These photos were taken from a series of years from 2003 to 2007. My sister (recently obtaining her PhD from UT) has lived in Austin since 2003 and my mother moved from San Diego to Austin a couple of years later. Whilst I was working in the UK, I've visited them on an annual basis and have usually visited them during Christmas time, although I did visit once in June.

Let me say, Austin is a bit of special place. I don't consider this Texas. In fact, those who live here consider themselves Austinites more than consider themselves Texans, although they are fiercely proud of being a Texan!

It's incredibly liberal as things go for this area of the United States having a relatively high student population from the University of Texas (a world-standard university incidentally) and a great variety of international people of all types. Most of the work in Texas, however, is usually found in the larger of the cities including Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, but for those who find it here, it's a bonus.

Austin has a fairly variable climate. My pictures usually show Austin during Christmas time, which is usually at its most pleasant with temperatures quite often in the low to mid 70s with a nice fresh breeze. However, the weather can change drastically, and overnight one Christmas, the temperature dropped to below zero and severe icing of which I've never really seen before, covered everything. I mean everything! There're a few photos of this towards the end of the article. Summertime, however, is a different kettle of fish. It get's hot. I mean really hot!

Austin's downtown is fantastic with a wide variety of trendy coffee shops and bars. And don't forget, Austin's got great live music. You might have heard of South by Southwest. Austin is also littered with really good independent shops from video stores to coffee shops. In fact, one independent coffee shop had the audacity to proudly display a sign behind the counter which said, 'Fuck Starbucks'!

Enjoying good Mexican food or going to Austin's infamous Salt Lick BBQ (all you can eat brisket and sausage cooked over an open-fire pit) is a great experience here. If you get too hot, it's great to kayak on Lake Austin and take a dip. Then if you're up to it, do a massive pub crawl in downtown.

I guess the only thing which is missing is the seaside, but you just can't have everything!