Newwave World: Deck the Halls

The only thing not so thrilling about running around the top floor of the Queen Victoria Building with Maddie Gurton and the largest, sparkliest Christmas tree I’ve ever had the pleasure of photographing, was the reminder that Christmas is well and truly en route – and I have so much to do before that glorious week of silence comes around. I didn’t even mind that it was 5AM on a Monday morning.

The next few weeks are certainly going to be no fun, trying to juggle residual work commitments with intense amounts of content consumption for four looming exams.

But, being responsible for lighting the tree at tonight’s ceremony, Richard Tognetti’s incredible performance (he’s my Katy Perry – I could neither hyperventilate nor Snapchat fast enough) and the insane Parisi’s chocolate strawberries and gold Zumbo macaron tower that followed, were surely mitigating factors for the speedy approach of a New Year for which I’m not at all mentally prepared.

Perhaps some kind of holiday season plan is in order to manufacture some light at the end of a long year. Because my family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, I’m seriously considering taking some

non-working me-time in LA or New York, away from the social mess that comes with being on home turf, but not so enamoured with the idea of being somewhere new and exciting that I’d want to fill all my daylight hours with adventures. There’s something quite comforting in the extreme commercialisation of Christmas in the States. Somehow, popular culture and really awful December 25th all-star movie releases have made unexplored smells like maple syrup, gingerbread, eggnog and pumpkin pie strangely familiar.

Any killer Christmas plans for you guys?