Now officially 28... time for recollection, thoughts about the year to come and stocking up on headache tablets for the week just passed.

Last night had a birthday b.b.q. on my roof. Great fun after about twenty hours of pre work. Big thanks to John and Ben for helping to prep and Barbara and Herta (amongst others) for leading cleanup at the end. Oh, and big thanks to the lightning for staying over the bay and providing cool illumination without raining on my stereo. Musical accompliment was provided by David Holmes, Groove Armada and Cassius to great effect. No-one fell through the roof which was nice. Oh, and if anyone has a home for a fridge/freezer full of excess meat then drop me a line... I worry too much!

Friday myself and Nathan went to Twilo to see Sasha & Digweed... After no queuing (strange) and $30 (for me, $35 for Nathan!) we ended up in the redesigned main room. This was looking like a school disco with bad sound, boys on one side of the dance floor and girls on the other. The only difference was a mirror ball the size of a car. This was a bit depressing. American dance clubs behave differently to English ones. In the UK everyone is, in general, pilled up and focussed on the DJ. In the US everyone seems to be coked up and dancing in small groups or breakdancing. After two years of being here I still find this strange. Anyways, the music was pretty shite, the club is sanitized and over-securitized and I have to dis-recommend this night to everyone now. Sorry S & D - I love you guys but Twilo is the worst.

Saturday I misjudged Heather's birthday party time but caught the last half. Met some loverley friends of Emily and then ended up seeing some bands down at CBGB. Bumped into John down at CBGB and also met Becca and Dunc. Becca, a theraputic masseuse, proceeded to press three places on my shoulder bone, pronounced that I was blocked there and asked if I was stressed. Meanwhile I'm in an ecstasy of relief as my right arm felt more relaxed than it ever has! Thanks Becca - now I need to book Aveda for an hour of similar treatment... super.

Ended up a the Angel Bar last night, formally Dharma. The decor has gone from red and moody to blue and shiny and there is now a staircase up to the overhanging ledge. Big reflective circles on the wall create an amazing view. There were a number of DJs spinning some awesome drum 'n' bass and had a nice chat to a fellow Brit who makes commercials, goes out with someone called 'Jedi' (seriously) and had heard of Quidnunc. This continues my plan to overindulge in drinking and eating until I'm 28 at which point I foreswear all vices and get fit... honest guv'nor!

Raw fish. Yummy. Especially the cod (which wasn't actually raw but was the fishy equivalent of candy floss). This was all thanks to the ClubMom project that we did a whiles back. Suitably fished up we had a quick guided tour of the fire station used in Ghostbusters on the way to a few more bars to nicely top off the meal budget. This means I'm doing well on my plan to large it my entire last week of being 27...

Someone said to me recently that you shouldn't measure a relationship by how long it lasted, but by how much you enjoyed it. Time is totally irrelevant. Sweet. I guess the same's true of life.

Last night was Laurence, my CEO's, BBQ on his roof. Started off quite early and met some nice people. StJohn was filming a party scene for his film school activities which was good timing. Apparently Saturday was a big party night. Lazza has a PlayStation 2 that he picked up on his recent trip to Japan - pretty amazing! What was more exciting about the night was when Sam fell throught the skylight... Sam's quite a large bloke (about 200 lbs) and Laurence has a very large skylight in a triangle shape. Sam took one step off the boarding, put his foot through the window and then followed. Luckily he put his arms out and grabbed the sides of the window - he was hanging through the window with everyone below looking up at his arse hanging through the window. Me and this guy Jack pulled him out - luckily that went OK. Everyone was looking up from below in shock. Sam was incredibly shaken up.

Downstairs we made some sugary tea for everyone. A couple of people had gotten hit by falling glass. Luckily no-one was more than scratched. Everyone milled around a bit then we all went out - Tim and I went out to a few bars in quick succession - Bahi, 2A, Coup and Max Fish. Don't think we stayed in each one for more than a few minutes. Chatted to the doorman, Chris, in 2A - a British bloke over here with his band and who stayed. His new band's about to tour with Duran Duran and Sting. Nice one. Finally ended up at some parties in Williamsburg and then Stingers - a bar on Grand near to Driggs. Very dark and dingy bar playing hip-hop-esque music and with dancing. I think at the end of the day the whole Sam thing had really shaken me up - I phoned him this morning and he seems OK which is cool. I think he's just glad to be alive!

This American/English relationships news piece is highly amusing and all completely true. Plus it's also even more advertizing for Bob's book... Meanwhile I'm going back to being knackered after flying to Boston yesterday for a two hour meeting.. laters y'all.

Thoughts that occur when working on sales bids late at night:

• How come there's no Betty Ford clinic for workaholics?
• How many free magazines can I liberate from Delta's Marine terminal tomorrow? And how will I carry them?
• Is the toilet still broken?
• Why don't people just buy us without sales? A b-web of software consultancy... nice.
• At what point in sleep deprivation do you a) start laughing at everything, b) stop caring about what you produce, c) sleep.
• Why are all sales bids like this? And are they like this at other companies...

Excellent weekend. StJohn's birthday party on Friday night starting at Bar 119 with Sam then an extremely sweaty four block walk to Barbara's amazing E Village apartment roof for cocktails. Went to a restaurant called Village and had an absolutely wonderful bowl of asparagus and leak soup then some very good tuna bearnaise. Had a little bit too much red wine as well. Not so good head the next day.

Saturday evening was spent cycling round central park then celebrating Matt T's birthday in Bowery Bar & Grill. Andy, Tim and myself then adjourned to Emily's friend Marni's party (again in E Village) for more rooftop antics. Good music until the top floor neighbour threatened to call the police... oopsy. Sunday was spent recovering and watching Fast Show (again). I've re-organized my apartment in lieu of buying any furniture and it looks a lot better. It's almost tidy as well. Almost.

Oh - on a more exciting note - try translating this page into French... Et puis tu dois pratiquer fait en Anglais... ou quelque chose comme ca!

OK! OK!! I've been slack again for a few weeks. I know.... I've not had a machine at home and work's been busy. Anyhoo - i'm now aching post a night session of volleyball down near Battery Park (thanks to Matt T and Don for that) with a nice clicky noise in my shoulder. New York's sweltering and humid although nowhere near last year's bad days thankfully. My apartment still lacks cool new furniture or kittens (I'm undecided which is first) - i think furniture is currently in the lead...

Had a superb wedding down in Truro with Pete and Emma getting a little bit blubby as they read their vows. Bless. I now have a cool scar from a slight altercation with a lamppost for my sins. Caught up with Bob - his book is out in October but already on Amazon. Had a good night down the Cross nightclub (back of Kings Cross) and bought the best hot dog i''ve ever had - yes, I was sober!