Well, I'm slowly getting through a ton of work. There's three articles for Impact already finished and later today I'm typing up a piece I've just done with James Kyson Lee (Ando in 'Heroes' and one of the stars of Shutter, the upcoming Hollywood remake of the Thai supernatural thriller). I have some photos of him from a quick shoot I did at an event last year, so that should all come together nicely. Then there's two travel pieces for another magazine (for LA and Biarritz)to get done at the start of next week and possibly some photography to do therafter.

It's also less than two months until my birthday and I'm trying to decide what to do for it, as sitting in drizzly Leeds seems a signifcant waste of my time. Finances are, of course, at the forefront of my mind as I'm making a determined effort to finish out this year on a very favourable fiscal footing, so I can't afford to overly splurge. Sadly, there's no conventions to eMCee this year and none of the more far-flung events inspire me to travel.

I was initially thinking of a big meet-up of some of my American friends in New Orleans - which I haven't been to since before Katrina - but that may have fallen by the wayside as May is a packed month of anniversaries and work for a lot of my friends out there. The idea of a multi-centre US trip like last spring is appealling, but expensive without events to attend. Australia is also on my radar, though it's a long way to go. My friend Kerry's currently out there and having a whale of a time in Sydney, Alice Springs, Cairns and heading down to Brisbane soon. I've already done Cairns/Sydney/Brisbane, but the landmass formerly known as Ayers Rock and Sydney itself remain places on my 'would-like-to-be-there' list.

This year was all about managing the work-rest-play ratios and though my energy levels are still pretty low, I think it's all going okay so far.