New Hostel-Birthday

So perhaps tomorrow was a bit overzealous..

The Philharmonia Orchestra was incredible. Music has always had a strong hold over me and I can easily use it to change my mood but that was intense. I described it on another site as Beautifully emotionally exhausting. Which I think describes the evening.

Next came my birthday weekend. I left the Nottinghill hostel early in the morning, after paying the receptionist to store my bike there for the next week. Me, Ashley and Claire spent my birthday wave boarding around Friary park. And in the evening after dark we came back to go on the child's playground..

Saturday the plan was first to go paintballing, which changed to going to the beach. But the traffic was so bad the people we had planned to go with had already been and left the beach. So we met up with them in Basildon to just do something, this was possibly the last time I would see my friends in a while so it did not truly matter what we did, as long as they were present. And it turned out to be a great day anyway, we played some pool and 2 games of quasar.

Then we decided to all stay there overnight, so the next day we went swimming and then spent some time at a park.

The swimming was a breakthrough for me. That was the first time I have ever been swimming with my friends, barring a small bit of tubing I did in Thailand with Emily, which I did not feel comfortable about.

But I felt GREAT, I love swimming. My back felt better because there was hardly any pressure on it.

Then me and Ashley headed back to london Sunday night.

Monday morning I woke up at 8am, got straight on this laptop and planned the next leg of my journey. I booked a new hostel in London near Wilsden Green called the 247. I also booked my first hostel in paris the "Perfect Hostel/Hotel" hopefully it will live up to its name. And I booked a national express coach from London to Paris on the 13th.

Yesterday I woke up early, took my old laptop down to the post office to send it off to be sold. Then I made my way to this new hostel which is AMAZING compared to the last one it is:

Clean
None smoking (the last one was meant to be but it was a loose definition)
The people are nice, including a lovely host.
There are 3 kitchens fully fitted with microwave, ovens, hobs, plates, cups, mugs, free drinks.
The rooms are bigger with less beds
A fridge in the room
A table in the room
Free lockers
ample sitting space in the common room and dining area
wifi that reaches everywhere in the hostel!

And the kicker? It. Costs. Less.

Okay, time to live another day!