I would like to wish A Happy New Year to my followers and to all fellow bloggers worldwide!

As some of you already know, I’ve been away with my wife in Australia for most of the past month, soaking up some much-needed sunshine. Now that I’m back – and cold – I have some catching up to do. I have some books to read and some reviews to write, not to mention finishing off writing a novel I started several months ago.

Our first stop was Singapore where we spent three days touring museums, looking at flowers and drinking the famous Singapore Slings. Singapore is one of the friendliest places in the world, and one of the cleanest. There is no chewing gum residue fouling the pavements (chewing gum is illegal), and drop litter at your peril!

Then it was on to Australia to visit my cousins in Wollongong and Port Macquarie. It was great to catch up on their news. Some of the highlights of the trip were a big birthday celebration, Christmas lunch in the Snowy Mountains, and a trip to Melbourne. In the course of my family history research, I discovered two more distant cousins living in Victoria. So we arranged to meet up for lunch to exchange our genealogical discoveries.

Australia is a wonderful place to take pictures – the light is so good – so here are some from the holiday album:

You’ll probably notice that I’ve made some changes to my blog design. I’m hoping that’s going to work, so feel free to comment.

It’s back to reading tomorrow!

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