Well, it appears to be over a month since I last blogged.

On the Home Office front, I’ve got an official “we can’t find you” letter from them, asking for Yet More Information. Was 1983 so far in the past that they didn’t keep proper records? So now they want my Dad’s info, and I’ll be sending that, along with my youngest sister’s. We’ll just have to see. They are also suggesting that I apply for a kind of “I’ve lived here for ages anyway, why not let me stay?” status, and I’ll probably do that, although I’d like to be able to afford the fee, first. And that might not be able to get me my back pay, as it might not count as proving I was able to work at the time I was earning the cash.

Life in general is grinding on; mostly I get books out of the library (the three options appear to be Shotts, 1 hours walk away; Bellshill, £3.80 round trip away; the Mobile Library, which has a small selection and turns up once a week) and read them until I run out and head to the library again.

The libraries are also the only place I can get ‘net access (except the Mobile Library), but it’s only on outdated machines running Windows NT (!), which struggles to run IE6. Maybe it’s just the way I surf, but IE keeps seizing up and refusing to do anything (including close), so I either have to log out (as the machines are locked down to the extent I can’t kill them via the Task Manager) or start up another IE session. I vaguely recall when the ‘net was a strange thing only available at Universities; now I pretty much consider it a vital utility, like water or electricity. I wonder when that happened?

I have been doing some programming to pass the time, although it’s a rather typically daft and useless project. Many (many) years ago I started a project to convert Doom levels to Quake, and for some reason I suddenly decided it was time to resurrect that, despite both game engines being embarrassingly old and creaky. So I’ve been coding some C++ to read in Doom levels and output them – but not in Quake because it turns out I don’t have any of the Quake level building tools you need. Instead I’ve been turning them into 3d models. I seriously have no idea why.

Computer games also pass the time – Neverwinter Nights is doing sterling service just now. I’ve owned it for yonks, and never got much further than the first quarter of Chapter II (of four). I’m on Chapter III now with my main character, and have a few other characters going through the beginning bits to see what the different classes play like.

It’s not been a whole pack of fun – downright depressing, in fact. I’ve not been in to the library as much as I could have, and I’m sure sitting at home all the time isn’t good for me.

However, the extraordinary generosity of friends and family has kept me going – emotionally as much as the practical help that’s been given. It’s nice to know people care, you know?