It's hard to describe the headaches (metaphorical and, oh, so very actual) that come from your computer going down at the exact point you need it to be performing at its peak. With less than a month to go before my US/Canada 'tour' (ha!) and tons of work to do... well, the last few days minus power-cable have been...annoying. More annoying than Alien 3 even. However a replacement cable arrived this morning and now the t-shirt designs are off to the printers, the brochure is nearer done than not and now I only have to balance Impact, Verbatim and UPS stuff. *sigh*

Tonight, after two hours spent carefully designing an ad, my laptop suddenly turned itself off - result: all work lost as I was just about to save it but hadn't. As the laptop works with battery power, I'm busy saving files to a disc just in case. It's not the fuse, so I can only presume the charger overheated or somesuch. Not sure if temporary or permanent.

Anyway, if e-mails don't get answered etc, this will be why. Normal service will be resumed, probably just after the nick of time if this is anything to go by...

So. The new passport arrived. It took a week and £72, so not too bad, I guess. This time the accompanying photograph means I don't look like a softly-spoken, writer-not-a-fighter, but more like a ninja-trained, internationally-wanted spy with amnesia problems international man of paperwork with a wry sense of humour. Which is nice.

I've been reading about proposed changes to the ID systems in the UK and US and I have to admit that getting a new passport now was as much about non-conforming to the threat of a new, useless ID card for at least ten years as much as replacing my old one (with eighteen months left to run on it) which was getting a bit crumpled and torn.

Rudolph Giuliani, (Mr. 9/11) is talking about introducing even tighter restrictions for tourists, with special ID cards issued when they enter the country. Sounds more like political flag-waving than any coherent policy as I carry my passport with me at all times when in the US and that should be more than enough. (I also ticked the 'No' box on the form that asks me if I intend to sabotage anything or commit criminal acts...). Equally I place my finger in that control at US Customs and look a camera in the eye, so that's yet another database I'm on. No major problem with that - or with the idea that a passport should have a fingerprint on it as well - but I can't help noticing that while it's S-O-P at US airports, neither the UK or US administrations like the idea of finger-printing Americans on their arrival here. Is it a case of 'do as we say, not do as we do?' or just as likely that tourists here already put off by the £1=$2 exchange rate when visiting our shores wouldn't take too kindly to longer queues?

Either way, I'm off to LA and Vancouver in just over a month. Once flights are booked. Which I should go and check up on now.

Do I have anything to declare? Just my genius.

My social life has been sadly lacking recently - largely due to the workload between HLWW, Impact, Verbatim and the fact that as I get slightly older I seem to have less but infinitely better friends but who don't live on my doorstep (which would admittedly not be comfortable for them).

However this week was a Mozapalooza. On Friday met up with a friend in Leeds who was travelling through the area for a job interview. I promised drinks and merriment (a reckless promise this being Leeds) and managed to just about deliver. The rain held off, the food was tasty (Iguana, by the Corn Exchange gets the Moz recommendation of *****) and the company good. But apart from the Cinema Days events and the ocassional sojourn to London, this mind and body is a little out of practise for the whole hitting the city thang and the apparent ten year olds that wander around seemingly hitting the city back just sometimes make me feel old.

Saturday came and went and the evening saw me heading across to the other side of Leeds to watch TV pilots, eat pizza and drink beer with the Millarworld Mob. EastEnders' Michelle Ryan IS the Bionic Woman! Angelina's ex Jonny Lee Miller IS an hallucinating lawyer. Wii consoles ARE addictive! No bigger joy than watching good tv, trashing bad tv and finally making up your own subtitles for an eastern film involving scarf-weilding ninjas, cackling villains and and bad guys that can only apparently be stopped by pre-menstrual blood. Hollywood has SO much to learn. Big thanks to Steve for the invite and to Carlos, James and Sanjay for the company.

Right now I ache, feel about 50, my sleep-cycle's dangerously off-kilter and I'm behind on my deadlines. Must be a Tuesday.

America and Britian may be two countries separated by a common language, but I never really realised how much until the recent trip to the States and a chat with Mark Ryan (of Transformers/Robin of Sherwood fame.) I was telling someone today about how difficult it was for both Mark and myself (both proud Yorkshiremen) to describe a Yorkshire Pudding to the colonials in a way that made any sense and conveyed it's regional and global superiority as edible delight.

Oh, sure. It's not too difficult to explain the ingredients, the egg, the rising in the oven etc. But just try describing it in more aesthetic ways without the aid of a picture. It's not a biscuit, it's not a pancake, it's not bread, it's not soft and it's not a 'dessert' in the pudding sense. It can be crisp, it can be small part of a meal, or if large enough, almost the container for a whole gravy-sodden sunday lunch. It's the hole for the toad in 'Toad in the Hole', but it's, oh so much more.

Until today I was under the impression that I'd have to actually make one when Stateside just to prove it existed in three dimensions. However I've been informed that the Americans MAY have something similar and it could be known as a Pop-Over.

If you are what you eat, I think that means we're all in trouble.

* for those still wondering, they are - in this form at least - the golden food at the bottom of the plate in the picture.