For the past four years my life has been structured as a student around lectures (which were few and far between a lot of the time as a historian), the library (no really!), clubs and church. But now i'm going to leave that all behind at least for a year (will probably start a phd in about a year) and it's quite scary. There's so much i've planned and want to do in the next year but much of it relies on other people. I start a job in October in London, but have been summoned for jury service before then, so my job start-date will be at the mercy of the CPS and the crown. I'm also relying on friends for accomadation while in London, and I will alsorely on others for my phd application and the travelling that I hope to do.

It's one of those times when I wonder how non-Christians deal with all this, I know that I can simply trust in the boss upstairs that it's all going to be okay but what do they do? How do they deal with it all? Do they just hope that things will sort themselves out?

Still I also know that deep down I'm actually quite excited about the next few months, there's so much that will happen and even more that might that i can't wait to experience it all, the only problem is that I still have six more weeks to finish my thesis, I suppose all this will just have to wait until then!

Saying all that I am going to be off for the next couple of weeks researching for my dissertation so the posts will probably keep being a bit patchy until that's all over. It's going quite well, but is now coming to the crucial stage where I need to work out a structure for it and (I promise this isn't quite as bad as it sounds) actually decide on what I'm trying to prove. It's all in my head, I just need to find it... any support is most welcome!

So to aid my thought processes I am now going off to one of my oldest friends house and the pub, I'm sure that will help my dissertation somehow!

Other than that I've mainly been cycling in the evenings - I hate really hot weather and we've had more than enough of it in the last week; I for one am glad its going soon! So the best time to do anything energetic is when it cools down. Mind you some of the sunsets that i;ve seen over Poole Harbour have been really good i can't wait for some of the photos i've taken to be developed they should be fantastic to look at (at least I hope so!)

I am now preparing for my trip down to beautiful Cornwall for my research. Hopefully I will still get some time to relax as well and do some walking down there, but sadly my work must come first (but all work and no play makes George a very sad boy indeed though!)

For my own events on 7/7 as I fear it will be called, I was also on a train, returning home to Poole, from Swansea. All I could see was a very heavy prescence (including armed officers) at most of the major stations along the route, indeed from what i know i was quite fortunate as both Cardiff and Poole stations were closed during the day due to security scares. It also turned out that my Dad was in London for work (he goes a few times every month for meetings), but fortunately would not have been anywhere near any of the bombs (infact he didn't even make it out of Waterloo train station). That really made me think, what if they had gone off elsewhere; how many people did something different to usual that meant that they missed their train, or had to catch an earlier one due to a meeting: that could have been him.

But ultimately it's a more 'British' thing to get on with it; we cant worry about these things so much that we stop doing things, else whoever planted those bombs will have got some kind of victory and that would probably encourage them to do it again. I am planning to move to London in October and will stay until December, I've been aware that living there means that there will be a higher chance of terrorist actions than in Poole or Swansea since I applied for the post. These events haven't put me off going, but I cant help thinking that it will make me slightly more wary when I'm there.

Finally I would like to congratulate all the emergency services for the fantastic work they did, without them I hate to think how much worse things could have been. A friend of mine is in the Met police, and I spoke to her about 11am on MSN messenger and she was about to go into work on her day off as she was needed to help out, she was worried about friends who she hadn't heard from yet, but wanted to be there to help.

All this meant lots of travelling around: Cardiff for the wedding and Southampton for the birthday. Both events were enjoyable in their own way, the wedding because it was great to see a good friend so happy, and the birthday as it was nice to see my relatives again (I have a small family, and practically everyone who is related to me was there!).

But they are also quite strange events too: the wedding is odd as I always find it weird going to a friend's wedding. I have played football with Jon (the groom) for the past 3 years, yet here he was not in our football kit but in a morning suit and saying 'I do'. Things got stranger still as I was often surrounded at several other points during the reception by three other blokes I've played football with, all of whom are getting married as well (it must be something in the water!), and then one of their fiancee's asked me when If I was considering marriage soon (sadly she didnt know that the person she was suggesting I might be considering to pop the question too and I split up over a year ago). Now the question doesn't offend me, it wasn't asked maliciously (to be honest I'm really not ready at the moment to settle down yet (ignoring the fact that I'm single)) but it seems strange how ready these people are to take such a big step in their lives, and i'm not, yet they are all younger than me!

Since then I have been trying to recover from all the travelling, and getting on with work. I am leaving Swansea to return to my parents house in Poole (Dorset) on Thursday so have a million and one things to do before then!

I'd also like to extend my congratulations to ERG and Matty and others who carried out some Make Poverty History work in Swansea town centre on Saturday, I would have loved to have joined you guys, and am sure you helped raise awareness of the events in this part of Wales

I suppose its largely my own fault as it all started when I made the mistake of going paintballing for a friends stag party (it hurts and you get bruises) and then the barbecue afterwards, not getting home until silly am. I was then up early (I would add bright to the early but i'd be lying) to watch the Lions match (which was a mistake in itself, but thats another story) and then went to watch the Twenty20 cricket match on in Swansea (better entertainment than the Lions, but the team I was supporting (Glamorgan) still lost... (hmm.. perhaps someones trying to tell me something here) I was then up early again Sunday as my Dad came to Swansea to pick up my stuff as my contract ends on Saturday, which means that it now looks as though I'm living in a youth hostel with little more than clothes, work and a sleeping bag!

All in all I was shattered come Monday when I trudged into the West Glamorgan Archives Office, with a splitting headache and cold. The fact that I'm then straining my eyes to read something written over 200 years ago which was probably barely decipherable in 1790 didn't help my condition.

On the plus side what i needed to do this week is now all finished until I see my supervisor on Monday, when I will probably be given a load more to do which she has now remembered exists, so I'm looking forward to a weekend off! Also, when the thunder and lightening began on Tuesday afternoon leading to torrential downpour for about 20 minutes, I was also quite glad that despite any difficulties I might have in reading the archives, at least my research is indoors and not outside!

I'm 22, and am studying for a masters in History at Swansea University. My dissertation means that I will spend much of the summer moving all over Wales and South West England researching for it, so expect some grumbles about that soon!

Outside of that, I enjoy music (I like practically any type of music except RnB, Hip Hop and Dance) and reading, at the moment Terry Pratchett is being slowly devoured, as I have only realised his true genius in the last couple of years. I am also a keen walker, with particular favourite areas being Snowdonia and the South West Coast Path (i'll just say all of it because its too hard to pick a particular favourite part) as well as playing football, badminton and cricket.

I support Southampton FC (yes we've just been relegated I know!) so except several rants about their performances or lack of them.

That's about it, there's probably loads more that i've forgotten (how worrying forgetting things about yourself!) that'll come out soon when I get posting. Thanks for reading this, hopefully it'll help explain some of the stuff that appears later on!