After months of complaining about the cold finally the sun has come out so that I can...complain about the heat! Its really really hot - I feel like a Jacket potato (see what I did there, with the English imagery - Jacket potatoes are very English). I find that once more I am ill equiped to deal with the weather - now all my clothes are too heavy for the heat and I have been reduced to just the one pair of jeans.

The academic year is officially over on Friday but I have been through with exams for almost a month now. It seems really bizarre given the amount of money I'm paying to be here that I've finished the academic year in about seven months (minus the two months of holiday I've had so far). It really is a rip off. I've got four months to contemplate my future...what to do, what to do?

I went to see mission impossible three today. Say what you will about the man - he's a wierd little placenta eating goblin or whatever - but he is good as Ethan ...something. I'm tempted to say Hawke but I know that's someone else so I won't. It wasn't a terribly imaginative plot, it was easy to pick out which lines were coming next, but the stunts were brilliant and even though I'm a talker (that's part of the reason why I only go to the cinema once a year)I was gripped for a substantial amount of time. Good night out, especially with the longer days and shorter nights.

So I've gone vegetarian, just for a little while. I was just in my room one day thinking, I really like meat. And chicken. And some types of fish. What would life be like with out it? So I have. I'm going to try not to eat meat for a month and see if it really adds a spring in my step as I have been promised. I've also given up on potatoes, and chocolate. Actually, I had already gone without chocolate during lent this year, but why not give it another go, eh? Time flies when you're having fun after all...

My life as a vegetarian so far has been interesting. People at restaurants here are overly concerned about my welfare when I say I don't want to eat meat. Seriously, usually its like put up, shut up or go away, but when I said that my vegetarian dish had a piece of prawn in it it was like...end of the world, sound the alert stuff. It felt very special...very very special.

I don't feel like there's a spring in my step yet, but ask me again at the end of the experiment.

Still cycling....

Yeah, still cycling...I feel myself calming down a little, although when a car approaches me I literally have to tell myself to chill - to talk myself into calmness. Does anyone out there know anything about brakes? I've googled it and stuff, but I am still having a hard time changing into lower gears. When are you supposed to change when you're going uphill, as soon as the hill starts, or after you've sweated a little? Should you go like 3 left gears in one go, or change progressively then cycle, then change? Is it normal for the chain to dislodge from time to time when the gears don't engage properly?

Any help would be welcome. I still pray each time I get onto the machine...but its getting easier...

Be good.

More things they don't tell you when you buy a bike:

1. Insects. They will crash into your glasses, and into your face, and some may even make a play for your mouth. Which of course will disconcert you and cause your steering to flounder, and hence propel you into the nearest bushes on the side of the heavily populated road. As a result all the people will burst into fits of laughter but you will try to stand up and salvage your dignity by picking up your bike and getting back on it. Not that this has happened to anyone you understand...

2. Wear sensible shoes. Sandals. No.

3. You need confidence to be a good cyclist. You need to cycle more to gain confidence. You need confidence to get on the bicycle. You need to get on the bike more often to gain confidence. You need confidence to get on the bike....get the picture?

Ah folks. Its not all doom and gloom though. I got home in 3 minutes flat today because I took the shortcut that I usually walk in 15 minutes. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Happy cycling!