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?

Camden Lock Markets

Hayley is so happy because I finally finished my Christmas shopping for the day.

Start your day with a healthy serving of vehicular damage

The skip was parked behind my car less than a week ago and emptied this morning. What sucks the most is I'd been meaning to move it thinking this would happen but hadn't gotten to it yet. And no, the skip driver didn't leave his contact details - so begins another nightmare battle for compensation.

Bengal Village, Brick Lane

Hayley and Niki's leaving dinner

Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

It snowed most of Monday, and unfortunately everything but shops and pubs were closed. As the weather got worse over the weekend, the highlight of the trip was definitely Bruges - we could have easily spent the whole weekend there relaxing instead of trudging in the cold from one train station to the next.

Castle of the Counts, Ghent

And just to mix things up, it's snowing.

Bauhaus Bar, Bruges

After a day of hail, medieval buildings, canal rides, waffles and chocolate we're in the hotel bar for the AB's vs Wales.

Falling on my head like a memory

Hail outside the Gruuthuse Museum, 15th-century palace, Bruges

Brussels, Belgium

Portobello Road, Notting Hill

Shepherd's warning

Movember

Kev, Hayley and Timo in Wax - Rewind back to the 90s

Georges Marvellous Medicine

Green frog preparations, this should explain the behaviour that followed on the tube into town.
All photography credit and rights belong to Toni + Facebook...

Katie on tour

Katie's flying visit to London

Workplace paparazzo

Photographed by.

Kanye West, 02 Arena

Two hours on stage with just a microphone. Low-light was a rant about critics and award shows, High-light was Estelle coming out on stage after, for American Boy.

Regent St Christmas lights

Brought to you by Spiderman?

Millmount Martello Tower overlooking Drogheda

Closing time at O'Sheas, Drogheda

And then Kev dropped the bottle of Bulmers

Earth Nightclub, Drogheda

We're getting the old gang back together! 2.5 years on.

Dublin's Guinness Factory

Kev and Cillian enjoying free pints of the black stuff

Primark home land

Arsenal draws 0-0 with Fenerbahce

Plenty of chants from both sides of supporters. No 'who ate all the pies' though, which was a minor let down for my first English football match. But the guy next to us ate his pie with a plastic fork and they didn't server beer - what a culture shock from the rugby experience!

A late Halloween entry

Cleopatra, Wicked Witch, Minnie Mouse, Goth, Sarah Palin (Devil Woman) and Pirate

Golders Green

The trek home from North-West heading East is a painfully long journey, especially in an English drizzle.