Sunday April 5^th 2009. Launch -?? days.

Today, finally, I have had the first day since Monday when I felt reasonably human. Yesterday even the modest efforts of the morning on a relaxing Saturday at home had left me shockingly tired.

This morning it was possible to enjoy a slow start to the day. Put on the coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix (will it? Won’t it rain?) The impression is more than ever that the latest series of rule changes have just about removed any last vestiges of driver ability influencing the result and, more than ever, the most advanced car will win, just about irrespective of who is driving it. It made me want to go back to a manic old idea that was discussed years back where the drivers have to run at least one race each season in every other car on the grid, at the end of which we genuinely would see who is the best driver.

Finally this afternoon I joined thousands of other people in IKEA – the place was crowded – to get furniture. A set of shelves for DVDs. A tall bookshelf to reduce my library crisis and thus to free a display cabinet that is currently full of books and that I want to use for keepsakes that are also overflowing their space. A low chest of drawers that will get used to store tablecloths and cutlery. And, a set of wine glasses (I have none)! The whole lot, about 80 kg of it, will arrive tomorrow evening and will occupy so much space that there will be an incentive to mount it quickly.

I have studiously avoided looking at my email, but there is no news at all coming out of Herschel at all anyway. The top brass have some difficult decisions to make: rather them than me.

And, before going to bed, the first 1500 words of “The Physics of Cricket” have been written. Some people claim to write several thousand words per day, but to do this they must either already have planned in great deal what they are going to write, or have a facility for writing that I don’t have. Anyway, the book is on its way.