Brisbane: Festival of Tibet.

5 day 'Festival of Tibet' held at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

Nicola, Madeleine & I went along this morning to the guided meditation and the Sand Mandala workshop.

Superb sand mandala built up of nothing but coloured sand which is then ceremonially destroyed to demonstrate the ephemeral and impermanent nature of all things.

New Gear.

The Baltoro almost wiped out my last pair of boots, so a major investment has been made in these - Scarpa New SL M3 leather boots.

Should last the next few treks - ONLY 13 WEEKS UNTIL THE ANNAPURNA TRIP.

IPad. I need one right now!

Good old Apple. Looks like another winner. It does all the things I currently use my iPhone for - showing photos, getting onto the internet, sending messages - but lots of extra stuff and it's a size that my ageing eyesight can handle.

Sadly, it'll be a while before the iPad gets to Australia.

AUSTRALIA DAY Today.

222 years since the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove.

A Big Day Off. Fabulous weather across the country. 34°C in Brisbane.

Spent the day with a walk and coffee. Beer and hotdogs and a movie this evening.

Triple J - rock station - played it's 'Top 100' songs of the last year. Mumford & Sons????!!!

Sun. 17th January. MASSIVE 'Big Day Out'

The annual Australian iconic rockfest held at the Gold Coast Parklands.
Nicola, Madeleine, Jake & myself got the coach at 9.30 from Brisbane. We were in the venue by 11.00 am just in time to see Brisbane band THE BUTCHER BIRDS. Excellent start to the day.

Quick look at 'the blue stage' for a few minutes with BLUEJUICE

Into the 'Boiler room' - the Dance/DJ venue to have a half hour of serious krumping with GRRILLA STEP. Mad!

Caught the last 15 minutes of TAME IMPALA. Rad!

Over to see KISSCHASY. Venue was packed but I managed to get quite near the front.

Back to the Boiler room for 20 minutes with DECODER RING. Not bad.

Over to the Orange stage for half an hour of KASABIAN. Brilliant. No club foot though.

Managed to get over to see the last 20 minutes of TEMPER TRAP. Great new Aussie band.

Back on the blue stage ESKIMO JOE did a good set, Inshallah.

Back to the Boiler room and DJ Gregg Gillis as GIRL TALK had pulled in a crowd of thousands. Brilliant fun.

On the orange stage THE HILLTOP HOODS were giving it some rap - Australian style.

Quick look in on THE WAGONS
Saw a couple of songs by young UK band THE HORRORS
Then more boiler room action with MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS. This whole day was just getting better.

The afternoon was getting hot - about 34° - and DIZZEE RASCAL almost literally went Bonkers when someone hit him with a bottle. It was still just about the best song for the crowd all day.

LILY ALLEN was quite cute really and better than I thought she'd be.

I was keen to see DEVENDRA BANHART and he turns out to be a good guitarist. Interesting act.

I heard JET play 3 or 4 of their big hits and a couple from their new album.

Now getting dark, LADYHAWKE was excellent.

The biggest surprise of the day. PEACHES was brilliant. Dramatic show, great music, pure entertainment. I'll be joining her fan club.

Then, to round off a fantastic day - an hour of MUSE. Incredible music and the best light show I've ever seen. Their encore of 'Knights of Cydonia' was unforgettable. The perfect end to a Very Big Day Out.

NEW YEAR'S EVE. Mooloolaba.

A breezy night in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast.

Dinner with the Litzows. Plenty of entertainment on the Esplanade.
Rodney and Brady.
Alice, Jane, Emily, Paula & Nicola.

Then, about 11.00 pm, a concert on the beach-front by Kate Miller-Heidke. Excellent!

Now THAT's a Snowman!

Finally, had to leave Hakuba to return to the 30°C temperatures in Brisbane.
Not before saying farewell to a local snowman.

Last Day's Skiing.

Paula had by now stopped falling over and was enjoying her skiing.

A Superb Place to Ski - Hakuba

Plenty more good skiing during the holiday. Great snow and the weather was fine.

I was impressed by the sheer size of the Olympic Ski Jumps.
And of course, there was plenty more Sushi.

CHRISTMAS DAY

A beautiful and sunny White Christmas.
Breakfast at 7.30 then straight out onto the snow.

Christmas dinner was in a log cabin restaurant - spring rolls, fried smelt, Sushi, Kirin beer and hot Sake.

"Comfortable Elegant Time"

Most mornings we'd stop at the bottom of the mountain for a little "Comfortable Elegant Time" coffee (Flat white really)

But most evenings we were into the Sushi & Sashimi.

20th Dec. First Day Skiing.

We hadn't skied in many years, but clearly we had lost none of our Style!

19th DEC. To JAPAN for 8 days of Skiing.

On arriving in Tokyo we took the 'Bullet Train' - the Shinkansen - to Nagano.

Nagano was the site for the 1998 Winter Olympics and we were staying in Hakuba.