A landing time of 6:50am meant it was an early start on Sunday to ensure we were there to meet my parents at Brisbane airport. It was great to see them emerge through the arrivals tunnel after not seeing them for 10 months. My mum burst into tears, bless her, and Lauren was very excited to see her … read more

The last few weeks have been work, work, work unfortunately, hence the lack of blog posts. However, there's light at the end of the tunnel - this weekend sees the arrival of my parents for their first visit to Oz, and I've made sure to arrange plenty of leave so I can get back into holiday mode … read more

We moved into new offices today at work. The company I'm working for as outgrown our previous office so had to look for new premises. The problem is, because of a rise in rental prices the company could no longer afford the lovely CBD (Central Business District) location for the office capacity that … read more

After two years of battle between Sony's Blueray and Toshiba's HD-DVD technology, the High Definition format war is finally over. Now that all 6 major movie studios have backed Blueray, Toshiba has been left with no choice but to discontinue production of the HD-DVD disks. As with the previous … read more

I've just returned from watching Rambo at our local flicks. Growing up with the Rambo films I was looking forward to seeing this final revisit, particularly after seeing, and enjoying, Rocky Balboa, Sly's other throw back to the eighties. Whereas Rocky Balboa worked well as mainly a character drama; … read more

I never thought that getting my hair cut could be such a wonderful experience. Being previously used to a 5 minute cut and quick brush down (which always seemed to leave more hair down the back of my shirt than what went on the floor), the first time I got my hair cut in Australia I was pleasantly … read more

All is quiet in the Haines Brisbane residence at the moment. We haven't been doing much lately as we're saving our money for when my parents come over at the end of March for 4 weeks, in which time we're planning on a week up on the Great Barrier Reef. Besides that, the weather here is still crap. … read more

Why not have a nice cup of tea and a sit down :-) read more

Back in Sydney again. I decided to stay in a serviced apartment again this time (as I did the week before xmas), however it’s a pleasure to discover that these Meriton apartments are much nicer, more conveniently located, yet roughly the same price as the Medina Executive Apartments I stayed in last … read more

On Saturday it was Australia Day which meant yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday. The net result was a fantastic 4-day weekend for me! We decided to partake in Australia Day celebrations by visiting South Bank. Before that however, we took a train into the city and had a walk up Queen St Mall. … read more

It comes as no surprise to me that we're seeing a lot of news reports lately regarding lost or stolen government laptops and removable media containing personal information. In the last week alone we've seen records of 600,00 people have been lost by the Royal Navy, as well as the loss of 4000 … read more

I forgot to mention, in follow up to my I'm on the Schmap Brisbane Short-list post, it's been confirmed that my photo has been included. The page is here - http://www.schmap.com/brisbane/tours_tour1/#p=131021&i=131021_4.jpg read more

The worst of the weather seems to behind us so it was business as usual this weekend. A lot of time was spent in the pool. We had a BBQ Saturday night with the neighbours, and I managed to get a gym session in on Saturday and a game of golf on Sunday morning. The golf was hard work to say the least. … read more

Yes I got burnt - again! But I'm not the only one, Daryl has too. He didn't even realise at first he's getting redder as the evening progresses, we're glowing like little berries. There's only Lauren who isn't red - she's a gorgeous colour (with a permanent white bikini on) It's a good job we look … read more

It finally stopped raining long enough this weekend for us to get some sun and take a dip in the pool. In fact Rach even got sunburnt. Again. Will she ever learn? The whole xmas and new year period has been a complete wash-out. Brisbane has succumbed to the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, which … read more

I'm the unlucky one! Living here it was bound to happen sooner or later and it happened to me - what a surprise! I've been bitten by, I think, a grey house spider (looked it up on the University spider finding website - very helpful) this is what it said; "bites by Achaeaeanea species in Australia … read more

Here's a run down of some books that I've recently read: The Spin Doctor's Diary: Inside Number 10 with New Labour by Lance Price This book has been sitting on my to-read shelf for a while as it has been out since 2005. The main insight I got from this book was the extent to which Tony Blair, in his … read more

Last weekend I finished watching the final series of The West Wing, and sad as it may sound, there’s now a big hole in my life. I only discovered The West Wing last year after someone recommended it to me. I never caught it when it was shown on TV so I went back to the beginning and bought the … read more

Following up from my last post, when Mike mentioned he was taking me to a nice steak restaurant in Sydney I expected a 'Sizzler' or something like that. Instead, we went to the Prime restaurant in theGPO Sydney building where they have a steak on the menu for $155. I thought I new about steak until … read more

I'm currently in Sydney for a couple of days meeting with a client - my first business trip of what I'm told will be many for my new employer. I flew up yesterday afternoon with a colleague who I'm taking over from on this particular client project as he's leaving next week. We're staying in the … read more