It’s traditional for us, as I guess most people, to take a nice long walk on Christmas Day (although this year my Christmas Day was actually Boxing Day. Curses). Since we’ve always lived by the sea, this usually means the beach, which can be hellishly cold in the middle of winter. This year I was wearing a t-shirt, a jumper, a hoodie and a big coat – along with hat, gloves and scarf. I think living in London has somewhat sheltered me from the elements.

So, this is Susie, our elder Boxer. We thought she’d died a couple of Christmases ago when she had a fit at the end of the garden – but she’s still with us, just. Unfortunately at over 13 I don’t expect her to make next Christmas, which is a shame because I prefer her to Roxy! (Don’t tell Mother…)

We didn’t make the beach this year, due to Susie’s ailing health. We live further away now, so it wouldn’t have been kind on the old girl to make her go all the way and back again, so it was just a quick one into Gunton Woods and back. Not that I’m complaining – made for some good shots, including this (my favourite of today) of pet senior.

You can see more photos from today in this flickr set.

I’m back home for Christmas in Lowestoft, which is the most easterly place in Great Britain. It’s not the most amazing place on Earth – it produced The Darkness, for goodness’ sake – and was described in unflattering terms by Gene Simmons during the second series of Rock School. It is, however, by the seaside, and that’s always good, right?

The worst thing about being home this Christmas is that my mother decided to downsize while I was at uni, which means I am left sleeping on a sofa for a week. (I’m not complaining. Too much.) This means I can’t really sleep, and when she’s up for work early, I wake up too.

All of this adds up, basically, to an early morning walk to the beach – the new BBC Weather site helpfully told me that sunrise would be as late as 8.02am, which meant I could laze in bed (on the sofa) until 7am.

It’s not the prettiest coastline, but there is some interesting stuff around that made for some interesting shots (I hope). Of course, jumping down from the seawall onto a narrow stretch of pebbles and sand while the tide was coming in to shoot it wasn’t my brightest idea, but I blame the early start and lack of tea. Anyway, you can see the rest of the set on flickr.

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So I was up early in Lowestoft (the most easterly point of Great Britain and my hometown) this morning – and I mean early. I was out of my mum’s house by 6am to walk to the train station, and managed to get there early enough to buy my ticket and then go for a wander.

The town centre was slightly deserted, to say the least. I hardly saw any traffic on my walk in, and given that it was down the A12 (a main road in those parts), that just goes to show how damn early I was up. That’s commitment to work, people.

Anyway, wandered a little way from the station in the hope that there’d be some Christmas light action, but at half six in the morning there weren’t really any to speak of. So, I leave you with this image in compensation. Not a very good one, but I was half asleep, and Lowestoft isn’t the prettiest town in the world. Wish I’d had some time to go play on the beach – now there’s a place to shoot (if you don’t mind the sand in your lenses). Will definitely get some done over the Christmas break.

(For those expecting shots from Norwich, well, it was really overcast and I had very little time during daylight hours! Apologies.)