LATE NIGHT GOLDEN ARCHES

I should point out that I don't think emus are marsupials either. As my post-it and I are now clear about, marsupials are mammals.

Emus are endemic to Australia though, aren't they? And they're definitely not ostriches. It's that birds are not marsupials.

Glad that's cleared up. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was sticking my head in the sand like a kangaroo.

So let's hear no more about it.

Meanwhile, Emmie (who's on Skype from Chester of all places) and I, managed to clear up the difference between a mandolin (musical instrument or potato slicer in the UK) and a mandoline (the same potato slicer in the USA).

"Clearly neither one of us have anything pressing to do this morning… " she typed.

I wouldn't say pressing. Some of the Japanese installation guides were misaligned and the text was bunched up against the edge of the page. I figured it out.

There's not a lot else going on. I was feeling a bit low last night so I went for a night-time drive to cheer myself up.

I ended up in McDonald's with a tea and a chocolate doughnut at a quarter to midnight. Talk about bleak. Though it might explain why I'm so sleepy today.

Some builders were swilling coffees in cardboard cups, while they sat in their luminous trousers and t-shirts. Behind the brightly lit tills, the late-shifters, the young Maccy-D elves who'd drawn this week's short-straw, mulled and chatted, until an even younger manager in a tired white shirt and grey tie, told them to get on with something useful.

It was tough to see what might be 'useful' at that time of night.

One of the builders scratched a stubbly chin and asked his mate to chuck him a sugar. A little white packet of sugar flew through the air and fell in his cup with a plop. They all laughed in that tired half-hearted way and went back to discussing whatever it is that builders discuss. One of the elves chuckled into her mop.

I looked around. Nobody in that empty plastic room was there directly out of choice. I stirred my tea and watched the milk spin in the cup.

I guess I was.

So that didn't exactly help me feel any less depressed. I went home, went to sleep, got up, went to work, figured out how to align Japanese text on the page, and googled dictionaries. What a life.

In fact, it took me until lunchtime today to even start to feel any better.

Thankfully, my friend Paul was available for lunch - he has a unique ability to cheer me up. These days we grab a sandwich from the Sainsbury's cafe.

I'll be honest though, I was probably just as thankful that I didn't have to go back to the golden arches.