One Day in History

History Matters have decided that 17th October 2006 is the day for a

"one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a 'blog' diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life."

Here's my day:

I'm going to work "early" at the moment because one of our sub-contractors is a single parent and has to work around the school day, meaning I have to be at the office in Wilburton for 8:20am. It's not really a hardship - I only have to leave Willingham at 8 o'clock - but  I used to have half an hour after Wendy left for work to read The Guardian. If I'm lucky it's today's paper, but the paperboy has been getting late recently so often enough it is from the day before.

I listen to "Today" on Radio 4 in bed, then Chris Moyles on Radio 1 in the shower and with breakfast (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, orange juice and coffee). Sadly, Chris Moyles is on holiday for two weeks signing copies of his book, Scott Mills is his unlistenable replacement and I've tried Wogan on Radio 2 but the music is just appalling, so it's a CD for now. Paulo Nutini this morning.

The traffic is normal (last week there were accidents on the A14 and M11 and it took me 45 minutes), so I am first to the office to unlock the building. The travelling sandwich van from the nearby garden centre calls at around 9, and creature of habit that I am, I nearly always have tuna and sweetcorn.

I am one of five founders of a Design Services company, essentially a computer hardware and software consultancy, and we currently have 7 sub-contractors working with us. Tomorrow will be our 4th anniversary, and we have just bought our own building which we will be moving into early next month. Some of the day is spent discussing the work we need to do before we move in, and we tell the building contractor to start on extra partitions as soon as possible.

I'm working on a job which involves Windows CE, and a new Board Support Package was issued for the processor module today, so I downloaded that, updated Platform Builder, and re-built the operating system image for the development system and the system board we have developed. That took most of the day.

I did get a new toy in the post, an iCast FM transmitter to get sound from a PMP (iPod) to the car radio. Currently illegal, on the grounds that you might be a very small scale Radio Caroline, but due to be allowed any day now. And the reason I need that is because the new (to me) car I'm collecting on Saturday is too new to have a cassette player, but too old (or too low spec) to have an aux input socket.

Just as I was ready to leave at about 5:20, we had a discussion about a possible product development. It's a big step for the company, and we talked for a while, so I didn't get back until Wen had left to work in Willingham library. I stopped there on the way home, because by the time she gets back I'll be out playing badminton with the village club in the Ploughman Hall.

Home for tea - bread, roast beef, tomato and a little TV - "The Gadget Show" which was recorded last week sometime on Sky+. Then off to play badminton where there was a large turnout so we played short games to 11 points. I won 3 out of 4 matches, so perhaps that length suits me.

After Badminton,  which ends at 10pm, and a shower, channel surfed until I found the shopping scene in "Pretty Woman". We watched that for a while, before retiring around 11:30.

V Festival 2006 - Sunday

The next tent only talked 'til 4:30am this time, so an early night.

Went down to the arena, in the not rain, and discovered where we should have had breakfast yesterday. Then back to the tent to sleep and listen to the Archers on the radio in my mobile phone.

Daniel Powter was playing his last track ("Bad Day") as we wandered past.

It was getting a lot busier over at the 4 stage where the Saw Doctors were very entertaining, particularly "Doncha wish your boyfriend was OLD like me".

Time for more noodles from Zen & Now, our favourites at The Strawberry Fair for many a year, before The Divine Comedy sang "a song about a bus" and other excellent tunes, including his now current single "A Lady of a Certain Age"

After that we caught a v. small amount of Kula Shaka but enormous crowds just sitting made us abandon plans to see Orson for a sit down in front of The Magic Numbers. They were very boring. We decided to try the crowds at Orson after all. He was wearing his hat. We dropped into the tent and saw The Young Knives finish their promising set. We gave Bloc Party a miss (too bland) in favour of a nice cup of tea and a sit down, and as luck would have it, shelter from a passing shower. Got back in time to be at the front for Keane, who really were a pleasure to listen to (and sing along with). We heard a rumour that Fat Boy Slim was starting early, but when we got to the tent it was just Girls Aloud and a very big crowd. Opted for a beer and an empty stage where the Ordinary Boys should have been. The Editors came on next, and we were sorry to leave but we had to go and get a good spot for Radiohead. They played "Creep"! They played lots of classic songs, many of which we didn't think had words but the rest of the crowd knew them and everybody joined in. A superb finale.

The weekend finished in chaos as only one booth in the entire arena was giving beer token refunds. We retired to the tent, planning on an early departure to beat the crowds. Ha ha! Up and packed by 7am, we trudged miles through the return of the rain and then it took us 2 hours just to leave the field we were parked in.