Dissertation in Progress...

Thank God that the summer holidays have come! I have started doing some solid work on my dissertation which means I have written about 5000 words. This is nowhere near enough but it is a start. I have put in as many great looking charts and graphs as I possibly can to lengthen it out a bit. I submitted my first draft last week though and I hope I will get a load of feedback on it which will tell me what else I should write about! It is going to be great not having to worry about university when work starts up again. I will be able to focus on a few other projects for a change and go back to reading books for pleasure.

My Birthday

Yes, I am now 30. What utter madness that this has happened to me! Actually I don't feel all that bad about it. A year of being 29 was worse because people constantly said things like "Oh, there's a big birthday coming" etc. Shut up. I had a great day and got lots of lovely cards and gifts from people here and friends and family from all over the place. I love getting mail! Going to the gym is a lot more pleasant now that I have an ipod! Sweet! I spent the afternoon and evening south of the city at Tom's place. It was his Dad's 60th birthday and they were having a lovely bqq for him. There was lots of great food, especially cheese! Pictured below is a massive box of brie with my hand stuck in for scale. We spent the day playing croquet and bowls (like lawn jacks). The weather was great and it was just a really relaxed day. My friend Matt was visiting from New Zealand as well which was cool. We met in Japan. It is always surprising where you will see people.

Summer Activities

Besides celebrating my birthday and going to the gym I have been completing an enjoyable schedule of events. I saw the West End show Avenue Q which was quite funny. We decided to go last minute though so the tickets were way up in the balcony. I also went to Thorpe Park for the first time which was alright. It;s like a smaller Canada's Wonderland. We were in some seriously long lines. One ride called Stealth that we waited for for ages managed to break down 4 times and then they had to evacuate the line up all together. There was also a frustrating moment with one of the those claw games where you try and grab some a meerkat and drag it out. I don't know how we got sucked into playing this game but we got it almost to the edge and then ran out of change for the machine, while we went to collect some more and probably try a different game all together some jerk came and snatched our meerkat!! So angry with him!! We got that meerkat into a winnable position! Argh!! That is why I don't normally play those games, that and the fact that I can't usually win, haha.

I also went to see the Crystal Palace season opener. I swore I would never get into soccer but I did really enjoy myself it has to be said. They won as well which was a nice start to the season.

I hope to go do a little bit of camping and see a bit more of London this summer. I will have to take some more pictures. I have pretty much finished moving in to the house finally. I unpacked the last box but it didn't stay unpacked long...