I nearly managed to write the car (and myself) off this morning swerving to avoid something in the road. This is not recommended when you're doing over 60mph.

If I'd seen it sooner then I could have assessed that it wasn't a threat to the car and just driven over it, but I just saw a shape and my hands spun the wheel to take evasive action before my brain had a chance to cut in.

(It was an animal carcass - a fox, I think - and I did in fact end up clipping it. I saw it in the rearview mirror thudding down on the road again. NOT what I wanted to see within 10 minutes of eating breakfast.)

It's been a quiet weekend. I was hoping to get both back and front lawns mown, but it was raining on Saturday morning, so I waited until yesterday and just did the front, which was in worse shape. Probably a good thing I didn't do both as my back is stiff and sore today, despite getting straight in the bath after yesterday's effort and taking a couple of breaks.

This really is getting ridiculous - I've got a lawn I can spit across (honestly, it's half the size of the one at Belvedere Gardens, and that was tiny) but which I can't even cut half of without being in pain.

I've got a new application in with Access to Work to hopefully get me a new chair for work, because the ones we've got here are CRAP. I've also been sent a tip from a friend on here about a physical therapy treatment called Trager, which I'll be looking into.

Still, realistically the thing to help my back most will be the shedding of all the excess weight I'm carrying. I am now back down to half a stone lost (having previously got to 10lbs lost but then having put 7lbs back on again.) The food diet continues apace - along with the money diet.

Anyway, I've spent a lot of this weekend playing a new game called Plant Tycoon. Woh, it rocks! So if I can't get outside and garden in the real world, nor have houseplants (since the cats won't leave them alone) at least I can grow things on my PC, LOL.

Also things are looking up on the TV front: Casualty is back! Starting with a two-parter this weekend just gone. The filming style has gone all filmic and slightly put me off at first, but I think it might grow on me. It's also the most explicitly gory episode of Casualty I think I've ever seem. I'm not sure if that's going to carry forward: I can imagine legions of blue-haired BBC viewers writing in to complain. That said, it did an excellent job of bringing home the horrors of working with the injured and dying every day, and of what happens when the theory of terrorism meets the reality of severed limbs and shattered skulls.

All the same, it was a very bloody episode and for the time it airs - 8.30pm - I'm not sure I'd have wanted Simon watching.

I hope this isn't the precursor of a more American "No sex, but all the violence you want" attitude on British TV. I'd far rather Simon see people nude, or having sex, than some nutter carving up women or hacking off heads. (I'm not talking about porn here, obviously, but sex within the context of a programme or film - the example springing to mind is the bedroom scene in Terminator 1, which was neither extended nor gratuitous. Although obviously I wouldn't let Simon watch Terminator because it's so violent. Errr.)

Also I'm a bit gutted to find out that Elyes Gabel (aka Dr Gupreet "Guppy" Sandhu) is leaving. He's a total hottie, even if he is a bit young for me!

Anyway, enough of this, it's Monday morning and I've got stuff to do... if the damn MI ever turns up...