I'm in London. I just walked through Mayfair and saw a homeless man being snubbed outside of the Ritz. Then we walked past Buckingham Palace and saw the parts of the palace you can pay to go in. I'm very angry. More will follow.

Cue Tory outrage and the death of the Labour Party...

Trade and oil played a part in the decision to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner transfer deal, Jack Straw has admitted.

When I was in Groningen I helped tend a blog along with piggelin  and our friend Alice. Now that we're back it does seem kind of redundant to continue writing that, so I've decided to start a new livejournal, in Dutch, to write about random things with the ultimate aim of improving my language.

So, for those of you who speak Dutch or just want to read it for shits and giggles, please check it out and feel free to add me:

struisvogel 

It's still only small, but will be built upon. Promise!


In other news, I'm off to Sheffield tomorrow! If any of you are around for a coffee/tea (you know who you are!) let me know and we can arrange something.

Things seem to have fallen into place. I'm going back to Sheffield on Thursday, so Dave can move in on Friday.
Wednesday I have appointments at both the dentist and optician, and my auntie's ashes are being interred either tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning.
I am going to embark on a radical change in eating habits as of being back in Sheffield, and have mostly been reading about diet and nutrition whilst I've been home.

Bad thing is that the housingoffice haven't replied to my email. I sent them my info last week to get the deposit back, with no reply. This morning I sent a second email asking for any information, in Dutch. I will give them until Thursday and phone. I need this money.

You know it's been a good night when your mam goes to bed whistling to Olsen Olsen and you dad is humming Ágætis byrjun...

Home is going ok, on the whole. I've been on a couple of trips, up to Alnwick and the Metro Centre, and also down the coast to Whitby. Today me and my parents went on a walk around the town and the marina, which was nice and sunny. I've taken some pictures but am an idiot and left the cable in Sheffield.

But I think things are starting to wear a little thin. I almost just had an argument with my mother about my phone bill being £7 over ("well if you didn't phone Germany all the time", "I don't phone Germany, I phoned NPower", "Don't lie to me. I know you phone Germany" and etc.)... giving up coffee was too much, so limiting my intake is probably how things are going to go from now on.

Barbecue tomorrow and opticians next Wednesday (my eyes are getting worse), but this might mean I finally get new frames. The one's I have now I've had since year 9 (so, eight years, jesus), and I don't really like them too much, so a new pair for the many hours I'm going to have to spend in the library this year will be nice...

I don't know when I'm going back to Sheffield. I want it to be sooner rather than later, but it'll be at least another week here.

Trying to reduce my caffeine intake from a lot to almost zero was never going to be easy. But man...

So I'm back in Hartlepool. It's raining, I'm drinking instant coffee again and I'm tired because I've been up since the granparents visited this morning.

I handed in my dissertation and have since discovered several typos in a print out I did to work though. Good job it's only a draft being handed in. Urgh.

I have no plans for the next two weeks. I guess I should get used to the idea of having no prospects.

The Quakers (who have long been my preferred denomination of Christianity) are moving to make gay marriage allowed within their denomination, as opposed to merely blessing a civil partnership. Which means that they're going to press the government to leagalise gay marriage. Good times.

Also, Albania's ruling party are proposing to leagalise gay marriage, too...

The end of a day spent being hungover, having a picnic in Derbyshire? Chips from a chippie and Mean Girls.

 It seems that debitcard related woe wasn't unique to the continent. The Co-op just denied my card. She wiped it and we had another go. Nothing. Then the machine said it had expired, which it hadn't. Swiping didn't work. Eventually she was able to type in my card number and I had to sign for it. 

This is related to the worry of not having enough money to last the summer... I guess being semi-reclusive will help me write my damned project? I thought so, but no. I should do some work on that, really. 

Updates after a short absence:
- I am once again (after an absence of a year) a resident of Crookes, Sheffield.
- Work has began on my Year Abroad project, though not enough.
- I am fully decorated and unpacked.
- I have lost 2kg.
- I spent a wonderful weekend in London and went to see an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery. I also stayed up talking all night with Nic and Leonie, which was brilliant.
- I have discovered that The Old House sells Kwak and Chimay.

... and then they took Herb.

The ferry journey was uneventful, aside from me getting wasted at my dad's expense. This morning I was rough and therefore appreciative of the breeze on deck. I've been back in Hartlepool an hour or so. I wish I were still on my year abroad.

Also got some bad news. My granda's sister, my Auntie Pat, died last night in her sleep. She'd been taken into hospital with dehydration, but they think that she may have caught MRSA in the nursing home she was in.

Yesterday it was Alice's birthday, so the two of us and Matilda went to the Lake for a picnic, take celebrate and take advantage of the weather. It's hot again today, and not at all conductive to revision. It's also too hot to cook; I'm having sandwiches and beer for dinner. Horse sandwiches (again). Mmmm.  I have also started to pack; my dad's coming tomorrow for the weekend, but I have no idea as to the time or what he's going to do whilst I'm in my exam. Only four more days in Groningen...

Mijn tweede reis door europa...

.... begint morgen!

I'm quite excited for it. My bags are all packed, and I'm catching the 0944 train from Groningen to Rotterdam, then journeying on to Brussels (where I will be the guy who orders in Dutch), Luxembourg City (to make friends jealous), Trier (to see Roman ruins and visit a new Bundesland) and then on to Bonn (to visit Pricey and the Siebengebergegebiet) and finally back up to Grunnen, perhaps via Maastricht (to truly make this a tour of modern European political history).

But back to the common room to laze about watching the TV.

 Update:
I don't think I have the swine. Piggelin pointed out in a reversal of roles that it was probably coffee withdrawal, hayfever and a bad night's sleep. 
She appears to 

I have symptoms.

Symptoms of THE SWINE. 

(I shall go and buy baklava and give you an update later, folks). 

 Laura, our American, left Groningen this morning. Of all the new people I have met since coming here, she is probably the person who I like the most, and with whom I got on with the best. First impressions ("are you guys British?") weren't the best, but I have since travelled Europe, awkwardly worked a pole, got wasted on many occasions, swam in a lake, done fancy dress and cried from laughing with the girl.

I'm trying to find a decent picture of the two of us to send to her in a card once I get her address because I wasn't as organised as others and didn't get her a going away present (because secretly, I don't see this as "going away", but rather a period in which we won't see each other). However, the majority of pictures look like this one, which I think sums up our friendship: 



Or this:


Though, this one from Berlin isn't too bad to be honest:



I'm going to miss her. Real bad.