The picture to the left is the damage that freak hail did to my car last week back home. It’s a rare thing, maybe occurring once every three years but made even more stranger by the fact that it all happened in October instead of the peak of summer (December/January). I was even told by my family it was something like 37 degrees!

Strangely London has been rather moderate, with an extended summer that has allowed me to enjoy a lot more of the outdoors than I thought I would have. I even managed to get a hold of some okay runners for a decent price that let me go for a jog around Hyde Park today (just down the end of my street). I hope that everyone and their possessions back home got away better than my car did.

It was my birthday yesterday and had a small gathering of people at AKA, a club just around the corner from the office. Despite how hard it was for some people (including myself) to find, I was still impressed by the number of people that managed to turn up. Thanks to everyone who came along and madeit such a great night. I’ve uploaded photos to another gallery that can be found here.

I am so amazed at how far digital technology has brought us in the last few years. It was only yesterday that I remember having to get passport-like photos taken at a photo shop. The attendant would wield this large bulky camera that made four pictures from the one shot which would self-develop right in front of you. You only had one go, unless you wanted to fork out the $8 once again.

Photo stores still take them today, but no doubt, just like myself, do them with digital cameras. But why pay so much money when you can do them yourself. Not only do you get to keep taking them until you’re happy with the photos but you can even touch them up if you get really desperate. Merging many headshots into a single file is easy with any image manipulation software and transporting them to be printed on 4×6 (in either Matte or Glossy) couldn’t be easier with the wide variety of media (CD, compact flash, SD, USB drive) available. Better yet, you can get at least 8 pictures done for less than $1! Sweet.

I’ve been following Senator Andrew Bartlett’s blog for sometime and it’s really changed the way I look at politicians. The level of visibility that we get into the thoughts/opinions of the people that represent the people has always been masked by the formality of press releases and the media.

His blog gives a great insight into his real opinions and thoughts whether or not you agree with them, where there no previous ideal of getting access to them. He even presented a session in the blogging conference in Sydney last month.

Give it a read and well done Mr Bartlett for embracing blogging!