The Stephens; The exhale.

Sometimes this thing is just going to be a straight diary. Mainly so I can remember the things that have actually happened in my life - so that when people ask me what I've been up to, I won't have to improvise with stories about giant winged creatures and Nutella.

Friday night was lovely - Jay's birthday, and we all sat around outside a restaurant eating, smoking and being witty about both Stephens King and Fry. Must have been quite a sight, a bunch of guys in their early 20's in suit jackets trying to be all laconic and sophisticated. Then afterwards we all went to the pub and got royally pissed.

Then, yesterday, I finished my final essay. Celebrated with pizza and beer and two episodes of The Wire. Could my life BE any more exciting? Well yes, yes it could. I'm working on it, don't worry.

(The picture at the top is by Adam Chodzko - if you like your art sarcastic AND beautiful, check this out: http://www.adamchodzko.com/)

Right noise.

We've reached a strangely suspended time in the year. On Tuesday I celebrated (somewhat prematurely) the end of the second year at university, even though I still have an essay due in eight days' time. So, everyone is still here, now suddenly without structure or goal, whilst the rain pours outside. We still haven't tipped into summer yet.

Today I went back to my old school, carrying boxes of exercise books for my mum. And, dressed in green, I felt appropriately like Godzilla - blundering down tiny familiar corridors and trying not to crush the tiny objects underneath my feet. There were some kids doing recorder lessons in my mum's classroom, who regarded me with with a mixture of awe and fascination - she tells them about our family, just as they tell her about theirs I guess. A lot has changed at St. Philip's; but some bits remain exactly as I remember them - that's comforting in a way. I also remember when 21 seemed unfathomably old.

I also found a kite today, on top of the wardrobe in the spare room. As soon as all of this is over, I'm running away with it to the beach. And never coming back.

Dead lines.

Morning. No it isn't. Never mind. Today I am wearing a bright t-shirt, on a bright day, attempting to convince myself that it is, finally, summer. Coffee and The Fall help too. Totally wired, indeed.

At the moment I feel like getting on a train and going somewhere new, even if just for a day. I always get like this just after returning from travels - trying to capture a little bit of the thrill that I always get from heading out on my own. Unfortunately, money and work get in the way, as always. Still, flights to Vienna are cheap at the moment.

As well as essays, some bad things have happened this week. Which meant drinking myself into oblivion on Tuesday; maintaining the illusion of jollity for everyone else's sake. I told Nat what was going on, but we were both too drunk for it to mean anything - it got lost in the smoke. Probably best.

Now I'm off to buy a glass cabinet with Simeon. I'm not sure why - hopefully everything will become clear in time. I do enjoy hanging around with optimists.... but only sometimes.

Boomchip.

Amsterdam was amazing. Of course it was. The perfect combination of people, the perfect place to go, and the perfect time to go there. It really is a beautiful, and incredibly laid-back city - I reckon the more canals a place has, the more relaxed it is: I call it the Barge-o-meter.

Queen's Night - and the day that followed - were pretty unhinged, with truly heroic levels of substance abuse, 16 straight hours of techno, a shopping trolley full of Grolsch, AND a royal assassination attempt. The rest seems pretty tame in comparison, but it was truly a pleasure to see everyone again - so nice to chat and smoke all day with such good friends. We did a few of the touristy things (Van Gogh Museum, Nemo Museum, Red Light District etc...) but, as ever, it was the smaller things that meant the most: going to Tessa's cheese shop for a tour and samples; barbequeing underneath the sunset on a barge, whilst cruising the canals; even just sitting around in the pub and reminiscing about Turkey. We've made plans to meet in Vienna next, at CHRISTMAS - personally I can't think of a better place to be... see you then.

I also somehow charmed a pretty French girl on the plane over, mainly by being a bumbling Brit and getting my seatbelt all wrong. She laughed, and I noticed she was reading a book on 'British Culture', which certainly got the conversation flowing. Her English was great; she'd been doing ERASMUS in Bristol for the last seven months. We swapped numbers - so watch this space, I guess.

Time for tea and snooker.