Thursday. Not a great week so far.

I'm in my own studio for a few hours attempting to catch up. Quite a difficult week here - far too much to do, and nothing good happening.

I mentioned a friend who was in a clinic in Mexico getting experimental cancer treatment - very sadly she died on Tuesday. Her daughter was able to get there just in time but I'm actually quite upset about it - she was a lovely woman, had managed to do a great deal with a very difficult set of cards that life had dealt her - and was just at the point where things had finally turned round and everything was in her favour - and she could start enjoying life. There is probably going to be a lot of fallout over the coming months - but I don't think anyone could have handled things any better - life is just like that. Sometimes you have to take chances, even when the odds are stacked against you.

In other news - I decided to take a break last night and went for a quick drink with a friend - this could have been a terrible mistake - he started choking on a crisps and I couldn't remember how to do the Heimlich manoeuvre thing - his face was purple, eyes bulging, arms waving... had to slap him on the back very hard - probably did permanent damage.

The packaging project I did for Dyke and Dean - the lighting company - went really well - all the stock is on show at Design Junction at the moment - hopefully getting some decent feedback for me - it's going into Heals, and I think John Lewis's later too. I did it for free, partly because I was given a free hand, and partly because I find it almost impossible to get work where I am the sole creative - everything ends up being collaborative and I can't get the credit - the politics of showing work to people and having to explain 'I didn't do that bit on the back' or 'I didn't take that photo on page 44' is a minefield.  I've found myself doing a lot of free stuff at the moment - it's just one of those things - unfortunately - it does not pay the bills, and I had a very aggressive call from someone at the Inland Revenue yesterday that frankly, I wasn't in the frame of mind to deal with.

Small dog has started pissing all over the house again - I don't know why - much more water comes out than goes in - the vet can't find anything wrong with her.

Just popped out to buy bin bags - there are loads of guys in the Yates's drinking beer and wine, wearing suits - at 9am. Really strong smell of dope all over Robertson Street. Are they getting it wrong, or am I??