All the usual client-related activities are spinning away at Clearleft Towers, but they're overshadowed in our minds by the looming prospect of Hack Farm, our annual retreat in the country. It's just over one week away, and we're drawing up the cooking plans with military precision. We're splitting into teams of three or four people responsible for one night's cooking. A certain level of rivalry is emerging already. (I'm on Team Spaghetti And Meatballs, by the way)

At this point, I'm pretty confident that we're reasonably well prepared for our expedition to deepest, darkest ...wherever it is we're going.

Oh, and we've already established that if the worst comes to the worst, and we end up having to eat each other, we should start with the intern. It only seems fair.

Setting aside the preparations for Hack Farm, there's been plenty of other activity. Boxman has assembled a team of craftspeople from outside Clearleft--an illustrator, a copy writer, a book designer--for some super-secret intriguing project.

Mark was over in Stockholm at the start of the week for some clandestine James Bond style intrigue.

Ant has been playing with robots and stuff.

Alas, poor Kate is feeling poorly with tonsillitis.

Meanwhile, Graham and Andy P. are still off on the slopes of the French alps, being clichéd web designers on snowboards.

68 Middle Street is bustling with events this month, even though January is usually a quiet month. I went along to last night's Async which was really inspiring. Almost as inspiring as the front-end pow-wows that we have once a week here at Clearleft--myself, Charlotte, and Mark just wrapped a great one, discussing all things CSS.

And with that, it's the weekend. Time to finish off this deskbeer and head for home.