Merry Christmas, etc

I've put our photos from the pre-Christmas Bruges trip up on the flickr site here. I missed Christmas with the family at Coolum, but The Boyfriend and I visited the pub after braving a very London-style rainy Christmas day. Then The Boyfriend cooked a fantastic turkey dinner. Nice having someone around who doesn't manage to ruin everything he cooks!

A couple of Bruges shots to convince you to bother checking out flickr.

Iceland revisited

Unfortunately we have not yet re-visited Iceland, as much as I would like to. But Alisha, one of our compatriots and fellow Iceland visitors, sent me some great photos of my favourite bit of Iceland - Þingvellir National Park, where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet. This spot was the first stop on our day tour out of Reykjavik and it was amazing. Snow-dusted cliffs wrenching out of the ground where the pressure between the plates has forced them up and across, and a beautiful clear blue sky reflecting off the water between the rocks. Plus a sunrise. What more could you ask.

Somewhat typically, the battery in my camera ran out right after we got out of the jeep to walk across the park, and as the spare was in the car, I couldn't take any photos. I have added these couple from Alisha onto the flickr site but since there are only 2, and they're almost my favourites of the whole trip (although The Boyfriend and the bicycle is up there), I have posted them below.



We're slogging through the last couple of weeks of work before Christmas. Bruges in 9 days.

Night lights

This is Somerset House in Central London a few nights ago. They set up ice-skating rinks at some of the public buildings and parks at this time of year. You can pay about 10 pounds or thereabouts to go skating for a night. The rink wasn't open yet so I couldn't get any closer.

At this time of year it's all Christmas lights in Oxford Street. D-grade celebrities like X Factor contestants and S Club 7 usually turn them on during November. I was on a mission for pillows the other night so here are some shots of the street.




These are some of the more pretentious Christmas windows along the Bond Street end - Selfridges:



(Still can't seem to hold that camera straight.)

And Debenhams' more family-friendly ones. All of the bears were on strings and moving; tangling themselves in ribbons and decorations or stuck in the Christmas tree ... actually pretty cute.