. Seeing the coffin descending with the Kangaroos scarves on top was quite moving really. It really was quite a shock hearing about his death. Apparently it was an accidental drug overdose. Such a shame, sounds like things were really looking up for him.

It was good to see a whole bunch of old school mates again. Not exactly the ideal circumstances though. We all agreed we’d have to get together again before someone else dies. Hopefully that won’t be for at least a few decades.

Late last night I got an e-mail from a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, Lucien. It said to ring him urgently, about Charles, another friend I haven’t seen in a while. You can tell it’s going to be bad news when you get a message like that. And it was. Charles died suddenly last Friday.

The service is on Thursday. I’ll go… he came to my wedding, it’s the least I can do to go to his funeral.

Week six. No PCs. I hope they realise how much it’s costing them for us all to be working but not getting anything done.

We’ve got new neighbours at home. The guy downstairs moved back to Perth. He left some groceries behind for us. Stuff he said he couldn’t use. Like GladWrap. Maybe they don’t use that over there?

Anyway, a family moved in last week. They seem pretty friendly, which is nice. ‘Cos remember… everybody needs good neighbours.

I was going through the latest Weetbix collector cards the other day, as one does… at the moment it’s various groovy and highly athletic basketball stuff, not something that enthrals me enough to want to collect them.

Anyway, imagine, for a moment, that you’re me. You’ve just pulled the cards out of the box without yet seeing what the theme is. You read the caption, which says, and I quote: "Between the legs dribble"

What the heck is this?! Ah… I see… It’s just basketball. We haven’t yet reached the stage where bizarre personal diseases are featured on breakfast cereal cards.

Today’s funniest spotted shop name: "The Mad Pom - We buy anyfink."

Great news! We got cables to go with our network connection points! Amazing stuff. With any luck, in the next few months the bits and pieces of the PC might turn up.

Okay, I admit it, it’s starting to get just a little frustrating. This is the end of the fifth week at this new job. The first couple of weeks, I could stand - we were getting to grips with the task ahead, working out exactly what we’d be doing… But five weeks - c’mon! Someone should get the message soon - we’re computer people… here’s a hint… we need computers to work!

There is a particular person who has the responsibility of getting our computers for us. We’re now seriously considering stealing his.

But in the mean time, I’m still spending a fair bit of time at home, getting paid to mess around with the technology we’re intending to use for the system we’re going to build. I can’t actually go ahead and build any of it, so who knows, this web site might get a few little Java applets out of it!