It's the last day of July, rather scary as the year seems to have gone by really quickly. It's like those dreams that I sometimes have, when you go from one New Year's to the next, to the next Christmas and so on, without having the year in between - it's like your whole life is just going by so incredibly fast. When I think that it's August 2002, and something inside me still thinks that October 2000 (for example) wasn't that long ago, I get that scary feeling that life is just disappearing from underneath my feet. But then again, when I finally think about things, time doesn't really go that quickly and a shit load has happened, it's just the way that my mind perceives things.

July will have to be remembered as the month when I worked lots, throughout the holidays I actually managed to get some good hours, and even now that I'm back at university I can still do pretty good hours each week, as my assignments aren't piling up quite yet.

It's been a strange month, and I'm still not quite sure how things are going to end up, as sometimes it seems that things are getting better when maybe nothing is happening and you're just feeling better because you're ignoring what's going wrong. I have a tendency to just ignore things that are going wrong rather than confronting them, just focusing myself on the good parts, or on things that are OK. The problem is that nothing really gets solved, and it probably ends up biting me on the ass.

Back into the pattern of university life, and it seems that this semester is going to be quite a challenge, especially my research paper for geography. Although we get to go on a field trip to Hastings, which will be lots of fun as I haven't actually been out of Auckland since November last year (I know that's shocking!), it promises to be a lot of work as I need to basically write a mini-thesis and come up with something original to write about.

It's nice that this is my last semester of university, although I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing next year. I do want to try my luck at something related to what I have been studying over the past three years - something more akin to what I would want to be doing as a career rather than just McDonald's work. However, as I plan to go back to university for another two years in 2004 and 2005 to do my Masters, it would be nice to have McDonald's to fall back upon as a part-time job (unless I can get a part-time job related to geography). Maybe next year's a chance for me to travel a bit, I know that Nats has plans to go to Australia, and I think that maybe working there - even if it happens to be at an Australian McDonald's - would be an experience that I would enjoy, and something a bit more interesting than staying here in Auckland for the whole of next year grinding out $9.64 an hour fulltime. But who knows?........

Election Day on Saturday, and yes I did vote - unlike about 25% of the registered voting population who couldn't be bothered getting off their fat asses and having their say in who runs our country for the next three years. Oh well, as they say if you didn't vote then you can't complain, so I guess these people will have to put up and shut up - although it's interesting to note that more people didn't vote than people who voted for National, I just had to put that in... ha ha ha ha....

Back to university, and back to 6am wake up calls this morning, and I think that both Nats and myself still felt like zombies by the time we got into town, I know that it's good to get an early start because you get so much more done and it gives me the chance to study in the mornings - but it is nice to sleep in from time to time, although waking up at 9am on a Sunday morning now feels like a good sleep in.

It's good to see that Labour is once again going to be the government (I guess I'm slightly giving away who I voted for here), as I think they've done a pretty good job over the past three years. The problem with being the government is that New Zealand is such a diverse country that no matter what you do you're always going to piss somebody off - fortunately I think that Helen Clark and the Labour party's bottom line, and the thing that they most want to achieve, is to make New Zealand a better country. Not to regain power again and again for the sake of it, not necessarily to please certain people in society, but to make the country a better place for most people living here - and I think that they're on that path, and the future does look better than it has for quite some time.

It's the end of my first week back at university, and it all seems to have gone by fairly quickly. I guess that's because I've only got 8 hours of lectures a week, and that's all there's been so far because all my tutorials and labs don't start until next week.

It was funny sitting in history today, talking to a guy who I've been in about 3 different paper with (first met him in the first ever history paper I did), and glancing around the lecture theatre seeing faces that have been in my various history papers over the last three years. I actually felt as though I was a third year student, that I had been around university for quite a while. It's strange, because I did notice at the start of my second year that "wow, I'm no longer a dorky first year", but that for some reason it hasn't really clicked so far this year that I'm a third year student. In fact, the whole year seems to have whizzed by incredibly quickly, it only seems like last week was the first day of the year.

Typical university, after about 2 or 3 days back it really doesn't seem like you ever had a break. At least all my papers this semester seem to be fairly interesting - although I know that my research geography paper will be a really big challenge as it's something I know that I'm not that great at (thinking up of a topic and then doing research before presenting a big project), but I know that it's something I need to improve upon if I'm going to end up doing a Masters the year after next, as I will have to write a thesis.

I had work this morning, first time I've worked before having university for the day - and it was actually pretty cool, although incredibly busy (as Wednesdays always are) which can have its up-side, as there are heaps of people on the floor as well as time going by pretty quickly.

The election is only a few days away now, and for the first time the result possibly seems to be a little doubt, as Labour have managed to lose about 10-12% of the vote throughout the last month. I guess that was reasonably predictable, as people often agree with the government as long as things are going OK, unless they are provided with a well-explained alternative, which has happened during the election campaign. I'm fairly decided upon who I'm going to vote for (don't think I'm going to tell you!), and it's likely that I am going to split my vote (under NZ's rather confusing MMP system!)

I'm back at university now, first day back and it does seem like quite a long time since I had my last lecture. That's obvious as it has been almost 6 weeks since then I think. It's the last semester of my degree, and hopefully it won't be quite as busy as last semester as I only have three papers this time. My two geography papers are focused on Human Geography, which will be interesting as I have focused more on the environmental side of the topic over the last year - and one of them is a research paper which will be something completely new for me.

The holidays have been interesting, I managed to get decent hours at work for once - which has meant that hopefully I might have some money saved in the bank for once. Problem is that I still owe about $900 which always means that I have no money in some respects, which is frustrating. At least I have the ability to say that I've got through university without a student loan, and I'm sure that in the future I will thank myself and the people who have helped me achieve this, as it will make things easier in the future.

I went to a couple of work outings over the weekend, with the McDonald's one at Westfield in Henderson where we went ten pin bowling, had a meal and got to play free pool all for $20, and then Nats' work party to say goodbye to Terry (he almost didn't turn up!) at Planet Hollywood. It was good, although having a slight hangover for the first day at university wasn't that great - although I did manage to sleep it off.

Half way through the last week of my holidays now, and in some ways it does seem like a long time since I was at University, especially since I had my last lectures. But it's back to uni next week, for the last semester of my degree - I'm only a few months away from completing my three year project.

Talking about university, I got back my marks yesterday - and I must admit that I was surprisingly pleased with them: 2 A-'s for both my Geography papers, a B+ for history and a B for Philosophy. I thought that I was going to do a bit worse in one of my geo. papers and my Philosophy papers so in the end it's a pretty good result - means that I've always got A's for my geography papers which is the most important thing because that's my major.

I worked over 55 hours last week - a record for me, which was good because it means that for once I've got a decent amount of money in the bank (at least by tomorrow when I get paid!)

The end of the week! Yay for once Friday really does seem like a great relief - as I was the working person this week doing pretty long shifts from Monday to Friday. It was reasonably quiet today, which is good in some ways as it means that you don't get run off your feet, but it also means that time goes by a bit slower. And it's not as interesting - as I quite like the busyness.

I got back the first of my university marks tonight - an A- for Environmental Geography which I guess is a pretty good mark, but since I get the feeling that was the best of my subjects by quite a bit I don't really want the others to be that much below it. They should be out pretty soon over the next week, which may or may not be a good thing. I guess I'll decide that when I get them back.

Back at work today, and another long day for me. Seems as though I'm always doing long shifts these days - although it's a good thing because it means that I'm earning pretty good money during the holidays.

Nats is feeling quite a lot better now, seems as though she should be good enough to work by the end of the week - it has been a while since she was at work. Nearly 2 weeks.

The election isn't that far away now, less than three weeks I think and it's exciting as I get to vote for the first time, after the last 4 elections watcing it on TV and wondering who I would vote for if I was old enough I finally get the chance. I've pretty much made up my mind (don't think I'm going to tell you!), but the actual result of the election seems to be in a little bit of doubt - even though the main parties seem to have rather similar policies. It will be interesting....

Had a loooooong day at work, it's so damn busy during the school holidays that there's hardly time to have a rest - just a mad rush all the time just about. But at least it means that I'm getting the good hours (kind of) which is necessary as I'm as poor as a church mouse. (Where does that saying come from?)

Feeling rather tired, must sleep..........

So Brazil won the soccer world cup, not altogether unsurprisingly as Germany didn't really play that well. Funnily enough I don't think that Brazil played their best, but it was a pretty good match and wasn't a repeat of the 0-0 draw of 1994. So it didn't have to go to penalties which was a good thing.

It's been back to work at Maccas this week, and they've changed everything once again. Fortunately this time it isn't another price rise, but the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday specials have changed. It's pretty cool I think, although it's been bloody busy over the last couple of days.

Nats is feeling a bit better now, although the change is pretty slow and she still feels like crap most of the time - but at least there's some progress being made and she's on the mend. Which is a relief as things really seemed to stay the same over the past week.