The 5-timeperiod poll

I also did this on 19 October 2002, and on 17 October 2001.

What I was doing. . .

• 5 minutes ago: Responding to a post by Dr Rivka, and thinking about what to eat for dinner
• 5 hours ago: Wandering around town buying sweets for trick-or-treaters, looking at pine furniture, and talking to Mike - Oh, and waiting to meet my friend Ellie.
• 5 days ago: It was a Saturday - I baked a cake, and went to Uitlander's birthday party.
• 5 weeks ago: I was waiting to tell my mother and parents-in-law that I'm pregnant (I was about 10 weeks pregnant then, and was waiting for 12). I was beginning to feel a lot better, and had not only begun to eat again, but had started cooking. My clothes were beginning to be too tight.
• 5 months ago: I had just stopped working all day in a job I hated which sapped my life-energy and made me ill. I was signed off sick for my notice period, but worked from home some days anyway. I was planning my wedding. I was trying to hand in assignments for my Open University course, but wasn't actually well enough to do them properly - I did them well enough to pass, though. Sometimes, I made lunch for myself and Rob in the back garden, and we ate in the sunshine, which was great. I did a lot of pre-wedding introspection, which was variously useful.
• 5 years ago: I had moved to England (after breaking up with my boyfriend in a miserable and traumatic way for both of us) and was, in October, on the verge of officially becoming Rob's flatmate. I was going out with someone else, though, and I think he was too - I don't know when they actually broke up; the break-up wasn't finalised until after I moved in, I know that. It was all very nasty and upsetting. But I had a decent job which was moderately interesting (partially because I got several sets of conflicting instructions a day, but at least they were interesting conflicting instructions) and was beginning to find out what this internet thing was and how a webpage worked. It was around this time I found out what HTML was and started my first website, which mainly consisted of journal-type things; I didn't start an online journal per se until the 10th of March 1999. I also went home for my 20th birthday around this time; it was already too late to book cheap tickets to go home for Christmas. That Christmas was possibly the best one in my life; Rob and I spent it together, as flatmates whose families were elsewhere, and we had a great time. I should write properly about it someday. 1998 was a very, very busy year. Oh - that was the year I met Simon Barrett, and all the afp people!