I'm presently on a train with the possibility of watchful eyes peering over my shoulder at what can only be described as a pointless daily journal/insight into the trivia of my life. Given that this will be on the internet in a few hours, it's probably not important, though it would be amusing if someone were actually reading this word for word as it appeared.

I love to play to an audience - so it would appear, at least.

Anyway, today is a day for catching up. I've let the blog slip, so some of the entries that appear before this one in the chronological order will be entered retrospectively. There's nothing like an immediate account of what's happened within hours, while the feelings and details are still clear, but that's not always possible. This will have to do.

In parallel with this, I've been trying to catch up at work today. There's nothing like doing a job when it's given to you, so you can deliver it on time with a clear memory of why it was given to you and what was required. In the absence of being able to do that, catching up is the best you can manage. It's clearly the day for it.

The people in HR laughed at my apparent lack of organisation today. One of them had summoned me to a meeting in order to go through some CVs, to decide whether to interview some possible future team members. To them, it was poor organisation that meant I hadn't reviewed those CVs. To them, it was amusing that they could schedule a meeting with me in order to go through them "together" and that would make it happen. To me, it was also amusing. However, it was also a good technique. The reason hasn't so much been that I needed nannying through the process. It's more that I needed some uninterrupted time in which to deal with it. At my desk, even on "catch up time", I wasn't ever going to have it at the top of my priority list, when compared with the myriad things happening around me.

And so it was that at 9am (well, a late 9am) I sat in a boardroom and decided to interview some candidates. Simple really.

Later on there was a catch up session with some colleagues, one of whom works off site and was too busy to come to a meeting to arrange the remaining work on the project into a list. I couldn't do it over the phone. I need it drawn on a piece of paper. I have a visual/spatial view of abstract problems. I need to lay them out. I need to see it. So, if Mohammed won't come to the mountain... I arranged to have a catch up session at the end of the day, along with another nearby colleague, at this fellow's office.

First, though, there was the training session that I'd planned to run. I had originally intended it as a workshop, but the lack of response made me turn it into a lecture instead. It seems that people were more likely to turn up to something self-contained that they could do over a lunchtime. I had made extensive notes to ensure that I knew what I'd be covering, the small detail and that, in short, I didn't waste their time with vagueness. I hope that the preparation and enthusiasm I have for the subject rubbed off on the attendees.

I also bribed them with sweets.

I also had the most ridiculous of nightmares getting a meeting room for the session. My first room booking disappeared, along with my copy of the appointment for the session. The second room booking appeared to be a double-booking, with the person in there adamant that they'd confirmed. My third attempt, made on my behalf by someone, turned out to have been made in the past. Weird. Anyway, the session (a talk on Design Patterns with reference to a real world example, for those of you who care) felt like it was a success. I saw some eyes closing, but I'm not sure if that was sleepiness, or the sort of "eyes closed with immersion" that I've seen people do in jazz clubs, and when I say I've seen it, I mean I've imagined it.

Anyway, after doing lots of bitty jobs, a lot of which revolved around deleting emails, having done what was asked on them, I decided to try out the idea of doing a work-from-home day. I'll go to the office first thing in the day, in order to avoid falling into the trap of not being awake in time to work for the day. Then, I'll go back home and try out the work-from-home thing. If it works, then I'll do it occasionally and see if I can get some catching up done every few days.

I'm on the train now, having scooted home to get changed and ready for some biking, and then having gone to the station. Simple really. You need station attendance to get the train. That's how it works.

I'm in the lighting/sound box tonight. I've got a sketch show to tech. I'm looking forward to it. I prepared my stuff last night, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the show/performances have progressed since I last teched for the people who do it. My mood is many many several times better than it was last time I did their show, so I'll probably enjoy it more than I did then.

I've not quite caught up on this year yet. The house is behind, the job is awash with loose ends, life in general needs a lot doing to it to fix it. However, I'm on the up. Or at least, it seems like I'm on the up, which is good enough for now.