In case you missed all my gloating tweets (@harry_wood), I’ve been away in Brazil in the baking summer sunshine for the past three weeks. Here’s some pics:

There’s more on facebook too.

Another great Brazil holiday. I’m starting to get to know the girlfriend’s family a bit better despite not really speaking Portuguese at all.  Spent Christmas with them this time. Lots of amazing food! I can feel a new years resolution coming on… Learn some Portuguese. I gathered a fair bit more mapping data for the São Paulo map, and meeting the other paulistano mappers was a lot of fun. We also got away from São Paulo for some beach time in Ilhabela and Fortaleza. We saw in the new year there, with spectacular fireworks on the beach.

Of course the only year I’ve ever not been at home for Christmas, and the UK has it’s first white Christmas in years. Gah! It’s quite a shock to be back in the cold #uksnow after the heat of Brazil. In fact my baggage didn’t make the flight connection at Madrid on the way home, so I had to head home from heathrow without my big jacket (Given the level of competence on show by the Spanish iberia staff organising connecting flights, this wasn’t a surprise) At first I thought this wouldn’t be a big deal, since I had fortunately stuffed some trousers and a fleece in my hand luggage, but the 10 min walk from my local tube station to my house was a chilly welcome back to the UK. I could feel my sun tan peeling off.

So… 2010!  Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!