Oh no – how did that happen? I was only out of the office for four and a half days……normally I’d have about 4-500 emails waiting for me when I get back from a week’s holiday. I really didn’t expect many (well, I actually hoped for none) today because all our clients shut down for a two-week break and our office runs only a skeleton staff over the break. I’d not expected to go back to an overflowing in-box today!

Don’t you just hate work email? I do, most of the stuff that finds its way into my in-box is depressing for one reason or another. I get huge numbers of ‘corporate’ emails telling me about the new MD in our Kurdistan office or the new working hours in Bangkok. I get dozens of mails generated by our new accounts system asking me to authorise payments for stuff. I get ‘round robins’ from colleagues, often with irritatingly large attachments that prevent me from opening my in-box when I’m trying to check messages from an hotel or my home. I get all sorts of ….well, not to put too fine a point on it, crap!

On the other hand, home email has been a joy to get until recently. My relationship with David began when we were emailing each other several times a day. My friends all use email these days to catch up with one another so their mails are always wonderfully welcome. BUT in the last couple of weeks my email address seems to have got onto every spammer’s address list going. I’ve never been troubled by spam until now. It’s driving me nuts.

David regularly gets stuff asking him if he wants to

· buy Viagra without a prescription,
· log onto websites where there are cameras in girls’ bedrooms
· get a penis enlargement
· log onto websites where there are cameras in boys bedrooms

You name it they want to sell it to him!

I’ve somehow managed to escape that until now. It’s really getting on my wick. Grrrrr.

That’s my first whinge of 2004 – how about that?