In brief

HI! Some points (in the order of my choosing):

• Leaving tomorrow for 10 days of sitting very very quietly in Wales. Planning to levitate home but have purchased return ticket just in case.
• Drove to Brighton at night on a whim (which I would later find out is the gay capital of England - although I could not find their parliament buildings). Walked out onto Brighton Pier through the amusement park which was closed for the evening and extremely creepy.
  
• New laptop already broken 1 day outside of full replacement guarantee. Currently under repairs. Hopefully this will fix the crunching noises and the not working.
• Have learnt how to tie three different rope-knots: the Figure-8 Follow-Through, the Stopper knot and the Clove-hitch. Can now also climb walls without getting into trouble. Card to prove it.
• Successfully stopped a fight between the German and the Italian. Fight caused by Italian's refusal to stop smoking cigarettes in the bathroom during his morning bowel excavation, having agreed a compromise to stop smoking in the kitchen. The German reasons his sense of smell will be greatly enhanced during his upcoming annual 5-day fast, and would not accept any compromises.
• New rules stipulated by the landlord state that the bathroom is now a non-smoking area.
• Italian appears constipated but not confirmed.
• German commences fast with the use of a laxative.
• New Years eve spent with friends wandering around London in an unsuccessful attempt to find an open pub. Beers sought at nearby off-licence and enjoyed by sitting at abandoned outdoor furniture. Watched fireworks from the bridge and didn't get trampled on by hoards of people. Gave my friends girlfriend a foot massage while he watched.
• Cooked my first roast dinner on Christmas day which I shared with my good friend Lawn. Got drunk on french champagne and Trappist ale. Saw Black Santa.
• Spent £6,000 (of my bosses money).
  
• Watched a pretty cool movie just now called Lucky Number Slevin. You should see it.
• Got a bit slack and didn't update my blog for a while. Posted some of my recent getting-up-to's in such a fashion that they sound exciting and debonair. Decided that it's not necessarily about what you do but how you look at it.

Don't worry if you don't manage to stick to your New Years resolutions as well as you think you ought to. I guess it's healthier to think of them as guidelines rather than hard and fast rules.

See you again in a couple of weeks. I'm off to confront my demons - yay!

Love
C.

The mighty Thames

Howdy ho. Small update today, just to let you know I'm still alive.

I've been in London for nearly 4 months now and I've never seen the Thames. So it was high time for me to go with Dave in the weekend to the Embankment district in central London.

And so we shared a romantic [delete delete delete] (pardon me) pleasant walk along the Thames on a chilly Saturday afternoon. Well worth the trip - saw the London Eye, stood on the Millennium Bridge, viewed the Globe Theatre from the outside and poked my head through the door of the Tate Modern. I saw some pretty awesome cheese at the Borough Markets - Allen you would have wet yourself.

There were enormous soap bubbles blown, hot dogs eaten, crowds navigated, pictures taken, book markets perused, mulled wine mulled over but not sampled, and several pints enjoyed instead.

More photos starting here if you're bored. Check out how much the truffles cost.

What I really need is someone who knows London well to take me around to all the cool little nooks and crannies. There's so much to do here it can be a bit overwhelming - not sure where to start! Still - there are a couple of obvious things I need to get out of the way until then. I'm hoping to go and see the ballet at some stage.

Christmas wise I'm planning on putting together a little roast dinner for whoever else happens to be around.

Got to go. Bye for now!

C.

In Soviet Russia, blog post you!

Yo - went for party time in Riga last weekend. Didn't drink that much just danced and talked shit and took spy photos mostly. Check the latest gallery - there are some crackers there that do nothing to convince anyone of my relative sobriety.

Happy chappy birthday Big Bert. Enjoy the Wiiiiiiiiiiii!

C.