Matthew Hutchings

I made it!  Project 365 is complete!  Here we all are waiting to celebrate the new year at Simon and Helen's party at 23.56.  A great party.  The only sadness in this photo is that Jacqui's not in it: she's out of shot to the right hand side.  She would have been in January 1 and December 31, but as it is there's only me that's in both.

I've really enjoyed doing this project, though obviously there've been days when I've struggled.  I'm looking forward to not doing it in 2011, though!  I'm planning just a couple more posts on this blog (video for December and for the whole year, and maybe some stats or something like that), but essentially I'm now putting this project to bed.  Thanks to those of you who've read, commented, retweeted, featured, and generally been encouraging.  I do intend to keep photoblogging at http://tumblr.matthewhutchings.org, and sharing stuff I get up to on there and on Twitter.

I hope you all have a very happy 2011.

Today was the last day of my Belgian adventure, and involved meeting great aunt Philomena before heading to Brussels for a whistlestop tour provided by Leen's cousin Elien.  She took us all around the city, including up a multi-storey carpark for great views!  One of Brussels' famous sites is of course the Mannekin Pis, for no good reason as far as I can tell.  I did like these statues to take home as a souvenir, though!  Photo at 16.02.

Today Leen and I went to explore Antwerp.  I'd never been before, and I liked it a lot.  A highlight was a beer and this tasty selection in De Foyer, a lovely theatre bar.  Photo at 14.59.

Here's a big family party.  There were 24 assorted Van Broecks and hangers-on, and I think I managed to learn everyone's names!  It was good fun.  Photo at 22.39.

Today was the day for exploring Sint-Niklaas, the city where Leen went to school.  It has the largest market square in Belgium, and the tourist information is very keen that everyone should be aware of that.  As well as seeing that, we did a walking tour around various lovely art deco buildings, had a beer in a cool old beer cellar (photo at 12.29), saw a castle and a park, before taking a train back to Temse for dinner.

I'm in Belgium!  Or Flemland, if you prefer!  Saw Louise and Jacqui in the Hare and Hounds this afternoon, and then headed to St Pancras for my Eurostar.  Leen and her dad Erik met my train and drove me to their home in Temse, where I met the cat, Gust, who seemed about as (dis)interested as Erik in my iPad as they posed for this photo at 23.20.

It was a busier Christmas day than usual.  Father Christmas brought me a stocking!  That was an excellent surprise.  I went to the cathedral again, and enjoyed the choir singing Haydn's St Nicholas Mass with full orchestra, while the others went to Salisbury Methodist Church as usual.  Then we did presents (yes, before lunch! Shocking!).  I was very pleased with my haul.  Lunch was fantastic, of course.  We enjoyed smoked salmon from Andy Race of Mallaig for our starter, before turkey with everything, and Christmas pudding with some 1984 Rivesaltes that I bought in June.  Then after lunch mum drove us all up to London for Christmas part two at Andrew and gang's house.  There was another excellent presents session, followed by lots of playing with those presents (photo of the general scene at 18.37).  Then food again, more play and chat, and then I settled down to watch England destroy Australia in Melbourne.  A wonderful Christmas!

I hope you all had wonderful Christmasses too, wherever you spent them.  Happy Christmas from me.

I love Salisbury cathedral, and I love that it's part of my Christmasses since mum and dad moved there.  This morning there was still some present buying to be done, so I took my camera for a look at the cathedral in the snow on the way to town.  Photo at 10.49.  Christmas Eve traditions followed, with Carols from Kings, tasty dinner, and then midnight mass at the cathedral.

It's Christmas!  Well, I suppose strictly speaking it isn't yet, but after working from home (including a period of being locked out of my house - idiot) I've made it to mum and dad's house in Salisbury where there's a tree and presents and cards and Christmassy food.  Photo in their dining room after dinner, at 21.35.

Unless my travel plans are disrupted, or something thrilling happens during the working day tomorrow, this will be the last Oxford photo of the year.  It shows Rich playing the part of a king, I think, surveying his garden.  Not a bad pad.  Photo at 21.22 (which is the same as yesterday!).

This evening I went down to London to see Anni and the New London Singers perform a concert of really lovely Christmas music at Kings Place.  They're a very good choir, and as well as some of my favourites from Tavener, Britten and Poulenc, they sang some great things that were new to me (Gant, Debussy).  Photo at 21.22.

Lots of snow in the OUP quad as I went out for lunch at 12.08.  This isn't actually a photo I'm particularly proud of, but the BBC appealed for snowy Oxford pictures, so I emailed it in and they published it, which is nice!

Leen and I stayed at Laura's in Dulwich last night.  I'd never been to Dulwich before, and so Laura took me for a tour.  It looked particularly great in the snow.  Here's Laura outside Dulwich Picture Gallery at 12.00.  Later I did some Christmas shopping, and this evening Stephen and Sarah hosted mulled wine fun at their house.

Leen and I travelled through the snow to London today to sing carols in Richmond with all these lovely people.  We were raising for money for the Vineyard project.  Photo at 14.56.

A quiet evening tonight, so I got this photo of the Christmas lights on Oxford High Street on my way home at 18.25.  I should definitely credit Alice for having pointed out to me on her blog how cool these Christmas lights are.

This is an actual, real, old, Roman coin.  It's a denarius of Vespasian, dating back to AD69-79, and it was given to Leen as a Christmas present by a friend.  I got a photo of it this evening at 21.31, and I'm using it because I didn't take a group photo during the fun party at Topaze and Chris' house this evening.

Don't I look brilliant in my Incuna Christmas beard?  Photo at 13.37.  Geo later turned it in to a wonderful Twitter/Facebook profile picture using her magic pad, which you can see at http://twitpic.com/3ga509.

These are strange fudge-type sweets, which a colleague brought back from America for us all to enjoy in the office.  They had a name that was something to do with reindeer, but I can't remember what it was.  Photo at 12.39.

Leen and I went round to Hedda and Calum's house this evening for fun chat and to admire their Christmas tree.  You can see Calum and me in this photo, taken at 22.02.

Today was Rich's birthday, so here he is enjoying trying on Esther's earmuffs at the quiz at 22.18.

Stephen cooked a Christmas feast at his house this evening.  The main course was this delicious stuffed lamb. Earlier, Jubilate sang our advent concert to a sold out crowd in Keble chapel, and it went very well.  Today's photo was taken at 21.32, and is much less funny but much more publishable online than several others I took, which may or may not make it to Facebook at some point.

Here's my first case of wine from the Wine Society.  Thanks very much to the people who bought it for me!  Photo at 22.24.

Hmmm.  Work Christmas party.  'Nuff said?  Photo at 23.27.