Much like my jokes on a regular basis, my comments haven't been working today. So the hundred or so people who no doubt have been queuing up to post some words of wisdom on the state of my cat's hair colour, have been denied their chance. But fortunately, after a couple of grumpy messages posted on the Haloscan forum, musing as to why my comments had vanished, while Lisa and 100,000 other users seemed to remain unaffected, I got Haloscan's top man onto the job. And at 7:30pm he found the answer. It turns out it was all down to a misplaced apostrophe. Lynne Truss would have had a field day.

Apparently there was some kind of update, a side-effect of which was that anyone with an apostrophe in their comment link (that would be me then) had their comments wiped off the face of the earth. I always knew Readers' Wives was a bad idea. Anyhoo, thanks to Jeevan, the godfather of blog commenting, it's all fixed now, and the world is once again free to slag me off at its leisure.

In other news, my tactics to avoid packing today have included an attempt to use the principles of 'day trading' learnt at the sadly now defunct Fantasy Futures and Funbets to make money from the World Cup. Which meant waiting until Japan went a goal up on Australia this afternoon, and promptly laying them to lose. When the Aussies eventually equalised in the 84th minute, I naturally bet that it wouldn't end in a draw (after all, there were a whole six minutes left). Meaning Australia's two further goals in the last two minutes made me my fortune. Well, as much of a fortune as it's possible to make when you're betting serious amounts up to about 75p. If you're wondering, it's just over £8.

Anyhoo, all of that paled into insignificance compared to the groundbreaking experience which was... (drumroll please)... my first ever conference call. I have no idea how these things work (my role mainly involved picking up the phone), but it meant I was able to discuss the finer details of moving house with my brother and my parents. Well I could have done if I'd been able to get a word in edgeways, and follow the discussion over the sound of my Dad coughing. Frankly I've had easier conversations in nightclubs.

But the upshot of it all is we're picking up the keys to my new flat on Saturday. After which we're immediately chucking them in the bin and fitting new locks, presumably to stop anyone stealing the asbestos from the loft, or inhaling the fungus spores in the bedroom. As for the move itself, I've listened to half an hour of detailed discussion on the ins and outs of van rental, and as a result I'm now planning to stuff my computer into a rucksack and walk.