I got a phonecall from the agency this morning saying that they will get a contract out to me by Monday to start the following Monday. The guy said he’d Email me a company/bank details form to fill in and then hung up before I could ask him his name or contact details. Well that was six hours ago and still no Email. I wonder if this is the guy who phoned two weeks ago asking if I was interested in the job, and never Emailed me his contact details like he said he would?!

Apart from which, I’ve not even formally been offered the job or discussed rates, hours, payment schedule etc. I’m not looking forward to dealing with these idiots over timesheets etc; the last agency was bad, but these guys can’t even talk or write it seems!

Anyway, I’ve been doing some preliminary packing – I’ll probably take my smallest Linux box (as well as the laptop), the printer/scanner and the LCD monitor, although I might just buy this 20.1″ for 150ukp.

I’ve updated my 256Mb, 1Gb and 2Gb SD cards with the latest UK/France maps for the GPS, so I’ve got plenty of backup! Speaking of which, I’ve also synced Solo and Greivous' filesystems so that I can take Solo to the UK and have a copy of everything on Greivous in France.

I found my ADSL modem/router/switch and some UK microfilters and extension leads, some CAT5, 100 DVD+R’s, my indoor antenna for the two WinTV cards I’m taking, USB hard disk, various mobile phone chargers, Bluetooth headset, 6-way UK power strip, a couple of UK/France/US plug adaptors, ooh and I must take a bowl, knife, fork, teaspoon and mug for the B&B – it’s no good buying a takeaway without anything to eat it with, as I found out in that terrible B&B in Gloucester!

Next I need to go through my documents and see what I need to leave/take in my safe box.