Happy New Year!!

Ok, Ok... yea, I know. It's over a month since I've posted anything but what can I tell you!!? Life's a blur at the moment. The only way I know a week has passed is when we watch the next episode of "Lost" on Wednesdays...

So, a quick catch up is in order.

Pre-Christmas saw plenty of partying mainly by our resident Christmas Elf. Dylan went to see his old friends at the nursery for his Christmas party and apart from being scared into a crying fit by Santa seemed to have a great time eating junk and generally making a mess. Santa completely missed the obvious and failed to award Mr.D the "Best Fancy Dress Costume" prize but as I said, they weren't on speaking\babbling terms by then anyway...

Next up was Dylan's first birthday!! Not too much in the way of a big bash at our place but grandma, grandpa and 'vovo (Portuguese grandma) all put on a heck-of-a-do with plenty of cake, party hats and balloons! As you can see, some of the balloons really did go down a treat with the little guy.

Christmas week was spent with my folks (Hi ma & pa!) in Kirkham and for the most part we indulged in a great deal of eating and drinking with occasional winter walks. Our young elf was again the star of the show and took it upon himself to start walking properly for the first time. This was no doubt due in some small part to the fact that he actually had space to walk in for once :-)

After Kirkham we spent a couple of days with my sister and Dan in Manchester catching up and talking about our previous trips to Oz. Flicking through her old photo album of backpacking days in Sydney got us pretty fired up... We also managed a quick visit to Angie and Mal's new gaff just down the road but unfortunately didn't have time for a VIP tour of Angie's carpeted allotment. I'm led to believe this time of year is not great for growing veggies anyway.

New Year saw us zipping over to Lisbon for a week and staying with Estela. The weather was a very palatable 15C with sunshine and we enjoyed a few strolls along the beaches of Estoril and surrounds. I have to say that the Christmas lights in Lisbon we very good indeed. None of that "These Lights Are Sponsored By Birdseye" tat that I saw in Oxford Street a few years back. Just nice, twinkly Christmas lights. Cool.

Well, that's it for now. 7 days to go. Must phone Dangerman tomorrow to find out how the hell he managed to break both his big toes over New Year...