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Laura's brother Dave was in town and popped in for a visit. We decided to head down the coast to Cronulla to see the spray and get some lunch. The weather closed in and it turned out to be an incredibly gloomy day, though that didn't seem to deter the many beach goers.

A couple of lads were allowing themselves to get smashed by the waves that were breaking over the rock pools - I suspected that the kids were (in bad taste considering recent events) playing a game of "Tsunami".

For lunch we went to the Hog's Breath Cafe. I have to say that I've been disappointed with their food in the past but after what they dished up today all is forgiven - it was superb!

Look, I really don't want to start anything by this, but I can't help to call him big Kev. Not that he's anything like Big Kev (of "I'm Excited!!!" fame), but he is just a tall, strong looking fellow.

Anywho, Jackie and Kev threw this ripper engagement party at their local curry house where they shouted 60-odd of us to a dinner banquet. The meals were delicious and it was a really fun night. The guy that was sitting across from us just kept cracking me up - his voice was a dead ringer for that comedian Dave Hughes.

The bad news was that now Jackie and (big) Kev will have to pull off an amazing night at their reception if it is to trump their engagement party effort. Fantastic night guys!

As Laura and I have done more than once in the past, we took the opportunity of a public holiday to ride our bikes through the Royal National Park and on to Stanwell Park. The ride was quite spirited (especially after we were joined by a group of boy-racers about 3/4s the way through the park). We stopped for some photos and to enjoy the view, then made our way down to Stanwell Park to enjoy lunch. Seeing as it was Australia Day, I enjoyed a nice lamb roll with a warm mustard sauce. Now that's good eatin'!

When we got home we caught the tail end of an aerobatics display, which Laura managed to get some pics of from our balcony.

It seems like years ago now, but when I retired my old PC I fist made it into a "test" linux machine, and then was enamoured of the idea to turn it into a DIY media centre.

After many, many, many late nights and wasted weekends trying to get linux to support a HDTV card, and then get MythTV to also support said card, and then getting said card to actually work, I finally gave up. The software that came with the tv card only runs on Windows, so a quick rebuild, install of Windows, and installation of the proprietary software that came with the card (all up less than 2 hours), the Personal Video Recorder was working.

Ok, it is still quite buggy, crashes often, and my 80GB HDD really isn't big enough, but the quality of the recordings and the ease of use and the fact that I can programme the "video recorder" over the Internet makes it all worthwhile. Hopefully soon I can also realise my dream and add music and pictures so that it is a true media centre.

Our friends Cate and Michael came to Sydney with little tacker Indy in tow. We missed out on meeting Indy last time he was in town (something about being tuckered out from the big drive) but this time he was ready for action.

Almost by coincidence it was Uncle Greg's 30th birthday, so we made our way to Forest Lodge for celebratory drinks and a barbeque. In case it's not obvious from the photos, Greg really, really doesn't like birthday parties. Sorry Greg, the rest of us do!

One of Sydney's best, most famous breakfast restaurants, Bill's, is just a 5 minute walk away. Amazingly after all this time we'd never been, so we figured we should get there, and went with our friends Greg and Andrea.

The breakfast was great (a fact which Luke Ricketson, who plays with the Sydney Roosters, and his blonde girl pal could also atest).

After breakky I went into town to do a very brief spot of shopping, and timed it just right to take a few photos of my favourite clock in the whole wide world.

Laura got home from work before I did, and decided that the sunset was too pretty not to photograph. She took a heap of shots which were all pretty spectacular (even more so considering it was her first real crack with the new camera), but I've reduced it to just a couple to post here.

Laura and I hadn't been to Wisemans Ferry in some time, and figured today was as good a day as any to go back for another look. I actually hadn't recalled it being quite as far away as it was, because by the time we got there (mid arvo) I realised I hadn't had breakfast or lunch, and was about ready to gnaw my own arm off.

The pub looked packed, so this time we decided on the park down by the ferry. The hamburger kiosk was doing a roaring trade, so it was at least another 30 minutes before we were eating.

After stopping for a few quick snaps, we called it a day and headed home. On the way we stopped briefly at a lookout above Wisemans Ferry to have a look and take some more piccies.

It's strange I know, but we started 2005 pretty much exactly where we left 2004 -
in Jimmy and Sue's apartment on level 15. The midnight fireworks were pretty cool, only the much vaunted disco ball was, well, pretty crap. Couldn't really see it through all of that smoke.

After the fireworks were over we drank some more, ate some more (whoops, already blown 2 New Year's resolutions and 2005 is only 20 minutes old - that can't be good) and generally spread good cheer before calling it a night.