Hug Munchkin for me, that's shitty luck and I can remember from Grimmer's illness that the worst thing for us watching is feeling so bloody helpless. You know my tendancy to characterise everything in terms of how it can be beaten? That's was the bitch with cancer: I can't outthink it, I can't trick it and I can't beat it up so I'm bloody useless. Might sound weird but all I can offer are prayers (although don't tell Al if you think she'd be offended).

You have to wear a suit to work? Yikes! Suddenly even more glad I work from home.

I actually worked out a way you could future proof your PC and bring it right up to date for about £350: Athlon 64 3200+ (dual-core if teh budget will stretch) = little under £100; Gigabyte mobo = about £100, GeForce 6600 PCI-E = about £150. The mobo has both PCI and PCI-E slots and accepts both IDE and SATA drives so everything else can be ported across from the old system. The 64 bit chip makes a 30-50% boost to speed (especially on processor intensive stuff like video) and although it's the cheapest Athlon 64+, it can be replaced when finances allow. Since the mobo has both legacy (PCI / IDE) and future (PCI-E / SATA) ports, the old stuff can be replaced with new as teh cash becomes available.

Finances: Unless you've got either about 2K (for back rent) or about £300-400 (for new place) lying around, don't fret about it. We figured that none of our close friends were going to be in a position to help out, decent people are usually broke.