Welcome to Installation Day. It will start by being surprisingly simple and fast and go down hill from there.

I was �working from home� this morning in order to hang out and wait for the digital TV guy to come out with our funky new set-top box and remote, lovely crisp digital pictures, football from 45 angles, time shift on most channels, widescreen movies, video on demand and other goodness.

While I was advised that he would be there between 7 and 12, and even received a reminder in the mail two days ago to confirm he was coming, I still didn�t really believe he�d be there on time. The usual distrust of such timetables for deliveries and installations was added to by the fact that the digital installers have been on rolling strikes since installations began about six weeks ago.

Then there was the advice in the reminder that installation could take up to 5 hours. I didn�t think it could possibly take that long, but it had taken a while at Smurfette�s a couple of weeks ago and involved climbing into the ceiling.

After all that anticipation he showed up at 9am and was done with the installation and instructions by 9.20. I�d barely had time to respond to emails and start �work�.

So after doing a flick around the channels, checking out a few sporting angles, the time shift and how to order video on demand, I had no choice but to schlep into the office for actual work.

And I did do some, for a small and constantly interrupted period.

However, the arrival of the upgrade of our accounting software, and my success with the digital TV installation, lead me to continue Installation Day. Stupid, stupid move.

The fact that the software installation notes required me to upgrade and then upgrade again should have put me off. The fact that the first computer I went to install it on didn�t have enough memory (not a big surprise) should have led me to put the disc away to deal with another day. But no, I had gotten cocky. I backed up the old data and fiddled with the registration keys and passwords and did the installations on my machine and followed all the instructions and it still refused to work. So I followed the instructions and started again and it still didn�t work.

An hour and something later I uninstalled everything, restored the old data and put the box away for another day. This was not the way Installation Day was meant to turn out. Though I do realise I was at least partly to blame by calling out to Priscilla that the installation was done shortly before it was actually finished. It was inevitably jinxed from that point on even if I hadn�t already used up all my successful installation points for the day.

At the same time, I didn�t get particularly annoyed. I threw out a few �bastard� comments under my breath and moved on. Moved on with nothing much, I must confess. My day started slowly, was interrupted, is being conducted in casual clothes and with the Boss deciding to duck out and go get a coffee and not come back for the day. Therefore I am relaxed. Far too relaxed to be concerned about the upgrade given that all the old data is nicely preserved. Far, far too relaxed to do work, as it turns out.

I have achieved some work things today, but all the pressing stuff is done and it�s become difficult to focus on anything new. Especially when all the new somethings require reading and interpreting big, badly written documents.

And my new digital friend is waiting for me at home, calling me to leave at the earliest possible opportunity. So there�s no point in starting to analyse some big ugly document when the minute the clock hits 5 I�ll be out of here. Instead, I�m killing time, as you can see.

Perhaps I could start again with the upgrade installation again.

Na. That�s just asking for trouble. The trajectory I�m on, I�d probably loose the data this time.