21 February

Had a long lay in and spent the day mostly reading. In the evening, went over to Dan's to help him prepare for an interview at DWP on Monday and had dinner.

20 February

Went to Bluewater with Grant in the day and watched The Wolfman at the cinema. In the evening, went over to Dave's for a get together. Dan from Charlotte, North Carolina, was visiting Dave. James came up from Kent and crashed out within about two hours.

19 February

Spent the day at the Policy Network Progressive Governance Conference at One Great George Street in Westminster. There were a lot of high profile speakers at the event including David Miliband (Foreign Secretary), Peter Mandelson (First Secretary of State), Pascal Lamy (Director General of the World Trade Organisation), Jens Stoltenberg (Norwegian PM), George Papandreou (Greek PM), Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (Spanish PM) and Gordon Brown (British PM). In the evening, went to Southwark Playhouse and saw The Hostage and then met Jez and Prakesh at the Duke of Wellington.

18 February

Worked during the day and saw Grant in the evening. Had a massive sort out of my room as it was resembling a bomb site.

17 February

Worked during the day and had a meeting with Oxford Economics in the afternoon to discuss progress of the London Working Futures report and the format for the seminar they are holding next week. In the evening, went to my drama group in Leytonstone to audition for Stags and Hens by Willy Russell. The place where our drama group rehearses is a nursery during the day and there are a lot of scary displays everywhere of children doing 'structured' activities in the day...I'm sure I just played with lego bricks and sand at playschool; nothing about 'structured fun'....

16 February

Back to work today. Had my eye check-up in the afternoon and then my Spanish lesson in the evening.

15 February

Grant and I left the hotel in the morning and drove back home. Got back to England around 6:30pm. The pictures are of us travelling, going over the border into Belgium and then a few pictures taken on the ferry to Dover.

14 February

Grant and I walked through Vondelpark, which was right next to our hotel. We then went for some breakfast and walked around Amsterdam. In the afternoon we went to the Anne Frank museum. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant and then went to the Torture Museum. A very very cold Valentines day!