A series of new gadgets

First off it's probably no too much of a surprise to discover that
i've finally given in and bought an iPhone. The big driver was a
change to my work's phone policy which was going to be unpleasant if I
didn't get a personal phone. The were only really two phones in the
running an android phone or the iPhone. After the disaster that was
the sony Xperia X1 I was keen to get something that was good as a
phone. In the end the iPhone was the only choice with so much of my
house already connected to mac gear and iTunes. I've only had it 5
days and it's already made it's way to key gadget. There is nothing
that I don't like about it, one thing I love is thus keyboard and the
auto correct feature. It's not right 100% of the time but it certainly
gets the 80-20 rule in the right order. At this rate I'll be catching
the bus more just so I get more of a chance to use it. Oh and the
appletv remote function is great, gives fantastic searching which we
really the only thing the AppleTV struggled with.

Well that is more than enough on the iPhone, there have been a few
other editions as well the major one is the study/gaming setup. With
the shift of Zachary's room and the study the xbox360 found a new home
in the study the only thing that was really missing for that was a
speaker setup. I had quite a few options in mind from a decent
seperates hifi kit or 5.1 setup to some PC speakers. In the end I
decided it was overkill getting anything too high end and settled for
a logitech Z-4 setup. Whilst it will never be audiophiles territory
for a 2.1 gaming system it's pretty good value at a little over $100.
Now all I have to do is find a game that has music someone doesn't
object to.

Sent from my iPhone

A weekend on the couch

It was a pretty unusual weekend for us, we spent pretty much the
entire weekend house bound and consequently on the couch in front of
the TV. Zachary was sick (first big illness since he was born) and
just wanted to be cuddled by someone all day, which really limits what
you can get up to. It really hit him Friday night with high temps and
being nervous first time parents one of us stayed with him all night
to keep an eye on his temp. So the night turned into part nurse duty
part 'Torchwood' marathon for me. Zachary slept on the couch next to
me so I could check his temp and to keep myself up until my change
over at 430 I decided to start clearing the Foxtel iQ2 of Series 2.

It worked pretty well with the ad breaks being the perfect interval
for checking on the littleone.

In the end we had to cancel all our social engagements and as a result
we spent a lot of time in front of the TV and managed to finish of a
few shows:
How I met your mother season 4
Up to date with Dollhouse
Chuck
And half a season of Torchwood

So now to find a few more shows to watch, I think the first cab off
the rank will be Mad Men.

The one thing I did learn over the weekend is that it is entirely too
ezy to buy things on the appletv, so easy in fact a 9 month old can do
it. I gave Zachary the harmony to play with at one point and despite
changing the device it was controlling he managed to switch back to
the appletv and random his way to a movie purchase. A $25 lesson well
learnt :)

Sent from my iPhone

My Top 5 Brisbane CBD Gluten Free Lunches

As I wandered off for lunch yesterday that it's often hard to find good places for lunch if you're looking for something with a little less gluten. I've been working in the Brisbane CBD for a few weeks now and I've stumbled across a few so I thought I'd make a list of my favourite place to grab a bite in the city during the week.

Cool Beans & Baguettes - Brisbane Square

This is my first choice for a lunch out in the city, they have a great selection of premade gluten free sandwiches (that you can get toasted) for $6.50. They come in a pair and have a range of different fillings each day. They also have a great selection of GF cakes and slices and will make Coffee's with Lactose free milk

Fav Lunch: Chicken Caeser Sandwich - $6.50

Fav Snack: Peanut Caramel Slice - $4.50

Alen's Espresso

These guys are really close and make fabulous coffee. They usually have a couple of Gluten free options on for the day and have a great selection of cakes and nibbles. Be prepared for a little wait though, their coffee is so good there is usually a line out the door to get one.

Fav Lunch: Breakfast Quiche

Fav Snack: Caramel Cheesecake

Extract Espresso Bar

It's a bit hard to find tucked away on Adelaide st but these guys have a great selection of the Gluten Free Topless Tarts and will often have bread to make up sandwiches with.

Fav Lunch: Spinach Risotto

Fav Snack: Lemon Polenta Cake

Spoon Deli (Festival Towers)

I haven't been down this end of town for ages but this used to be a good staple for my weekday lunches, they have lots of the sol breads in stock and lots of biscuit selections

Fav Lunch: chickpea fritter W coriander and yoghurt $8.50

Fav Snack: Gingerbread man

And my fast food option Nandos

This one is for when I'm feeling like a 'bad' lunch, a trip to nandos is on order, their menu has a list of all the items with Gluten in them (the opposite to everyone else).

Fav Lunch: Chicken Steak

Fav Snack: Spicy Rice

A Bachelor weekend of Gaming and Home Makeovers

This weekend Ness and Zach headed off to Tassie to visit the grandparents so I was left to my own devices.

Saturday was an old school gaming day with the usual crowd of gaming friends giving the 360, Wii and Projector a full work out. Sunday though saw the start of a full house makeover while the rest of the family was away. The biggest change was swapping the rooms that were the study and Zach's room including a full repaint. I picked some new colours for Zach's room and away we went. There were a few other things that were thrown into the mix including finishing off the plastering work from the Airconditioner and tidying up from other reno projects. I think I bit off more than I could chew for the few days that we had to complete. I was planning to catch up on some sleep but I filled most of that time on top of a ladder brush in hand...

There aren't any pictures as yet because the new layouts and colours are all a surprise for the others return, but I will post some as soon as we've had the reveal!

In a way being so busy with the work has made the time go very quickly and I haven't had much of a chance to miss them... but now it's all done I can't wait for them to come home!

Stay tuned for the pics :)