The Christmas break provided a good chance to kick back and relax. This year we headed up to South Golden Beach for a week, to spend the holidays with Jacqui’s Mum and the rest of her family. Days were spent reading, playing board games, visiting the beach (at the end of the street), eating at various cafes in the area and generally taking life easy. (photos)

After that it was back to Sydney for New Years and a party at Amanda & Azan’s house, affectionately known as Club Brookvale. Naturally, given that the girls had organised it, it was fancy dress and the theme was 1970s Pimps and Porn Stars. Myself and Jacqui skipped the Pimps and Porn Stars bit and opted for the 1970s hippy look, mainly because that’s all you could get around Byron! The scary thing is that our outfit aren’t the usual deals, cobbled together from the local Vinnie’s. They’re brand new, purchased from a shop selling such clothing, so clearly there’s a market for this stuff in Byron. Scary! Either that or they’ve based their entire business plan on holiday-makers looking for hippy fancy dress outfits?? (photos)

I’ve just uploaded a couple of albums taken over the last month. First up is the World Cup Downhill Skiing from Lake Louise a few weeks ago. It was -20C outside, and these women were hurtling down the hill at 120km/h. We were freezing our asses off just watching them, so I hope they have heated race suits or something!

When myself and Jacqui got to Ireland, Dad took us to visit Newgrange, Ireland’s most important prehistoric site. It’s a burial mound, built over 5000 years ago and oriented to sunrise on the winter solstice.

Jacqui’s brother, Mark, arrived for his first visit to Dublin, so I took himself and Jacqui on a walking tour of Dublin, featuring such highlights as Temple Bar, O’Connell St., the LUAS and Dublin’s oldest pub, the Brazen Head.

Finally, I had Christmas with my parents, so there’s photos of the day’s festivities.

Despite all the travails in getting there, I had a great time in Dublin. It was great seeing friends and family again and showing Jacqui and Mark around Dublin. Mum did a great job cooking up a storm, including my requested dishes of Pork Roast, Beef Wellington and non-baked cheesecake, and Dad made multiple trips to and from the airport without complaint.

Christmas Day was great fun too. Mark had arrived a few days beforehand from the UK, Clíona & Dave came over, along with Dave’s family, so we had a good gang around for dinner.

As for presents, Mum & Dad got me a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for my SLR which was a big surprise. It’s great for taking photos in low light without a flash, as evidenced by the photo of myself and Jacqui above, and I got quite a few good photos from the day’s festivities. I’ll get around to sticking them up on the site in the next few days.