Edinburgh City Centre

Hogmanay Festival - Torchlight Procession, Edinburgh

Fountains Abbey, West Yorkshire

Skipton Castle, Yorkshire

One more surprise birthday, Lancashire

My Aunty Hilary surprises me with a birthday cake on Boxing Day, yum.

Diagnosis: over eating traditional english goodness

Kev and his second cousin (Dr) Reece.

Ant Colony on Oxford Street

Hectic last minute shopping while I'm stuck inside doing hectic last minute work. And the torture doesn't stop there, Christmas carols are being blasted out too.

Controversial

Apologies to those who thought I had joined of my own free will, it was a birthday surprise gone awry and after I blew my stack it's been taken down (along with the personal information that was entered fraudulently).
Rant at will I may, but I do understand how the culprits thought it would be funny, from their point of view.
And was I tempted by all the friend request I had, perhaps at first, but on closer inspection half weren't sincere and filled with overly vain profile pictures leaving a MySpace after taste.
Yes, I will miss out on many photo albums I'd love to see, and I've left myself open to Wall-to-wall bagging but I don't care.
I've been employed in a job where I'm required to work, and out of that time I'd rather not leave naughty comments on your wall or poke anyone thanks. And that's my conscious choice.
But as has just been shown, anyone can be easily impersonated on this or any other social network, does that concern you at all?

Scary Santa

The main Santa is a jewelers Christmas branding. The inset Santa is at our local mall, children were lining up to have a photo taken with a person wearing this giant foam head. It was a scary sight.

Covent Garden Markets

Off to Covent Gardens to meet Toni and Debra F. Debra is over for the weekend from Dublin, and even though it's been a mild weekend in London, we still can't convince her to move over.

Louder than the whispering gallery

Distant view of Westminster and Waterloo from St Paul's Cathedral roof.
Part of a day of birthday surprises from Kev followed by my sister's Sloane Square surprise.

Waiting for The Mighty Boosh to get on stage

I won tickets to see The Mighty Boosh live at the O2, and was accompanied by a workmate to explain what might not make sense to someone who missed the cult followed show.
I've seen the show once, if you haven't a clip on youtube won't explain much either.
Was a crack up though, and a sign that left-field english humour is still alive.

Staff Christmas party

Charly, Kev, Pam & Chris.
My work Christmas party - open bar on a Monday equals a very rough Tuesday.

Colchester & Coldplay

Playing with squirrels while waiting for a castle to open.


Coldplay working the crowd, and only ten meters away. Guest staring Simon Pegg on harmonica for two songs.

Happy Birthday Kev

Following family faith

Kev and I have finally found a local. The food isn't quiet like the CBH, but that's probably a good thing...

Pain is beauty (and embarrassment)

Clutch thrust race

This is a bad clutch, a good one just set me back £230 and I got a new shiny radiator to match.
Merry Christmas you stupid french pile o' crap.

Royal Academy of Arts, London

Visting the Byzantium exhibit. The sighting of a beret never seems sincere at a museum.

Willing the gauge

My car overheats when idling in London traffic, before a second attempt to get mechanics to fix it I tried to get the car to overheat. Finding some stop start traffic wasn't very easy and I had to will the gauge to 90. The good news is the radiator leaked on the forecoart for the mechanic, the bad news is the pending quote on Monday.

Brass section

Fat Freddies Drop at Camden's Roundhouse - with a high percentage of kiwis enjoying the sounds.

All Stops to Heathrow

Hayley and Niki are finally on their way to Thailand, fingers crossed. It was a quick tube farewell to prevent tears, as Hayley pointed out we'll be 27 the next time we see each other. I think that was her way of distracting me from the thought of not seeing them for 1.5 years, by throwing out a number closer to 30 than 25. Did I mention I'm going to be 25 again this year?

North Regent Street

Sunday Farewell Roast

With Hayley and Niki's flights delayed, so were good byes. And good bye to Movember please Timo?