This past week I have constantly been thinking, “What can I let go of? Where can I make some extra time?”

Yet now I find myself with a few new errands, all of which I find very hard to say no to as I want to do them.

For a start, there’s the Japanese Embassy in London who are paying me by the hour to advertise their presentation on Monday about the Jet scheme (which I’ll be attending, and the lecture by the Minister of Commerce following it). Then there’s dinner with the Cultural Secretary on Monday night, certainly something to look forward to. I’ll really have to push the limits of my Polite Japanese speaking ability!

Then there’s the business meeting on Saturday in MK at which I will be talking about my year in Japan, then Sunday is a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park with Photo Soc to get some shots of the work of my hero, the legendary artist Andy Goldsworthy. I’m very excited about that! Wednesday I’ll be working for CILASS on the Information Commons Treasure Trail, then off to a SEAS meeting about the year abroad (for the benefit of next year’s 3rd-year students), and following on from that a lecture on our dissertations.

Thursday I have two presentations: one on Lean Production for my work and soc module, the other for Photosoc about 9000 miles.

Friday there’s a business meeting, and of course, the launch of Apple Mac OS 10.5, something else I am mightily excited about. That’s going to result in a full format and reinstall, and we all know what fun that can be (although on a Mac it is about 3 billion times easier than on Windows, basically being a case of drag and drop).

Oh, and there’s lectures, a tonne of kanji, and translations on top of that.

Does anyone know of a spare Joseph I can borrow?