Entries from Simon Butcher

A big thank you to the splendid Tauana Hotel in Corumbau for the visit.

This was taken at the wonderful Pousada “Loin de Tout” in the beautiful village of Corumbau.

This was taken at the wonderful Pousada “Loin de Tout” in the beautiful village of Corumbau.

After what feels like a sempiternal reign of incoherent belligerency, we can finally say goodbye to that imbecilic Texan simian and his band of merry idiots, and welcome something fresh — hopefully something successful.

Now Barack, I might be just one voice in an enormous sea, speaking from outside your country's borders irreverently, but let me say this as clearly as I can so that it might be picked up by a whitehouse.gov flunky: Don't screw up.

I don't particularly care about politics within the United States especially, but considering how inextricably tied the world is to your country — financially or otherwise — and the current state of society at large, it seems you have a hell of a mess to clean up; In particular after your predecessor. I don't envy your task ahead, but please: Don't screw up.

It's Christmas time again. It comes around every year, and for some reason this year I really couldn't care less. I don't think I'm becoming a scrooge, but rather I think it has something to do with the fact that Christmas started four months ago and I'm sick of hearing about it.

But never fear: for in a few day's time Valentine's Day promotions will start, and before too long Easter will rear its ugly head — all obscenely ahead of schedule.

For the last two years, I have dedicated the arbitrary date of December 13^th to recording a snapshot of my life. In what is quickly becoming an annual tradition after last year's repeat of much the same, I present to you this year's effort.

To set the scene, you need to know that it's been unusually cold across Western Europe lately. Today was certainly no exception, and as the previous night was spent avoiding my company's Christmas Party in favour of another company's, you can understand that things were a little difficult…

As with the last two years, all photos here have been taken hastily with my Nokia E70 and have not been modified.

I've spent a bit of money lately. Okay, I've spent a lot of money — more than I probably should have — on returning to an old hobby of mine.

Photography was an old hobby of mine that faded away after I started working for Hitz FM and ultimately didn't have any money to continue. Over the last two years, I've been keen on getting back into it, and after Scott came over to Brussels for our road-trip around Europe with his Nikon D70 I've been itching to buy a digital SLR.

Tonight we visited Walibi for Halloween. For a change, “we” not only means friends, but sadly half of my office came along tonight as a gift from one of our vendors.

I'm sorry Walibi: You had me, but you lost me.