Well, it's been almost 6 months since my last journal - stupid length of time really. Ok, news:

I'm working. It's not medical though, I'm doing this really crappy job in a dry cleaners for sub-minimum wage. Still, it's better than the dole, I was a year on the dole and I didn't see a penny until after I got work. Even then it was only £350 the miserly bastards. I'm looking for work that suits me better on the back of this however, so stay tuned...

I got engaged on new years day, right after midnight! She's a deviant and an activist, you can find her at ~Individual00. She lives in Leeds, which is a long way from London, so I'll be moving there if I can find a job there. I may end up crashing in her bed for a while but I don't think either of us will mind that...

Things are slow on the activism front right now, partly cos aint much happening, and partly because I'm stuck working 10 hours every saturday. Got G8 in the summer though, and DSEi in September, so the year shouldn't be a complete waste of time. I should probably use the down time to brush up on old skills.

On the subject of Charing Cross - for those who know what I'm referring to - I may be about to move onto the next step. More on that elsewhere. It took a lot of hassle though, a bloody lot of hassle!

I was browsing for information on the invasion of Lebanon when I stumbled across this [link] . It's a blog which captures with both words and images the real humanitarian effects that war has. People displaced, homes destroyed, lives ended. I am not saying Hezbollah was right to fire rockets into a civilian city, but Israel is just as wrong to drop bombs on a civilian city. Both as a humanitarian, and as a former member of the British army, I can not see any circumstance or any provocation which justifies the slaughter of civilians. A fighter or a soldier is trained to do battle, and does so accepting the risks of death or injury, this is not the case with a civilian. I'll warn you, some of the images are of charred bodies and other things that you may find upsetting.

Polo, my kitten, died this morning. She was a couple of months old and she had a hole in the heart. The hole meant Polo couldn't run or jump like other kittens, but she was adventurous none the less. Polo loved to snuggle people, she used to snuggle into my chest while I was reading a book. I think she liked my heartbeat, babies like heartbeats for some reason. I was reading today, she was curled up on my chest, and I felt her heart stop. She was buried in the garden this afternoon. Normally, when I bury my sisters various neglected pets I mark the spot with a stone. This time I planted flowers instead, I wanted something living to return to rather than a dead stone.

Got a monster of a chest infection, can't breathe. Feels like death. The meds I'm taking for it are helping to sort out the infection, but mixing narrow-spectrum macrolide antibiotics with a steroid and an opioid can only lead to shittyness. I've now got nausea, abdominal pain, I'm irritable and I'm completely paranoid. Please somebody just fucking shoot me.

I've been at the Revolution UK national conference this weekend. Got some solid work done in the daytime, while at night I got to socialise with members from across England. More details can be found in various threads on here: [link]

I'll write some more when I'm less tired.