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Amazingly it was beginning to look like I was going to see the end of another year - I mean really I do put my body through hell. We needed to christen the new BBQ, so with some steaks and snags from DJs I got busy with the grill. I managed to cook it to perfection - just mouthwatering!

We were hoping to catch up with Angelo again, but unfortunately it became a bit of a public transport nightmare and he was staying just a little too far out of town. Instead Laura and I decided to have a quiet local one by walking down to Rushcutters Bay Park just before the fireworks.

Our apartment building had become party central, and the kaleidoscope of colour that was the northern facade (all of the different balcony lighting arrangements) was just spectacular.

We got down to the park with about 30 minutes to the main fireworks - there were plenty of people there, but still ample space. Most were sitting on the grass, but a lot of people were also leaning against the low wall along the edge of the water. We spotted a small gap against the wall and took up position. I turned around to look at the people sitting on the grass, and out of the corner of my eye I could see this clown (at least 5 metres away from the wall sitting on the grass) gesticulating madly, presumably because Laura and I were blocking his view. I did the maturest thing I could think of, and pretended not to notice him.

A few minutes later I got a tap on my shoulder - it was clown-boy who wanted us to move because we were now blocking his view and he had sat in that spot since 6:00pm and yada yada yada. In the 5 or so minutes we had been there another 1000 or so people had made their way to the wall, and with the steady stream of people that were still making their way to the park, there was no way that this bozo was going to be able to see his precious wall. Remembering of course that the fireworks are in the air.....

Anyhow, Laura told this guy where he could jam it, and we got to enjoy our fireworks. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

My old uni buddy Angelo was in town for a few days, and rang us up to say that he was driving through a nearby suburb. We arranged to have lunch with him and his friend Peter and so went around the corner to the Tropicana Cafe. After a few false starts with incorrect meals being brought out, we finally got to tuck into our lunch.

Laura and I were planning on buying a barbeque in the post-Christmas sales, and we were very fortunate that Angelo kindly offered to drive us to get it. A few hours later I was at home setting up my schmick Weber Q barbie.

That taken care of, Laura and I arranged to meet Angelo, Peter and some more of their friends at the Oaks Hotel. We got there and the place was completely packed - a few laps and we still hadn't been able to find them, and figured they were still on their way and settle in for a few bevvies at the bar. A short time later I called them - they were already there - and sitting in the one place we didn't look.

Taking on the BBQ tips that my friend James taught me, Laura and I grilled our steaks perfectly to medium rare (you do your own cooking at the Oaks) - it was totally delicious. After dinner we went upstairs and shot some pool, which I'm afraid to say made it obvious to all that I hadn't picked up a stick in some years.

Ok - today was our last day and farewell to Brissie. My friend Michael took me to his work on his day off and removed the yucky cigar stain from my front teeth - I was so happy. After his amazing work we had to do some things at Carindale, and had an OK lunch at Hogs Breath Cafe. He tried to return an unopened, unwanted gift, but the jerk started quoting the trade practices act and blah blah blah it was his right and yadayadayada - just really poor customer service.

We met up with Laura's Mum, Nan and Pop at Carindale, and Poppy was starting to panic about missing our flight (we had about 3 hours). Mum came and visited while we were packing, and we right on time to get to the airport 30 minutes early for boarding. Laura and I had separate flights but we were due to depart at roughly the same time, so we said our farewells and I boarded, heading home.

I had a ripper time in Brisbane, despite the intense heat and the last minute rushing around to see people. Landing in Sydney I immediately noticed the noise, the traffic, the crowds, but getting home was just the best.

My friends Rod and Maureen took Laura and I for lunch at Wellington Point - it was a really nice, relaxing, and civilised way to spend a Sunday in the heat. Everybody's lunch was first rate, and with Rod looking after the wine ordering we were well looked after.

After lunch it was time to go to Mirko's place in preparation for our fast-becoming ritual of dinner at Big Fortune Chinese at New Farm. Before dinner though we had a game of chess (nailed him) then headed off to the restaurant still a little full from lunch.

We didn't let that stop us though, and we slaughtered plate after plate of delicious Chinese food. After mains we stopped off at a nearby gelati bar for some extra treats.

Now, from time to time I make fun of some of my friends for being, well, thrifty. My friend Mirko has taken it to a whole new level by, after watching a professional chiropractor perform realignments on Sue's spine a couple of times, figured he'd save himself the consultancy fee by performing said manouevers himself. Sue then reciprocated, thereby doubling the savings.

We only had 2 and a bit days left in Brissie and still quite a bit to do. We started the day by meeting Gouldie for breakfast - a big bacon and eggs at Carindale (his treat). Afterwards Laura dropped me at Mirko's place so I could help him with his computer, while Laura drove out to visit her friend Heidi. Says Laura:

"I had a lovely day with Heidi, playing with Taylor "mini Heidi" and chatting away the morning. Dave came home after a successful fishing trip and made us some toasted sandwhiches and we all played with Taylor some more. She is so cute and very bright, showing me how she dances and playing hide and seek with me...quite exhausting really. Then it was back over the other side of town to see what Royce and Mirko had been up to all day. Lucky for me Mum gave up her car for our entire stay so I was able to zip around town easily."

So back to me - I spent the day at Mirko's place helping him make some DVDs from the movies they made over Christmas. It was quite a bit of fun, although as neither of us have any skills in video production, the results were, well, interesting.

After dinner we made the trip into Carindale to see Lord of The Rings - Return of the King. I was thinking "smooth move, way to escape the heat" which was still oppressive despite being 9:30pm. Unfortunately the clowns that run the cinemaplex thought it might save the company some money if they turned off the airconditioning about an hour into the 3.5 hour epic.

Perhaps it was just the heat, but the movie really seemed to drag on and on and on. When it (mercifully) finished, we turned to leave and noticed many, many blokes had taken their shirts off. But worst of all, it was too hot to eat my lollies, so I had quite a few to take home.

I reckon Boxing Day was hot - damn hot. After breakky Dave and Mrs Good decided it was time to wash the cars, so I gave a hand. I was only in the sun for 20 minutes or so but I still got a bit burned.

We headed into town to return some clothes that were the wrong size, and decided to pop in on Kerry, Les and Alex on the way. Alex was a very boistrous boy, full of beans and just always on the go.

Once we got into town we met up with Cate and Michael for lunch and to escape the heat (achieved the former but unfortunately not the latter). After planning to meet them later in the afternoon to look at their house and investment property, Laura and I trudged off to do the shopping.

There was simply no respite from the heat, and I could feel myself wilting very quickly. The only thing for us to do was to promptly wrap up the shopping trip and retreat back to the livable controlled climate at Laura's mum's place.

After a short rest/cool down there it was time to head out with Michael and Cate. Unfortunately we could only see their house from the street, but as Ed was OS on holiday, we were able to see the rennovations they were doing to the apartment. It all looked pretty good, but there was still quite a lot to go.

Then finally we called into Mike and Emma Tod's "escape the family" boxing day party. First people we saw when we got there was Shaun and Jo - their big news was that they are now engaged. Not to be outdone, Emma announced that she was pregnant. That whole pregnancy thing must be catching....

It finally arrived - Christmas day - we could open our presents, throw away the wrappings and cards, and get on with the rest of our lives. Poppy was in charge of handing out the presents (a job he really cherished). I actually scored really well - a wine rack, a few CDs, shirts, boxers, a book on the art of shaving, and a few other bits and pieces.

Afterwards Laura and I paid a quick visit to Mirko's folks' home, where they were getting ready for a really big family lunch. After exchanging gifts and sharing a drink or two, we went back to Laura's place for our own lunch.

Lunch was brilliant - Mrs Good and Nan made roast pork and roast turkey with heaps of salads and sides. It would have been impossible to make or even eat if it weren't for the air conditioning that Mrs Good had installed a few Christmases earlier.

After lunch we enjoyed our presents for a bit, before the girls put on "Dancing in the Park" for us to watch. Poppy got tired and had a bit of a nap, and although it was at least 45 degrees celsius outside but very pleasant inside, Laura and Poppy rugged up.

Not content with our massive lunch, there was still plenty to eat for dinner. It was a really brilliant day.

Brisbane was just getting hotter and hotter, and it was fast becoming unbearable. I had to spend the first part of Christmas eve day finishing off last minute shopping with all the other schlubs who had left it to the last minute.

After shopping (followed by some relaxing and cooling down), it was time to head over to the Gouldies' for a Christmas eve barbecue. For perhaps the first time in my life we were the first to arrive - beating Michael and Cate by a good few minutes. Scottie Nolan came a little later on, and Gouldie cooked a ripper bbq for the seven of us.

Later Craig Coffey and hs partner (ohmygod, I've forgotten her name)... Amahl (spelling?) came for a few bevvies before they had to head off to another do. It was a fun night with great food and great company (and Laura got to pat a pussycat - everyone kicked a goal).

Although I was into the 3rd day of my holiday, my work colleagues were still hard at it. I thought it might be nice to pop in on the Brisbane office, so although it was around 60 degrees celsius in the shade I thought I'd chance it.

After that I met up with Mirko and we went off to the lunch that he had organised at Friday's. Francis was there and waiting, and Angelo showed up a little later. We had delicious steaks for lunch, and drank beer till the sun came down. After that we moved onto CBD and drank well into the evening.

From somewhere around (and I really am guessing here) 8pm everything gets a bit fuzzy. I know that Francis' girl Nicole picked us up from in town in Fran's Mercedes CLK. I also know that we went back to Mirko's and that Sue organised us some Thai food. And I know that Laura came and picked me up. As far as the rest of it goes - I really have no idea.

First night in Brissie and I actually made it to bed at a reasonable hour. It was around midnight but anyone who knows me knows that's early.

Did I mention that last night Laura picked me up in her brother's Audi? Anyhow, so I'm in this deep, coma-like sleep when Laura's mobile started playing 99 Luft Balloons - it was her brother David and his mates, there were no taxis and they needed to get home. Apparently as part of the deal of getting to borrow the car to pick me up, Laura had to agree to some light taxi duties. When asked what was the latest time she could be woken, Laura offered 3am. So sure enough, just a smidge before they turned into pumpkins, Dave made the call.

Then a smidge later at 8:00am my phone went - it was mum who thought I was in Sydney (and therefore 9:00am and therefore a good chance I'd be awake). Just after nodding off for the 3rd time my phone went again, and my hopes for a sleep-in on my first day of holidays were dashed.

I spent an enjoyable day with my mate Mirko, just catching up while we ran around and did stuff. We took a look at his new investment property and the rennovations he's done, did some Christmas shopping, then ended the evening with dinner (with Laura and Sue of course) at the Zlats'.

Laura and I thought it would be nice this year to have Christmas in Brisbane with her mum and grandparents, so we planned on going up for 10 days and just unplugging and vegging. We booked our flights for around midday Friday (19th), but once I realised that was the day of the office Christmas party, I pushed my departure time back till 9:00pm - to give me enough time to sober up and pack.

Sydney put on a stinking hot day like you wouldn't believe, and in hindsight I suspect the party organisers regret having the party at the glasshouse in the Bayswater Brasserie. On the positive side, the Bayswater is about 30 metres from my front door so I didn't have far to stagger home. And stagger I did.....

Leaving the party sometime after 5pm I reasoned that with Sydney's traffic so unpredictable I should leave home for my 9:15pm flight no later than 8:00pm. On making it home I watched a bit of teev, enjoyed a cooling ale, then started packing. I started with black boxer shorts and socks, followed by some black shirts, a grey pair of shorts (I planned on wearing the black ones), and my black dress shoes. I needed to shower before leaving so I delayed packing my black toiletries bag.

Just before my shower I made a start on packing my electrical equipment - mobile phone and adapter, iPod and adapter, PDA and adapter, laptop and adapter, digital camera and adapter. While pulling out the cables for the adapters I accidentally disconnected my ADSL modem, and to my abject horror I coulldn't reconnect. Suddenly all of these scenarios of emergencies in Brissie needing me to remote into my PC at home flashed through my head - I had to fix this.

I will never tell what the actual problem was (especially since the modem reconnected itself automatically the following day) - suffice to say I finally gave up, looked at my watch, cursed really loudly, and ran into the shower. It was 8:15, and I really should have already been in the cab. I ran out the door at 8:30pm and as is typical when you are late and carrying heavy bags, could not for the life of me find a taxi. Finally at 8:35 one pulled over and I was belatedly on my way.

The first thing I noticed on landing in Brissie was how stinkin' hot it was. The next thing was the traffic, or lack thereof. It was the last Friday night before Christmas, I arrived after 9:00pm, and with the small exception of the Valley, there was hardly another car to be found.

Christmas season by now is in full swing, and tonight was Laura's work's Chrissy party. I'd never been to Luna Park, and always thought it was sad that it had closed down, so was pretty keen to check it out.

I was going to get Laura to write this story, but right now she is on a plane to Brisbane and we are going to be too busy up there to write about old stuff.

It was a pretty good night, even with the strange girls on the jetty when we were going home, only in bikinis (or was it underwear) that Laura claims she didn't see.

Once upon a time I could take photos. I even got a distinction at uni when I took photography as an elective. Those of you familiar with this site would probably be surprised to hear that - my pictures are more often that not hastily snapped and not cropped or adjusted afterwards.

As bad as the pics on this site usually are, this latest instalment is even worse. Girls Ride Out were having a track day at Eastern Creek raceway, but unfortunately Laura and I were too slow off the mark to get tickets. Instead we decided to ride out and watch all the others having the times of their lives putting down some speedy laps.

Everyone but us was having an absolute ball - so I took some crappy snaps, and Laura took some better ones. I knew all the rules too - high film speed (400ASA), high shutter speed, pan the camera etc etc, but still all I took was junk.

Incidentally, we are planning a return to Eastern Creek - this time to participate - early in the new year.

Michael and Cate came up for a visit, so with Greg and Andrea reasonably settled in their new place, we were invited over for a get-together over there.

The place was really nice, plenty of space, a spa, 2 barbecues, grass. We got there just after 6:00pm - just as Andrea was working out how much spa chemical should go into the water. The directions said 250grams per 1000 litres of water - the question of course being how much water was in the spa. After half an hour or so's deliberation we settled on a figure that none of us were particularly comfortable with and Andrea duly added the powder.

Cate and Andrea's friend and one time flatmate from Borva Street Jane also came over to visit and have dinner. We agreed on Indian, with us boys going to the take-away shop to do the honours. We got 7 curries, 3 naans and 10 samosas for a smidge over 70 bucks - not the greatest meal I've ever had but who can argue with the value?

We talked and drank well into the night, and even made it home after midnight. Laura and I were beginning to think we were again hip and with it, until as we walked through our lobby, exhausted and heading up for bed, we passed several groups who were just on their way out to begin their evenings. Noisy louts!