Grim and bear it.

I was on the phone to Ruth a few days back, waxing misanthropic and self-pitying, and Katie piped up in the background: "At least you're not it south-east Asia!"

Point taken.

On the morbid tsunami theme, Sky News this morning had a report from Sri Lanka followed by a piece best summed-up by the phrase "German people blown over". Utterly astonishing. 150,000 people die in the worst natural disaster for decades, and the next item is about some German hikers finding it hard to walk across a car park because of the wind.

It's been a fairly quiet week. Stand-outs include a game of Monopoly at Ally's (I did say it was a quiet week), ending the flat's three year voluntary moratorium. Of course, it degenerated into a cruel mockery of free market capitalism, bringing out the more sociopathic tendencies of the players. A typical game, really.

The week took a more positive, cheesier turn when we had a fondue at Devon's flat. The conjunction of cheese with more cheese is terrific. It did, however, remind me of an incident in France last winter that left me covered in meaty fondue juice and taramasalata, and an appropriate person-shaped clean patch on the wall immediately behind me.

Lastly, TM got together for our first practice of the new year, and it rocked. Pure and simple. Core Studios are so much better than Banana Row. The gig is actually starting to look like an attractive prospect, as opposed to a bowel-looseningly terrifying one.