Archive for travel
Wedding Bell$
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Why is it that the word ‘Wedding’ automatically adds $$$ to the cost of things?
This weekend we went up to Noosa for a wedding fayre. Yes, you would be right in thinking that attending a wedding fayre is is not in my top 5 things to do on a Sunday. However, sensing that I would immediately come up with some convenient excuse not to go, Rachelle offered a suitable bribe – she would pay for us to stay the night before at the hotel where it was being held. I didn’t know anything about this hotel, except that it’s called the Noosa Springs Golf Resort and Spa. Sounded good to me!
We drove up there Saturday afternoon in torrential rain, in our car which is now missing the front registration plate after some thieving rascal had taken it whilst it was parked outside a RSL club the night before. It’s an offence to drive around without it but there was no way we were going to go through the rigmarole Saturday morning of getting it replaced, which involves getting a police crime number and then going to Queensland Transport to arrange for a new one and hoping we can simply get a replacement without having to re-register the car with a completely new rego (we’re still sorting this out so as of writing I don’t know the answer to this).
Anyway… we somehow managed to make it up there without getting stopped by the police or being swept away in the rain. We didn’t really have any plans for when we got there, except that we wanted to go for a nice meal Saturday night to celebrate the fact that it was the 2 year anniversary of our arrival in Australia. Given the weather, and the fact that the hotel restaurant has good reviews from what I could tell, we expected to eat there. However, on arriving we were told that the restaurant wasn’t open that night due to the Wedding Fayre the following day. How ridiculous. So our choice was to go out, or order a takeaway, except, unlike most resorts of this kind with individual apartments, there were no takeaway menus in the room.
We braved the weather conditions and went out. Our first choice was to go to an Italian we had been to before and really enjoyed on our first trip to Australia. I can’t remember what it was called but it was in Sunshine Beach. I say ‘was’ because when we got there we discovered it was no longer there. We then drove to Hastings St in Noosa, the famous street in Noosa where most tourists head to for restaurants and boutique shops. Unfortunately when we got there it was hammering it down even more, we couldn’t get parked up outside a restaurant and because we hadn’t brought any brollies there was no way I was going to get Rach and Lauren to run from the car park to the nearest restaurant.
We gave up and ended up going for a KFC followed by the movies where we watched Night at the Museum 2. Wasn’t quite the evening we had planned but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Night at the Museum 2 was good family fun and you can’t go far wrong with a belly full of the colonel’s chicken!
As for the wedding fayre, it wasn’t that bad as these things go. There was plenty of champagne and wedding cake to try. And I experienced my first ever catwalk fashion show. I must admit though that I did blush a little when the models came out in skimpy lingerie (at which point Lauren attempted to cover my eyes). I wasn’t expecting that, I thought it would just be the wedding gowns.
The problem with these wedding fayres of course is that it gives the bride-to-be ideas. I don’t think my idea of getting married at a public BBQ area and asking everyone to bring a bottle and some snags is going to wash anymore! I was walking around the vendors displaying their wares at the wedding fayre and all the time I was thinking ‘HOW MUCH?’. I really begrudge paying that much for 100 photographs and DVD when I reckon I could get copies of the guest’s photo’s and knock up something decent in Photoshop and iMovie. Similarly, why pay stupid amounts of money for a wedding cake when I can go to Dunkin’ Donuts and buy a load of donuts and arrange them in some kind of fancy tower?
One of the first stands we visited was displaying wedding jewelery, attended by a man and a woman. While the woman was showing Rachelle the jewellery, the guy gave me a handy little card with a checklist of items that I should remember to purchase Rach for her special day. How thoughtful. The list read as follows:
- Pair of diamond stups & hoops – simple and classic
- Diamond ring – forever in style
- Pearl necklace – stylish and elegant
- Pearl earrings – to match of course
- Dress ring – for that special occasion
- Gold bangle – for everyday style
- Gold chain – from day to evening
- Gold bracelet – elegant adornment everyday
- Diamond & gem stone pendant – touch of colour
- Dress watch – personal fashion statement
Jesus christ! I’ve told Rach that I’ll commit to the wedding ring but she doesn’t need the rest as I don’t want to marry Mr T. If lucky, she may get a pearl necklace on the honeymoon 
Sorry, have I gone too far?
We somehow have to compromise between me preferring to spend money on the stag night and honeymoon, and the expense of the so-called dream wedding. Luckily Rachelle has always been a ‘cheap date’ and with a good head on her shoulders she realises like me that it’s stupid to spend $20,000 on one day (which I here is about average these days). That’s not to say it won’t be good day. It will. It’s just we may be making some cost savings here and there. Another idea of mine is to have a nude wedding, that way we don’t have to shell out for a wedding dress, bridesmaids dress or my suit. Rachelle seems to think nobody wants to see that and some members of our family might not be keen.
We’ve Finally Set a Date to Get Married
Posted by: | CommentsMe and Rachelle have been together over 9 years now and engaged for quite a few of those. We have a 7 year-old daughter, and most people just presume that we’re already married. Rachelle often gets called Mrs Haines and never bothers to correct them.
She’s been nagging me for quite a while to agree to set a date, and I don’t really know what’s been stopping me. I guess after having one previous failed marriage I was a bit disillusioned with the whole concept of marriage and thought it was unnecessary; after all, we’re living together and have a kid, so what difference would marriage make? Plus, there’s always been other priorities. Every year after we got engaged there seemed to be something that would take priority, such as moving house, starting a business, and most recently emigrating.
We got talking this weekend about our next holiday, trying to decide whether to go on holiday somewhere this year, or save up and go back to the UK next year to visit friends and family. It’s then that it dawned on me that for the first time in a long time we’re truly settled. We’re not thinking about moving house, or waiting to sell a house (as we were for 2 years in the UK), or waiting for a Visa, or uncertain about the next career path. There’s absolutely nothing stopping us from doing the dirty deed anymore!
To be honest, even though it has been Rach who was previously pressing the most for us to set a date, this time it was completely my idea. She hasn’t mentioned it in ages. So when I suggested it (in my defence I had consumed a couple of glasses of wine) you could say she was rather pleased!
So does that mean that I’ve changed my mind about marriage? I suppose I have. The most important thing is family, and even though marriage couldn’t do anything to make us a closer family, at least it will mean we all share the same name. And, it’s a good excuse for a party!!
So, November 2010 is the date that we’ve decided. It’s 18 months down the line so that friends and family from the UK can have a chance to save up and get out here. Rach is now busy wedding planning – researching venues so that we can book and get a firm date.
Hyatt Regency Coolum
It was a relaxing mini-break at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast that was the setting for us finally agreeing a date, courtosy of my employers. My company holds an annual event where they get to take customers and our vendor partners away to a posh hotel for a couple of days, with the third day being for employees. Saturday night in the hotel was paid for. So was dinner Saturday evening, including wine. I’m glad to say that although I did indulge quite heavily in the free wine, I have learnt my lesson from the time in Antwerp when I got alcoholic poisoning from free red wine (that’s a whole other story), and managed to stay reasonably coherent.
The days started with a couple of hours bonding in the morning, which mainly involved Exec and the account managers regaling us with their stories of drunkenness from the previous 2 nights. Then the rest of the day was our own. It was a nice family occasion. We’d taken Lauren with us and many of my colleagues had also brought their kids. The Hyatt Regency is a massive sprawling complex, with individual villas rather than your standard hotel with rooms, much like many of the all-inclusive resorts you get around the world. There were shuttle buses and golf buggies to get around the place.
The hotel itself is home to the Australian PGA Championship golf course and if we’d had more time I would have loved to have got in a game, but with only one afternoon there, and the fact that it costs $75 just for 9 holes, and I’d forgot to take my clubs so I would have had the cost of hiring clubs on top of that, I decided not to bother this time. Instead we went down to the beach club, quickly went on the beach and saw that it was empty (with the exception of my boss, Tim, and his missus sitting there in their chairs looking like a typical English couple on a day out in Skegness (he’s a fellow pom).
The sea was pretty rough with lots of dumpers so I neshed out on going in. I did brave the beach-side pool though, only afterwords discovering that it was the one pool that isn’t heated! This time of year the water is freezing. Both myself and Lauren went in but there’s no getting Rach in an unheated pool when the outside temperature is anything under 30 degrees C!
After lunch we went up to the Village Pool as it’s know, which is much larger and, importantly, heated. There’s 9 pools in the hotel altogether apparently.
We all gathered in the evening for drinks before proceeding for dinner in the hotel’s Italian restaurant. With it being nearly Winter the hotel was pretty quiet so we virtually took over the restaurant.
For the first time in what must be a year, we had organised a babysitter to come to the room to look after Lauren. Lauren was quite happy about it though, as when I first told her that we were going to the hotel her very first response was ‘Has it got room service?’ From all the hotels we’ve stayed in over the years it seems the thing she gets most excited about is room service.
Rach is still not completely comfortable with using babysitters that we don’t know (which is why we don’t get out very often on our own) and was a bit wary. But we’d booked a professional babysitting company – Nannies of Noosa – and she was relieved when the women who turned up wasn’t some 17 year old kid, but a lovely women who had brought a bag of games to play with Lauren. Lauren really enjoyed it and we’d definitely recommend Nannies of Noosa.
The Italian was fantastic. As there was a large group of us it was a set menu rather than us all choosing our meals individually. We had 3 different pasta dishes to choose from for the main course which was fine by me – Italian is probably my favourite cuisine.
Come 10:30pm we went back to the room, which was the time we’d pre-agreed with the babysitter, however Rach nicely offered to continue babysitting duties while I went back out to rejoin my colleagues for a few more drinks.
About 9 of us ended up in the hotel nightclub – Frasers. We were the only ones in there! That’s probably why they closed the bar at 1am, much to my disappointment. The bar closing was my trigger to go to bed.
All in all it was a really good trip. The Hyatt Regency is lovely, although a little bit dated. The rooms are certainly in need of modernisation. But it wasn’t costing us anything so we could have no complaints. Even though the hotel, dinner and drinks with the meal were all paid for, we managed to rack up a $400 bill. That’s the danger of charging drinks to the room, it’s far too easy. A round of shots that I bought in the nightclub cost me $65, as I discovered the next morning.
Mooloolaba and The Blackall Range
Posted by: | CommentsThis weekend gone we went up to Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast for a couple of nights. Our neighbours, George and Julie, had already booked an apartment and encouraged us to do the same. Unfortunately, when we went to book they only had 1 apartment left, on the Ground Floor. It didn’t sound too bad though with its own courtyard and spa.
As it turned out our apartment was pretty crappy, but it wasn’t a problem as we didn’t spend that much time in it.
George and Julie had managed to book a top-floor apartment with private rooftop and large spa, big enough to fit us all in – as we soon discovered shortly after arriving on Friday. The idea behind this weekend was relexation and, for me, to catch up on some reading, so we spent Friday night drinking in the Spa and spent most of the day on Saturday around the pool. Bliss.
It wasn’t all plain sailing though..
On Friday night whilst in the spa a gust of wind came suddenly from nowhere and blew my iPod and iPod dock into the spa. I desparately tried to revive them but even after drying them out for a couple of days they’re now completely dead!
Then on Saturday morning Lauren was complaining that her pee was burning so Rach nipped to the chemist who advised her to take Lauren to see the Doctor. It was very inconvenient when I got the phone call from Rach telling me to bring Lauren to the Doctors, as we were in the pool at the time! Anyway it turned out that Lauren has a bit of a bladder infection so she’s now on anti-biotics.
On Saturday afternoon we found ourselves drinking again on the rooftop, and fed up with drinking crappy Aussie beer we decided to venture out to see if we could find a pub that served a decent pint. We thought we had read that there was a Pig ‘n’ Whistle in Mooloolaba (which serves Tetleys and Boddingtons, amongst others) but we were wrong, the Pig ‘n’ Whistle is a drive away in Maroochydore, so we took a walk to a pub George and Julie had visited previously. Alas, not a pint of smooth ale to be found.
On the way back from the pub the sun was setting so myself and George went for a swim in the sea before it got dark. I say swim but there wasn’t much actual swimming. The waves were fairly large so we had some great fun trying not to drown.
In the evening we went out for a meal. We didn’t think to book a table so had a bit of a nightmare trying to find somewhere where we wouldn’t have to wait for an hour. When we eventually did find somewhere it wasn’t long before the kids were falling asleep so after the meal, Rach and Julie took the kids back to the apartment while I and George went to the pub.
Our first attempt at getting into a pub was unsuccessful as we were both wearing shorts and for some stupid reason this pub, an Irish O’Malleys pub in sub-tropical Mooloolaba, had a dress policy which meant we had to wear trousers to get in. I could understand it if it were a posh wine bar but it’s an Irish pub for godsake!
We ended up having a couple of pints in the Surf Club which was heaving, and before we left a fight broke out between a group of women. It reminded me of being back in Doncaster!
When I got back to the apartment I found Rach up and looking a bit panicked. To my amazement she’d just had to put out a fire. In her nighty!
As it turned out, some idiot from an apartment above had thrown a cigarette butt into our courtyard which had landed on a towel which was flung over a chair.
The towel duly caught fire and proceeded to burn through the chair. The person who had thrown it must have realised what they had done and tried to put it out by throwing water from their apartment, as there was a pool of water just around the chair but nowhere else. Rach had to put the fire out by smothering it using the wet end of the towel that hadn’t yet caught fire. She was not amused. She reported it to the hotel staff who said they would investigate and compensate us for the towel.
The Blackall Range
On Sunday after checking out, George and Julie stayed behind in Mooloolaba for a few more hours whereas we took a drive up into the Glasshouse Mountains on the way home through the Blackall Range. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going but we had an idea that we wanted to see one of the waterfalls.
The drive up was spectacular and completely unexpected. I had no idea how interesting and beautiful the scenery is up there. When we managed to get up there that is – our little car really struggled with the steep incline. I had my foot flat to the floor and I could smell the oil burning but we eventually made it.
We started by driving into the small town of Maleny for a coffee and a visit to the tourist information centre to get our bearings. The guy at the tourist information centre (another British expat – we’re everywhere!) advised us to have a drive round to Kondalilla Falls National Park. We took his advice and on the way stopped off at Gerards Lookout to take a few photo’s of the fantastic view:
We then drove through the lovely little town of Montville and continued on to Kondalilla Falls where we had a short trek through the rainforest down to a rockpool under part of the falls that we could swim in. Both the trek down and the swim were quite a thrill. When you live in a health and safety conscious environment most of the time it was great to be able to walk treks where there was no barrier between you and a 1000 foot drop down the side of the mountain, and where you could swim in natural waters with no lifeguard present. Some idiots were even diving off the cliffs.
The water was freezing but it was really refreshing given how hot it was in the rainforest. Lauren also decided to brave it but soon changed her mind after getting in. Being a rockpool there wasn’t really anything to hold on to once in – you had to swim or tread water. Lauren’s a good swimmer now but she’s still not that confident when she’s out of her depth.
The whole area of the Blackall Range is simply spectacular and being only 1.5 hours drive from our house we’ll definitely be adding it to our list of weekend day-trip locations.
Newcastle
Posted by: | CommentsThis week I’ve been to Newcastle, and I didn’t spot a single Geordie!
Actually, Newcastle in New South Wales does have some similarities with its namesake in north east England, and in some parts does look a lot like other areas on the north east coast of England. It particularly reminded me of Scarborough, with its ruggedness and steep cliffs overlooking the beaches.
Newcastle in New South Wales is the 6th most populous city and the site of the second European settlement in Australia, being discovered in 1797. So it does have quite a bit of history, comparatively for Australia that is. It’s not a particularly large city, I’d say it’s no bigger than the average size town in the UK. However, it may be small but it certainly has a lot to offer.
Whilst Newcastle in itself is not the most picturesque place in Australia, the surrounding area is absolutely beautiful, at least it is from the air. When we were coming in to land I was amazed by the amount of greenery from vast untouched dense forests that surround the area, as well as the famous vineyards from the nearby Hunter Valley region. I’ll be definitely coming back here with Rach to tour the vineyards or enjoy a family break in Port Stephens.
I was only in Newcastle for a couple of days, doing some PCI security consultancy for a client. Luckily we managed to finish a little early on the first day, and that combined with daylight savings (Queensland is so backwards in that respect!) meant I was able make it to the beach and drive round the area while it was still light.
Europcar rented me a Ford Falcon Wagon to get about in whilst I was there, which made a nice change from our shit-heap of a car. I needed it because the client was based out in the suburbs. I started off my little exploration by driving down to Nobby’s Beach in East Newcastle. It was still around 28 degrees and I was cursing the fact that I’d forgotten to bring any shorts with me or my swim shorts so I could take a dip. It was still nice though. I took my shoes and socks off and rolled up my jeans and walked along the edge of the surf watching the windsurfers and kite surfers.
It was fairly windy so the conditions were pretty rough. There were still plenty of people in the sea though taking on the waves.
I then went for a drive around the coastline. The beaches aren’t as nice as the ones near us on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, but there is plenty of diversity, including beaches with rockpools and ocean baths.
I also went up to a scenic lookout where I got a fantastic view of the surrounding area. Out at sea I spotted what looked like 7 oil tankers all lined up waiting to come into port. They would more likely have been coal transporting ships – Newcastle being the largest coal port in the world.
After finishing my little tour drive I headed down to the new boardwalk Honeysuckle development on Newcastle Harbour where I had a delicious meal of mussells in white wine followed by Berkshire pork strip-loin at the Silo Lounge restaurant and bar.
I forgot to take my camera with my to Newcastle but I still managed to get a few decent shots with my iPhone. This one certainly isn’t bad for the crappy iPhone camera…
A Busy Christmas Break
Posted by: | CommentsXmas has been and gone for another year. I had a couple of weeks off work, along with Rach, so we were able to make the most of it and take her Mum and Dad for a spot of sightseeing.
Rach’s Mum and Dad are leaving on Saturday and they seem to have had an enjoyable time, although Rachelle’s Mum has struggled a bit with the heat. This Xmas was certainly a lot hotter than the previous year. We had many days when the temperature was well into the mid 30’s. Rach’s Dad even got sunburnt just hanging some washing out on the line!
Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been up to over the festive period:
Internet Business December Meetup
Quite a while ago I put my name down on meetup.com as being interested in attending a meetup for internet business owners. After a few months of waiting for someone to start a group, I decided to start one myself. So in October I held my first Brisbane Internet Meetup Group at a café/bar just outside the city centre. The event was immediately a success and all attendees (there were roughly 10 for the first month) said they found it really useful to be able to swap experiences, tips and ideas on everything related to Internet Business including marketing, web design, sales, blogging, social media, etc.
The meetup is now a monthly event and the December get together was held on the 19th December and received the best turnout yet. At each meetup I get to meet new members over a meal and a few beers in an informal setting.
As of today 68 members have joined my group.
Work Xmas Party
The following day, on Friday 20th December, I took Rach and Lauren to my work xmas party.
Being Australia, this was quite different to the xmas parties I remember from the UK. My company had booked out an area of a park by the Brisbane river just next to Story Bridge, with views into the CBD. Food and booze was provided and we had a lovely afternoon drinking and playing cricket in the park.
Xmas at South Bank
On the Sunday before Xmas we all went down to South Bank for the ‘Christmas Around the World’ celebrations. This included fireworks set to xmas music, performances in the Suncorp Plaza, movies in the park, fairground rides, international food stalls, amongst other stuff. This is one of the reasons I love Brisbane. The council are always putting on events like this and it’s totally free!
Xmas Day
Even though this was the second xmas we have spent in Australia, it still took some getting used to, and xmas day was very different to say the least.
As well as me, Rach, Lauren, and Rach’s Mum and Dad, we had Cath and Bonnie around for xmas day. It was a really hot day so most of it was spent out in the garden, where we had xmas dinner, beautifully cooked by Rach with assistance from Cath. Rach went for the full works, even to the extent of devising, and laminating, a menu weeks before.
Unlike xmas days in the UK which were mostly spent in a comatose state on the sofa, this one was pretty active. We had a couple of session of cricket in the garden, as well as a couple of sessions in the swimming pool, including one in-between the starter and main course!
Most importantly, Lauren was happy with her presents. And so was I. Santa was kind enough to bring me Guitar Hero on the Wii which resulted in me turning into a rock God! My rendition of Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz is particularly good if I say so myself. Honestly, I got obsessed with the thing and I’m now considering going out and buying a real guitar!
Sun 28th @ Surfers Paradise
On the Sunday after xmas we went down to the Gold Coast and spent the day at Surfers Paradise. This was another hot day so we spent a good amount of time on the beach. Myself and Steve (Rach’s Dad) had some great fun getting knocked for 6 by the waves.
Cirque du Soleil
On the 30th December it was Mandy’s (Rach’s mum) birthday so we all went to Cirque du Soleil to see Dralion. It was a fantastic show and I’d definitely recommend it. The trampolining in particular has to be seen to be believed. Lauren loved it in spite of the fact that she was disappointed that there weren’t any clowns!
New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s Eve we all went to Rach’s boat club for the NYE party which included a meal and live band. It was a good night but I did feel a little out of place as most of the clientele that turned up seemed to be pensioners. I think I might try somewhere a little more hip next year. I was half expecting them to start playing bingo!
New Year’s Day – Mount Coot-tha
On New Year’s Day we all went up to the scenic lookout at Mount Coot-tha, where you can get wonderful views of Brisbane and the surrounding area.
Besides that much of the xmas period was spent cooling off in the pool or escaping the heat in the shopping mall. Rach also had a few days out taking her parents and Lauren to places such as Sea World and Redcliffe. Fair to say it was a pretty good break.
Alas, all holidays have to end eventually and we’re back at work, business as usual. Except, we now live in Brisbane, Australia, which means we can go to the beach this weekend if we want to. And the following weekend. And the weekend after that.
I heard it reached -12 degrees C in the UK yesterday. That must be depressing.
See more of our photo’s from the xmas period on Flickr
Sheraton Gold Coast
Posted by: | CommentsA 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 here. Suffice to say that we had a great time, right up until the point where I got burnt to a crisp.
It’s 2 weeks later and my legs are still sore. A little tip for any blokes (and women) with hairy legs like me: if you use the spray-on sunscreen, make sure you rub it in thoroughly!
Bribie Island
Posted by: | CommentsContinuing 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 the Island. Being on the sheltered side of Bribie this is a lovely little village that is ideal for young kids, as there’s virtually no surf. There’s a small beach with a pier, which is surrounded by parklands with plenty of BBQ areas and children’s play areas.
From Bongaree you can get a view of the bridge back to the mainland. Also, you’ll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take a photo but to the left of this image there would be a view of the Glasshouse Mountains in the background..
After having lunch at Bongaree, we then drove 7km straight across to the west side of the Island to Woorim. Whereas Bongaree is ideal for the small kids, Woorim is great for the big kids (me), as there is plenty of surf to play in but nothing too scary..
Although Lauren is like a fish in the pool she’s still wary of the ocean…
Strange Coincidence
Posted by: | CommentsBack 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 hotel and turned on the tele, Sky News came up and scrolling across the bottom in the news ticker were the words “Darren Gough retires from Cricket”!
Could Darren Gough be celebrating his retirement with an holiday down under?
By the way the Hotel I’m staying in now is the same one that the Australian Idol contestants stayed in. Not that I watch that drivel 
Hacking in Canberra
Posted by: | CommentsThis week I’ve made my first visit to our nation’s capital – Canberra – for a 6-day course in Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling.
Canberra is a strange little city. It seems to me to be a cross-between Washington and Milton Keynes, in that it’s clearly a Government town; the Federal government being the largest employer in this capital city which has only a population of 300,000. Yet like Milton Keynes, Canberra has an artificial feel to it. You can see the planning and design – it’s not a city that has grown organically like most others. It’s even got some of the same 60′s carbuncles as Milton Keynes!
I’ve come to Canberra completely ill-prepared for the freezing temperatures. It’s about 13 degrees C in the day but it drops down to zero at night. I new what the temperatures would be before I arrived and I thought I’d be ok, after all I am from the UK! However, I didn’t realise how much I’ve acclimatised to the Queensland weather over the past year. 13 degrees C feels to me like -5 did in the UK! All I’ve brought is a thin jacket and some jeans and t-shirts. I didn’t even pack a jumper.
Because it’s so cold, tonight has been the first evening that I’ve dared to venture out. I had a gander around the city centre (which isn’t much bigger than Doncaster town centre) and then went to the flicks to watch Hancock. I had planned to see the Indiana Jones film but the timing didn’t work out very well, so then it was a toss-up between Hancock and Sex and the City. No contest – I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through 2 hours of self-obsessed women talking about shoes and Prada handbags.
I was pleasantly surprised with Hancock. I thought it was just going to be just another dumb superhero movie but it was actually really good. Of course the action scenes and special effects were good, that’s a given, but this added in a really funny script, as well as some character development and a few twists and turns to boot. Definitely one I’d recommend for 90 minutes of pure escapism. I plan on seeing Indian Jones tomorrow night, If I can be brave enough to go out into the cold again. I’m not expecting anything great from Indian Jones and the blah blah whatever-it-is as most of the reviews I’ve read have been pretty damning. I’ll try and keep an open mind.
Being holed up in the National Convention Centre each days means I haven’t had chance to take in any of the sights of Canberra. All the things I’d like to see are only open during the day. I’ll probably come back here sometime in the future with Rach & Lauren. In particular I’d love to take a tour of Parliament House and the National Museum of Australia.
As for the course, i’ve really enjoyed it. Over the past few months I’ve been quite dissolusioned with my career and frankly have been getting bored to death of doing security compliance work. This course has re-awakened the geek inside me and allowed me to get back to my technical roots. Learning the technicalities of how to break into systems is much more fun that just learning how to defend them!
As much as the content of the course has been really good and up-to-date, the best bit about the course so far has been having access to the knowledge and experience of our tutor – Bryce Galbraith. Bryce is very much an expert in this industry and is a contributing author to the bestselling book ‘Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions’. He has worked with a ton of Fortune 500 companies and has also worked on Foundstone’s world renowned Attack and Penetration team.
Of course I had a decent knowledge of hacking before I came on this course (you’re not much of a security consultant if you don’t know how the bad guys exploit the vulnerabilities you’re telling companies to fix), but this course has significantly enhanced my knowledge and brought it up to date with the latest exploits and attack vectors. I’m looking forward to Saturday when we get to put all we’ve learnt into practice with a live ‘capture the flag’ exercise – where we all compete to hack into a system.
I tell you, there’s some scary stuff happening out there and there’s a good reason to be paranoid about your computer security. A lot of the myths around security have been dispelled this week. Do you think I can’t get around your personal firewall? Think again! Do you think I can’t sniff your traffic on a switched network? Think again! You think your wireless network is secure because you’ve enabled WPA2 instead of WEP? Think again!
It’s a shame this damn code of ethics prevents me from using my knowledge for evil. I could be rich in no time!
They’ve Gone
Posted by: | CommentsMy parents are on their way home and so ends a fabulous 4 weeks. The time flew by but they definitely made the most of their first visit to Australia.
With the exception of Sydney most of their time was spent with us – I certainly haven’t got much leave left to take from work for the rest of this year! While they were here they enjoyed trips to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast; they had a couple of days in Sydney; they saw a lot of Brisbane and the surrounding area, including Redcliffe, South Bank, the CBD, Mount Coot-tha, and North Stradbroke Island; they took in Sea World, Australia Zoo, and Phantom of the Opera; and not forgetting the week in Palm Cove. We also enjoyed many a nice meal out, and got through enough bottles of Aussie wine to launch an Armada, and played countless games of Uno Attack, and Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit.
In the most part the weather was fantastic for them – certainly better than the two times that we came before emigrating here. I think it’s fair to say a good time was had by all.
The last full day that I spent with them was when I took them over to North Stradbroke Island (Straddie). If there’s one place that shows off Australia at its best, Straddie is that place. This view is only an hour away from my house, and that includes a drive to the ferry, a ferry across to the island, and then a bus to Point Lookout…
Throughout their visit, most importantly we all had a laugh, particularly at my Dad’s efforts with his video camera.
I copied some of his video footage to cheer me up when I’m having a bad day. This is from back in England when he was first trying out his new camcorder (ensure your sound is turned on) …
Still having problems with the camera, this footage was taken by him when we stopped off at the beautiful Barron Falls on our Rainforest excursion from Palm Cove…
My Mum wasn’t much better with it, their petty bickering cracks me up…
We’re going to miss them very much indeed, and I’m going to miss my Mum making me a cup of tea in the morning (I’ve never been able to get Rach to do that for me on a regular basis). Rach is flabbergasted that we managed to get through 3 boxes of tea bags while they were here!
More new photo’s on flickr.
