Best of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and now 2008! I really look forward to doing this list that I’ve added a new category called “Purchase of the Year”.

	Album of the Year - Jamie T - Panic Prevention This album actually came out in 2007 but I did not hear it until Rach and Mike’s engagement party where they had it playing. Jamie T is from Wimbledon so it might not be everyones cup of tea. It is now my iTunes most played artist so it makes album of the year this year. Checkout a Jamie T track on YouTube.
	Cinema Trip of the Year - Batman - The Dark Knight Amy, Jon, Marcus and I went to see this at the IMAX in Sydney which probably made this film the most memorable trip (second was to go and see the Smashing Pumpkins Documentary - If All Goes Wrong with Stu and Lachlan). IMAX is a great experience if not for the screen but for the fantastic sound system that made this film really come at you.
	DVD of the Year - Arrested Developer Season 1,2,3 Arrested Development is an American sitcom that actually debuted in 2003. I do remember it being on TV but never really having any kind of television schedule the chances of watching an entire series was very low. Thanks to low price DVDs and QuickFlix rentals we’ve managed to watch all 3 seasons of this excellent comedy show. If you are fed up of watching random TV then at least rent the 1st season this is comedy gold.
	Book of the Year - Rich Dad Poor Dad This book is great simple as that very interesting and makes you want to save money.
	Game of the Year - Call of Duty 4 I have a love hate relationship with this. I bought this game after getting a new computer which brought me into the 21st century of desktop computing power. The game has an online mode where you can go around in first person and shoot your enemy with various guns. My favourite is the MP5 with dotted scope.
	Website of the Year - Liveleak.com LiveLeak is a interesting site that attempts to “redefine” media. This is basically citizen journalism at its best. Video cameras are so popular that most things that happen are now captured on film. This site stores those videos. It has some fascinating videos from Iraq and Afganisthan and has been mentioned by Tony Blair at press conferences when he was Prime Minister.
	Purchase of the Year - Apple iPhone There’s not a phone that can compete with this one yet. Yes it may have its flaws against the blackberry in the fact it has no physical keyboard but in every other aspect it beats it hands down. Google Maps with Street View Integration is very handy on road trips, Gmail on the go and Facebook on the go is excellent.

That wraps up the best of 2008, looking forward to the best of 2009 I wonder what it will be!

This Christmas was spent on the Gold Coast and at Amy’s parents house in Brisbane. It was a good time to spend catching up with Amy’s sisters and their young babies and Amy’s parents. First off we visited Taryn, Wade, Zara and Wink the dog on the Gold Coast at their Palm Beach Unit and then onto Sam and Elliots house to visit Ali, Cooper and Buffy the dog. We then stayed at Amy’s parents house for the Christmas period where we had a mix of Prawns, Ham and Chicken for Christmas dinner. Rather than do the normal images I’ve created this fantastic little video of all the pictures from the trip. Andres put me onto this software called Animoto which is an online slideshow system that costs $3USD to make a full length video so enjoy this one!

After Christmas we hit the credit crunch Christmas sales where I bought some new trousers, shorts and two shirts for more than 50% off saving a small fortune. Merry Christmas!

This weekend we went down to Boderee National Park for Rach and Mike’s wedding. We left Friday night and drove down in some gale force winds that were really driving into the car. My concern was the wedding would be as windy as the stag the week before but it wasn’t. We arrived at the house we were sharing with Esther, Gaétane, Mel, Chris, Cooster and Snappers which was right on the beach in Vincentia, it was very nice.

I got down to Green Patch where the wedding was being held a couple of hours too early and parked in the wrong car park so it wasn’t for a while until I found anyone (I went earlier as I was filming the wedding - Amy came down later and so got to have a lay in). The weather was overcast but this was perfect as it didn’t make it too bright for the ceremony.

Rach and Mike Getting Married at Green Patch

The beach wedding was fantastic and there wasn’t anyone else on the beach at the time (it was an 8h30 service). Josh did a fantastic job in conducting the ceremony and there were some great readings from Erin and Matt -

Matt doing a reading with Rach, Josh and Mike

After the reading champagne and orange juice was bought out with some Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, Almond Croissants and another pastry based pastry. There was quite a lot of them and not enough of us so I had to eat four which was fine as we had not had breakfast yet!

Amy and Me at Green Patch Wedding

After the great ceremony we went back to the house to chillax and ended up having a sleepy before waking up, getting something to eat and then heading to the homestead which was also in national park, 13km down a dirt track which would have been great for a rally car although the Vitara was fine.

The homestead was by the Sussex Inlet and had a colonial feel to it as we wondered around the gardens drinking tea and playing croquet and lawn bowls.

Lawn Games at the Homestead

A jazz band was also playing and Beatlassi did some Beatles songs whilst we sang along which was good fun. Rach and Mike then turned up on a boat and we drank champagne to celebrate there arrival - very good fun.

As the sun set we moved into the tent where dinner was served - a delicious combination of fish, meat and salads. We then had little cup cakes for desert and the beers and champagne were still flowing when the DJ and drummer Rach and Mike had hired started the party.

Dinner and getting ready for the speeches

Rach’s Dad did a speech and so did Mike’s brother Darrell which was very funny indeed, Darrell later told me that night he was “writing cheques he couldn’t cash” which is my new favourite one liner.

Disco Fever!

It was a fantastic night and a great wedding which was very relaxing and chilled out which I think was just what Rach and Mike wanted which was great.

The next morning we woke up and had to be out at 10am which was a challenge. Lorraine and Matt cooked breakfast in the house opposite us where we went over to and then we went down to Cave Beach which was looking really nice. I tested out Amy’s waterproof camera in the surf and didn’t loose it but didn’t really get any good pictures but I’m working on it.

Cave Beach and Amy

A great weekend! Off to the Gold Coast tomorrow. Good luck to Nance and Marcus who are getting married tomorrow about 16,000km away!

Hot off the heels of Marcus’ stag is Mike’s stag. Rach and Mike who are getting married next week are renowned for their adventures in camping, trekking, mountain biking to name but a few, so it was no surprise that Mike’s stag would involve some sort of extreme element - so it would be that we would spend the weekend kayaking through the Kangaroo Valley slightly south of Sydney. The weather all week was pretty rainy so I packed with that in mind, when we arrived at the river on Saturday morning the rain had cleared and the sun was shining, perfect you’d think - but the wind was blowing gale force and worse still it was blowing into our faces.

Not really noticing the wind Hari, my Kayak partner jumped into the Kayak with all our gear and promptly fell straight overboard. Not a great start but at least we knew it was possible and would be making sure it didn’t happen again! The kayak from the drop off point to the camping ground is supposed to only take a couple of hours, however after 4.5 hours of kayaking we hit a stretch of water that was more suitable for surfers as it had waves! We looked at the bank and no matter how hard we paddled against the wind we actually started to go backwards so we decided to forget about the camp area and find our own. This was good fun as we found a little side stream which lead to a bank which we climbed, walked through some trees (which had branches falling down around us) and to a clearing which had some power lines above us. This was to be our camp.

Campsite Ground Zero

There was loads of kangaroos running around and even one with a Joey. We had a great night of boozing and some guitar action one of the group even got Mike to wear some more traditional stag clothes -

Mike the Stag

The next morning it was hard to tell if Mike had enjoyed himself so far as he had gone very quiet and was slightly worse for wear for the indulgence in alcohol the night before, Matt said it might be sympathy sickness but I don’t think Mike was so sure.

So we started off on the kayak into the wind which hadn’t really died down much, thinking it would be another 4.5 hours of kayaking to the end. Luckily we bumped into a group that had made it to the camp site and been told to kayak back the other way, which we did do and took us what felt like about 15 minutes!

Great weekend lots of exercise the past two!

Last weekend we went to Boomerang Beach for a couple of days of nonchalance for Marcus’ Stag / Surf weekend. It was an extremely good trip with 8 of us in total. Six of us drove up in a people carrier that Marcus had hired from Budget. It was a good vehicle as it fitted us all in and was fairly comfortable to drive. The journey took us about six hours in total which included a few stops and the obligatory shopping/booze stop. Bobby felt sick the entire way but he’d had five drinks the night before and a dodgy pizza apparently.

When we got to the house we had rented it was fantastic and a short walk across the street to the beach. The surf wasn’t really going crazy but we managed to get out that afternoon and hoped for some decent waves to come for the rest of the weekend.

Marcus, Troy, Bobby and me Surfing at Boomerang Beach

That night we retired back to the house for a relaxing evening of a few beers and some guitar hero, which ended up being a bit of a theme.

Mark, Iain and Marcus on the Balcony Chillaxing

The next day the surf was not as good which was ashame as it made it very small indeed. I took my softie so I was able to catch the shore break and claim some waves which was good fun and a lot more exercise than I thought I’d get at the weekend.

That night we went into Foster, which was the main town. We couldn’t find anywhere open so we asked someone who said the “best place” (we think she meant only place) was Club Foster or something along those lines where the ladies choice of drink was a “Goon Sunrise” - so it was a classy joint to say the least but it was good fun and involved two shots too many of Sambuca.

Tom on Drums, Me on Guitar, Marcus on Guitar/Bass, Bobby on Vocals, Troy on Camera

There was another dimension to the weekend which isn’t on the blog (you can find some dodgy pictures on Flickr if you really want to look) because older people (35+) read this and they would be appalled but to give you a hint it involved chocolate sauce, girls, money and Boston and not necessarily in that order.

This weekend we visited the Hunter Valley for Amy’s ongoing birthday celebrations. I think we should
try and extend Amy’s 30th birthday party to last an entire year as it has been great fun the last two weekends and mid-week birthday celebrations.

The Catcher in the Rainbow

We drove up to the Hunter Valley to some crazy sunny sometime, rainy the other time style weather, which made a great rainbow when we arrived at the Belleray Homestead, a house that Amy booked for the weekend. When we pulled up there was Kangaroos in the garden and “Bruce the Goose”  making a run for it, we snapped a picture of him (you can see him on Flickr).

The house was one of the most fantastic I think we’ve stayed in for a weekend trip. It was a huge place with loads of bedrooms and everything was new and there was no scrimping on the fittings neither. The towels were Sheridan and the toaster poped the toast up a variable speeds and the iron was the best irons I’d ever used. The only downside to the place was if you forgot something in the bedroom it felt like a 10 minute walk to go back and get it (it was that big).

Team Belleray - Not sure how the photo ended up like this

Lucy, Marcy, Simone, Amy, Nancy, Lorraine, Chris, Stu, Marcus and I made up Team Belleray. On the first night Lorraine made a delicious curry which was really fantastic tasting and we went to bed with an early schedule of a wine tour around the Hunter Valley the next morning.

Eric picked us up in a mini-bus and took us around to lots of wineries in the morning. We were sipping on some wines at 10am in the morning. I’m not really a wine drinking but I really enjoyed tasting the fizzy varieties, sweet desert wines and stroking the wine yard dogs.

Tasting at Tempus Two

For lunch we went to Enzo and Pepper Creek for a light lunch. It wasn’t so light but was fantastic!

Lunch at Enzo’s Peppers Creek

We wanted to save ourselves for our dinner that was going to be cooked for us at home by two Ninja Chefs. It was very LA rich and famous style having people come around to your house and cook for you. It was really fantastic and everyone dressed up for the occasion whilst the two ladies served us up with some Salmon, Lamb and a fantastic birthday cake for Amy.

Posh Dinner in the Belleray Living Room

That night we played Nancy and Marcus’ fun game where everyone has to write down three “things”, I wrote down “Vincent Van Gogh”, “Socialism” and “Pain au Chocolat”. We then split into two teams and we had to empty a bucket of all these words written down one at a time by explaining them without using the word, when they are all run out you do it all over again but by miming, then a third round where you are only allowed to use one word. It is all timed and the person with the most at the end wins - it is great fun.

The next morning the sun was shining proper and the checkout wasn’t until 4pm which was great. So we spent some time around the pool Miami Vice style and had a champagne breakfast -

Champagne Breakfast

Breakfast was a fantastic effort and very delicious!

Chris, Simone, Amy and Stu playing Extreme Pétanque - Poolside

There was a little rowing boat in the lake at the bottom of the Estate, here’s Marcus and Nancy taking it out for a row -

Nancy and Marcus on Lake Belleray

It was a fantastic weekend and I wish we were still there it was so great. Big ups to everyone that came. Ciao Bella!

This weekend Amy’s sister Taryn and Wade paid for us to fly up to the gold coast to celebrate Amy’s 30th which was very nice of them. We stayed at there beach unit which is literally on the beach (the surf was about 5 metres away) which was absolutely fantastic - a surfers dream!

I drove to the airport on Friday but got stuck in rush hour traffic, basically meant a traffic jam from Manly all the way to the airport, it was ridiculous and so took twice as long as I expected it to take, therefore I had to leave the surfboard in the airport carpark or else I wouldn’t have been able to check my surfboard in - I literally got to the airport, met Amy and then got onto the plane which was already full of people. The surf would have been fun but I got a lot of body surfing in which was good fun as well.

View from the Balcony

When we first arrived Baby Z and Amy celebrated with a Bottle of Moët and some pizza which was very nice -

Baby Z and Amy celebrating 30

That night we went to sleep with the sound of the ocean outside which was very soothing. It was strange when we came back to Manly as we can’t hear it and I thought made it harder to sleep without it.

The next day Sam, Elliot, Cooper and Ali came down for some beach time, it was a beautiful day and the surf was nice. I helped out with the sand castles -

Me, Elliot and Coop Building Sandcastles

Afterwards we met up with Amy’s parents for dinner at the Burleigh Heads Surf Club which was very nice and located pretty much in the sea at Burleigh Heads -

Birthday Girl, Parents, Grandparents and Kids - Burleigh Heads

It was a very tiring day of swimming, celebrating etc. that we went back and had a sleep, however it wasn’t long before we were back into party mode again. Taryn had bought some funny eye brows from a joke shop of some description and we drank some Grandin, a fantastic drink of rigorous grape selection and a 12 month secondary fermentation.

Eye Brows and Moustache and some Grandin

The next day was our last day but we started it like our first by going to the beach and enjoying the weather. Little Z-Unit had her first day in the water the day before but ended in a few tears, Sundays beach session was much more successful for her. I must have spent ages in the water as it was so much fun just going under and riding the waves I felt like Jean-Marc Barr in Le Grand bleu. Here’s how nice the beach was -

Inbetween the flags at Palm Beach QLD

We had lunch at the Palm Beach Life Savers club which was very nice but Wade didn’t win anything on the raffle, he was one number off with one of the draws which more or less sealed the fate to not win.

We then had to prepare ourselves for out trip back to NSW. We got taken on the scenic way back via Currumbin, Kirra, Snapper Rocks, D’Bah and down a road called Boundary Street where one side is Queensland and the other side is New South Wales, which must be very confusing as they are in different time zones.

Back in Sydney now and it feels cold and we wish we were back at the beach unit. A fantastic weekend.

The video camera broke on our trip to Bali and I thought all the footage I had was of me filming Starbucks, which probably wouldn’t make the most interesting holiday video. Last night as I prepared the camera for its trip to the repair shop I noticed I had a few more clips of Bali so I made this little video of the first few days of our trip back in July this year -

This weekend we went on the Harbour for Jennie’s Birthday. It was a fantastic little sea cat that took us out across the heads and into downtown Sydney.

Amy, Lorraine and Marcus on the Sea Sydney Cat

The weather was overcast but that wasn’t bad as we’d have got some serious headaches from drinking in the sun! The boat took us into a little cove where the hard working staff cooked us a fantastic BYO BBQ. We also watched a Qantas 747 circle over us which looked like it was in a holding pattern.

Me about to enjoy the BBQ

The boat trip ended in a trip to the Manly Pacific Hotel for more boozing and then it was on to the Four Pines for Darren’s birthday. The 4 Pines brews its own larger and sells it in pints and I think is the only reason why I didn’t wake up with a headache this morning!

Many people I know including myself are happy that Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America today.

The huge turn out for this election and especially within the younger than 30ies age group is fantastic and is a turn around from how I thought the world was going. In my opinion it doesn’t really matter who runs a country as long as it is choosen by the people who live in it (i.e. a democracy) and that those people continue to get a say in it which I don’t think was always the case with the previous US government (which no one is still really sure if they actually got elected 8 years ago).

President Barack Obama Attribution: jmtimages

What really interested me about today is that I found out that Obama had won not by watching a news report in the television but from the everyday people of the world via twitter -

New Television

You can see the election page and what people are still talking about on twitter at http://election.twitter.com/.

On a side note I hope the democrats can sort out the current financial crisis as it was the democratic party that contributed to us getting into it in the first place (read: Would the last honest reporter please turn on the lights?).