Happy Christmas

"So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, a new one just begun..."

So in reply to the opener of Lennons 'Merry Christmas, War is Over' I could recap unquestionably the most eventful year of my life. One that started on cruches back on the Thai island of Koh Phangan, saw me learn to Scuba dive on Koh Tao, relax like there was no issues left to be dealt with left on earth in Koh Lanta. February saw an emotional fairwell to South East Asia and my Australian epic began in Perth (where England just gave up the Ashes). A little livin, a little workin, then a move on to Melbourne, a holiday on holiday if you will. The atmosphere was electric for the Commonwealth Games and I saw some great scenery before heading back for some more back packing in Thailand and Brunei.

On to Sydney where I would gain some employment and exploit living in New South Wales as much as possible; galleries, horse riding, beach days, bike riding and snowboarding to name a few. After my birthday in August I made my way North for the Winter, taking in the gems of the East Coast, diving from an aeroplane and a live-aboard boat on the Great Barrier Reef. Homeward bound through Auckland, finding something like paradise in the Cook Islands and then an amazing trip around California in my adopted V6 Mustang before enjoying my final days away from home in Manhattan.

That short break at home was almost enough to catch up with everyone before I headed back to Sydney via Dubai where I've been working, living and partying for the last 2 months... but anyone who reads regularly will know all that already. So a big thanks if you are one of those people, it means a lot whenever I get any feedback for what I've done, written or photographed.

I can't believe I'm sat here writing another Christmas blog entry already - I could say the year has flown by, but the blog at least serves to remind how much I packed into 2006.

So for 2007! I know I won't ever get a year as eventful as this last one, and if I get one half as so, then I'll be very lucky. I have a million and one ideas of what I'd like to achieve, but for now, I'm enjoying soaking up a little reality whilst I'm back in the working world.

Thanks again, best wishes for the festive season and the coming new year, may it be lucky and prosperous.

Yer old buddy, Luke

Thankyou!!

First 5000 hits...

Since April 2006, the hit counter for this website has been ticking, and has now clocked past 5000 hits... okay 4800 of them may have been me, and 183 my mum, but a big thanks to everyone that's taken the time out to have a read and look at my shenannigans. It's been way too much fun creating the stuff I've been writing about.

Cheers!

Black & White

Party Season,

After the amount of abuse self-served up last weekend, my intention for the week was to lay low. A task I think managed remarkebly well. A few nights in with a book, a night out at the IMAX with a great meal at Wildfire overlooking the Opera House and a long hard Friday where I managed to cull my usual Friday night habbit and instead take a night off the big time to play some 360... yeah, that's right - video games on a Friday night!

There was a deeper reason for all this other than just wussing out, the works Christmas party.


So after a morning shopping trip to Bondi Junction, we were ready get dressed up in monotone for the evenings procedings. You can guess the theme of the party from the pictures I'm sure, but then venue was filled with colour, as well as dozens of pool, fussball, pinball and air hockey tables for free-play. Wine, Champagne and several beers were freely available along with canopes and side-show style food stalls.

A live band played out some hits, while some Cirque-Du Soleil dancers took centre point in the pavillion twirling up and down their ribbons in sync.

After much smoozing, boozin and eatin the food, all was left to do was dance the night away...

A quick trip into Kings Cross capped off a great fun night for all, though with that much bubbly consumed, I'm pretty sure there were to be some headaches the next morning.

After sleeping out most of the AM part of Sunday, I spoke to a mate on the phone who informed of how great the weather outside was - sure enough I had a peek and the Blue sky contracted my pupils quicker than a typical English Ashes innings (which is pretty quick).

Out of bed like a kid at Christmas, I headed down to Coogee beach for a sun bake and dip. Az, Jazz and Vards were all down there so we had some time to reflect on a great night out at the Hordern.

Righ after that, myself and Aaron headed off for some Lawn Bowls to see out the sunny afternoon in possibly the most relaxing sporting style. There we met a whole bunch of other friends where we ate BBQ snacks, and sipped down on some $9 jugs of beer.

Another Sunday dinner session at the palace put the curtains down on another great weekend.

Buy it in Bottles

House Warmer, Sydney

In a single week I managed to partake in three sporting passtimes. Sunday Squash, Wednesday Tennis followed by another first for me; Thursday Netball. A sport I'd always known was predominantly played by girls and non-contact at that... I still managed to give myself mild concussion when I collided with some dudes shoulder in the 1st half of the 1st game. I soldiered on, but 5minutes later I could see nothing but a yellow blur in my left eye so decided that without depth perception, I was probably no good to anybody. I saw out the rest of the game from the sidelines, but was back for game no.2 where I ran myself ragged in the Centre position. Game No.3 and my week of sports was taking it's toll, though I just about managed to see it through till full time. Blistered and without so much of an arch under my feet, I heavy footed it home with my partner in sporting crime, Azz.

So came the weekend, a slightly spontaneous Friday night with work mate Paul followed by my house warming party on Saturday.


A great little turnout made it considering how short a time I've been here, the songs played out as the mid afternoon sun warmed us, Decca made his way in to town too. I showed the Ozzies how to do a real BBQ (ie. coals rather than gas) English style... snags with one side blackened for effect ;) Later on the party left and carried on at the Coogee Beach Hotel in to the early hours. A Sunday of sore heads and sizzlin' sunshine followed. Not a highly productive day other than the hosing down of the appartment - looking a little worse for wear before the cleaning began.


The weekend played out with a Christmas dinner at Aarons place, with a few Poms in the house, we had a pretty traditional meal courtesy of Mick and Chris cooking up all the usual meats, stuffing, veg and of course Xmas pudding and mince pies for dessert. Note: Due to my over relaxed mood, my camera recieved very little use... though I will try and source some more pics from other people for this post.

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Homebake, Sydney

Another weekend rapidly fell upon me, and with it the associated celebratory Friday night drinks that drifted from the relatively upper class ECQ bar (not far from the Opera House) to the other end of the slider - at the Coogee Beach Hotel, a haunt as old as my time in Sydney. I did however register a personal first, in managing to get thrown out of the said establishment for being too drunk. I still to this minute have no idea how the door monkeys worked this out (I'd not even had that much to drink), since I'd been sitting down chatting for the majority of the evening, and had strolled up to the mensroom, before emerging back out into the bar to be greeted with my marching orders.

So Saturday was all set to be a better day than Friday. I managed to get a last minute ticket to Homebake, a 1 day music festival that dedicates its time slots to, as you can kinda guess from the name, home made acts (Australian & Kiwi). Myself and Aaron rolled up and met up with some friends before settling into a rambunctuous afternoon/evening routine. Though the heavens opened and gave the crowd the best of an English festival, we still partied on through to some great acts.

It was quite a different festival for me in that I'd never seen a single act before and was generally able to judge each act on their own merits rather than pre-told media plauditry. A hip-hop kiwi outfit called Scribe sounded great, Butterfly Effect gave me a good taste of Queensland rock before we made it to see a band I was more than familiar with. Loving a couple of their albums though, I thought the Vines sounded a little off, and the set-list didn't seem to do too much to get the crowd pumped. That said, the big-top tent they played in did offer us shelter as heavy rains bore down again on The Domain.

With the outlook a little clearer, we plodded on to see the climax of the evening; Eskimo Joe and Silverchair. Both of which delivering high quality live performances before the night was capped off with some low quality culinary McDelights.

With the weather really not doing it for us this weekend, all was left to do was have a good old fashioned English Sunday... Xbox 360, some great pizzas in Randwick followed by Borat at the movies.

Christmas Bells

1st day of advent...

"Today is the first day of Summer"

A quote I heard from a co-worker on the phone today - the 1st December; the first time I have ever heard those words spoken on the 1st December! Normally a day I always associated (at least as a kid) with the first day I got a chocolate before breakfast...

So as Sydney gears itself up for the festive season; I find myself really not feeling it. I've already worked out that I'm going to have to discover Christmas all over again whilst I'm here - as everything that is Christmas back home, is pretty much non-existant here. For instance I probably won't get to watch Home Alone or National Lampoons Christmas Vacation once, let alone 4-5 times!

But things are starting to come together, the works Christmas do is coming up, a couple of other Christmas engagements are planned. Though despite listening to Wham's "Last Christmas" on my iPod the other day, I'm still not really 'there' yet.