A couple of weeks ago we spent a night away in luxury at the 5 start Sheraton Mirage Resort and Spa Hotel on the Gold Coast, courtesy of a hotel voucher from Rach's boss in thanks for Rach selling one of the Marina berths. Rach has already blogged about this on her own blog so I won't repeat it … read more

Being a rather geeky James Bond fan I was very much looking forward to the Quantum of Solace. After the re-incarnation of James Bond in Casino Royale, which kept pretty much authentic to the original plot and character in Ian Fleming's novel, I had high hopes for QoS. What a disappointment. Unlike … read more

It's tropical storm season here at the moment and this year it has been particularly bad. Tonight we've been treated to yet another fantastic lightning storm after a very hot day, but it was rather mild compared to what happened on Sunday 16th November when we had the worst storms for 30 years. … read more

In just a few hours time, after what's been the longest, most expensive, and perhaps most exciting presidential election ever, we'll know who is going to be the 44th President of the United States. Being a political news junkie, I've been following the race fairly closely for the last 18 months, … read more

Our latest set of visitors arrived safely on Friday - Frances and Rob - so we had a busy weekend playing tour guide. Friday evening we took them to the Manly Harbour Village Halloween Street Party. Loads of people dressed up (kids and adults) and joined in with the 'spooky street parade' at dusk. … read more

On Saturday night we went to see Stevie Wonder in concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Being one of my all-time favourite artists, this was a rare treat, and he didn't disappoint. Both Stevie and his band were magnificent. There were a couple of small let downs. First, while he got through … read more

As the Chelsea v Liverpool game was on at midnight our time last night I recorded it and watched it before work this morning. With Chelsea being unbeaten in the league at Stamford Bridge for 86 games, I was expecting yet another goalless or 1-1 draw between the two sides. Incidentally, the last team … read more

I'm very busy on the work front at the moment, both in my day job and with the internet business. In my day job I'm involved in a major, very complex, government PKI project. PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure and is basically a set of systems that can be used for issuing and signing digital … read more

Yesterday when I went to get on the bus to work I realised I'd forgotten my Go card, which is basically an electronic card you can use with the Brisbane transport system - I can top the balance up online and simply touch on and off buses and trains, and it automatically gets deducted (it's basically … read more

I am pleased to announce the launch of our latest website - www.EzeeQuit.co.uk You may have heard news stories, such as featured on the front page of bbc.co.uk/news today, about the revolutionary Electronic Cigarette. This product is win-win for smokers and non-smokers alike as it allows smokers to … read more

Continuing our quest to discover Brisbane and the surrounding areas, on Sunday we spent the day at Bribie Island. Bribie Island is approx an hour's drive north of Brisbane and the only Island close to Brisbane that is connected by a bridge. We started out at Bongaree which is on the South East of … read more

Back in Sydney again. Just a flying visit this time (24 hours). At the airport I heard the announcement "Darren Gough please proceed immediately to Gate 39". Of course I had a look round to see if, unlikely as it would be, it was THE Darren Gough. The strange coincidence is that when I got to my … read more

http://youtube.com/v/Yg_xa-c9hHY Typical Englishman abroad. Steve McClaren has only been in Holland 6 weeks and he's already doing the pigeon English thing. They should put this stuff in a Rough Guides guidebook. If you are an Englishman on holiday in a non-English speaking country, simply speak … read more

Yesterday it was Father's Day here in Australia, and so for a treat we went for Lunch with George, Julie and Reyce to Icon at Raby Bay. We'll definitely be returning to Icon again. The food was fantastic, especially given it was a buffet. Usually at buffets you end up getting the cheap cuts of meat, … read more

Yesterday, Rach said she wanted to get some spring cleaning done so I took Lauren down to the Manly Harbour Festival. Here's a few pics: A little something for the adults... And a little something for the kids... This is a view of the rear of Rachelle's work. You can see two cranes - one is … read more

A few of our pictures from last weekend... On Saturday we had planned to go on board HMB Endeavour - the replica of Captain Cook's ship which visiting Brisbane for a few days, but we got there a little late as Lauren attended a friend's birthday party in the afternoon. Plus, we couldn't be arsed to … read more

Google has finally entered the Internet Browser market with the release of Google Chrome. Only time will tell to see if it can compete with Internet Explorer in terms of market share. For me, Firefox is the best browser out there but it still only has a 20% share of the market - even IE6 which is … read more

It was only 4 years ago, yet I can remember very little about the 2004 Athens Olympics. Some of the sporting achievements stick out, such as Kelly Holmes winning 2 Gold Medals, the Men's 4x100 team winning Gold, and the discovery of Amir Khan. However, I can hardly remember a thing about the 2004 … read more

I've just been watching this video on the BBC website about supposed Aussie sour grapes over the success of team GB. If you get any Aussies throwing out the same line that 'it's not England, you can only beat us if you combine your countries', just point out to them that most of Australia's golds … read more

The UK Cabinet Office has now made public information from the previously classified UK National Risk Register. This is available at [www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/n...](http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/national_risk_register.aspx.) This seems to backup what many scientists have been … read more