27th July

today we went to covent garden to buy the tent, and they did have it, lovely. we also walked to The Temple, which wasn't very good. it's just offices now. Also we looked for the Temple Bar, which we thought existed, but we couldn't find it.

the other 2 went to work in the arvo, and i stayed at the hostel and edited The Return of King Undies, Maloney's second video, where he ran to buckingham palace with just an aussie flag and king undies on. Hilarious. You'll all see it, we'll probably send the dvd home.

26th July

went to baker st to buy a tent and go to madame tussauds, but they didnt have the tent, and madame tussauds was way too expensive.

25th July

Slept in till 11, which is the latest i've slept in for years. It's great, having nothing to do, great!

Note to everyone: Don't see the Fantastic Four. it's shiza. No plot, acting about as bad as Bold and the Beautiful, and was completely ridiculous.

24th July

Went to London Dungeon with Loren and the boys. It rained today, and the line for the dungeon was massive, but we lined up anyway. You have to get used to queues here in England.

Walked about 5km today thanks to Maloney, the worst navigator since whoever found Wales. He wanted to go to the Knights Templar, because it was in The Di Vinci Code - load of rubbish anyway.

23rd July

Went to the British Museum today, it was great, we even saw a lady with a beard, but she wasn't part of the museum, just a freak. Saw mummy's, tombs, all the usual things at a museum.

Went out at night with Loren, Tom, John-Paul and Simon (their ex-room mate). Went to Chelsea with them, and got really drunk, can't remember much of the night. They're too generous with shouting me drinks.

22nd July

Went out to London at night with Loren, tristan and maloney, went to Yates's, the 'iggies' equivalent here, just the usual, derros trying to dance.

21st July

Got up early, like 4.30am to walk to Paddington so I could get the Heathrow train to meet Loren. On the walk, some guy asked me for a cigarette, and I told him I didn't smoke, then when I was walking away, he was yelling at me or something, telling me to come back, but I ignored him. He must have been a rat, like Splinter.

Hung out with Loren today, and did the touristy thing, saw all the cool sites, and at buckingham palace, we saw the start of the changing of the guards, until everyone was evacuated because of a suspected 'unattended bag'. Ehh.

20th July

First day of the Ashes - alllright. Walked over to the 'aussie' pub nearby, but the fascists weren't even open till Midday, so went to another pub, then as Australia's innings got worse, I headed back to the hostel to watch it. Then things got better.

Tristan and I won the trivia tonight, and will enjoy a 700ml Bacardi Rum.

Matt and Tristan rang work, and got some for next week, however I don't think I'm going to. Firstly, I'd have to go and buy black shoes, white shirt, black pants, black tie, secondly I'd have to shave (my plan is to be the Wild man of Borneo), and thirdly I'd rather stay closeby, as things seem to keep blowing up at tube stations.

There was another bomb scare or whatever - the stations affected were Shepherd's Bush

20th July

Today we went out to Oxford Street to look around, as its meant to be good for buying and all that, and well the only good thing I found was Cricket 2004 on PC. So we bought it, and it's tops.

We all went up to Watford this evening to see John and Pat, and they took us out for dinner at a remote pub at Chippinfield, which was really cool. Maloney tried to catch rabbits though, but they were too fast for him. World Series Rabbits.

19th July

Today we all went to Wembley where we had the job induction for event stewards. It was pretty boring.

Then we went to James and Zac's at Willsden Green nearby, and got delicious pizzas for only a pound. Played soccer for ages at a park nearby, where Maloney broke his expensive sunnies (ha, just buy cheap ones).

18th July

Today was a good day. Tristan and I decided that we'd had enough of the 8-bed dorm, and moved into a 4-bed dorm that we can actually breathe in.

Also we saw a 20-20 cricket match: Surrey vs Warwickshire, at The Oval, and it was pretty good. It came down to the last ball, where Warwickshire needed 3 to win on. They got 2, and it was a tie. Surrey must have won the previous encounter, and so won this one based on that. Also we saw Zac and James working there. we hadn't planned it either!.

Over and out
Dom

17th July

Went to Anne-Marie's today. Played some cricket at The Oaks with Anne-Marie, Mark, Charlie, Martha, Florence, Geraldine, Nick and Emily. I am the best, as you all know.

I have noticed that they're still very paranoid about unattended bags, at the station today there was one, and a cop was yelling out to anyone to see if it was theirs. It was his in the end (nah not really, but you can imagine).

We all have a job interview (its not really an interview, i think the job is all but guaranteed, its more of an induction) at Wembley where James Thelwell and Zac work, as stewards/event staff. Thing is though, we're going away 31st July so if there's going to be any work before then it's going to be Lords, so after all these months of us trying to get cheap Lords tickets, in the end we might be getting paid to go.

16th July

Walked to Paddington, Marylebone and Baker Street, and bought a cricket bat, allriight. Also we looked at tents, and found that the one we are probably going to buy is called a 3-man, but is more like a 1/2 a man. it's going to be a very 'cosy' 3-man.

Probably consuming more cigarette smoke than if I actually smoked, due to the lobby in the hostel constantly being a chimney of unbreathable waste.

Also we bought some very valuable maps and books on camping grounds etc, and started to map the route for our august 'uk and ireland tour'

15th July

Went and saw Wedding Catchers in Leicester Square, and it was awesome, one of the funniest films i've seen. However, what put a dampener on it was the fact that we saw a guy get hit by a car (well seconds after he got hit anyway), and he didn't look well. pretty sure he would have survived, but you don't want to know the gory details.

Before we went to the movies though, we were drinking in the pub nearby with some aussies from the hostel, when James (cool dude), came running in to tell Joel that his car was being towed away, so they both ran back there, and Joel jumped on top of the tow truck, and into his car, and protested like the rainbow warrior. Then a bus of police came and talked Joel out of the car, and half an hour later, after towing the car away, they returned it. He thinks he's the first person to get 'untowed'.

14th July

All went out to Battersea to see Tom and John-Paul, and their girlfriends also came along. Went to a pub there, then John-Paul sent us to Clapham to some nightclub, which was alright I guess. I think Maloney nearly hooked up with a right geez, not sure of the details really.

13th July

went to london today to see all the sites (check the pictures section), walked nearly 10km in the boiling heat (yes thats right, its hot here)
and tristan got burnt. one thing they lack here is air-conditioning, you really miss it when you're here. the only places
that have it are aussie pubs.

we saw big ben, houses of parliament, london eye, shakespeare's globe, tower of london, all the bridges, st pauls, all
the touristy things.

12th July

Went to Epsom and saw Grandpa today, which was cool.

But it was the worst start to the day,,ever.

I got up, and couldn't find my key to the hostel room, so then i left and then forgot
to take any money, so i had to use the Lloyds Atm, but to make things worse it swallowed my card,
so i had to wait around till the bank opened, and then wait another half an hour in the bank to
get the card back. ehhh. just one of those days.

but australia killed england in the cricket, so that made things better.

7th - 11th July

Well, well, well hasn't it all happened in London lately?

Luckily, we are all fine, but at a 60 in 8 million chance, i'm sure we're going to be.

Last night, we went out with Bob Mortimore, and his mate Jimmy, and that was tops (tristan is the king of schnapps shots), today we went to camden markets, and they were alright, just like loads of gothic and hippy stores combined.

Tonight we went ten-pin bowling, and what can i say? apart from im the best. even though our lane was about as functional as i dunno, a russian airline, i still managed to put them away and win 2 beers at the hostel.

we got downgraded today from a 6-bed room, which we were getting use to, to an 8-bed room, that smells, and has no room at all to move around,

yes there are permanents here that have set up shop, talk about derelicte.

anyway im seeing grandpa tomorrow, hopefully trains remain unexploded for me.

Missing youz all,

Dom

6th July (Happy Birthday Dad)

Went to the Walkabout pub in Shepherd's Bush, to see the Blues deal with the Maroons. Alllriight!!

And good news for London - they have the 2012 Olympics, should give Londoners something to look forward to.

I think we're going out tonight, to the Phoenix nearby. By the way, I hope we won indoor, mention it in the guestbook ay?

Over and out

5th July

Woke up early again, and went to the gym round the corner, for free. Only spent a couple of pounds today, which shows that the UK is actually quite inexpensive, providing you don’t eat or do anything.

While writing this, I am in another room to Tristan and Matt, because Xenodome or whatever her name is, stuffed up, overbooked like always, and shes the shittest.

We’re going to the Walkabout in Shepherds Bush tomorrow to see the State of Origin, Go the Blues.

It seems that most people that stay at hostels such as this one have a lot of things in common, just not things I enjoy. They’re all left-wing pinkie communist hippies – you know the drill. They all love things like fire-twirling and painting and weed and Playstation, in other words, all shit things. When will they learn?

4th July

Woke up early because the sun shines right onto my bed, not much different from home like that.

We all went to London to check it out, and saw Picadilly Circus, Carnaby Street (although nothing was there, maybe its on the weekends), Trafalgar Square (where on Wednesday there’s gonna be the announcement of the Olympic 2012 bid, and also a riot by some hippies I dunno.)

Tonight, we went to see Geraldine, Nick, Tom, Emily, Peter, and Charleigh at Belmont near Sutton, and we can already see how easily pissed off you can get here, when we tried to get tickets, ehh. We then kicked on to Emily’s pub, and then Wertherspoons, before catching a train back to Bayswater.

3rd July

Laying in excuse for a bed in Bayswater Millennium Lodge where the receptionist is more spaced out than Fraser on space cakes. My throat feels like the Korean army is attacking it with nuclear weapons and I can’t even fit on my bed because some fascist named Tristan took the top bed.
Had to buy a real towel as the travel towel (thanks mum) maybe it would dry my foot only.
England’s weather is showing its true colours and was overcast and wussy bits of ran came in. Vodafone global roaming works wonders, not, who ever I asked on the phone to switch to global roaming may their family be mauled to death by wild pigeons. Hope to check out London on the morrow and see what’s cracking there.

Dom