My highlights of 2013

1. March: Seeing Opeth live in concert again, at Enmore Theatre in Sydney. Mikael Akerfeldt appears to have his growl back. Hands-down the best gig I've ever been to, of any genre. Can't wait for their next tour (and mooted new album, also)
2. April-May: Visiting the UK and especially Finland with my friend Tiina. I'd visited the UK back in 1984 when I was a wee lad, but didn't really remember anything. Was great to go back. But... Finland was stunning. We spent two weeks exploring it. Definitely going back there. Also on the way back to the UK (we flew home from London) I ticked off another bucket-list item - we visited the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark. I'd wanted to go there ever since I saw pictures of it (I think in one of those Lego Ideas books published by Lego) back in primary school.
3. June: Visiting Japan very briefly, spending three nights in Tokyo, ostensibly to see Van Halen's concert at the Tokyo Dome. While there I caught up with an old friend who now lives in Tokyo, and ticked off another bucket list item - spending a few hours ogling all the wonderful things at the Toyota Automobile Museum near Nagoya. The Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya was also pretty interesting.
4. October: Acquired a new motorcycle - 2013 KTM 990 SuperMoto R. Ludicrous fun. Sounds wonderful. Somewhat impractical fuel range. Completely unsuited to highway slab rides, but brilliant for sporty rides and generally being a hooligan, which is just what I'd wanted