Very cool, if true

    * Trade discussions in Hong Kong later this year should yield an end date to agricultural subsidies.
    * Britain is to host a 1 November meeting on climate change, to assess progress.
    * $3bn agreed for Palestinian Authority for investment in infrastructure.
    * Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo described the deal as a "success".
    * G8 commits to training 20,000 peacekeepers for Africa.
    * African leaders to commit to democracy and good governance as part of the deal.
    * Debts of the 18 poorest countries to be forgiven.
    * Universal access to anti-HIV drugs in Africa by 2010.
    * US now accepted global warming was an issue.

But on the other hand, there's still a lot of debt out there and an awful lot of work to do, and the date for ending agricultural subsidies will doubtless be in about 10 years and phased out over a further 20.

Still, at least the problems are being acknowledged and movement is being made in the right directions.

So, this was the view out of my office window this afternoon.

It started at 11:00, when they announced that we were 'advised' not to leave the building.  Which then sparked a race for the snack machine on the 5th floor - there were 6 people in the queue for it when I arrived, with more people right behind me.  I'm sure cannibalism was setting in by the time I headed back downstairs.

So I dutifully waited for midday, ignored the advice and went over to the main office for lunch (there not being a canteen in my normal building).  That was all fine - there were a few people about, and about 5 police officers, but not much exciting.  Sadly, by the time I got back from my (not very nice) lunch there were around 40 people milling about at my end of the street, about 20 officers, and a whole load of noise from the other end of the street.  And they weren't letting people back into the building (either of them).

So I stood to one side and watched from a safe distance while more police turned up.  Then some police vans.  Then some more police vans, until finally there were about 12 vans and two Volvo shaped vehicles all wedged in to my end of the road.  At which point we were motioned back as the police went into position.

There didn't seem to be any actual trouble though - people were generally doing what they were told and the police were actually being friendly (if firm) towards people.  However, after about 45 minutes I got bored of not being able to see much (and I'd finished my paper), so I wandered around to the bridge over the area, which gave a much better view.  Sadly, there still wasn't an awful lot to be seen, but I did manage to find someone I knew, who told me that one of the side-entrances was still open, and that there was a spare desk in their area.

I made good use of that, answering emails and phoning my team-mates to let them know I was still alive, and writing a couple of design documents (good thing I had the spare time, eh?), before things calmed down enough for them to start letting people back out of both buildings (still couldn't easily get _in_ but out was ok).  So I phoned Jen (co-programmer) and she agreed to bring me my phone, PDA and MP3 player and meet me outside the Usher Hall.  She was ten minutes later, as they were only letting them out 5 at a time, under police escort (I think), so I spent the time watching the riot police lounge about, and the rather cool police horses.  The whole area seemed to be closed to traffic, making Lothian Road as quiet as I've ever seen it during the day time.

There was a fair number of rumours during the day - including a piece in a BBC report about my building having protestors in it.  So far as I can tell the outside carpark got some protestors in it, but as that's entirely open to the air, and has no way of stopping foot traffic, that's hardly surprising.

It wasn't really a riot, more of a disturbance, and I'm glad that both the police and the protestors seemed to be keeping things on a semi-reasonable level.

Hope the rest of you had a day that was at least as restful as mine, if not more so...

Across the road from my work there was this yesterday:


I actually walked past this about 4-ish, when one of the officers was happily chatting to a teenage protestor who was stroking his horses nose.

In fact the police have generally been very friendly, chatting away to people as they tell them they can't cycle into the pedestrianised areas, directing us towards toilets, and frequently wearing Drop The Debt badges themselves.

In fact, the whole event yesterday went off extremely well, apart from a couple of isolated incidents.  I hope the rest of the week goes as smoothly.

I spent today helping the newly-returned Ed put together his new wardrobe, then got beaten at Settlers of Catan by chuma.  I walk back with him afterwards through Holyrood Park, which turned out to be a mistake, as my allergies kicked in (last year was the first time I'd had hayfever) and I had tears streaming down my face by the end.

Having arrived home and taken Clarityn, I'm now off to watch a movie of some kind - I have far too many I haven't seen, so me and Ed are making a concerted effort to see some of them.

The new PSU works a treat - the only remotely noisy thing in my PC is now my CPU fan, so I'll be replacing that as soon as I have some more cash (I was supposed to be paid for some coding work I did nearly three months ago, and expecting it at the start of June, I kinda spent most of it, before realising that it was coming late...).

I'm off now to pick up a parcel from the post office, and then to wander around town, to see how the demonstration is going.  I hear that the anarchist hordes are running amock with chainsaws, demanding babies to eat, so I'll try an get a few pics on the camera-phone...