Arthur And George (Julian Barnes) — not quite historical novel, not quite biography, following the true story of Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji. Somewhere in between, perhaps. Really well written, I thought (no wonder if was on the 2005 Booker shortlist), getting inside the heads of the main characters using language they’d probably use themselves. And a very intruiguing story, which although it has a main plot that kind of fizzles out, remains interesting right to the end.

(Having just finished reading the book, I found it interesting to see that Arthur’s house, Undershaw, is the subject of some controversy at the moment.)

Lego Star Wars — The retail life of a video game goes roughly like this: It starts at $80-100, which is a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a game, if you ask me. But if it’s good, the early-adopters grab it. The price gradually falls to a half-decent level, then a very-decent level. And then, particularly if the reviews are pretty good, and I think my kids will like it, I’ll buy it. $20 (at Target), as it turns out, is a very-decent level for Lego Star Wars, which turns out to be a helluva lot of fun. A good variety of (Lego) characters, plus some spaceship flying, plus podracing, plus co-operative two-player mode, plus some terrific visuals adds up to a very enjoyable game. Perhaps not a big challenge for hardcore video gamers, but certainly a lot of fun for everybody else.

And by the way, I reckon those Lego characters are better actors than Hayden Christiansen.

Jyndabine — Comparisons with Ray Lawrence’s earlier Lantana are inevitable. While this one also looks closely at human emotions and death (and bloody noses), this film has less of a claustrophobic, mystery feel to it. People familiar with the Raymond Carver short story or Paul Kelly’s Everything’s Turning To White will know the basic story, but this telling sees the four men slip almost accidentally into the actions they are later condemned for, and the subseqent events are very believable, helped by seemingly flawless acting that left the entire cinema silent and thinking right through the film. Terrific stuff.

Well, I did it. I survived an entire week without chocolate.

Cruelly, my body reacted to this effort by producing a rather large pimple on the side of my nose. Is there no justice?

However, I’m conscious of the fact that diabetes is far from unknown in my family, and while I’m not going to go entirely without chocolate, I am aiming to reduce my intake in the future.

That said, those fundraiser chocolates that just showed up at work are going to look awfully inviting on Monday…

It seems one of the popular things is to complain about these days the curse of the always-on generation. Mobile phones, email, instant messaging mean you’re always contactable.

But I like all that stuff for other reasons. It means I can leave the office early (as I do every Tuesday) and stay in touch. I can be at home with my kids, but still able to respond to crises. If a system goes down or needs a change at 11pm, I don’t need to find a babysitter and go into work to fix it.

(A friend told the funny story of how her young daughter knows — and doesn’t like it — when she gets the SecurID out to connect to her work computers. She doesn’t understand what it does, but does know it means her mum has to work.)

I’ve had a bad cold for the last week or so; the cough is still hanging around. But we’re frantically busy at work, moving towards a deadline next week. I was able to stay at home for two days last week and cough and sneeze my way through the day, yet thanks to remote access, terminal services, a phone, and conference calls, it was almost like being at my desk. Except no noise and interruptions from colleagues or the nearby printer.

And if I don’t want to be reachable, the mobile goes silent or off, and callers go to voicemail. The experience many years ago of the 3am emergency call (which turned out not to be a problem I could solve) was a lesson I’ve learnt from.

Yesterday morning I had a blood nose in the shower. Very Psycho, I must say.

My left side is clearly my best. My right side is… well, a bit defective. My right nostril is always the one that gets the blood. Semi-regularly in fact, particularly in high summer or when I’m blowing my nose a lot due to colds.

My right eye doesn’t work. Well, there’s some peripheral vision, but if my left was as bad, I’d be legally blind. Thankfully the left probably has better vision than most people have.

And of course I’m left handed. If you think my handwriting is messy, you should see it from my right hand.

Woo hoo, one of my favourite TV shows is back, after a prolonged absence… The Daily Show (Global edition) on SBS, 10pm tonight (handily timed to start after the West Wing). Damn funny stuff.

Thankfully it’s only a minority of smokers who are obnoxious about their habit, like the two bogan girls in the Campbell Arcade yesterday morning. I wonder what made them think they were allowed to smoke in there? After all, smoking is banned from most inside and undercover locations now.

Maybe we should have smoking zones? In fact given proposals for special rooms for other types of drug use, perhaps we should go down the path of airports, and have smoking rooms.

Speaking of addictions, the chocolate-free week is going, frankly, surprisingly well. Even Jeremy commencing reading Roald Dahl’s “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory” hasn’t got me tucking into the Freddoes.

But I wonder if, like alcoholism, it’s best to stay away from it completely after the week is over, or whether just an occasional sample of chocolate would drag me back into full-blown chocoholism?

PS. Wednesday evening. Uh oh, fundraiser chocolates showed up at work today.

The wacky dreams keep on coming. This one on the weekend involved walking Maisie (the dog) with Marita in Footscray Park.

But beware! Assassins! In a white stationwagon! They pulled up nearby and came attacking, with a syringe full of something to stab me with.

Maisie, being her usual cautious self, was not about to intervene.

But I managed to fight them off, and at one point, one of them was on the ground and I decided to kick him.

Which is where dream-world and reality merged, as I let out a kick in bed, which got Marita in the shin.

Fortunately, being a sound sleeper (eg nothing short of an aircraft landing in the street would wake her) she did not stir.

I had a reasonably bad cold last week, and I’m still periodically coughing yeuchhy stuff up very noisily. At its worst, I worked from home, which was actually pretty good — I reckon I got more done at home than I would have done at work, thanks to the tranquility.

Thanks to a contact in the industry I got a quick look around a railway station booking office last week. Conspicuous above one of the internal doorways (facing away from the customer window) was a Jesus Christ. Obviously they need all the help they can get to keep the trains running on time. (But apparently Our Lord had not been pleased that morning, as my train was cancelled.)

I never got around to having a proper housewarming party last year, but have finally organised a “1st anniversary since buying” party for some good friends and relatives. No, I’m not inviting the blogging world at large, sorry. Yes, I am going to have to work very hard in the next fortnight to make the place presentable.

About an hour before the Cats vs Dogs game started, I changed my tip from Dogs to Cats. And boy am I glad I did… they turned out to win by one point. I ended up with 6 tips out of 8 (the Carlton/Essendon draw counts as a point for everybody). As of the end of round 16 I’m top of the tipping ladder by a point to Marita, followed by Rae, so at this rate the ugly trophy may be making a return visit to one of our houses this September.

To my surprise, no unbearable pangs for chocolate… yet.

Can I do it?

Starting at midnight tonight, I’m going to try.

An entire week without chocolate.

Just to prove I can.

My name is Daniel, and I am a chocoholic.

I may be addicted, but I CAN GIVE IT UP ANY TIME I LIKE.

No Mars Bars, no choc brownies, no Freddo Frogs, no hot chocolates (especially not like the one I had at lunchtime today, which was chocolate to the max — see pic). No chocolate cake, no choc-chip bagels, no choc icing doughnuts. No chocolate icecream, no cocoa, no Ovaltinees, no Kinder Surprise, no chocolate muffins, no M&Ms.

And you can bet no watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.