Christmas in Cannes & London for New Year

Being lucky enough to be back in Europe around the festive season meant that I could return to my old stomping ground in London & celebrate with a bang with some of my good mates.

After leaving the yacht & being flown back to Nice one week before Christmas, I ended up staying with my mate Steve at his friends join in Cannes where after he left was by myself over Christmas.
Wanting to make the most of it and at least feel like I was at home, I decided to cook up a storm and after discovering one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks found the perfect meal for Christmas Day. Upon waking on Christmas Day and discovering that Santa has YET AGAIN forgot to deliver any presents I cracked open the wine and started preparing the feast for one.
One big chicken smother in salt and pepper and drowned in oil.
Then one lemon, some garlic cloves and a few herbs stuffed up his insides then covered in bacon rashes and lied to rest on a bed of potatoes before being roasted for an awfully long time.
In the meantime had turned on the telly and was reminiscing back to the good old days with every single pop chart number one from since I was still at school. Christmas is one of those weird days where you can think back years to where you were on that very day.
Well the chicken was done and totally beat my expectations of how it would turn out....it wasn't burnt!!! But then, like always I realised why I don't like cooking as in the time it had taken to cook I had lost my hunger and wasn't hungry no more but being that I cooked it I managed to fit in one tasty chicken breast before passing out on the couch.

After having to make a hasty evacuation from the apartment after being informed the owner was on her way back and will be there in 10 minutes, I headed to Steve's boat back in Monaco for a night before jetting off to London.

We'll I'm the first to admit that I've given London I bit of a bad rap in the past and it's not one of my favourite places but it did feel good to be back as it's like a second home and where all my mates are.
Staying with my friend Denisa who is living in an absolutely magnificent humongous ex-hostel/ex-squatters pad up in North London was quite cool and after catching up and having a good night sleep it was time to see what everyone else was up to.
Heading out to Brick Lane the night before New Years with a couple of buddies ended up being quite the night and was already exhausted before NYE had even begun!!

Well NYE came and went like any other year, but this year had a special touch about it as it was like being back at home again. I spent the first half of the night at some Kiwi party in a recording studio in Shoreditch where I was a bit hesitant to confess that I was an Aussie in case they all turned on me and to get away from their extremely discounted alcoholic drinks. Then it was off to Ministry of Sound to catch up with the gang again and see what's being going on before ending up at The Key & The Cross for the ultimate New Year's Day party where it got very messy indeed surprisingly quickly.

With only a few days of my trip remaining I caught up with a few other people before bidding farewell again & setting off the Madrid.

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4138284