Now normally, I'm a cheerful optimistic chap. Today? I feel glum and down at heel. It's the first day I've really felt autumn moving in. The light levels are not what they were, the leaves are turning, the weather is colder. Add to that, anxiety over an annual rent review and a hangover from bad wine last night, as well as simply feeling more tired than I have for some time, and you could call this a depression.

New sites on the web horizon are also on my mind. So much to do so little time.

Went to buy some great new succulents on my day off. Did a search on the web to find local cactii nurseries at www.bcss.org.uk/nursery.html and came up with toobees exotics in Woking, Surrey (or thereabouts). It took some time to drive from South-East London to leafy Surrey (roadworks, traffic, etc.) and when we arrived it was to find the place shut for winter!!!!!!! We phoned the number and spoke to a very nice lady who said she'd be along in 10 minutes to open up. And she was.

Anyway, the long and short of it is half a dozen new specimens, total cost £30. Now the problem is to find somewhere to put them. Hopefully, Toobees will ammend their website to say: "closed for the winter".

Okay, let's get more used to updating this more often than once a month. In my defence I can claim that work is taking up a fair slice of my time. Most recently, there was the TIMEdigital special, featuring TIME magazine's choice of the 25 top tech people in europe. Then there was the German election specials, two of them, one a week before and one a week after, featuring the spat between Bush and Schroeder over Iraq.

Before that, there was TIME's Biennial Fashion issue which was MUCH better than the previous attempt. How I now long for the days of Summer, after the Summer of Culture extravaganza, when it seemed like there was nothing to do. So the motto is now "Sieze the Day" (that's Vivat Lux, or Caveat Emptor, or Nil Illigitimum Carborundum, or something, in Latin). Enjoy the rest while you can, and don't feel guilty about slack time, it won't last.

Isn't that a lesson for life anyway ... it won't last, so enjoy it while you can. And that goes for the busy times too.

The nights are drawing in, the weather may even be getting colder. Winter draws on. Never mind, it will soon be Christmas ..