Here's some video I took of the waves at Mooloolaba beach on the Sunshine Coast in Australia when we went out there to validate our visa over the new year. [youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQl3CusIA8&w=425&h=350]) Soon this could be a regular weekend activity for us! … read more

It takes a few days for the 'analysts' to work it out, but it's clear now that Gordon Brown tried to pull a fast one on Wednesday. Here's some of the facts that are starting to emerge: Gordon Brown claimed that 4 out of 5 households would be better off because of his budget, yet leading accountants … read more

All in all, the project I'm working on at the moment is quite interesting. However, the task I've been working on for the last couple of days nearly made me lose the will to live. I'm providing IT security consultancy for a project that's rolling out over 6000 new PC's across the company, with an … read more

I can't believe that Iranian forces have captured Royal Navy sailors again. I sailed through Iranian waters a few times myself during my years as a matelot, and tension always rose because of the number of Iranian FPB's (Fast Patrol Boats) that came close to us. We always had to close to a high … read more

I'm sitting here at the train station waiting for my 17:18 (of course I missed the 16:18 again), with the adreneline still pumping slightly from the scare I had about an hour ago. I was sitting at my desk (on the ground floor of a very tall building) when suddenly there was a really loud explosion … read more

Had an interesting afternoon today. We had a 'Launch Event' for the main project I'm working on. The project team had booked out a room at Tiger Tiger with food laid on and a free bar! I love those words - FREE BAR! It wasn't all play though. We had to do some 'activities' before we could get stuck … read more

I was walking through the Arndale Shopping Centre at about 5:30pm today and noticed a large line of people queueing to get into Virgin Megastores. Turns out they were waiting for the release of the Playstation 3 at midnight tonight: I don't know how long the people at the beginning of the queue had … read more

We upload our photo's to Flickr. To protect our privacy, we've restricted a lot of the photo's to friends and family only. If you're friends and family of ours and would like to see all our photo's, please contact us and we'll send you an invite through Flickr. As of today, there's over 3000 of our … read more

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It was absolutely freezing walking into work this morning. It would have been cold anyway, but with strong winds the wind chill factor made it feel like minus 10. Just as I thought I was about to go into the first stages of hypothermia, a warm glow suddenly came over me when when I remembered I'll … read more

Like many, I've downloaded the templates off Martin Lewis' site moneysavingexpert.com to try and reclaim unlawful punitive bank charges over the last 6 years. I worked it out, and after having a bad year 4 years ago when I kept hovering around my overdraft limit, I racked up approx £1100 worth of … read more

I had a night out last night with my mates for the first time since, well actually I think it's the first time this year (how sad is that!). Rach also went out with her mates (the 'school mums') and we met up at the end of the night and came home together. It's funny that in 7 years we've never … read more

A surveyor came today to look at the house on behalf of the buyers. It seems to have worked out ok but we were worried for a while. You see for some time now a crack has been developing in the plaster running floor to ceiling in our bathroom, just at the point where we have a full house extension. … read more

Every Friday I try and make the 16:18 from Manchester Piccadilly to go home for the weekend, and every week I fail and have to wait another hour for the 17:18. I've come close on a couple of occasions - actually getting as far as watching the train move away just as I get to the platform. But … read more

It seems funny that it's a year since my last post where I rejoiced the fact that we had finally received our visa, and yet it's only now that we're in a position where we're confident it's actually going to happen. The reason it's been a year is simply because that's how long it has taken us to … read more

I'm now on holiday in Oz - more about this later. This post is just to say that we finally got the Visa!!!!! We checked our e-mail while we was in Singapore and we've got an e-mail to say the visa has been granted. What a relief! After 18 months of hassle we can finally put the house up for sale and … read more

Finally, we're all packed and ready to go. Just waiting for our lift to the airport hotel. We're staying in a hotel near Manchester Airport tonight. We're going to check-in early and make use of the leisure facilities to have a fun and relaxing afternoon. We'll then go out for a meal tonight before … read more

eggbaconchipsandbeans Oh my god, a blog about Cafe's, whatever next! read more

One day of work left before my hols! It's been crazy this week trying to get tasks ticked off before I go. Problem with my job is I can't really just pass work on while I'm away, it will all be waiting for me when I return. I got a phone call right out of the blue yesterday from a recruitment agency … read more

You wouldn't believe how much organising this Oz trip has taken (a bit different to a weekend in Skegness!). I dread to think what it will be like when/if we actually emigrate. I think I've made a bit of a screw-up. I've booked day flights which I thought would be best but now it's dawned on me that … read more