Australia, like our New Zealand cousins, has now switched over to the new year and we’re now waiting for the rest of the world to join us in 2009.

I thought long and hard about a realistic new year’s resolution - which I won’t name here lest it be bad luck (as some suggest) to do so - so here’s hoping I can reform that habit.

Just a few more pictures from New Zealand.

The first of one of many prosthetic Hobbit feet worn by Billy Boyd during the filing of the Lord of the Rings films. This particular one found it’s way in to the national museum in Wellington which we found purely by accident - nice close up to show you just how hairy they were

Now what the heck does me jumping 43 metres off the Kiawaru Bridge have anything to do with Lord of the Rings? Two things specifically: 1) the Kiawaru River is the same river they used at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring (where the fellowship approach Amon Heth) and 2) found out afterwards that most of the cast shooting there did the same jump. Aside the shocked and angry telephone call I got from my mother … an awesome, life-changing experience!

As I sort through my recovered files I found a heap of digital photographs I took when a mate and I travelled to New Zealand earlier in the year. Since today happens to be the last day of 2008 - and this was certainly of this year’s highlights - I thought I’d share a few of those pics with the community. If you don’t recognise the subject matter of the picture you need only place your mouse of it for the tooltip …

Was able to pick up a new computer during the remnants of the post Boxing Day shopping madness: 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9000 series graphical card, 4GB RAM, and neat little Intel co-processer. Managed to get Lord of the Rings Online re-installed (I know my priorities!) I took a quick look inside and the improvements were noticeable immediately. Best still all my files on the now-deceased PC were recoverable so this is now one happy chappy.

There comes a time when the electricity drops out when you realise just how reliant we are on technologies: for me it’s a wakeup call that leaves me grateful that my iPod nano doesn’t need to be plugged in to work. Then comes the personal computer. When that stops working you realise you can’t just check something out on the internet, your email is going unanswered, your games unplayed, etc. That’s precisely what happened last night: my personal computer decided to throw a wobbly and die. If it was going to happen, now was the right time: being on holidays I have the time to replace, reinstall and recover. In any case it’s a good excuse to go buy something fun and beefy to use. Catch everyone in Middle-Earth as soon as I can.

Regular life caught up with me this last week. It’s been a mad dash to complete kitchen remodelling in time for Christmas - amid wrapping up for the year in the office as well - so I haven’t been in LOTRO much these last few days. We finished late last night and managed to have a quiet, but enjoyable Christmas Eve; it doesn’t end there as we’re now making preparation to receive family from the Old Country. Not just Christmas itself, but indeed the entire year, seems to have moved too quickly: at least that is how it feels. Having said that I would like to extend to all my friends in LOTRO (regular and cyber) from me and my family to you all, have a Merry Christmas!