I am going to have to have words with Han about laptop etiquette.

4 days running I have turned it on to be immediately warned about low battery. Yesterday she went out and had even moved the charger cable into the third bedroom in a bag. It took me an increasingly angry 20 minutes to find it. Grrr.

I have to go to a black tie insurance institute dinner on Friday evening. I initially did not want to go and turned it down, then a colleague tried to talk me into it, then Alex tried to talk me into it, so I cracked and now have to spend my Friday evening talking about insurance as well as my whole week. At least I get free drinks for the evening (I think, it would be doubly disappointing if I had incorrectly understood that).

Anyway, I had to get a dinner jacket, full bow tie combo with 4 days notice. Strolled into Moss Bros. at lunchtime, hire price £55, or £149 to buy. 15 minutes later I walked out £149 lighter, but with a sharp suit, I'll be going Bruce Wayne debonair. I will try to get some photos which will do my networking no end of good I am sure, the chairman of Burnley FC is doing the after dinner talk. The last time I went to a formal dinner at Sandy Park I came away with a photo of Justin Langer so will try to keep up the record of obtaining minor celebrity pictures at every given opportunity.

Walking past Scope in Sidwell street recently, which has undergone a makeover.

In the week that it was shut, it got emptied out for re-decorating.

One evening as I walking past on my way home from work the normal notice was up "closed for re-decorating", but inside was nothing but a builder on a chair playing guitar.

For a second I thought I was in an episode of Trigger Happy TV, but no mouse/squirrel suits in site so assume the builder was just on a break.

In other news, the Rugby this weekend was generally good. Except I saw an Irish 'man' dive to get a Scot sin-binned. Aside from pathetic, it was exactly the kind of behaviour that you see in football all the time which has stopped me watching it. Not rugby too, I'll be down to just cricket for a game played fairly with no cheating. Actually, that might be wrong too...

One final observation for the weekend - Kate Humble is a tedious, patronising presented. Here we are trying to watch a vaguely interesting documentary, and to our mutual disappointment, on Ms Humble strolls and now I might not last the hour with her chipping in over the experts every 30 seconds.

Much as I prefer reporting on more random things that happen around me, I have spent the weekend mainly just playing with Ollie as Han did not feel well. Ill Han - boring, playing with Ollie - fun.

My mum bought Ollie a toy farm for christmas - we have been staggering his christmas and birthday presents to keep him interested through the year. The animal sounds on it are ridiculous, and paricularly invasive with no possibility of volume adjustment. Might just put that one back away I think.

In Morrison yesterday morning, Ollie decided he would empty the trolley out by grabbing and throwing anything in reach. We played a different game once my picking up patience blew out - I carried him round while pushing the trolley one-handed, then gave him what we wanted from the shelf and he threw it into the trolley. It worked much better.

Last night we went to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It is extremely rare for Han and I to get out without Ollie, so this may well have coloured our opinions but we did think it was very good. It has about 5 of my favourite actors in, and had a few worthy insights into life that ended with me wanting to quit my job and move my family abroad somewhere in the sun.

Of course, that will never happen, but in an alternate universe there is a Ben who lives in the Greek islands and lives off Sangria and roasted lamb.

In this reality, Han is out at a prayer evening, I have got to do the washing up, but have baked a nice looking orange and lemon tart as we have people round for dinner last night. Also, I have bought Cadbury Creme Egg icecream to go with it - the best limited edition icecream ever (it has overtaken Milky Bar in my reckoning which is no easy thing).

Everyone at work keeps talking about how quickly the year is ticking by (March already), but it really is. When you work very hard during the day, and have a fairly busy evening schedule, weeks go by without any real rest days. In 4 weeks we will be sat in Tenby, hopefully in the sun, for a long Ollie-less weekend, can't wait.

Brownie points expected - cleaned the bathroom, kitchen and made a home-made steak pie.

I have been on a CD binge this month, I tend to alternate between buying lots of books (which are always in a large 'unread' pile next to my bed - I work my way through them then buy more when the pile is looking low, we really need more bookshelves considering that the existing sets are double stacked with additional piles on top).

Everything Everything are a great indie band and I bought the album on the back of hearing about 2 minutes worth playing in HMV and have not regretted it. Also, Biffy Clyro, Milla Jovovich, Scarlett Johansson and the first Zutons album (which is down to our having watched Gavin and Stacey and it being used on the soundtrack all the time). 5 CDs for £15 over HMV and Amazon, very pleased with that price as it means Han doesn't get on my back about wasting money.

Ollie is shaking the cot upstairs as he clearly realises the build-up to the England Wales match is shortly to begin. Oliver will be raised as a Wales supporter (and has been since the first rugby match he sat through with me a few weeks back), so hopefully they will crush England today and his first taste of supporting will be a Grand Slam. As an end to the rugby paragraph, Ireland have taken Italy down much more comprehensively than England managed, so should fancy playing England in the couple of weeks time.

I am reading Robert Fisks "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" at the moment which is very interesting and very detailed. Every now and then I like to read a properly challenging book about something I don't know enough about.