back in London...

its thursday afternoon and i am sitting in the Glow Lounge looking out the window at the dreary, rain-soaked day we are having today... not really a surprise, though. it is quite good to be back in London, i've missed it quite a bit. it really hit me when Vikki and i got off the tube at Clapham South station, going to her place after i landed, and we walked out onto the High Street, probably the place i spent the most time; it made me really miss it. i didn't get much sleep tuesday night due to the combimation of talking with Vikki into the wee, small hours of the morning and my body clock being six hours behind UK time. Vikki, luckily, had taken yesterday off, so we both got to be quite lazy about getting up. when we finally did, we walked around the city, starting out on the South Bank, walking to House of Parliament/Big Ben, then ending up at Trafalgar Square; it was such a lovely, sunny day and so nice to be with Vikki.

we had Sam's Stag do (bachelor party) last night and man, was it ever fun. it was really good to see people i haven't seen since i left (well.... obviously i haven't seen them). we started the evening at a pub just across from Canary Wharf tube station, which is one of the coolest tube stations i've been to. the Canary Wharf area was incredibly cool as well, with its tall, modern skyscrapers, its quite a contrast from the rest of London. after the pub we went to this abandoned warehouse (sounds a bit menacing, doesn't it) to take part in many heated games of paintball. now, i've never been paintballing and i didn't really know what to expect, i know that it stings quite a bit to get hit, but thats about it. i was a bit nervous at frist, but it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. in the various games we played, i mainly acted as the sharp shooter, staying back and trying to snipe people from a distance, so i only got shot once and that was on my mask so i didn't feel it. others who were a ton more daring than i got pelted in various painful ways through out the night. after that we went to a restaurant near Canary Wharf station, then on to a pretty exclusive 'club' in central London called Embassy, luckily Sam's brother Tom had gone there a few days back and put our name on the list, otherwise we would not have been able to get in. all in all, the night was incredibly fun with all the festivities and being able to catch up with old friends.