The Mysterious Case of the Missing American Honeybees

I'm a bit worried about the bees. Apparently, all over America, honeybees have been going for a bit of a jaunt about the countryside and then never returning home. One poor beekeeper estimates that half of his 100 million bees are missing. Imagine that!! 50 million bees! That's a lot of bees to count. Must have taken him quite some time. Perhaps half of the bees thought "Stuff this for a game of monkeys, life's too short. We'll be little old women-bees by the time he's finished and then we'll all die of starvation! I'm off out to get me some pollen."

So that's one theory. But other theories are far more worrying. They range from the effects of pesticides to bee-stress caused by beekeepers' tendency to roam around the country with their hives stashed in the back of a lorry. I can relate to commuter stress. The buses and traffic near where I work have been nothing short of shocking lately. My usual bus is now approximately 20 minutes late every day, sometimes more, which wouldn't be too bad if they ran more than once an hour. I've missed a few gym classes due to the bus being trapped in the car park for 20 minutes because all the damn students drive to uni. It wasn't like that in my day. There have been a few angry emails, I can tell you. I just hope I don't go the way of the bees and disappear - although some days I do feel like not bothering to even try to get to work. So perhaps the bees just got sick of those long boring drives in the back of a lorry and decided on a sea-change. Perhaps at the first chance, they escaped to a nice sleepy town for a cruisey life. Stuff the honey, they're choosing lifestyle.

Strangely, no one seems to be considering climate change as a factor. Perhaps that's because the beekeepers are able to move their bees to more appropriate climes. It must be the only thing in the news at the moment that isn't being blamed on climate change.

But what's most concerning is the impact this decline in honeybees is having on crops, in particular California almonds. I don't even want to entertain the idea of a world without almonds and my wallet can't cope with an increase in price. Not to mention the thought of no honey, both staple ingredients in my morning muesli.

For the full story see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp

IE7? Why?

Amidst all the wedding planning that has become my life, I decided to download and install IE7 at work today. I only did it because an online application at work suddenly seemed to develop a bug in Firefox that was seriously interfering with my ability to get on with my work. I prefer Firefox for this app anyway as it actually opens Word documents in Word as opposed to some weird Word-browser hybrid.

After waiting what seemed like an age for the damn thing to install it finally asked me if I wanted to reboot now (recommended apparently) or later. As I had lots of applications and documents open I decided to shut everything down manually so I selected to reboot later. The installer didn't seem convinced. It double-checked and reminded me that it was recommended that I reboot now but I stuck to my guns. IE then got it's own back by giving me the blue screen of death when I restarted and rebooting again anyway. Then, as if to prove its point, it refused to open. I rebooted yet again but IE still wouldn't play nice. I had no choice but to reinstall it again and after being unable to find the original download file I also had to download it again. Given that IE wouldn't even run it was lucky I had Firefox installed, wasn't it?

Eventually I got everything working quite nicely but you know what? I really can't be bothered with IE. I have been using Firefox for so long now and have lots of extensions installed that help me do the things I need to do. I particularly like my GMail Notifier that sits in my toolbar and lets me logon at the push of a button and then lets me know whenever I get a new email. I also like the Google Notebook extension that allows me to add to Notebooks using the right-click and to view and edit mini notebooks using an icon in the bottom of my browser.

I haven't tried very hard to find the equivalent add-ons for IE but I have had a quick look and I don't really see why I should try hard. With Firefox it's just easy. Now I'm sure this is because I'm used to the Firefox environment and I just need to take some time to reacquaint myself with IE and it's add-ons but when I have a browser that for the most part will do what I want with no effort, I just can't be bothered to spend the time looking into it.

There are some useful features of IE, such as the Web Developer and Web Accessibility toolbars that I use for work and obviously I'll continue to test websites in both IE and Firefox. IE7 certainly looks great and has lots of great features. For those peeps who have put up with IE6 for so long it's a great replacement and everyone should be encouraged to move to IE7 right away - it's so much better. But for those of us that gave up on IE years ago and moved to Firefox, I'm sorry Microsoft but it's just too little too late.

Stevie baby: Croc hunter meets his match

I just had to share this movie of Steve Irwin with "Ross the Intern" whomever he is, some camp dude that doesn't like anything touching his face and freaks out at the mere sight of a tarantula. It's absolutely hilarous. Made my day.



Those of you reading this on email will have to go to the website to view the embedded movie: http://linsdownunder.blogspot.com/

Engagement party on the beach

Hopefully I've given you long enough to get through my very long post about our trip away. There were a few days left out but they mainly consisted of driving down to London, celebrating our engagement with friends Karen and Steve, who have also got engaged since we last saw them, celebrating our engagement again with Barbara and Ian and walking in the rain (always seems to happen when we're with Barb and Ian and their little King Charles Spaniel, Millie!).

Since arriving back in Australia we've been settling back into our routine, inspecting the furniture donated from the neighbour's house (yes, there was more than just the sofa-bed), trying to get our beach bodies back again (no mean feat after six weeks of covering up and eating rich foods), catching up with friends and family, trying to cope with the intense heat and humidity that we've had over the last week or so and, of course, planning a wedding.

We had a few friends round last Friday which was Australia Day and took the opportunity to celebrate our engagement (again!) - on the beach, drinking champagne. What a life. I do love Australia Day. Almost makes me want to become an Australian citizen. The weather is always good, everyone is in a good mood and you don't have to go to work. To have it on a Friday is the best luck... wonder what will happen next year when it falls on a Saturday?

Diary of our holiday (more appropriately referred to as a "trip" or "visit home").

Warning! This is a long post to make up for the lack of blogging whilst I was away.

Day 1 : Saturday 2nd December 2006

My birthday. Ran round the house all day in panic with sick feeling in stomach feeling very anxious, not sure why. Unpacked half of the case I'd started packing the day before and shoved the extra clothes in bedroom cupboard. Quick afternoon tea with the family before leaving house in absolute mess for Toby's parents to clean up whilst we're away (not intentionally, understand). Ended up in neighbour's house trying to avoid being given all of her old furniture - goodness knows what we'll have when we get back. Had nice champagne dinner with party hats and balloons in the airport and the gay barman gave me free chocolate mudcake. Boarded plane still feeling anxious.

Day 2 : Sunday 3rd December 2006

Arrived in Dubai early morning and went straight to Nyc and Gerard's place. Spent the day trying not to fall asleep in Wild Wadi Waterpark. Toby hurt his neck.

Day 3 : Monday 4th December 2006

Went shopping in Ibn Battuta mall. Impressive themes, particularly the Persian tiled ceiling. Chinese junk a close second. Have nothing nice to wear to go out so bought nice top from River Island... think it was cheaper than UK but at least I have something nice to wear whilst I'm here. Looked unsuccessfully for boots as only have hiking boots and flip-flops. Went for very expensive food and drink in the very cool Buddha Bar. Should have worn new top but Nyc said just go as I was so ended up wearing jeans, hiking boots and nice woolly pink jumper. I am the height of cool and style. Had the first gin and tonic of the holiday and a very good one it was too. Was impressed to see there was a gin menu but was disconcerted to see that Plymouth Gin was on there. I chose a cool smooth Tanqueray.

Day 4 : Tuesday 5th December 2006

Visited the museum and old Bastia Quarter. Saw old wind towers. Much better than shopping. More cultural and picturesque. Had late lunch by the creek and wandered through the fabric souk. Toby has started saying "Excuse me, Sir" to everyone.

Day 5 : Wednesday 6th December 2006

Checked out Emirates Mall in the morning. Looked for boots again. Was unsuccessful again. Toby saw some shoes for himself though. Went on a four wheel drive desert safari. Dressed up as Arabs and rode camels all of about 10 metres and back - getting on and off was a thrill though. Belly-danced and then had to purchase spangly dangly belly dancing scarf and jingle around. Also purchased useless sand picture in bottle. Will only serve to weigh down luggage but was relieved to hear Nyc and Gerard were also persuaded to part with cash for such a pointless souvenir. Smoked sheesha (or hubbly bubbly). Tasted nice to start with but hurt my lungs after a while.

Day 6 : Thursday 7th December 2006

Woke up with sore throat thanks to the sheesha. Went shopping in Emirates Mall again. There's a ski slope there which we were thinking of checking out but we were possessed by the shopping demons. It was hell. I'm sick of shopping and never want to see that mall again. Looked for boots all day and eventually settled for a pair to tide me over and give me something to wear in UK. Have birthday money for boots though so will definitely get some nice ones in UK. Am rethinking style I want now and have gone from square toe and heel to pointy toe and heel. Can't have them too high though or I'll fall over. And must be reasonably comfortable. And UK size 7. Not too baggy on the leg - definitely want to wear them under jeans rather than over but must also look good with a skirt. Want them to come to somewhere between my calf and knee. I mean IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK????? The worst thing about not finding any boots is it means I have to go shopping AGAIN when we get to UK. Also had to purchase toy guns so we could dress as jungle AWOL commandos for a "jungle fever" house party that night. The party was really good but perhaps we stayed up rather late considering we're leaving tomorrow. Got back around 4am and got straight onto internet to reserve our seats on the plane.

Day 7 : Friday 8th December 2006

Broke one of the elastic packing straps inside my suitcase. Silly cheap suitcase. Was sad to leave Nyc and Gerard but had a great time in the airport. Bought some perfume - a rare luxury I'd decided I'd do a few weeks ago even though I ended up then getting some from Toby's dad for my birthday. Also bought a CD of local chill-out music recommended by Nyc_Ger and three books, one of which was recommended by Nyc, another about the history of Islam and the third about a woman who was held prisoner in one of Saddam's torture jails. On the way to the perfume counter the Bombay Gin caught my eye and it was only about $20!!!!! So I bought that too. $20!!!! Absolute bargain. Arrived in London in evening and went to Cheryl's place for a quiet night.

Day 8 : Saturday 9th December 2006

It's cold!!! It's bitterly cold AND sunny. It's crisp, fresh and perfect. Maybe we will get snow after all. Woke up feeling like I might have a cold coming on - haven't quite recovered from the sheesha. Toby, Cheryl and I went for a walk over Wandsworth Common and back up Northcote Road markets. It was really nice being back in the buzz of London. Bought feta stuffed chillies in the markets for some silly price. Can't quite get my head around UK prices. Everything looks cheap until you multiply it by 2.4. My concept of value is out of wack. It's very Christmassy. All the florists are selling Christmas wreaths and the streets outside them are lined with trees. We keep seeing people walking their trees home. Got home and drank cider with Scotty and Ben before the lads went out to the pub and bonded. Went out that night with all the old uni gang and some other really good mates too. Wore my new top. And the fill-in boots. Had a great night catching up with people but hope to see everyone again before I leave.

Day 9 : Sunday 10th December 2006

Have a cold. Feel rotten. Everyone else is hungover. Got up before Cheryl and Scotty and went for a coffee with Toby. Dozed on settee this afternoon watching Planet Earth. Was nice even if I did feel nasty. Cheryl cooked a nice roast dinner and I had an early night.

Day 10 : Monday 11th December 2006

Still have cold. What a rotten way to start my holidays. Can't be bothered to do anything. Think will just stay in and stick my Dubai photos onto the web.

Later: Stayed in and stuck my Dubai photos onto web. Also, went for a coffee with Toby and then for a walk despite Toby's protests because it was raining. I mean, I'm already sick - what's the point of staying in. Got kitted up in my bestest outdoor gear and wandered round my old neighbourhood returning only when my water resistant trousers started letting the water in. Toby's going for a Brick Lane curry with James Farr tonight but I'm not up to it so I think I'll go visit Cherie.

Day 11 : Tuesday 12th December 2006

Feeling much better. Still sniffly but head cold is clearing. Had a lovely roast beef dinner and some nice wine with Cherie last night, talked nonsense and watched Buffy. It was just like the old days. Toby stayed at James' and I met him at Victoria this morning. We headed over to the Google offices to meet Cameron, an Australian friend who works there. Quite impressive. Had a go in the massage chair which was really nice except for the bit where it feels like it's going to squeeze your legs til they burst. Got a free lunch. There are fridges everywhere with free drinks. Also, free chocolate and snack bars and fruit. Stocked up for the afternoon. Scored a free t-shirt each too. Mine's cool - one of the Google "o"s is the female symbol, ♀. Went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2006 exhibition at the Natural History Musuem. There was a Christmas fair on at the front of the museum. Had a brief look in the Victoria and Albert museum next door and checked out an amazing sculpture in the garden made of columns that light up different colours to music and react to the movement of people wandering through them. Forgot camera. Gutted. Met up with Nina in the pub. Haven't seen her since I moved to Australia as she moved back to Germany for a while. Paul and Dan, who Toby and I worked with in Investia joined us followed by Paul's girlf, Christine and we headed back to their place for food.

Day 12 : Wednesday 13th December 2006

Weather is getting much milder now which is severly endangering our chances of snow whilst we're here. Went to Covent Garden. Looked at boots. Think I've seen some I like in Jones The Bootmakers but they're £90. Don't even want to think about what that is in $AUDs. Then went to my Israeli friend Sigal's place. She cooked a wonderful meal and it was really nice to see her again. We stayed the night.

Day 13 : Thursday 14th December 2006

Walked round the park near Sigal's place then headed back to Cheryl's place in Balham. Returned to Covent Garden. Looked at those boots again. Still think they're quite nice but expensive. Met up with my old chum, Gi, recently married and one of the first friends I made in London back in 1997. Gi's wife, Jo joined us and we went for dinner in Wagamama's. Had a great night.

Day 14 : Friday 15th December 2006

Got up early and prepared breakfast for Cheryl and Scotty to say thanks and goodbye. Scotty went out last night on a works do. He was listening to U2 on his iPod when he got home at 1am. I know because I could hear it quite clearly until Cheryl made him turn it off. He couldn't understand what her problem was. He didn't make it for breakfast this morning. Packed up after they'd got off to work and got the train back to the airport to pick up a hire car. Spent most of the day on the M25. Finally arrived in Cambridge at about 4pm but got lost. Bought a map but got stuck in rush-hour traffic and made it to Aileen's way after 5pm. After a quick catch-up with Aileen and Jonathan we met up with Sal, a friend from the Sunshine Coast who is also living in Cambridge, and went for curry. Then met up with Sal's boyfriend Dan and his workmates for drinks.

Day 15 : Saturday 16th December 2006

Decided to spend another day in Cambridge. Aileen and Jonathan went away but kindly allowed us to stay in their house another night. Toby and Dan went on a bike ride. Sal and I went shopping and had a much more successful trip than previously. Still didn't get the boots though. Have seen some other possibilities but the ones from Jones are still looking like they might be the best. So expensive though. Was lovely spending the day with Sal and she's a great shopping buddy - that must be a compliment coming from someone who's not that into shopping. Had a nice meal with Dan and Sal and an early night.

Day 16 : Sunday 17th December 2006

Got up early and drove to Mam and Dad's. Didn't hit any traffic surprisingly although did almost get lost on a detour and ended up doubling back on ourselves. Is nice to be home. Mam's new kitten is adorable. My case is now so heavy that Toby broke the handle on the top of it whilst carrying it upstairs for me. Silly cheap suitcase. Toby slept and I went round to Gran and Grandpa's to catch up with my uncle and some cousins who won't be around for Christmas. Surprised my Nana and Granda with a visit too. Had a chilled night. Still haven't opened that bargain gin I bought in Dubai airport. Have a bottle of vodka in my collection too, a gift from Cherie. Have some serious drinking to do.

Day 17 : Monday 18th December 2006

Spent half a day in the loft looking for my dressing gown. Didn't find it but did find some old but still good winter clothes, a box of photographs from my university days, my old mini-disc player and the disc of songs Cherie and I recorded together some years ago, some books, including one I wanted to take back to Australia and my Nintendo GameBoy Advance and games. Spent some time looking through old photos and playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Took my old winter coat to the dry cleaners. Tried to sort out some photos and blog stuff but mysteriously my wireless card is not picking up any signals.

Day 18 : Tuesday 19th December 2006

Toby has started saying "Brilliant" all the time. Went to the Metro Centre to do some Christmas shopping. Looked at boots again. Was there all day. Eventually got the ones from Jones' even though they're expensive as was sick of shopping. Then walked past Dolcis and saw another pair, similar but cheaper and possibly a better fit. Bought them too. I now have three pairs of boots. Saw a dress I wanted for a christening on New Year's Eve. Toby offered to get it for me for Christmas but has to transfer money into his account first.

Day 19 : Wednesday 20th December 2006

Drove down to York to stay with Sadie and Tim. Was a beautiful day at home but turned all wintery on the way, all frosty and when we hit the outskirts of York, fog so thick it was like driving through pea soup. It is the nearest we've got so far to a white Christmas. My hopes for snow are returning. Navigating the country villages in the fog was tricky but we made it there and amused Sadie and Tim's three children for a while before having a nice meal and drunken catch-up with the grown-ups.

Day 20 : Thursday 21st December 2006

Was rudely awoken at 8.30am by the children. Had to politely ask them to leave us alone for a couple of hours or we'd be very grumpy later. The girls obliged but the toddler came back periodically to launch himself onto Toby. It was a slow start and everyone felt rotten but eventually we all managed to get up, stomach some food and even take the kids for a walk. It was a nice walk except Alex, the toddler kept either stopping or turning round and walking in the wrong direction. I really don't think we went very far at all. Tonight was a lot more chilled out than last night.

Day 21 : Friday 22nd December 2006

Left Sadie's in the morning and called into York to check the Minster was still there (it was) and a do bit more Christmas shopping. Tried to get my dress but they didn't have it in the York store. Then drove back to Mam and Dad's.

Day 22 : Saturday 23rd December 2006

Toby went to the Newcastle-Chelsea game with my brother-in-law, Alan this afternoon. I hung out at my sister's place with her. We went for a bit of a walk and drank some vodka before getting ready to go into Newcastle. Decided we'd give each other Christmas stockings. Met up with my best friend, Catherine, plus Dan and Sal who are spending Christmas in Hexham, north of Newcastle. Toby and Alan were supposed to meet us in the pub too but strangely, they didn't turn up. Met up with the rest of the gang for dinner and eventually tracked down the lads who were a wee bit drunk. Another good night catching up with friends.

Day 23 : Sunday 24th December 2006

Did some last minute Christmas shopping in Newcastle on the way back to Washington and ran around picking things up for Clare's stocking. Please say this is the last time I have to go shopping. I know it isn't as I still need to take the boots back to Jones' (wore the Dolcis ones last night) and there isn't one in Newcastle. Went to Durham Cathedral for Carol Service. Saw the Bishop and everything. Thought I'd better make an effort to look nice so wore my new boots and nice long winter coat. Was so packed had to stand. For over an hour. Boots hurt. Got hot and had to take coat off. Nearly fainted a few times. The Program of Service was 30 pages long. Thirty pages!!!!! Was good though. Felt holy afterwards. Ready to do some more sinning now. Went home, drank mulled wine and wrapped presents. Can't believe it's Christmas day tomorrow.

Day 24 : Monday 25th December 2006

Christmas Day!!! No snow. :-( Not even cold really. Slow start to the day, followed by present opening, bucks fizz, arrival of family, more present opening, beautiful roast turkey and pork dinner with Christmas pudding and brandy sauce for desert, then games, including hilarious play station karaoke game Mam got for Christmas. Mam's sister, Barbara loved it. Wasn't particularly good at it but could we get her to stop? No. Got a digital photo frame from Mam and Dad. Copied some of our holiday photos onto it and noticed that wireless card was suddenly working. Great - can get some blogging and photo stuff done now.

Day 25 : Tuesday 26th December 2006

Headed to Seaburn in Sunderland early this morning so Toby could do the Boxing Day Dip. This is where people dress up (or not) and then jump into the sea all in the name of charity. Toby wasn't really prepared but he paid his money and jumped in (three times, AND had a body surf) in his boardies. It was good fun, quite cold though but not frosty or icy, and there were some great costumes. Then more family stuff. Round to Gran and Grandpa's to see my cousins. Much fun was had with some weird liquid balloon making kits we'd brought over from Australia. Probably the cheapest present they'd had but it entertained them for hours. More present opening and game playing.

Day 26 : Wednesday 27th December 2006.

Even more family stuff. Round to Nana and Granda's for food before the entire family, all 19 or 20 of us went to the Pantomime. It's an annual thing, a very small local show. This year was Babes in the Wood with a Robin Hood song with actions we'd seen some years back. We thought we were quite clever, remembering all the words and actions but it seems the same people must go every year as they didn't even tell us them this year - just assumed we knew. Afterwards some of us went for a pint and curry. Yum.

Day 27 : Thursday 28th December 2006.

Went for a swim this morning and then to the Metro Centre to take my spare boots back and also a jumper that had a hole in it and a couple of other bits and pieces. There's this thing now where the sales start straight after Christmas and it was hell. The worst shopping experience so far. Met up with Bev and her two year old, Charlotte for a coffee which was nice but then had to take my jumper back to Next and it was just awful. Couldn't find a replacement for the jumper (Next take all their non-sale stuff out of the store during the sale) so picked up anything in my size which looked okay, including a shirt I'd thought about getting when I was in Dubai. Then headed to the changing rooms to find them closed but that's okay apparently because you can take stuff back for 28 days AFTER tomorrow. Grrrr.... So tried to throw a couple of things on over my clothes in the shops but people kept trying to make off with my swag. Wanted to get something as the jumper had been bought with birthday vouchers from my sister so eventually selected a couple of shirts including the one I'd seen previously. Took them to the counter to be told that they don't do refunds on sales days but she'd make an exception - how nice!!! She was doing ME a favour. Well, I should damn well think so given that they'd sold me faulty goods. Really hope the shirts are okay. Can't stand the thought of going back.

Day 28 : Friday 29th December 2006.

Was very windy today. Went for a great walk along the Lees at Whitburn. The wind was really cold so it blew the cobwebs out. Really enjoyed being on cliff tops in the cold, windy weather - so energising. The beaches were quite sheltered in comparison. I love the coastline here. Back to Mam and Dad's this afternoon for another family do with my grandparents and cousins. Played the karaoke game again. Was highly entertained by my grandmothers' renditon of "It's raining men". Wireless card stopped working again! Damn. Mysterious.

Day 29 : Saturday 30th December 2006.

Headed up to best mate, Catherine and John's this afternoon, via St Mary's lighthouse, which is on an island connected to the mainland by a short causeway exposed at low tide. Went for a pub meal with Catherine and John and their two kids, Jessica and Joshua.

Day 30 : Sunday 31st December 2006

Joshua's christening. I am now a godmother. Another Sunday in church, that's two weeks in a row. Should make up for the next year of sinning then. Was an early start to the morning then Toby and John stayed at the club where we had the reception til quite late. John was very drunk when he got home and went to bed pretty early. The rest of us sloped off around 11pm, although I refused to go to sleep and watched the London fireworks on telly in bed. Could have been anywhere really. Is possibly the most boring New Years Eve ever. Very disappointing. Apart from becoming a godmother of course. That was exciting and Joshua is a very cute baby.

Day 31 : Monday 1st January 2007

Have we really been away for 31 days? There's so much we still haven't done. Christmas has really got in the way of our "holiday". Went for a nice walk in Durham with Mam and Dad and the to the Durham Light Infantry Museum for 2005's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Day 32 : Tuesday 2nd January 2007

Spent a day just hanging out at home and chilling, reading, looking at old photographs. Went to pub with Alan and Clare for dinner.

Day 33 : Wednesday 3rd January 2007

Another boring day. Sorted some stuff out in Mam and Dad's loft.

Day 34 : Thursday 4th January 2007

Very windy day. Walked a couple of miles along Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. Was beautiful although tough in the wind, especially coming back. Had a lovely hot beef and gravy sandwich in the pub before driving to Penrith in the Lake District to stay with Nic and Ian.

Day 35 : Friday 5th January 2007

Lazy day. Eventually ventured out and went for a nice drive. Beautiful day and saw some great views but couldn't really be bothered to walk after yesterday. Drove through some lovely little villages and round Ullswater up to the Kirkstone Pass where we had a pint and a jacket potato and befriended a crazy woman who is obviously going stir-crazy up there and now wants to house swap with us. Decided if we ever come back to England we'll move to the Lake District. Took Nic and Ian out for a yummy tapas dinner. Drank lots.

Day 36 : Saturday 6th January 2007

Today wasn't quite so nice weather-wise. We went to Aira Falls which was lovely although it was raining. It has rained a lot in Cumbria lately so all the falls are full and they gush quite randomly down the sides of mountains. Then headed to the villages of Amble and Bowness on Windermere followed by a scenic drive past Grasmere and Thirlsmere. Headed back to Washington in time to go out for a "posh" Indian in Newcastle to celebrate both Dad's and Alan's birthdays. Drank lots again and went to a cheesy bar and danced and sang.

Day 37 : Sunday 7th January 2007

Caught up with some family friends this morning then pottered around trying to sort out my packing and figure out what to do with the stuff that's taking me over weight. Most of it that is. Would you believe I haven't even opened my bargain Bombay Gin and have hardly touched the vodka. Will probably have to give it away now as can't really take it as carry on with the new rules. Gutted! Toby and I tried to figure out the best way to get home the very heavy (!?!) magnetic dartboard that my Nana gave him for Christmas but we got as far as hanging it on the back of the bedroom door and playing darts whilst discussing where to put it when we get home.

Day 38 : Monday 8th January 2007

Knackered. Winding down now. Can't believe this time next week I'll be back at work. Am trying to figure out how to get upgraded to first class (no guaranteed recipe apparently) as that will save me lots of trouble when I get home. Dad's birthday. Mam had to go back to work unfortunately but the three of us headed up the coast to Holy Island. Weather was minging: overcast, damp and cold wind. Toby asked Dad if he could marry me. Dad said of course he could, he'd been living with me for three years. Blue sky came out as we were leaving. Drove past Bamburgh Castle to Seahouses and had fish and chips with bread and butter, mushy peas and a cup of tea. Nice scenic drive home then back to packing hell. Decided to work on blog entry instead. Toby and I used bathroom scales to try to determine the weight of his case. Bathroom scales broke. We then used kitchen scales to try and weigh the stuff we're thinking of posting back. Was a bit tricky and possibly inaccurate. Eventually determined that Toby's case is under the 20kg limit but still have some bits and pieces to shove in there. Family came round to see Dad: all four grandparents and Clare and Alan. Toby followed me around the house until eventually he managed to corner me in the bathroom doorway at about 11pm and asked me if I would marry him. I said yes. Cracked open a bottle of champagne and had a late and quick celebration with the grandparents and Mam and Dad (Clare and Alan had already gone home). Thought about wedding plans then decided it was too hard. Couldn't sleep for thinking about stuff left to do here, then getting back home and back to work.

Day 39 : Tuesday 9th January 2007

Even more knackered than yesterday. Got up to have breakfast with Mam and Dad before they went to work. Everyone moaned about how tired they were. After they'd gone Toby slept on settee and I returned to packing hell. Stuck some of my old stuff back up in the loft then went to visit grandparents on way down to London.

Dubai photos online

This is an extremely quick post to let everyone know that I've started putting our holiday photographs up at http://snapper.cvsdude.com/gallery/linsb/v/UKDubaiChristmas2006/. I've also started a bit of commentary on the Dubai photos but that's not finished yet. I started writing a very informative post on our shenanigans in Dubai whilst I was there but after four days of rewriting I gave up. There just hasn't been the time. We really enjoyed Dubai though and I'll give an update just as soon as I have time to scratch my feet. London has also been great although hectic. We've had lots of fun catching up with old friends and every evening has been filled up with something. Unfortunately I caught cold when we first got here and wasn't quite on form for the first few days but now I'm just a bit sniffly and ready to party.

We're leaving London now and heading back out to the airport to pick up a car (crazy I know but it's cheaper that way as that's where we want to leave it and every pound saved is $2.40 saved) and swap it for a couple of arms. We only need our drinking arms whilst we're here anyway. Then we're off to Cambridge for an evening before heading north and catching up with my family.

The first travel hiccup

We haven't even left yet and already things aren't exactly going according to plan.

We leave tomorrow and I'm in the midst of a packing frenzy. Why is it so hard to pack light? I really don't want to take much but at the same time I keep thinking that I want to look good whilst I'm away. Not that I will anyway as most of my warm winter clothes are donkeys old. So I really should just take the bare minimum and buy stuff when we're away, but I can't really afford to do that so it's tempting to take what I already have. But then what I already have isn't that great and I can't decide whether the brown jumper is better than the pink jumper. The brown jumper is smaller to pack but the pink jumper is so snuggly and warm and it's my favourite winter jumper so I think I'll take both. But I'll have to buy something when I get there anyway because neither of them are really that smart and I need something to wear when I go out. Am I going around in circles here?

And then of course I need t-shirts to wear under the jumpers because it's going to be REALLY cold. I think I've gone overboard with the t-shirts. So far I've packed three plus a thermal and that's not including the stuff I'm taking to wear in Dubai. I mean, no one is even going to see them. Or will they? See I really can't remember what winter in UK is like. I vaguely remember some of the clothes I wore to go out on various birthdays and, apart from the big winter overcoat, they really weren't that warm, snuggly and wintery at all. I think I'd freeze if I wore them now.

Anyway, amidst all this deliberation the first potential major hiccup has just occurred. On Monday I finally decided to transfer funds from my savings account over here to my UK bank account. I filled the form in online and then sat back waiting for the bank to call and confirm. Trouble is they said they'd get round to doing that within three working days. Last year when I did this they were so quick to get back to me that they took me by surprise. But it wasn't long before I realised that I'd given them my mobile number and I'd left my mobile at home. I quickly sent them an online message with my other phone numbers and the times they could contact me. I heard nothing so I logged on again the following day to check my messages. Nothing. On Wednesday I logged on and checked my messages. Again nothing. On Thursday, the third business day I checked again. Nothing. I thought I'd better wait until today to chase it up as I wasn't sure which time zone they were operating in. So today I logged in and lo and behold there was a message saying they'd tried to contact me and couldn't get through so they'd cancelled my request. AAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh.

What I don't understand is that they tried to call yesterday. I had my phone at work with me yesterday and there was no sign of someone having tried to call so I'm not sure how many times they tried or what went wrong but there you have it.

I've submitted another request and in a panic called them up and warned them that they mightn't be able to contact me after today to confirm the transaction. Not knowing what went wrong with my mobile last time I've given them my home number to call. They said they'd contact me within the day, whatever that means. So now I'm house-ridden until they call, which is a real bummer as I'd been hoping to go for Christmas/birthday/goodbye drinks with some friends and colleagues this afternoon. Why they couldn't have just said to me, whilst I was already on the phone to them, "So, Ms Buckle, I understand you wish to transfer some money to the UK. Can you just confirm that amount to me please? Aha, yes, now you do understand there's a charge for this transaction, don't you?" I don't know. Probably some weird security reason but given that I called them and gave them a different number to the one I entered on my online form I don't really see what difference it makes whether I call them or they call me. So I'm very confused, house-bound, potentially skint whilst I'm in the UK and to top it all off I now can't see my cursor which is making typing this post a bit tricky. So I'm going to get back to the packing now and wait for the bank to call. Ho-hum.

The Great Netherlands Horse Rescue

I first saw this video on Google but it isn't very good quality so I'd recommend viewing the YouTube one. It's an amazing story which brought tears to my eyes and a shiver down my spine. A must-see for horse lovers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4584913278289860160

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n9wd7P5Apw

The time is nigh...

As the UK trip approaches, I'm beginning to feel that perhaps I've left a few too many things until the last minute but at least we've still had time for the fun stuff like snorkeling.

I don't have too much to say but I thought I'd check-in anyway and let you all know how incredibly disorganised I am feeling regarding our upcoming UK trip.

We leave in 8 days, on my birthday. Thankfully, it's an overnight flight which is good for two reasons:

1. You don't waste a day of your holiday on an aeroplane. This is only good, of course, if you actually manage to sleep whilst on the plane, otherwise you just arrive at your destination cranky, tired and jet-lagged.
2. It means I actually get to enjoy some of my birthday instead of just spending it on an aeroplane. Of course, this only applies if I have actually managed to get entirely and confidently packed by the day we leave otherwise I will spend my entire birthday running around in a flap, unpacking to make sure I've packed everything, then packing it again when I realise I have, then wondering if I'd packed a different particular something which I didn't check during the first unpack and so unpacking it all again.

I am of course hoping to be thoroughly spoiled by the air hostesses on our Emirates flight and to be offered lots of champagne and birthday cake.

As for being thoroughly disorganised, I haven't started packing yet, nor have I even managed to construct a list so I'm not entirely sure what I need to go out and buy. All guests have been banned from our house for the next week, unless they want to sleep on the lounge room floor, as the spare bedroom is about to be thrust into a chaotic world of suitcases and backpacks of varying sizes, piles of jeans and jumpers, snorkeling gear and camera equipment, so that Toby and I can go "AAAAaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh, we don't have enough room for everything! What do we do?" and then sort things into numerous piles of varying sizes of "must-haves", "would-likes" and "who-put-that-in-heres".

Aside from all that there's the house to put in order so that people can stay in it whilst we're away. And I figure it might be a good idea to have some accommodation booked in Dubai and some idea of what we'd like to do when we get there. We really wanted to dive in a region called Musandam but most of the tours are already booked up so we're now trying to decide whether to head over to Dibba in Oman anyway and see whether anything comes up. Oman is apparently a beautiful country but I haven't heard much about Dibba itself which suggests to me there isn't much to tell. Dibba isn't too far from Dubai and has snorkelling and diving locally which is why it might be a good choice. However, they don't expect to be too busy in December and I'm wondering why....

Anyway, enough of all that. You lot really don't need to stress about these things on my behalf (but if anyone does have any advice on visiting Dibba in December I'd love to hear it). How about a quick update on what has been going on in my world.

Well, two weekends ago we had a great snorkel off the boat ramp near Kings Beach in Caloundra. About six of us went and we were really lucky with the visibility which was probably around 10-15 metres. It was a windy day but we were in a really sheltered spot. There is a lot of fish life there. We saw the usual shoals of black and yellow stripeys, a few moon wrasse and similar as-yet-unidentified (by me anyway) fish, dusky butterflies, some shoals of larger fish, a ray, hard and soft coral, and lots more unidentified critters. We also saw two cute little eels, possibly morays, playing in a rock pool on the shore. Here are some movies and photos we took:

The ray:


The eels:


Dan's compilation:


Those of you reading this over email or RSS will probably need to visit my website to view these embedded movies. By the way, I think Dan is working on a better quality version of his movie so you might want to check back in a few days to see if this has been updated. You'll be able to tell because this text won't be here anymore.

School of stripeys - can anyone tell me who the imposter is to the bottom of the picture?




Sea star.



I didn't expect to see one of these whilst snorkelling.




Dusky butterflyfish - now that's more like it.



Underwater garden.

Last weekend we had Christmas with the Aussie side of the family which was really nice. Lots of seafood and salad. We also sort of celebrated four birthdays which are happening over the next month: Zoe is 3 on Wednesday, then it's my birthday on Saturday, on 28th December Toby's dad, Jeff celebrates his 60th and the day after that little Kielana turns one.

Now we're gearing up for a month of curries, christmas pudding, roast turkey, sherry, mulled wine, cheese and port, christmas cake, mince pies and more curry. Can't wait. But first, Dubai, and so far I've read about lots of nice restaurants and bars so I'm expecting to come back a few kilos heavier than I am now.

iRobot and iPod win CHOICE Shonky award

You may remember that some time ago I wrote about what I consider to be an excellent invention, a robotic vacuum cleaner, the Roomba iRobot. Well, I'm quite pleased I didn't rush out to purchase one because it has now won the CHOICE (Australian consumer watchdog) Shonky for Best Dirt Redistribution. According to CHOICE,

It’s about time they invented a robot that vacuums the house for us — it’s just that the iROBOT has a few minor shortcomings. Like, it’s almost useless on carpet. It’s OK on hard floors, though extremely slow, taking minutes to cover what you’d take seconds to do. And it’s noisy. Oh, and ours didn’t automatically return to its base for recharging, as it’s supposed to.

But what really made us doubt was its dirt redistribution function: when the small dirt container starts filling up, every time the iROBOT bumps into a wall or obstacle, a little heap of collected dirt falls out again. iROBOT? iDon’tthinkso.

See www.choice.com.au - robot vacuum cleaners for CHOICE's review of two robotic vacuum cleaners.

The Apple iPod also won a Shonky award: the iSHONK for dual shonkyness:

An iPod is a significant investment, so you don’t want your APPLE to be a lemon. And if there is something wrong with it, you’d expect an easy repair and warranty service. Podluck.

Level 1. Several readers complained about cracked screens, faulty batteries and problems with sound reproduction.

Level 2. APPLE doesn’t allow retailers to handle complaints under warranty (which is their obligation under Fair Trading laws) — you have to send your faulty iPod to APPLE yourself via Australia Post. And if they decide the fault isn’t covered by the warranty, you’ll have to foot the entire bill.

So, all you iPodettes out there, be very careful not to crack your screen. Speaking of faulty goods, I'm now off to find a replacement battery charger for my digital camera after over-heating the original by leaving it plugged in too long. I only hope I can find one before we leave for the UK in a few weeks.

We like tha moon

A bit of fun for Friday afternoon.

Thanks to my colleague Linda for introducing me to "We like tha moon" and The Spongmonkeys on her birthday a year ago when she came in wearing the t-shirt. I played this at a party once (not my own) because no one would believe me when I tried to describe it to them. It went down rather well, I think. Happy Birthday again, Linda. This one is just for you.

U2 Vertigo tour 2006, Brisbane

Bono gives it his all. From The Courier Mail

U2 were bloody brilliant.

Wow! I have found it very difficult to describe this gig without using an expletive closely followed by an adjective meaning "dead good". Bloody brilliant. F***ing awesome. Damn fantastic. The best gig I have EVER been to. I managed to run my phone batteries flat by taking photographs (most of which came out all black with a bright white light in the middle) and videos (which look a bit like the photos but sound as though someone is banging loudly on pots and pans whilst swinging the cat around the room) but as soon as it's charged and I've downloaded the pics I'll get one or two up here, so for those of you checking the site by email or RSS, check back.

The long and winding road to the stadium

I read a couple of reviews today and noted some folk were commenting on how badly organised the public transport was. To be honest, I didn't have a bad experience at all really. It took us a lot longer to get there than I'd expected. I've no idea where the stadium (ANZ Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre) was located but it seemed to take an age to get there from James and Melissa's place, where I was staying. Imagine my surprise when, after over an hour on trains and buses we drove past a sign for the Sunshine Coast. Given that James and Melissa live right next to the main road up to the Sunshine Coast this was a tad concerning. So, it is very likely that the duration of the journey was solely down to how shockingly bad Brisbane public transport is but, as most of the time I had no idea where I was and was just following James, I can't really comment. It was a wee bit stressful though as Jill got there at 6.15pm and had queued up and got our tickets and was standing outside listening to the support band, unable to go in because they wouldn't let her leave my ticket outside for me to pick up, whilst we were still waiting for a train in the city chatting up drunken Melbourne Cup tarts and trying on their hats. Other complaints I read included the fact that the gig was at such an out of the way stadium when there's a perfectly good one right in the city which is far more accessible by public transport. That seems like a fair comment to me.

Then when we finally got to the stadium at about 7.45pm (having missed the support act, Kanye West) we struggled to find Jill amongst the 45,000 plus other people meandering around. Eventually we did meet up and it was a pretty smooth ride from there really. James and Melissa went off to do their thing in the general admission mosh-pit area, which I think was a bit more stressful due to the vast numbers of people trying to get in through one gate. I heard they even ran out of beer.

VVV is for Vertigo

Jill and I, on the other hand, queued for about five minutes and made it in to the stadium in time to visit the loo, buy water, queue for booze tickets and then queue for booze. And then began the mission to find exactly where row VVV was. Yes, as imagined it was three alphabets (minus the X, Ys and Zs) up some steps . In fact we ended up pretty much as far away as we could get. Right at the back at the top of the stadium, slightly to the left but not much. Despite the fact that U2 very closely resembled ants from our viewpoint I think we had the best seats in the house. We could see the entire stadium and I got a good idea of what a 45,000-strong crowd looks like, we had a beautiful breeze (it being an open air stadium) and were way up in the stars. Generally I noticed that, other than the mexican waves undulating around the stadium prior to the band's entrance, the majority of people in the stands sat. It is ironic that the seated area is referred to as the stand and I really can't comprehend how anyone could go to such an electifying show and not get up and dance. We were fortunate that those around us were very enthusiastic and danced, sang, jumped up and down, stamped their feet, yelled and rammed on the corrugated iron at the back of the stand for the entire performance. There was an incredible atmosphere.

Lights, big screens, elevation and an electrifying performance

U2 didn't neglect us either. Not only did they delay the show by thirty minutes to ensure we'd got in and settled, they were also kind enough to have erected a 30 metre or so screen made up of goodness-knows-how-many lights right behind the stage, and two large screens either side of that which showed live images of each of the band members. The light show was incredible. From pretty patterns, to clips from their videos, to shots of the gig, we saw it all thanks to that big screen. They even dedicated two of their first songs to us. They didn't specifically state they were dedicated to us but... Vertigo... Elevation... it's fairly obvious, isn't it? There was also a circular walk-way which came right out into the crowd but we were so far away we could only tell there was someone on it when the spotlight shone down.

The performance was energetic and full of classic U2 anthems. I was expecting to mainly hear tracks from their latest album, "How to dismantle an atomic bomb" and maybe a couple from one or two albums before that but I was pleasantly surprised to receive something of a greatest hits performance with as many golden oldies as new tunes. I've included a track list below for those interested.

Yes it's f***ing political

Bono did go a bit political on us but I didn't mind. It's to be expected really and he's not aggressive or angry about it, he's passionate and informative and I happened to agree with a lot of what he was saying. He spoke mainly about ending poverty in Africa but he also mentioned Amnesty International and human rights abuses. He specifically mentioned David Hicks, the Australian man the same age as me who has been held in Guantanamo Bay for about five years now without trial. He called for David Hicks to be brought back to Australia. No more, no less but I was interested to note a division in the crowd. The people in front of us specifically weren't particularly impressed and Jill heard one of them comment that Bono "has no idea about Australians and Australian culture" or words to that effect. I was then interested to read this comment on The Courier Mail newspaper's website:

well Bono you overindulgent prat , Who the heck do you think you are? fact is most Aussies despise David Hicks He would have if he hadn't already shot at Aussie troops so the general consensus is stay out of our politics, sing your pretty little songs and go interfere in some other countries politics. Davis Hicks can rot over there and you can join him if you like,

I'm not sure that this person is the best example of Australian intelligence, I do hope not as his grammar and puntuation are appalling, but it certainly gave me an insight into the Australian psyche with regards to this matter. A little while ago I read Enemy Combatant by Moazzam Begg, a British Muslim who was arrested and detained by American forces for three years without charge or trial before being released by the British government. He mentions Hicks in his book and talks about how he was a very quiet chap and didn't seem to fit in. Being white and western he struggled to converse with the other detainees, most of whom spoke some Arabic. He had also ceased practising his faith and was harshly criticised by some of the other prisoners for this. I have often wondered why the Australian government hasn't sought to bring Hicks back to Australia. Now I'm wondering if perhaps it is because the Australian people don't want him back. Personally I believe it is inhuman and immoral to detain anyone without trial, let alone subject them to some of the horrors reported by Begg.

A milky-way of mobile phones supporting a worthy cause

But back to the gig. One of the highlights was when Bono asked the crowd to create a milky way with their mobile phones. It was amazing, beautiful in fact to see all these tiny screens sparkling in the vast stadium. He then asked everyone to SMS their name to a number to show their support of the Make Poverty History campaign. And this morning everyone who did so received a text message from "Bono" thanking them for their support and directing them the Make Poverty History online campaign.

The last song of the encore was Kite, which made me think of Toby, and they finished by releasing a kite into the sky which was a beautiful and touching end to an extraordinary evening.

The home stretch

Except then there was the journey home and there have been a few complaints about this too. Buses back to the city, or Banoon station - the one that appears to be in the middle of nowhere by virtue of the lengthy train journey from the city to get there but is actually close to the road going to the Sunshine Coast - were provided but it was mayhem trying to get on one. There seemed to be no order, and you know how we Brits like our queueing. We attempted to get a bus to the city but it was just crazy. An impossible crowd pushing and heaving and who knows how long we would have waited. So we got a bus back to Banoon and really didn't wait that long, although it was a teensy bit hairy for a short time when the crowd discovered a middle doorway on the bus right close to where we were standing and practically pushed us onto it. We managed to get straight onto a train which took us all the way home and were were in bed by 2am.

Then I was up at 6.30am to begin the long journey back to the Coast. I'm now incredibly tired and I'm off to bed. Good night.

Track List

Would you believe I remembered all of the songs, only there was one I didn't know and I got another mixed up with something else. So, for the sake of giving them in the right order I borrowed this list from a website but I'll be jigged if I can remember which one:

1- City of Blinding Lights
2- Vertigo
3- Elevation
4- Until The End Of The World
5- New Years Day
6- Beautiful Day
7- Yahweh
8- Walk On
9- Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
10- Love And Peace Or Else
11- Sunday Bloody Sunday
12- Bullet The Blue Sky
13- Miss Sarajevo
14- Pride
15- Where The Streets Have No Name
16- One
Encore:
17- Zoostation
18- The Fly
18- With Or Without You
19- The Saints Are Coming
20- Angel Of Harlem
21- Kite


(By the way, this afternoon's so called dangerous storm was a bit of a disappointed. After a couple of lightening strikes and moments after my last post, it changed its course and headed north, leaving us with darkness, immense amounts of rain, a bit of giddiness which soon passed and not much else, although plenty of nearby areas suffered hail and lightening strikes.)

Severe thunderstorm on the Sunshine Coast

I will tell you about U2. I've been talking about nothing else all day. But first I wanted to share with you the amazing storm(s) I am surrounded by right now. Check out this Severe Thunderstorm Warning map from the Bureau of Meterology (BOM). I have placed a green dot at my approximate location (at uni) on the map. This is from about 30 minutes ago so we're pretty much in the thick of it by now. Note, I did not add the info boxes stating "This thunderstorm is very dangerous"; that's courtesy of the BOM.


It has gone from being as black as night outside to being very dark with an ominous green tinge. Usually that's an indication of hail. There is a lot of impressive thunder and lightening going on and the lights keep flickering. Sippy Downs, where the uni is, is notorious for losing power during electrical storms. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen whilst I'm writing this.

I'm starting to feel a bit queasy from all the charge in the atmosphere and my boss has just told me that his wife called to say a tree on their property has been struck by lightening and has fallen across their driveway. I'm more than a little concerned for all our pot plants at home but hopefully it'll lose a bit of severity when it hits the coast. Goodness knows when I'm going to actually get home judging by the number of storms on the map. I'll leave you with a BOM radar image of precipitation from about 30 minutes ago. Black is really bad - very heavy rain. As you can see, we're pretty much right under the black spot.

The weird and the wonderful

The weird

Yesterday lunchtime I saw a car in a tree! It was the most bizarre thing and I didn't note too many details as I was driving around a small roundabout with emergency vehicles parked at the side at the time. Before you ask, I have no idea what kind of car it was but it was red. It was definitely in the tree as opposed to wrapped around it, or pushed up it. Yes, IN the tree, up the tree! A few feet up the tree! The road just before the tree sloped and there was a roundabout so the only thing I can imagine that happened is that the car came too fast down the road and couldn't manage the roundabout and somehow flipped up into the tree. I can't remember if the car was pointing upwards or downwards. There were a lot of emergency folk mulling around rubbing their chins. There was no one in the car. But there must have been someone in it when it first got into the tree so I'm intrigued to know how they managed to get the person out without the car falling out of the tree. So far I have not managed to find any reference to it on our local paper's website. All in all it was very surreal.


The wonderful

I'm going to see U2 tonight. I can hardly believe it. My friend Jill, God bless her, asked me at the weekend if I'd like to purchase her spare ticket for the gig in Brisbane. I told myself that if it was less than $100 then I'd go - an early birthday present to myself. It was! I am so excited. I'm leaving work in about 5 minutes to get the train down to Brisbane and staying overnight with friends before heading straight back to work in the morning. I have copied all my U2 albums onto my new MP3 player and I'll spend the 2 hour journey listening to them. What with that and the Melbourne Cup (I didn't win!) it's such an exciting day that I don't quite know what to do with myself and can hardly concentrate on any work. I'd better be off then... I'll report back later and let you know how rad the gig was.

Biometrics prevent pub fights

This is kind of old news now as I read it a week ago but forgot to pass it on. Apparently, a pilot biometrics scheme, in Yeovil of all places, is being used to cut down on pub brawls by scanning drinkers' thumbprints and preventing entry to anyone who has already been barred from any of the other pubs in the scheme. According to silicon.com, there are seven pubs taking part in the scheme and South Somerset District Council reports a 23% decrease in alcohol related crimes since the start of the pilot.

The latest news from silicon.com on this topic is that 40% of respondents to an online poll they conducted said they would be prepared to participate in such a scheme. On the other side of the fence are the 29% who said they would consider moving if their town introduced such a scheme, and sitting on the fence were the 31% who really couldn't be bothered just for the sake of having a pint - lightweights!

Me suspects the poll gave a basic three choices:
a) Yes I would participate in such a scheme;
b) Probably isn't worth it just for a pint;
c) No way, I'd rather move;
which probably wouldn't give an altogether accurate impression of people's opinions. But I merely speculate.

For more on biometrics see silicon's A-Z of biometrics and biometrics on wikipedia.

The only things certain in this world...

... are death and taxes. Or are they? They certainly happen, that's for sure. I've been learning the ins and outs of the "interesting" Australian tax system and felt like having a good old long-overdue whinge about the Inland Revenue.

"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes," so said oh-wise-one Benjamin Franklin. Well, the former I can't much speak of being, as I am, still very much alive and most of the people I know are also still alive, thankfully. Who knows what the future of technology will do to the inevitability of death. Certainly, the chances of dying have diminished significantly since the onset of modern medicine, which is why there are so many old people around these days. Don't get me wrong, I love old people. I wish there were more of them. It's just they cost money and who has to pay? Yes, that's right. You, the tax-payer which is all well and good so long as there are more tax-payers than old people.

Certainly taxes have seemed very certain in my world of late. Take 2003, for example. Having never submitted a tax return in my life I was suddenly required to submit two; one for the Inland Revenue, who somehow managed to track me down by hassling my parents, and the other for the Australian Tax Office, which was bizarre as I had earned approximately $5 that year! It appears that everyone has to submit a tax return in Australia and an interesting process it is. The tax return for the Inland Revenue was less interesting and more what you might call Painful (notice the capital P).

Painful, and some might argue unnecessary, Inland Revenue tax return process.

Firstly, I had very little warning of having to submit the return. I wasn't expecting it and when they first contacted me I thought, "oh well, I'll just fill in a form telling them I'm not currently residing in the UK, that'll throw them off". But no! Only now they had my address in Australia! So they kept sending me forms and reminder letters and by this time there was no way I was going to get it done and sent off in time, as they like you to do these things by the end of December which everyone knows is a crazy time of year.

I decided that I'd do it all online because then I'd have until the end of January. When I logged on, however, I soon discovered that nothing is that simple as I had to apply for a password, which they then had to take 7-10 days to get around to sending out, ironically by post, and then add on time for postage to Australia. Eventually I got it and logged on. It asked for my National Insurance number which I was organised enough to have at the ready. Then it asked for some other piece of information which I did not have. No worries, I thought, I'll just fill in what I can, email all the stuff I need to my Dad who can check my papers and get back to me. But no! They wouldn't let me move on until I'd given them that specific piece of information. A few days later, after Dad had rummmaged through the loft to find my papers and emailed me back I completed that page only to find that I couldn't answer the question on the next page without further info from my files at home. And I couldn't move past this page either. And so it went on and finally after a few weeks I got the thing submitted.

That didn't satisfy the good old In Rev though who continued to pester me for tax returns for the next two years, despite me having earned nothing in the UK, until eventually I wrote to them and said "Please stop asking me to fill in tax returns. I don't have any reason to. I earn no money and I don't live there any more. Please, leave me in peace" and thankfully they agreed.

Interesting Australian tax system with smarty-pants eTax software.

The Australian tax system is a bit different. Basically, from what I can see, everyone rorts it. They don't bother to tell you that you're supposed to fill a return in, you just have to know these things. It has to be submitted four months after the start of the new tax year, pretty quickly compared with the Inland Rev's eight months, nine if you're submitting online. One great thing about the Australian Tax Office is their electronic tax return system, eTax, which is basically like an accountant on your computer. It works like an interview process and does all your calculations for you. It's really easy to use... it's just that tax is quite hard to understand. A lot of Australians pay between eighty and two hundred dollars for an accountant to do their tax return for them. This is because accountants know all these nifty little tricks to get you more money and some people manage to double or triple the amount they can get back. A lot of this is telling little "white" lies about how much money you earned or spent or whatever throughout the year in order to get the tax office to give you money back.

Now, I don't condone this. I consider it "cheating a bit". Others call it "working the system" and I have to admit those crazy little rules that all the accountants know about must be there for a reason. Whatever, I quickly realised the benefit of knowing these things when I discovered that our combined house-hold income took us just over the threshold beyond which we would have to start paying a Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Emergency-treatment-only Reciprocal-medical-care-my-bottom Medicare Levy Surcharge Rip-off

The Medicare Levy Surcharge is a strange and mysterious creature. Let me try to explain. Medicare is Australia's version of the NHS, only some argue not as good and, as my tax return is evidence of, not as free. Whereas in the UK we pay a pittance of National Insurance towards NHS, in Australia you get charged a Medicare Levy. I would expect this to come out of my PAYE tax but it didn't seem to happen this year. Now, if you earn over a certain amount and don't have a private health fund then you also have to pay a Medicare Levy Surcharge. Confused? Me too. Even if you do have a private health fund you still have to pay the Medicare Levy, I guess because emergency healthcare is operated by Medicare and you never know when you might need it. However, if you are a temporary resident, as I was for 4 months of the last tax year, then you are not entitled to Medicare, unless you're from a country with reciprocal healthcare, such as UK, in which case you're entitled to emergency treatment but not doctors bills or anything like that. But you still have to pay the levy (because you are entitled to emergency treatment) and, if you earn over a certain amount, the surcharge. Sound fair? I didn't think so.

I don't actually earn over that amount, or at least I didn't last tax year. And I really couldn't understand why I was being charged the levy surcharge as Toby's income plus mine didn't push us over the threshold. I was very annoyed as it meant I was going to have to pay $400 extra to the tax office, which I hadn't planned on doing. All for a service I'd hardly used and wasn't entitled to full use of all year anyway, and I couldn't understand it as my tax return last year had a very different outcome.

Reducing taxable income, sometimes known as rorting understanding the tax system

After spending hours looking at it and tweaking some figures I finally figured out what it was. The interest I had earned on my savings account, plus my salary, plus Toby's took us a few dollars over the threshold. What to do? The interest was less than the amount I was going to have to pay the tax office. It didn't seem fair but I really wasn't sure about not claiming it. I went back and looked over my deductions. This is the interesting thing about Australian tax. You can actually reduce your taxable income by claiming deductions and if your "other work-related expenses" are less than $300 then you don't have to produce receipts, which just seemed crazy to me. You can also claim donations to charities. I had already depreciated my laptop and claimed for some PC magazines that were sitting on my shelf. I then remembered I'd bought software to run on my laptop and figured I could probably add that in, and what if I'd bought magazines earlier in the year but had since chucked them out? I made a quick calculation as to how many there may have been and before I knew it had worked out that I had $298 worth of work-related expenses. And what do you know? It brought us back down to below the threshold and all of a sudden the tax office owed me $77!! Now I know why it's worth investing in an accountant. Goodness knows what else they would have thought of.

So the craziness is that just over $300 of interest was going to cost me almost $400 in tax, but less than $100 extra of expenses saved me about $500 in total. Tax sure is a crazy and complicated affair.

And just before I go I'd like to get back to the original statement, "in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes". On the ATO eTax interview there's a question as to whether you will have to submit a tax return next year. This raises some interesting points, not least of which is, does that mean that tax is not a certainty? Also, are there many Australians who can actually see into the future? And, if I say "no" does that mean it will become the case? Maybe I should have tried it.

Subscribe to receive my blog updates via email

I sent an email out to a few folk when I wrote my review of An Inconvenient Truth a few weeks ago and I noticed a significant spike in the number of visits to this website. So it seems that you lot like to be reminded that there's something interesting going on, rather than having to remember to come and check it out yourself. And the whole RSS thing doesn't seem to have caught on with the majority of readers, so as an alternative I am now offering you the ability to receive an email every time I update the site.

All you have to do is type your email address into the form on the left-hand side of this web page (underneath the very egotistical "About me" section which I'm thinking of removing). A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter some text (to prevent spammers) so make sure you have pop-ups enabled in your browser. You will then be sent an email which will provide you with a link you have to click on to verify your email address and that's it. You don't have to register any other details.

Of course, RSS is still an option for those who have a number of websites they like to keep up with. Here's a reminder of what it's all about. If you want to leave comments you'll have to visit the site, but I'd encourage you to pop by from time to time anyway to see if anything new is happening - or if you just want to link to my photo albums. Speaking of comments, I'd love to hear what you have to say about the website and give me any tips for making it better. I'm thinking of a new design pretty soon too so I can make use of this whole tagging thing, oops I mean labels (gotta get the Google terminology right).

Love is in the mail (so long as you're not a Pom)

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Living in the Ice-box

How come I'm living in a gorgeously warm climate yet I feel like taking finger-less gloves and a fleece to work every day?

You know what it is? I was sitting in a meeting this morning with a Scottish lady, two English blokes and an Aussie and we were all having a good old whinge about how bloody freezing it is in the wonderful cheese-grater building in which I sit at a 'puter all day pretending to work. And I thought, this is bloody crazy. I'm sure we didn't move to the other side of the world to develop Raynaud's disease and a penchant for herbal teas and hot chocolate. I envisaged coming to work every day in floaty summer dresses and flip-flops, not packing a bag full of jumpers.

This is the best time of year on The Sunshine Coast. The weather is warm and sunny and we're all just starting to hang up our winter coats and dust off our bikinis and sandals and yet here I am rubbing my hands and my arms, cursing the fact that I forgot my cardigan today. Don't get me wrong, in the dead of summer I'm very grateful for a little air-conditioning as sometimes it gets a little like a Turkish steam room outside but the fact of the matter is that after sweating like a Biggest Loser contestant on the way to work I then have to pull out a scarf, fleece and blanket to be remotely comfortable once I get here. We're told it's because of the books. Part of the library is on the second floor of this building and one year all the books went mouldy due to the humidity. But really, there has to be some kind of air-con setting between "mouldy books" and "frost-bitten employees".

So, here we are at the start of summer in Australia.... I'd better dig out my gloves and woolly socks.