I'm back in England... again, after a visit to Eire. The same three of us that went to europe went to my friend's parents' house near Galway, and had a very relaxing time playing pool, fishing and drinking a variety of beers. One of the highlights (aside from Shane's brother's fantastic cooking) had to be fishing for crabs, using the high tech equipment of a sausage in a sock. One of the lowlights was not standing on the top of a mediocre hill inside a cloud, trying to convince ourselves that this kerry way malarky was worthwhile. It was a nice walk, but a shame about the typical and inevitable irish weather!

So I got back on the 27th and I was 18 on the 28th. We had a family gathering at our house, which was really fun, it's great to see all of my family in one place, that doesn't happen very often. I also got a new laptop, a macbook, from which I'm writing this now. I've been hankering after an apple machine for a while, and after about 3 days I'm totally converted - everything just works: I turn it on and am using the wireless internet connection within three minutes; I plug in my camera and everything is imported without me having to even push a button. It's also incredibly fast, and seems to be lightyears ahead of Windows in the design of the interface. And it's pretty. I don't think I'll ever use windows again!

To add to all this great news, I finally found a job. Admittedly, it is making coffee at the NEC, but it pays well. The only downside is that the shifts are 7am til 7pm, and I had to sign a waiver voiding my rights to breaks and the like. So, I'll be loaded, and too knackered to spend anything. Sounds good to me!