Yes, I know I haven't been very good at updating over the last few months. As usual, I just put it off and put it off and I end up not being bothered about it and then when it comes come to write about something, I realise that I have to write about everything else first and basically it just all gets piled up and puts me off more.

So, in an effort to not make this a 3,000 word entry, I will keep it as short as possible and perhaps come back to any details in the future.

Firstly, my birthday was great. I didn't think it'd be anything special, but it was actually pretty cool. Lots of people said happy birthday to me in University and I even got some birthday cards. Hannah, my housemate, along with Kim and Matt got me a birthday cake too! I was so happy. Tom and Alycia even came round and gave me an awesome remote controlled Super Mario Kart. I'm still not over them both but I appreciated them spending the time and money coming to see me and buying me something.

For the next few weeks, my time was spent working for Spira Creative and it was an awfully boring existance. I regret choosing them to do my work based learning with because I had the opportunity really get out there and get my name heard. Instead, I was stuck in a crap little office for five weeks with no pay, working on projects that I could have been earning a hell of a lot of money for.

There was some good news, however. Ilya, one of my friends in University called me up and said that he had a mate that needed a website doing. I went to see him and it turned out that he needed a total ecommerce package. While I couldn't offer the ecommerce side of things, I could offer the design. I said that I would ask Spira to do the ecommerce side of things. Eventually, I ended up earning �200 for what was essentially a weekend's work.

I also did some paid work for Spira but it wasn't taken very well. They offered me �400 to do the work but I said it was worth more than that. They get really pissed off at me because I said it was worth more. I even emailed Alan, one of my University tutors to ask what he thinks I'm worth. He said that �12.50 is reasonable. I said that I'd work for �12.50 and they agreed. However, because they knew they were paying me by the hour, they were very very strict on the kind of hours I was working and they hovered over my shoulder every hour. Eventually, I ended up doing 25 hours work for them over the course of 4 scattered days. It wasn't enjoyable and I was happy when I had complete the work. In total, Spira now owe me �325 but they have yet to pay because they're having trouble with the client deciding what they want. It's been roughly two months since the end of my work on it and I would like my �325. I'm going to give it another four weeks before calling Matthew again and talking to him about it.

I went paintballing with all of my Liverpudlian friends in May and it was fun, although it ended in agony. I managed to twist my ankle really badly towards the end of the day unfortunately. I had fun, though as I've always wanted to do paintballing. The only thing that would have made it better is it you were allowed to just shoot people as many times as you want. Instead, it was a one hit and you're out policy. But still fun.

All of the running around made my feet feel worse due to one of the two problems I have with them so it's become a little harder to walk now.

I spent �200 on a birthday gift for my Mum. It was still two months away at the same but I overheard her saying that she wanted a pearl necklace. I searched and searched to find an antique one, but sadly, they were either really really expensive or simply horrible. Instead, I found a beautiful jade bracelet. My Mum is a big fan of jade so I'm hoping she'll like it. There was a little bit of a mix up on the seller's part and he sent me the wrong item but after I had sent it back, he sent me the correct item and even threw in a jade pendant for free.

On July 2nd, I went for my operation on the sole of my foot and I was amazed with how quick I was in and out of the operating theatre and back home again on the same day. I was only in hospital for about 4 hours altogether. For the next two weeks, I was on crutches and I've been very bored in the house. I got the stitches taken out a week ago and it's healing well. I go back to see the doctor August 12th.

I've just contracted a programmer to redesign my portfolio website. I posted it on a job listing site and I ended up getting six different offers, mostly from people in India. While I have nothing against Indian people, there's such a language barrier and it's making it difficult to communicate what I want. On the plus side, I'm only paying out �150, which is a lot less than what some of the other offers were. Some were �600 and �700.

Also, through this job listing I've realised that if I need someone to complete anything like another ecommerce site then I have a few contacts that I could now rely on to get the job done and we then both get paid.

I think that's all of my news for now in a fairly condensed form. I will try to keep this diary updated more often from now on, although once University starts again it always gets more difficult. But thanks for continuing to read!