Hooray, exams are finally over. At last the real purpose of this trip can be achieved. I haven't done nearly enough sightseeing or wandering. I’ll be going to Scotland in July to do the West Highlands walk with my cousin Christine. I can’t wait to see how it compares to Tassie. The walk is about twice as long as the Overland Track but doesn't seem to be as difficult. The plan is to have the van ready by then and take it to Scotland as a test drive. Should be hilarious.

So anyway, the bane of my existence has been this part for the van windscreen wiper called a wheel box. Even the most avid car nut probably wouldn't have heard of it as it hasn’t been used in any vehicle for about the past 20 years… probably because it’s crap. A few days after I wrote my last blog entry I went back to the scrap yard as planned and began unscrewing everything on the Sherpa they had. The rain began to pour and 20 minutes later it became obvious that the part I was after was completely different to the one in front of me. The bloke at the yard said that old Mini’s also used the part I was after. The trouble was the Mini he had was perched above a couple of other cars about two storeys high and he wasn’t willing to fire up the forklift and bring it down for me. The other option was to climb up on a ladder and I was actually considering this for a while but after taking into account the pouring rain and the incompetent brova who was holding the ladder, decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

Thus, defeated I decided to fork out and buy the part off the shelf. I the end I had to purchase the entire wiper unit including motor and have it couriered from somewhere down south at a cost of £55. The box it came in was about 1m x 1m x 20cm but the bit I needed was tiny as you can see. (I really need to put up more interesting pictures eh?)

A few days ago one of my neighbours helped me put it in along with some new brakes I bought. Things are starting to come together but I will only relax if and when the van passes a roadworthy test which will hopefully be sometime next week.

The weather is really improving here and we’ve had temperatures above 30 this week. Just like it cant cope with very cold weather, this country cannot cope with very hot weather. Just about all the air conditioning at the cinema broke down as did the ice machines and Coke towers. So basically we had a couple of days without soft drinks… the cinema’s most profitable product.

Got the shock of my life a couple of weeks ago when I went to a central London club for the first time with some people from work. Before that it has mainly been pubs and clubs locally or around uni. It was someone’s birthday so we were on the guest list. Nevertheless, the cover charge was, wait for it, £14! (AU$35) I’ve never even paid AU$14 to get into a club before. Most people, me included, only make about £5-7 an hour. Drinks were also ridiculously priced. £6.50 for basics. Good thing I’d had a few travellers. Anyway, it was an interesting experience.

Adam and I booked a tour of the Middle East a couple of days ago. 28 days in Egypt, Jordan and Syria starting in December. We were planning on doing a slightly longer one which included Turkey with another company but the company we booked with just happened to have a huge 3 day sale. Well it wasn’t huge because there were only 250 discounted tickets but the discounts themselves were huge. Basically all we are paying is about £250 (AU$630) plus airfares and insurance when the regular price is closer to £1000 (AU$2500) plus airfares and insurance. You can barely live a month off that and we’re going to be traipsing round the pyramids and sailing down the Nile. Can you tell I’m excited?

Euro 2004 fever is building up around the country (the continent even) and people are getting very patriotic and hanging St Georges flag out of their cars and in their house windows. The first game is on Sunday and not surprisingly I’m working because every other guy at the cinema has asked for it off. Also, Wimbledon starts in 10 days. I’ll have to get along with my Aussie flag and cheer on the Poo and co.