I know I have been slack so here is a summarised post to make up for it. Christmas I spent in London with 2 other New Zealanders and 2 Australians. We ate, we drank, we watched TV, we drank some more. It was nice and I spent Boxing day in much the same way all thanks to Elena whose house we were at. The following day Lorraine and I went to Brighton and visited Craig. While Lorraine stayed the night I returned to London. The dorm I was put in was with some ccol people. Claire was from China and had spent the last 6 months in Edinburgh learning english and was about to go to Bournemouth to complete her education, Gwen was from the USA and was studying her MBA in Boston. Gwen was travelling with her friend Josh who was the most conservative person I have ever met, he wouldn't move the washing from the washing machine to the dryer as it had her underwear in it!

I spent a few days in London, saw some museums, libraries and cathedrals etc. I caught up with Mikey and his family, we had great food and it was nice to be with someone who I didn't have to explain my life to. The on the 30 January, Lorraine and decided we should sort out New Years. A bit late but I found out that the trains to Reading (where Lorraine lives) were running till 5 am and we took advantage of this. We went to London at about 3pm and visited Jillian and had a few wines and met the locals. We gave Jillians bartender our numbers and he rung us later, it was quite a surprise.We left Jillians and went to a kebab place. Made friends with a guy in the queue who gave us his tube ticket and carried on our way. We then went to Brad's bar. His boss was an idiot and Brad was getting a hard time and in turn so were we so Lorraine and I left, only after Lorraine met some American boys who didn't know what Trafalgar Square was!!! Lorraine and I headed to Trafalgar Square and then plonked ourselves on the waterfront opposite the Millenium Eye. We ate and drank our supplies and saw the New Year in. I must have got excited about there being a large clock because I ended up with about 10 photo's of Big Ben from different angles, none at midnight. Lorraine and I walked to Buckingham Palace, said happy New Year to the queen and started to head home. We reached home at 4am after catching the tube, train and taxi.

After New Years, Lorraine and I went road tripping. We went to Stratford upon Avon. It was really beautiful but it does get to feel a bit invasive when you have followed old Williams life around. The church where he was buried had heaps and heaps of squirrels, I liked them. We then went and visited John, Doreen and Lynne again in Wrexham. Here we went to Chester, we walked the city wall and the rows and went to a museum that had really awesome roman memorial stones. They were maintained because they had been used in repairing the city wall and I honestly think that they were better than some roman stuff in Rome. On the way back we went to Ironbridge, a world heritage site, and a centre of the industrial revolution it really is just a pretty victorian town with an Ironbridge!!!

Lorraine dropped me off at Oxford and I visited that. Lots of beautiful buildings and I visited Christ Church, Merton and Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) Colleges. I met Lorraine again and we saw the last Lord of the Rings before we said our goodbyes. After Oxford I went back to London with my list of things to do. London has so much that I have now seen many things. Yesterday, I spent hours in the Imperial War Museum which isn't really my thing but it was really interesting and thought provoking. That combined with reading Dracula I had a pretty poor nights sleep last night so I apologise for any grammatical problems I am tired.