Saturday, moved the rest of my stuff to the flat. Reassembled the PC desk and 'mastermind' chair. My Dad discovered a cake shop and insisted on a cream cake before he left. Only fair as he'd helped my get the heavy stuff up 3 flights of stairs.

Went up to Warrington for the weekend. Fairly painless journey. Actually had to stop outside some stations as we got there EARLY for a change. Spent the weekend coughing and sniffing as my mum's very kind leaving present was the cold that had kept her off work half the week. The missus has now got it and has just phoned to say she hates me and my mum!!

On the way back got on a packed train at Stafford and found out I had a reservation for a non-existent seat in a non-existent coach. Managed to sit from Wolverhampton onwards so not too bad. Almost lost my luggage to a bunch of over-excited American Mormom kids, who found out they were on the wrong train at Birmingham New Street and started removing every bit of luggage from the train whether it was theirs or not. Luckily I spotted them pick up my bag and went and grabbed it back. Otherwise it would have been sat on the platform with my digital camera inside!!

Got back Monday lunchtime. Went and bought a cheap microwave from Argos. Reason it was so cheap is half the buttons don't work but can't be arsed to take it back yet as it's a bugger to carry. So it's just sat in the corner of the kitchen until I get access to a car.

Most of the furniture turned up on Tuesday. Argos blokes managed to get the sofas upstairs. Bit of a squeeze but they just fitted through all the doors which was fortunate. Gave the other delivery lad a hand with the flat pack stuff. Put together the coffe table, a shelving unit and a bedside cabinet so far. Leaving the other stuff until I've got an extra pair of hands.

NTL engineer came yesterday. Put in the phone and TV ok. The broadband was just traumatic. My PC kept freezing at a certain point so rang the helpline. Got a bit further but then the USB light on the modem kept going off. Managed to delete a severely important file from Windows in an attempt to get round it which only served to kill Windows completely. The support bloke implied that I should delete it but couldn't officially suggest that in case it all went tits up. Which it did

Phoned my brother who works in IT. Got him to email me a copy of the file. Meant I had to find an internet cafe. Luckily the tourist information centre has 4 PCs you can use but my brother only had NT at work so couldn't send the file until this morning.

Went back and got the file off hotmail. Had to pay for a floppy disk as you can't use your own there to avoid viruses. Rang the helpdesk again. This time they suggested using a different computer. Yeah, good thinking Batman!!! Other alternative was to use the ethernet connection instead of the USB so went to buy a network card. Managed to find one for £20 in a shop round the corner. Installed that OK.

Started making progress. Until it came to registering. Kept saying the PIN they had given me was invalid. Rang customer services. They generated a new PIN. That was invalid too. Told me to ring the helpline again. They generated another new PIN. This one worked so managed to register but then the Install program told me I was connected but not properly. Rang the helpdesk. Told them the error message. They told me I had some new virus. I said I'd not been online except to register ON THEIR SITE!! He basically said shit happens and until I got it sorted they couldn't do much for me. Went and bought Norton. Installed it and found out that I was actually connected to t'internet so got all the latest virus software from the Norton site.

Scanned my hard drive and no sign of any virus. Too late to ring the helpdesk again today so that will be a job for tomorrow as still need to sort out email and stuff.

In between all this I managed to buy a couple of belts and had my eyes checked again as I wanted to change the address for my lensmail but need to start all over again cos I'll be using a different store for my check-ups. Got to go again tomorrow for a 'proper' sight test. Been buying bits and bobs for the flat as I've realised what I need to survive for the time being.

Got an electrician coming tomorrow to replace a switch that's stuck and twiddle with the heating as there's bugger all hot water in the mornings unless I turn on the booster and that costs a fortune and takes time - when I could be sleeping instead!!

Mammoth entry over. Will write a bit more about the joys of Aldershot tomorrow.