It’s only taken me 18 days (18!) to post my first entry for twenty-twelve!

For the first 6 days of the year, my guy and I welcomed the new year overseas and then, within 3 days of my return to my parents’ house, the electricity was cut without warning (quite literally cut, they severed the cable and left it dangling precariously from the roof – much to my dismay when I walked in the front gate) . It took a good two days to restore life to the house (and a lot of anguished calls) and since then, I’ve been recovering, unpacking, working, enjoying the resurrection of the dinner club and generally pondering the meaning of the new year and new year resolutions.

So I apologise for my rather belated …..

“Happy New Year, everyone!”

How has the start of this new year been so far for you?

—–

[New Years Eve]

Not only did we get to Hong Kong in time for NYE, we counted down the last few hours of 2011  with my mum’s family  on a boat cruising around Victoria Habour >>>

Our humble boat…

The pre-countdown light shows…

The views of Victoria Habour and Hong Kong’s famous cityscape and Christmas lights from the boat…

The final seconds lighting up as the countdown began…

And with a burst of light and fire…

2012 was upon us…

And with that, we raced back to shore (most of the ports had been closed for safety reasons, leaving dozens of boats and ships out at sea one port to off load their passengers – our captain did well to get us there third in line) and waved good bye to 2011…

—–

And that’s the first batch of holiday photos =)

Sadly and disappointingly, the majority of the 2,500 or so photos I’d snapped on our eight-day holiday did not turn out well, at all. Blurry, grainy, poorly lit. While the memories are sharp, the photos were not.

Hence, my first new years resolution: to learn proper photography.

No more point and shoot , no more automatic settings (well, maybe just not all the time…). Time to learn about ISO, aperture, white balance.

While the point and shoot has served me well, I think it’s (finally) time to step it up!… and maybe in due course, I can justify investing in a new camera.

Funnily enough,  he got me a fantastic camera bag (that functions well for everyday use too!) for Christmas -  getting me started before I’d even made my resolution!

I also stumbled upon this cute photography cheatsheet.

Wish me luck!

Only a couple more days til go until we say goodbye to 2011.

I will be welcoming the new year in HKG this year. With family.

Followed by a brief trip to Macau (to see Zaia!).

Our flight will be taking off in a few more hours.

So I take this chance to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Hope you have a wonderful start to the year 2012!

—–

Less than a week from Christmas day.

The stately facade of our State Library was transformed…

Into the Story of Nutcracker…

—–

The projections continued at the Cathedral…

—–

Melbourne’s Christmas spirit could be seen and felt at every corner this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

May this day be filled with much love and laughter for you and your loved ones!

Completely ran out of time, ideas and supplies for the last 4 days of Christmas.

Terrible looking numbers and plastic containers (shameful…) but my ‘advent calendar’ is complete.

Two more days left…!

The fifteenth…

To twenty-first!

—-

On to the baking!

I’m rather behind on my posting – another week of December already gone… just like these cookies!

Things are a bit hectic in the last few days. Work finishes up shortly but there won’t be much resting between then and Christmas – add to that my first overseas holiday in near two years… I’m going to need another holiday when I get back …

I’ll post up the final baking countdown tomorrow – nothing near as pretty (I think they turned out well, don’t you? hehe) and fun (I did enjoy making these, even though the sizing wasn’t quite right) as this past week though but I made it to 25!

Buy presents – check

Wrap presents – check

Christmas tree – check*

Christmas decorations – check*

All that’s left is some Christmas baking to do!

Christmas is just ’round the corner!

—–

*Christmas is a pretty quiet affair at home this year with my family overseas and only my cousin left here to share the festive cheer with me.It seemed a bit too much to pull out our full Christmas tree but it was also rather sad not to have anything at all to put our presents under. So I designated our pot plant as our tree this year.  A little tinsel here and there (the bit on the tree didnt go so well but I gave up after my second attempt – it twinkles, that’s all I ask), a few gold ornaments around the fireplace and our Christmas angel.

Not a lot, but enough to bring a little Christmas home.

Well, the year’s drawing to an end… and the pockets are (nearly) full.

Receipts, tickets, invites, bows and ribbons – these are my memories of the year 2011…

2011 – the Year of the Rabbit

Weddings and laneway eateries

August, the birthday month (and November…)

Lots of celebration and lots of snow.

Gifts and visitors from overseas.

Only one more month left in the year.

What will it hold?

Spent a good portion of my night scanning old negatives…

Photos from my childhood.

Before digital cameras and smart phones.

I love this photo.

This grainy, hazy photo.