We now return to regularily scheduled programming

Ok, so. A month since my last post. Whoops. I should probably explain. For two of those weeks, I was either really busy, what with work being busy owing to xmas, or the library (where I get the internet connection) was shut.

For the other two of those weeks, I was staying in London with some family, and I couldn't really get much of an internet connection there either. I'll come back to my time in London in a bit.

First and foremost, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008 to all of you. I hope you all had an awesome time. Myself, my christmas was ok, had the whole english roast type thing, but I really missed spending it with my family, so yeah. I managed to talk to all of the family pretty much however, so that was good.

Next, I am 18!!! :D I have been quite enjoying my 18ness, and have been to a local pub a few times with some friends, and also went to a club in a nearby town/city to celebrate a friend's 19th birthday. Apart from that though, I haven't really used my 18ness all that much, but I hope to be going into London on Australia Day with a friend or two and celebrating there (money withstanding of course)

So, London. I arrived in London on New Years Eve, and was in the process of aquiring a cold (it seems to be the thing to do :P). Thanks to this, I spent New Years Eve lying on a couch watching television. The day after that, my family that I was staying with (Peter and Annie) took me for a ramble, or something like that. It's pretty much like a bushwalk, only with more mud, and less vegetation :P

Then I got down into the real heavy touristy stuff. The main problem that I have with it of course is that I did so much stuff, I have a bit of trouble remembering all of the stuff that I did. So I'll just note down the highlights that I remember :P

One of them was St Pauls Cathedral. I was really nice looking in the inside, but that wasn't really the thing that I loved most about it. Sure it had beautiful mosaics, and I'll admit the painting on the inside of the dome was fantastic, but there was something even better than that. You could climb up a near lethal amount of stairs all the way to the top. The first gallery you got to was the Whispering Gallery, where if you whispered right into the wall, you could be heard clearly on the other side or something. As I was by myself for pretty much the whole time that I was in London, I couldn't do it myself, but I witnessed someone else doing it, and it was amazing how clear the words came out. After that gallery, you climbed even higher to the Stone Gallery, which was outside on the top of St Pauls. It gave a stunning view of all around London, but it was halted slightly by the large stone wall that was running around the outside of where I was standing. But the best bit of all in St Pauls was the Golden Gallery. You climb up the stairs out of this tight corridor, and out to the open air at pretty much the very top of St Pauls, and the only thing that's between you and the view is a small iron fence. It was stunning. You pretty much get knocked back down the stairs by the breathtaking views. Well, that and the ferocious winds that were blowing :P

Another quite cool thing I did was to go to the Old Bailey and sit in on a court case. I only did this for a bit, but it was really quite interesting, especially seeing as the bloke who was on trial had just taken the stand, and he didn't speak English :P

Um, yeah, to be honest, I can't remember much else right now, which is odd, as I did shitloads of stuff. I shall have to looks through all the photos that I have taken, and maps that I have gotten, and make up some kind of report from that lot :P

So anyway, my current status. Well, after leaving Peter and Annie's, I came back to stay in Maldon with a friend. The only sucky thing about returning (as I was missing all my friends, and was ready for a break, what with my going out every day) was that because I had to go away, the job that I was working at had to give some of my hours to someone else, so I only have about 11 hours there a week, which ain't all that great. But I'm going around a few pubs and places in the area seeing if any of them can give me a job, so it shouldn't be all that bad.

Anyways, my time on the computer is running out, and my hand is starting to get sore too :P
I hope you are all well and safe, and I miss you horribly, and if I don't speak on this again (I will) I shall see you all in a month when I ger back on the 18th of February.

Keep on keepin on,
Dom