Ok, so this page is pretty dead at the moment. There's a pretty good reason for that. My brother has setup an easy-to-post-to family web page, and that has been my main outlet for news. It actually gets read by the family and such too. I've also been busy with Digital Salvo, my sports photography venture. Check it out!

Recent news is that I've sold my old waterbed on ebay, and bought a brand spanking new (traditional frame and matress) bed! Yes, I've finally discovered how cool ebay is... I've sold a few things on it already, and even bought a couple of PS1 games.

Just a quick note to say that I'm actually back in the country! In fact I've been back for a month now. The holiday in Europe was fantastic! As much as I could have hoped for, and more. I took so many good photos. I haven't done a proper count, but there is around 8GB of still shot and movie clip data combined! I won't be able to put many on this web site, but you can see quite a few, including an 'online diary' of my adventures at my family blog (check the archives from the end of May through June).

On the left is the Chenonceau Chateau, near Tours, in France.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Europe! Yay! My parents are seeing me off from Adelaide airport in the afternoon. First stop over is Melbourne, where I'll catch up with my brother. An overnight flight gets me to Hong Kong, where I'll have to sit around for 6 hours. Then it's off to Frankfurt, and soon after to my first major destination - Athens, Greece... at 2am! After a couple of days in Athens, I'll drive North West to follow the World Rally. After that's all done I'm meeting up with Rob in Frankfurt, on the 7th of June. From there we'll go to Paris and stay for at least 2 days. A tour of France and Southern Germany by rental car follows. We return to Adelaide via Frankfurt and Singapore on the 3rd of July!

I won't be posting to this web site while I'm away, but you can follow my progress at my family blog. You can also email me using the contact page.

We've had to cut our holiday short for work reasons. I'll get to see the two places I was looking forward to the most - Greece, for the WRC event, and France. I'll be going to Greece alone, and then meeting up with Rob in Paris. A friend from London might be coming over to Paris to meet up with us.

I tried out a friend's zoom lens on the 300D last weekend while on a cruise of the Adelaide hills with some other Peugeot 206 owners. It's great to be able to get close-up sports shots. The responsiveness of the camera helps so much. The sports mode lets you track the focus of a moving object. With the G3 I'd have to prefocus and wait. I wouldn't be able to get a series of shots of the car in focus. You can see some more shots I took here.

So I got the Canon 300D. I just couldn't resist. Was happy to find that a lot of the accessories I got for my G3 worked with the 300D. The image quality is much better than the G3, and the responsiveness and fast auto-focus mean I can get shots I would miss with the G3.

I took it with me to Bendigo over the Easter weekend. My immediate family all went up there to help pick grapes for my Dad's wine. It was a lot of travel, but was a nice little excursion. It gave me a small taste for traveling, although I really hope that the snoring at hostels isn't as bad as my dad's! I came across 3 red back spiders while picking!

On the Easter Monday I went surfing with Liz. She showed me the basics and I managed to stand up several times. Unfortunately the waves would die by the time I did so! Afterwards we went to the bluff at Victor Harbour and took some photos, including some of a very accommodating bearded dragon.

This morning I went to the Japanese garden on South Terrace with some photographers that get together for expeditions. I'm quite happy with the improvements my photography is making. It's gotten me excited, and in light of my pending trip around the world, I think I will upgrade my camera. I tried one of the other photographers' cameras and it was amazing to use. So responsive compared to my G3! Lets just hope my wallet can bare the burden!

This weekend has been great. Nat came down on Friday and we hung out that night, and went out for breakfast the next morning. In the afternoon I went to the first birthday party of the son of a work colleague at a park in Norwood. The weather has been perfect. More opportunity to practice my photography!

Unfortunately my footy tipping isn't going quite as well.

An F111 was screaming over our roof tops today for the Clipsal 500. Coincidently, it's the anniversary of the US lead invasion of Iraq. I got a few snaps of the jet as it was firing its afterburners. Speaking of snaps, I've started a photography course. The first class was this week, and it was great fun. Hopefully I'll learn a thing or two before taking hundreds of photos while overseas!

My friend Pippa was offered a job at Ratbag - GO PIPPA! She'll be starting just when I'm heading overseas though. The game that I was working on for 15 months, Saturday Night Speedway, has been released. It's available for download and registration over the net, or on shelves in the US. It's received mixed reviews, and apart from some problems I'm generally happy with it. The part that I was worried about (the multiplayer) seems to have improved!

To combat the growing threat of bike theft, I have bought a cheap ($79) bike to ride to work and back every day. I'm saving my good bike for offroad riding. Hopefully the thieves will leave this one alone. They stole my cheap crusty old helmet, and the light from the front of my good bike. That was the last straw. The helmet couldn't have been worth much, and what can you do with the light without the fixture? Well, if they do take anything at least it won't cost nearly as much to replace!

Nat has left Adelaide to start a new life in Kingston South East, where the Big Lobster resides. We had a farewell party for her with a school theme. Pictured left is myself and Nat's friend Lauren. We also held a farewell dinner the night before she left at a Korean restaurant. Nat and I have been living together for 4 years, so it's the end of an era. I've found a new housemate, she'll be moving in at the end of the week.

I've started yoga again, after a month long break. My muscles are screaming in pain. I attempted hand stand last night, and fell on my head twice! We also had our first grading match for the new beach volleyball season today, and unfortunately lost by a point after running out of time. We would have won otherwise!

I've been cooking madly. My new years resolution, possibly the first one I've actually stuck to for a significant amount of time, was to be more adventurous in the kitchen. So far I've made a Hungarian Veal Goulash with Dumplings, a chicken casserole, home-made hamburger patties, chili sausage and pumpkin curry, bread and butter pudding, potato, tuna and corn patties, and pineapple fritters. I'm really enjoying it!

Schutzenfest was great fun! It's the first time I've been, but I loved the beer, kranski sausages, drunken behavoir, and knee slapping. Not sure how it rates compared to previous years, but Bonython Park was pretty crowded. I managed to escape relatively unburnt.

Christmas is over for another year. Running around getting presents for people was so much fun. Next year I'm definitely doing my shopping early. The traffic and crowds are a nightmare. This Christmas was marked by a few interesting events. I let my brother and his girlfriend drive my car to Renmark. Before he had backed out the driveway he'd broken off the driver side mirror! My heart dropped a bit when I heard that loud crunch! Sorry Matt, had to share :P It wasn't really his fault, there's a stupid outcrop of the fence on the driveway; it was just a matter of time. Funnily enough, I've got one more payment left on the car loan! Yay!

My second attempt (pictured left) at constructing a gingerbread house was much more successful than last year. This time it was full size and wasn't collapsing in on itself. It was very sturdy, had two gingerbread people inside (doing nothing you wouldn't show your mother), two outside, a few trees, and even a car (thanks to Shelley!). We had planned to put a tea light inside. However, while driving back to Renmark in Nat's new Excel it was subject to some heat. The gingerbread softened, and could no longer support its own weight. At the end of the journey it looked like the site of the World Trade Centre on 12/9/2001. Woe. It was delicious anyway, and I took a lot of photos before we left.

I stayed at my parents place for 4 nights, and had a relaxing time catching up with friends and relatives, studying French, getting a hair cut from my Mum, and eating Gingerbread.

We ended the season on a good note, beating the Redskins 3-0 (for the second time). It was a fun game! There's still hope that we'll be in the final, although I think we'll end up taking 3rd place. We've all agreed to play again next season!

The PS2 game I've been working on for the last year and a bit is pretty much in the bag. As a reward, my producer gave the team members match-box sized remote control cars. They're really cool! I've been chasing Molly around the house with it! You can order them from PC Range. Dan is going to be getting a hovercraft tomorrow.

After work I took the lift down to the basement as usual to get my bike to ride home, and immediately noticed, from a distance, something wrong. On closer inspection, my handle bars were missing, and the brake and gear cables cut. The gear and brake levers, light, etc. were all taken. Nothing else on the bike was taken or damaged. I've had two bikes stolen before, but I've been able to claim them on insurance. This is just annoying. Strangely, last night, one of my dreams was about my car being vandalised while I was away. *Cue twilight zone music*

Sandbags lost another match. We were under-manned, as Amy had hurt her ankle wearing high heels on the weekend. This time it was against the top team in the competition. We were in poor form, and went down badly. After we had lost the game and the pressure was off we continued on and almost won a set 18-3! The humanity!

I don't want to turn this page into a weather report, but now it's stinking hot! On with the news...

So much has been happening I don't know where to start! Biggest thing first I guess? My sister, Natalie, has landed a job in the South-Eastern area of South Australia, and will be leaving at the end of January. That's exciting and sad at the same time. Last weekend I went to Sean and Fiona's engagement party (pictured left, and no we didn't *just* play games!), and met a cute Japanese girl, Naoko. On Wednesday we went out to the beach, and later had some beer at the Belgium Beer Cafe. I've finally got ADSL (broadband internet access) hooked up and soon this page will migrate to my new ISP, so get ready to update your bookmarks! The speed is great and it's nice not having to worry about interfering with phone usage.

The Sandbags have finally lost a match... and very convincingly. There was much lamenting, but the fact is that they were a much better and organised team. They could just be much better and organised in another grade! I've been going to yoga at 6am the last two weeks, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Getting out of bed isn't as hard as I thought, but I don't have the same energy during the class, and feel tired during the day. That wouldn't be a problem if I could get to bed early and consistently on the off days. Unfortunately that's at odds with my previous routine, and makes various social activities difficult. It does have some kind of positive effect on the way I feel during the day, but that's offset by the fatigue. I think I've pulled an abdominal muscle. In yesterday's class I couldn't do the jump-backs because it hurt so much.

Szymon's had a really bad run of luck with his mx-5. A while ago he hit a kangaroo while driving at night near Kuitpo Forest. That didn't do much damage, luckily. Recently he backed into a barrier, which did a fair amount of damage. To add salt to the wound, someone broke into it while he was at the party last weekend. They didn't get anything of value to them, but slashed the soft-top and took the stereo face-plate, which is useless by itself, and makes the stereo useless.

Congratulations to Ellie for her recital on Thursday night! She's got a lovely voice!

It's been pretty weird for spring. Lots of rain, a fair bit of wind, and not a great deal of lovely sunshine. Not that I've been out capitalising on what there has been. Work work work. Yoga yoga. Volleyball. The Sandbags have won every match so far (and in fact, haven't dropped a set!). We should be first or second in the competition now. The game this week was quite windy. I happened to go to high school with one of the players in the other team!

I'm going to a halloween themed 25th birthday party tomorrow night, as an albino. Should be fun :)

Next week Jess and I are attempting to go to yoga three times a week, starting at 6am!! The progress I'm making is that encouraging!

It's all go. The volleyball season has begun and The SandBags have won their first match convincingly! There's rumor of us being put up into the next grade. My good mate Kynan and his long time partner Debbie were married in Loxton on the 4th. Happy days. Jess cooked a delicious roast on the Sunday night (the 5th) and we enjoyed it with a bottle of my Dad's Big Hill Shiraz, and Australian Idol! On Saturday night (the 11th), I went with a few friends to see Something For Kate, who put on a great show. Sunday afternoon was spent with Pippa and her loverly friends in the warm spring sun. Thanks to long exposure to the slip-slop-slap campaign, the exposure to my skin didn't result in sunburn!

My sister Natalie is having an important job interview tomorrow, wish her luck!

Nat threw a party on Saturday night in honor of her 22nd revolution of the Sun. Fun and dancing was had by all, and the marking event of the night was the chocolate birthday cake I baked for Nat. I put it together from the recipe on the side of a cocoa packet, and everyone loved it!

Last night I had my first taste of beach volleyball, and it wasn't much like I had pictured. It was windy and raining. The sand was incredibly cold and after about 10 minutes of running around I couldn't feel my feet, they were just numb. Despite this, The Sandbags, consisting of Amy, Christian and I, went the hard yards and won the match! Funnily enough, one of the opposition went to Sacred Heart with me! Afterwards my feet felt like blocks of ice and it felt oh so wrong walking on the wooden board walk!

Saturday's festivities were a lot of fun. I scored a paintball in the forehead while trying to make a dash for the flag without my gun. That one left a bit of a mark. I got a few other bruises around the place but nothing major. You get very hot playing paintball. I think the bruise on the left was received by Brant.

Kynan's long red dress and black g-string went down a treat with the Adelaide crowd!

Our company social activity for this month was go-karting at Kart-Mania. We ran an 80 lap race with seven teams of two. Szymon and I teamed up and won the race by a small margin!!

Apologies to the driver of the beige Volvo who I must have personally offended by unwittingly trying to turn right on King William Street in peak hour traffic. If he wasn't in such a hurry to get somewhere I fear he would have gotten out of his car to clobber me!

That was one hell of a party! Thank you to all who came, and for the gifts. I had a great time, as you could probably tell, despite not getting any lap dances. Sorry if I didn't get to talk to you much! I learnt something, and I'll share it with you. Don't drink the cocktail called Midori 2000. Have a look at the photos.

And yes it is true, we have a house inspection on Monday!

Congratulations to Tony and Margot, who tied the knot today. You crazy kids.

Today I went to the Cooper's Rally 2003. This is an Australian rally event (we don't get WRC in Adelaide, unfortunately). It was freezing, and muddy, but still a great atmosphere. The event was very well organised, although the music was categorically crap (80s pop). The light for taking photos wasn't too bad, but a bit more sunshine would have been welcome.

I got a lot of great photos, check them out.