The Beginning (part 2) I lay there for a couple of hours; still and wonderfully aware. I felt I could sense everything to a heightened degree. Distant sounds were clear and crisp, I could hear the cleaners working their way around the rooms down the corridor. I could smell each and every meal being cooked three floors below in the kitchens. I could feel the slightest movement of air over my face. And my eyesight was nothing short of incredible. I could make out details I would never have thought possible before. I left the hotel just as the cleaners reached my room and headed out into the city. My first concern was to find some shades. I didn't normally wear sunglasses but my eyes seemed overly sensitive to the light and though the light was not painful, it made me squint heavily. I secured myself a fine pair of wrap around shades from a shop in Carnaby Street and felt much more comfortable. From there is wasn't too far a walk to the offices of the agency that had arranged my interviews, so I dropped in on them to see what progress there had been. To my delight the job I had wanted most had been offered to me with an extremely attractive package. I spent the rest of the afternoon completing various forms and making arrangements for my immediate relocation. The details of my first job for my new employer were waiting for me at my hotel when I returned that evening along with a top of the range portable PC and a shed load of software. I was also informed by the hotel manager that my bill had been taken care of and that I had been moved to a bigger room with two phone lines and a fax machine. It seemed I was to start work as soon as possible. Now would seem a good time to explain exactly what it is I do for a living. I am a researcher. I find things out for people. I have been doing this for almost a decade now and consider myself quite good at it. I can't say it was what I always wanted to be. In fact, to be honest, I didn't really know it existed as a profession as such until I fell into it. To begin with I looked up references and tracked down obscure journals for post graduates and professors as a way of supplementing my grant. Once I got to know my way around libraries and the various repositories of knowledge scattered about the country I discovered I quite liked the work and once I had my degree set out in search of a job which would use these skills. It seems there are always people who want to know things and yet don't have the time or resources or know-how themselves to acquire the information they seek. So they employ people like me. Often the pay is poor, and it always seems that the more money you get for a job the less interesting it is. This new job though... well this is different. I can't tell you what it is, as is usual with this kind of work, but it does involve use of computers and the internet. Not exclusively of course, but more than most jobs. Over the past few years I have begun to 'discover' what the internet has to offer in the way of information. I remember in the early days thinking that all the decent sources of information would very quickly stop being free and so amassed huge amounts of printouts of all kinds of useless information. So far that has not come to pas and almost all the resources I use are still free - or can be obtained for free if you know how. But that is enough of that, and finally I think the introduction is over. You should now have some idea of the somewhat unusual situation I find myself in, especially when I tell you that several months have passed since that party and my feeling of well being and the enhanced sensory perception I seem to now have never did subside. There are other things too, but they will probably feature in my journal which I will endeavour to add to as often as I can. >>>Journal