This year, Friedel and I hosted her family’s Christmas lunch at our home. ‘Twas a very German Christmas, with her parents bringing most of the food up with them from Tasmania. The sauerbraten was amazing, to be sure.

Walter gives me his best hardman look, but wearing Oey’s tiny glasses, it was a tough one to pull off.

Not so hard.

Pia’s boyfriend Oey proves his feelings by making out with her dackel, Jeronimo.

The first drops of Christmas rain come in…

So, yeah. We had a few cameras on hand.

As the youngest, Pia was the first to receive her gift.

…which annoyed Jeronimo a bit, as he’s the youngest overall. The family dog, Sienna, sent him a tin of treats up from Tasmania.

Friedel’s gift from her Secret Santa, her grandfather Heinz.

Pretty good haul for me, I have to say. Some rad Vanishing Elephant socks, and a pair of Ray•Bans.

Of course, it’s now Boxing Day and it’s still pouring with rain, so I’ve got no reason to wear my new shades. Curse you, Melbourne.

Not too big a mess…

Then we all headed back outside for more drinks and laughs.

Friedel, meine Liebe.

Damn paparazzi…

Oey figures out how to use his camera.

Here comes the rain, right on time.

Friedel’s father, Walter, aka “The Lord”.

Did I say rain? Better make that hail.

Even The Lord is wise enough to wear a helmet when braving the Melbourne weather.

My helmet took a beating…

Frosty.

Dinner. Oh lawdy lawdy lawd, this was an incredible meal. Friedel’s mum Christiane can really cook.

Jeronimo, all tuckered out.

A great Christmas and a great day with the family. Now it’s onto a birthday dinner tomorrow night, then a wedding the day after, and finally down to Tasmania for another wedding.

The Summer of endless commitments…

If you’re so inclined, you can also check out my photos from Christmas in Tasmania, last year.

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Had some friends over for lunch, yesterday. It turns out I was more interested in photographing the progress of our ‘Bacon Explosion’ concoction than the people surrounding it.

I did manage to snap some shots of our spontaneous visit to the Albert Park Driving Range in Melbourne, though. You can see those, and more horrifying greasiness, after the jump.

The preparation.

Oh gawd, this is going to be good.

Ready for the oven. Now we wait…

Below; an hour, eight slices of tasty cheese and a punnet of tomato and garlic pasta sauce later, the Explosion was ready to demolish our insides.

I couldn’t get through my second helping, but be assured it was delicious. I suspect I won’t be eating meat for another six months, though.

After a round of virtual golf on my Android tab, we decided to hit the driving range. I’d never been, and I had no idea how quickly I’d get bored of the 100 balls I paid for. I gave up about 30 balls into it, and started snapping shots of everyone else, instead!

And that’s that.

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Still full on memories of the feast that greeted us at the family Christmas last year, we headed down to Tasmania this past weekend for an extra-long Easter holiday with Friedel’s family.

Here’s a few shots from the veritable buffet that awaited us, and a couple of other shots under the rule of ‘just because’. Above are my four eggs from the massive batch of hard-boiled eggs we had to get painted before the guests arrived.

Definitely did not eat the above eggs. Purely decorative and beautifully hand-made.

This ceiling light reminded me of the rocket ships that always featured in science fiction films in the 1950s.

Up next, my visit to Hobart’s Mt Wellington. Tremendously fulfilling for me, sure to bore the hair right off your head.

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Winter is on its way back into the Melbourne lifestyle, but a few pleasant days remain and I made the most of Saturday’s warmth by having a few friends over for a barbeque.

I also bought myself a ‘new’ bicycle, which you can just make out in the background of the below photo (after the split). It’s a 1996 Trek 470 Fast Track, and I bought it off a friend who picked it up for a song and restored it over the course of a few weeks.

I’ll take some nice photos of the bike when I get a chance this week, but for now, some barbeque shots. I really do love this camera o’ mine.

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What’s the collective noun for ninja? Is it ninjas, or does it remain ninja? Perhaps it’s ninjai…

I caught up with some car-loving friends for lunch today, with the main focus (see what I did there) being the Ford Focus RS that I picked up for work this week.

A front-wheel-drive monster, It’s a ridiculous car, in that unique way where ridiculous is deemed to be good. I was hoping for the white one, mind you, or even the dark metallic blue, but the green will do.

It’s packing 220kW and 440Nm of torque in its turbocharged 2.5 litre five-cylinder engine, which, for the sake of reference, is 32kW and 110Nm more than the Australian-delivered all-wheel-drive Volkswagen Golf R – my current fave.

Not entirely rare in Europe, where it was designed and built, there’s nonetheless only 315 of these in Australia, so it’s a nice thing to be one of the few that will ever drive it.

Well, nice if you’re into cars. I’m not thick enough to think that anyone would would give a damn…

Sitting alongside my brother’s S13, which in its day was a power in its own right. Still a riotous ride, especially with the mods it’s packing.

Dan’s Beetle is a beauty. It’s seen better days, but its beat-up state is a big part of its charm, really.

And, of course, the obligatory food shots;

Now, back to work.

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Despite the threat of continued storms all across the state, we jumped in the car with friends Kev and Aly today to check out the Red Hill Farmers’ Market down on the Mornington Peninsula.

Afterwards, on the way home, we detoured through Mornington to see what’s what.

Aly, Friedy and Kev start looking around. We arrived a little late and the market was set to close within the hour, so we quickly got about trying the delights and seeing the sights.

Pies, pies, delicious pies.

I bought this one. Strawberry and vanilla. Haven’t tried it yet – it’s not breakfast time…

We bought one of those orange contrieau puddings there on the left, along with a cinnamon and rhubarb pudding. Can confirm so far that the cinnamon and rhubarb pudding is delicious, soft and moist.

Closing time came too soon, so it was off to Mornington we went.

The homes of Mornington’s wealthy.

This pier is being upgraded, so they’re in the process of dismantling the old one.

A passing Bentley Continental GT. I was pleased that my camera snapped this so clearly, as he was moving quite quick.

And that’s that. Now I’m back at home, ready for another Saturday evening loaded with work.

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I spent Christmas in Tasmania. Now, more than a month later, some photos.

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My friend Steph invited me out for a Christmas dinner with her, her fellow and a number of her friends last night. Resulted in some great shots.

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Fuh. A relatively quiet (and plenty enjoyable) night on Friday watching Michael Palin docos and drinking expensive French cider was followed on Saturday morning by a fantastic home-cooked scrambled eggs this utterly amazing fresh bread from some bakery in Nicholson Street.

At 30, that’s my idea of a good time!

Saturday afternoon saw us kick off festivities for Kev’s buck’s night, with the groom and groomsmen heading down to The Jam Factory to watch Red. Excellent movie. We missed the first 10 minutes of course, because none of us bothered to tell the groom that anything was even happening!

Now that’s solid planning.

After the movie, it was off to the Tiki Bar for drinks, along with the presentation of Kev’s costume (the poor bastard) and the challenges he’d be facing for the night.

A great time was had, though I don’t mind admitting I went too hard too soon, and ended up heading home early. Don’t quite recall the trip home…

L-R: Groom Kevin, Groomsman Me, Best Man Marty and Groomsman Steve.

That’s a $420 bottle of beer, right there.

You can see how much beer we got out of the thing; there’s a round of full glasses right there, and the bottle is more than half full!

Waking up today with the anticipated Horrible Hangover, I stumbled downstairs and collapsed on my couch. Hey, making it from bed to couch was an accomplishment worthy of a good laydown.

Then I remembered I had another catchup with other friends this afternoon, so after a good shower and the ironing of a shirt, off I stumbled down the road to The Standard. Excellent beer garden.

Ches’s imported silver HTC Desire alongside my bronze Telstra-bought Desire. His is also running the regular Android 2.2 install (with Cyanogen mods) while mine is running the provided Sense UI with Android 2.2.

There’s some Apple phone thing in the background, but, you know… whoopty do.

Not sure who took this photo; might have been Lepa dicking around with my camera (the camera she wishes she had).

My eggplant Parmigiana lunch.

Michael photographs well. Couldn’t pick a favourite from these three, so have ‘em all.

Viewfinder: I haven’t got one.

After The Standard, I headed off to my own local, The Great Northern, for the best damn chips I’ve ever had. The fish was pretty super, too.

And so it ends. A great weekend, all round.

A few snaps this morning. Such a beautiful day in Melbourne. Heading out again shortly. Must hang my washing out…

This morning we ate at Cavallero in Collingwood, which we’ve been to before and loved enough to return. Last time we sat at a big communal bench, and this morning we sat at a little round table in the window. I think I preferred the communal bench. It was a big heavy sleeper-like wooden thing, and it was just oddly nice to have strangers around, happy and chattering away.

I had the baked eggs with tomato, baby spinach, some sort of cheese the name of which I can’t recall… curses.

Friedy had poached eggs and a couple of croquettes… I may have stolen one.

Some other shots from around Melbourne, on Friday.

Watchin’ you, watchin’ me…

Melbournites watching the world cycling championships.

Haven’t been looking after my shoes as well as I ought to…