It’s definitely been one of the longest breaks from blogging. It wasn’t planned. I would love to put it down to being incredibly busy and having no time for expressing my thoughts but it’s more a case of not knowing exactly what to write and generally not feeling like it.

Anyway, I suppose even though most you that read this know me well enough anyway but I’ll try and fill you in as much as possible on the last few weeks. I’ll start with this weekend as it’s all that’s on my mind at the moment.

Eri came to visit for the weekend from Warwick. It was awesome to see her again. It felt like a lifetime ago that I saw her last but then again it felt like yesterday. She came down with a coursemate and we spent the day together visiting this random football stadium in the east of London and going to see Spamalot in the evening, finishing off with a drink down the pub with Dan and Sam. Thank god it was only a day that we spent with this coursemate. To be perfectly honest, he was not funny, a bit in your face, and gym obsessed, amongst other things… but then again, I don’t think I’m the one to ask for an objective opinion of the guy!

Spamalot was an incredibly funny musical. I would recommend it to anyone that has a reasonable understanding of history, culture and preferably monty python. I would say it was more of a guy oriented musical but I think it would still be a good fun musical to see anyway! ^^

Anyway, Sunday. Sunday, we went to the O2 to catch the Tutankhamun (Tutankhamen according to Firefox spell checker) Exhibition. Anyway, it was a tad expensive but it was interesting and there were a lot of things to see. Plus, it was nice to know I remembered all that Egyptian stuff from primary school! Yey!  The evening, we rocked up to Maple Leaf for a few Canadian beers and a mini lesson on the intricacies of ice hockey.

aaand, finally, today, we did the whole shopping thing on Oxford Street, yey!

Ok, so, if we rewind back a few weeks and recap; I’ve pretty much been busy with job applications, courseworks and projectwork. I would love to say that I’m on top of all of it right now but it’s definitely still a case of being partially buried. I have one last coursework due tomorrow… which I’m going to review tomorrow, and also a report for my project due in January. Ah well, that’s final year for ya!

I can’t really think of what else to say. One thing I will mention though is that there is this immense feeling that I should really make the most of now but somehow I don’t want to… I don’t want to accept the fact that this really could be the last Christmas as a student, in education…. in London? I don’t really want to leave but with every passing day it is becoming an increasing reality. This weekend I was able to forget all of these tormenting thoughts and even though the topic was never far from my mind it didn’t trouble me. I want more weekends like this one.

But yeah, I don’t think this blog entry is a very good one. I will endeavour to make more of an effort in the coming weeks to keep this entertained – I definitely don’t want to turn into one of those people that say they’ll update and never does.

O, I’m a Manchester United fan btw… for all those fb users!

I had my presentation today. I talked about this at some length in my entry yesterday and I am sure that some of you may be dying to here the outcome of my hours of preparation. I am glad to say that it is now over and done with. On my way to college this morning, dressed up quite smartly with leather shoes and jacket, I felt pretty confident about it all. I feel that I may have developed a mild level of arrogance during my time in Tokyo; the feeling that I am better than the people around me. I suppose this can sometimes be true but in most cases it is merely an illusion and the fact that I may be better at some things does not make me better overall. Anyway, back to the presentation… I think it went pretty well. I think I love performing in front of an audience; I know I am quite quiet when it comes to social events or even amongst a group of friends but given the chance to stand in front of a group of people and present as I did today, I get a rush of adrenalin and I enjoy it. I don’t know how great a public speaker I am but I have had some presentation training now and I feel much more comfortable presenting than I did prior to my internship. So, the presentation went well and I hope my grades will reflect that. All I have to do now is finish the log book!

My head is near exploding point with so many things to think about. I know 90% is based on me stressing too much but I have realised that the next year, especially the next few months, will shape my future in a big way; I do not want to miss any opportunities or look back and regret that I had not made more of an effort. I know there’s always a chance that I will regret that I tried too hard but that’s a lot better than regretting not doing enough. Anyway, I have this presentation on Friday, which is the first stress point. I know I’ll do fine but there’s always that worry that things won’t go so well. The presentation is the main chance to show everybody, especially the assessors, what I did in Japan. But yeah, this is the first hurdle in my way to obtaining that elusive 1st class degree. I suppose I care too much about my image and reputation – what people think of me is important. I know I shouldn’t worry about such things but their expectations drive me on and their view of me is a reflection and reward of all my efforts.

I want to talk about two main things in this entry – firstly the house move and secondly advertising. I know the two topics are totally unrelated but I’ll explain in a bit.

Anyway, the house move; I moved into the house on Sunday. If you remember, I was being very negative about this house but my negativity was misplaced. I can’t say the house is amazing or that I love it here, but what I can say is that it’s not as bad as my first impression made it out to be. I was surprised to find that the second time I looked at my room, this Sunday, I found that it looked bigger than previously. I’m still glad I took my first impression seriously as it did mean I got rid of a hell of a lot of crap that I was going to bring up. I did have around 7, 8 boxes of stuff excluding clothes but I managed to cut a few boxes and in the process also throw out a lot of junk that was lying around the house too. I may have mentioned this previously but I somehow do end up collecting a lot more junk than most of my family and specifically amongst us three brothers. So yeah, this is the start of my 2nd full day here. I think things will be ok.

So, I finally saw the house I am going to be living in for the coming year. Having heard only good things about the place I had high expectations, which looked as if they were met after I had viewed the ground floor. The expectations were soon dashed as soon as I had seen the room that I had been “assigned”. Being on the other side of the world I had no control over choosing the house nor the rooms in it and therefore I am left wondering whether it was even a good idea to agree to this in the first place. I am now in a situation where I am quite unhappy but I do not really foresee any workable solution. I am also bound by contract and thus have no means of escaping meaning any negotiations  will be tough on my part and maybe fruitless.

I hope this is not how it will end.

In other more cheerful news, I received Fifa 08 today…

I’m wondering how long this jet lag will last; I hear that it’s meant to take at least the same number of days as hours in time difference, meaning at least 6 more days of feeling dazed at 5pm in the evening and waking up at 5am in the morning. To be honest, I don’t really mind the early mornings as I lie in until a reasonable hour, but the cloudiness that starts to crop in during the late afternoon is really unwanted. It also doesn’t help that I still haven’t got used to the cold weather nor the fact that despite my grand claims that I’d changed, I was more driven, etc, I still seem to have bugger all to do and haven’t really got round to doing much. Having said that I did spend the whole of yesterday and a few hours this morning tidying up all the boxes of stuff that’s lying around the house. I have boxes of stuff from when I was in elementary school and despite raising an enormous amount of nostalgia and feelings of lost youth, I forced myself to throw most of the stuff out. Aside from the boxes, I’m in the process of ripping all the CDs around the house on to my computer. I believe the plan is to throw away, donate, or sell these CDs at some point; the age of the CD as the primary option of listening to music has passed.

I’m back in London; it was a very strange feeling on the plane when the realisation that I would soon be arriving back home had sunk in. Most people would be over joyed at returning home or at least partially excited by the thought but I felt apathy a slight sense of negativity of this momentous occasion. I felt somewhat lost as how to explain it but it was surprising how much of a tourist feeling I had when I first set foot in the country. I was shocked to find the small quirks were far more noticeable after my long absence – things such as the multi-race nature of England, people speaking English, the slightly nippy weather, the fact that I can’t sleep in t-shirt and shorts sans duvet, no air conditioning unit, no a/c required, the typical dirty feel of the London streets – every small detail that I didn’t particularly notice or care about prior to this trip away stood out. On the flip-side, it was nice to find the taste of milk pleasantly different, the sight of familiar surroundings, the sounds of the London streets again. I wonder how I will feel in a few weeks time; I hope that my change in views are not quickly forgotten.