Spank.
I know I deserve it.

Wow, it's nearly December, and everyone knows what that means... Hanukkah!
Can't wait to put up my Hanukkah bush and light the candles!

I've done quite a lot in November... the first time I take 2 weeks off to travel properly! (As if I don't do that on a day to day basis working the aisles of metal tubes at 32,000 feet!)

I first jetted off to HongKong, although for a couple of days only, enough to spend a whole day at the newly opened HongKong Disneyland! To be honest, which is quite small and the centrepiece Cinderella castle is just ridiculously small.
It was a nice day however.

Then I hopped on board Cathay Pacific bound for Sydney to visit my friend Tótla and her hubby Gummi.
Australia's absolutely lovely, quite laid back and ever so friendly.
And staying with such fantastic hosts was of course the best bit!
We did absolutely loads, the Zoo (of course I had to see koalas, ever so cute little things!), the Opera House was pictured and walked around loads more.
We also took a drive to the lovely Hunter Valley, which, if I'm not mistaken, is about 180kms north of Sydney. This Hunter place is best known for its numerous wineries, so we didn't waste any time and managed to visit around 5 wineries for a bit of a taste, while Tótla managed to purchase quite a few bottles, yours truly managed to buy two, not bad I thought.
And no, it's not like we rolled down the hills in a drunken stupor at the end of the day!
We were then back in time to catch the latest Australian Idol on telly.

I actually took a little 2-dayer down to Melbourne aswell (it's only an hours flight away), which was also great to visit. Although I couldn't quite see how much more European everyone says it is, it was deffinitely more compact, and I walked all over the place, and of course took the tram to St Kilda which is like a seafront suburb, with lovely cafés, little shops and things.

The trip back to London was then taken in pretty much one go... with another stop in HongKong... Qantas from Sydney to HK, then 6 hours in HK, giving me enough time to go to Tsing Yi and have dinner with my friends LamYu and Godwin (seeing Jydy-la briefly aswell), back to the airport then to catch the midnight BA flight back to London. Mad, I know.
My original plan was to stay another couple of nights in HK, and then take a daytime flight to London. But when arriving at the BA desk at HKG I was promptly told all flights for the next few days were either fully booked, or better yet, overbooked, so I better get my ass to London that same evening if I wanted to get back before having to go back to work, which is today!
So yes, I was totally nackered and jetlagged when I finally landed at Heathrow at 5AM on Saturday morning, but considering what I'd been upto in the last 2 weeks, a small price to pay really!

It's back to reality tonight though, or in my case, the Islamic Republic of Iran, yet again.

I've been listening to Chimène Badi for most of the morning. A great french artist(who I think one the PopIdol-equivalent over there).
On my playlist for the day is also a fantastic CD Tótla gave me by the Australian Missy Higgins, another great artist.
I've also been quite into Michael Bublé for the last few weeks, really mellow and at times Sinatra-ee, lovely.

December's work roster is quite miserable to be honest. However, I do have a lot of 4 days off in the middle of the month which I don't quite know what to do with. I was originally going to go up to Iceland, but realised I'd be there on my own, as my family won't get there till the 16th. Oh well.
I was thinking xmas shopping in Zürich, or maybe accessorizing in Stockholm or Copenhagen, or a bit of warmth in Athens.

I now ask you, dear reader, if you've got any good suggestions?
Do feel free to use the comment-system and suggest some fabulous places to visit in Europe.
I await your suggestions with loads of anticipation!