Tag Archives: christmas

Sunshine Coast Christmas Lights Competition 2010 (with map)

Posted on by
7

I decided to publish the list of entrants in the Sunshine Coast Daily’s Christmas Light Competition on my blog, since I had extreme difficulty locating this list anywhere online. And unless you purchased the paper on either Saturday 4th, Monday 6th, Tuesday 9th, Saturday 11th, Monday 13th or Thursday 16th December, then bad luck – you’re not going to find the list.

I managed to hunt down a newsagent who still had a copy of yesterday’s paper, and thus was able to locate the list. If I wasn’t going out tonight with friends purely to look at the houses in the competition I wouldn’t have cared so much, but alas I made the effort just to make sure we knew where we were going.

So without further adieu, here are the houses competing in the Sunshine Coast Daily’s 2010 Christmas Lights Competition (list sorted by suburbs, google map link at the bottom)

  • Alexandra Headlands – Unit 31, 6 Marina Walk
  • Beerwah – 3 Chantilly Crescent
  • Bli Bli – 11 Mona Court, 93 Francis Road
  • Buderim – 8 Ivy Court, 17 Kerenjon Ave, 2 Nara Court
  • Burnside – 6 Dalzel Court, 7 Flinders Ave
  • Coolum Beach – 9 Kanooka Ave
  • Cooran – 6 Elizabeth St
  • Cooroy - Maple St, 13 Koala Cres (Lake Macdonald)
  • Currimundi – 14 Coraki St, 2 Tibouchina Pl
  • Dulong – 241-243 Dulong Rd
  • Glenview – 393 Glenview Road
  • Landsborough – 10-44 Caloundra St, 3324 Old Gympie Rd
  • Maroochydore – 23 Valencia St
  • Meridian Plains - 7 Lacebark St
  • Minyama – 32 Chelsea Cres
  • Mooloolaba – 24/94 River Esplanade
  • Nambour – 8 Princess Cres, 2 Yarrawah St, 39 Washington St, 7 Bilby Crt
  • Palmwoods – 16 Bonaparte Pl, 32 Jane St, 12 Palmwoods School Rd
  • Peachester – 487 Commissioners Flat Rd
  • Sippy Downs – 7 Ribbonwood St, 3 Courtenay Pl, 4 Elston Crt, 263 University Way
  • Sunrise Beach – Cnr Boxsell Rise & Wollamia Way
  • Tanawha – 143-163 Tanawha Rd
  • Tewantin – 28 Coreen Ave, 4 Fyne Crt, 6 Homestead Drive, 12 Murra Court
  • Warana – 94 Nicklin Way
  • Woombye – 6 Homestead Pl
  • Wurtulla – 22 Helm Cres, 1 Warattah Crt, 29 Halyard Dr
  • Yandina - 26 Fleming St

View Sunshine Coast Christmas Lights Competition 2010 in a larger map

All I want for Christmas is…

Posted on by
Reply

I have an app on my phone called Listable, in which I jot things down that I would love to buy. The app is super handy since I can quickly make a note of them as they spring to mind, instead of thinking “what was that thing I wanted??” weeks down the track. It’s also super handy when it comes to the time when someone says “what do you want for Christmas/Birthday/Random present giving occasion”. You can even share the app between people, so I’ve linked mine up with Mat and my sister Amy.

In the lead up to Christmas, here’s just a sample of what I would be totally thrilled to receive (sidenote – this is basically a wishlist, and you can see my latest rant about wishlists here):

2085 E missing two front teeth

Contrary to the popular Christmas carol, I won't be requiring two front teeth for Christmas this year

  • A bike saddle bag repair kit – I like to go for long rides on the odd occasion, and if I ever got a puncture I wouldn’t be prepared at all. Let’s just hope I had my mobile with me at least.
  • A bokeh masters kit for an slr – I just bought a brand new camera and I’m looking forward to trying out tons of stuff with it – bokeh being one of these. Photojojo have a pretty cool kit for sale for only $25
  • A voucher for a cooking class. It’s on my list of things to do next year, plus it would be totally fun
  • Some hints on how the heck to keep my life organised!
  • A renewal of my flickr pro account, that would be pretty awesome

Ok, so I’ve discovered I am actually a bit harder to buy stuff for than I would have thought, and I need to start pumping up my listable list again. But if Santa brought me any of the above this year I would be totally thrilled.

Remember though folks, Christmas isn’t about the presents. It’s about spending time with your family. I can’t wait for this year’s celebrations; we’ve hired out a hall (we need it – the family is a mafia) and we’re going to be playing bocce. My cousins and I invented a form of bocce that is more like a drinking game. If your ball isn’t the closest to the jack you have a shot, and if your ball gets hit by someone else you have to have a shot. This could get messy.

So Merry Christmas everyone, and I wish you all the best for the big day. I hope you have lots of fun, and don’t forget to cherish the time with those that you love.

We need Facebook wishlists

Posted on by
1

As you know, it’s Christmas time. If you didn’t know that, get out from underneath that rock. First, it’s heavy and very bad for your back, and secondly YOU NEED TO KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS!

Now you can all go on and tell me how Christmas isn’t about the gifts, and it’s about Jesus blah blah blah. Save it. To me Christmas is a time where I look forward to sharing it with my family; the gifts are just a bonus. And I really enjoy giving people gifts, I love seeing their face as they (hopefully) become excited by what I’ve given them. Yet the pressure of finding something that makes them happy can be very difficult, and that’s what a lot of people truly despise about Christmas. The hunt for that perfect gift.

The majority of online shopping sites have wishlists; it’s been around for ages. I love the idea, you add items to the list that you would love to receive a gift. The bonus when looking at other people’s wishlists is that you know exactly what they’re after and you know you will make them happy. Win win. But if every single website has one, then it makes it damn difficult. What if I don’t know that my sister or mother has even set up a wishlist on that particular site? Are they meant to maintain a list of wishlists? Send out a yearly notification “buy me anything from my wishlist from any of these 500 different websites”. The logistics of it hurt my brain.

Hence it came to me as I was showering, thinking about what presents I still had yet to buy. Yep, my showers are where I do my best thinking…I think it’s the toilet seat for the men isn’t it?

Why not get the world’s largest social network to build in the wishlist functionality? Facebook wishlists!

It just makes sense, particularly since they’ve been stealing ideas for ages (ahem, status updates ala twitter). Imagine the dollars they could rake in from all the affiliate sites! If I had a wishlist that had books, and games, and gadgets on it, along with a link on where to buy them from, then it would be all too simple for people to buy me stuff. And honestly, I’m quite happy to receive that stuff too!

Of course, for the internet savvy they know there’s a good chance they will find better deals elsewhere. Yet there’s no denying that affiliate marketing works.

So dear Mr. Mark Z, when you make the decision to steal my idea, I would like a nice big cash donation to the “help Kelly pay off her loans” fund. A 5 digit sum will do, I’m not greedy. Cheers.

Do you still send Christmas cards?

Posted on by
Reply

We’re now well and truly into the count down until Christmas, although the stores have been celebrating it for months already. Seriously, does that bug anyone else? Soon we will be taking down the tree on New Years Day, waiting a week and putting it up again! Then panicking because we only have 51 weeks left until Christmas.

But back to the point of this blog post.

I have seen all of the Christmas cards available for purchase, and Talia Carbis made some incredible looking cards herself. Looking at the effort she puts in makes me feel like a bit of a scrooge actually. I don’t send Christmas cards, and for a few years I was guilty of not even hanging up a decoration at all!

Of course, that wasn’t always the case. I remember the excitement in school as I wrote out cards to all of my friends, including candy canes in them if I was able to convince Mum to buy them for me. So what happened, why did it all wear off?

Is the point of cards to just wish everyone a merry christmas? Is it a time when you can tell people that you appreciate them? I’m afraid I see it in a very shallow way, and just think of it as paper that will sit on the coffee table for a week or two, and then I have no idea what to do with it.

So I’m curious to know, do you send Christmas cards? Do you like receiving them? What’s your opinion of the whole thing?

Staff Christmas Party

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I flew to Sydney to join up with the rest of the company for a couple of meetings in the morning, following by a brief Christmas party. It was best to take the opportunity while we were all together, as the staff members are scattered amongst states and countries and it’s incredibly rare that everyone is free at the same time.

I actually hadn’t met a couple of the staff members in person before. It was either a case of they were from another country, and we were never in the same place at the same time, or they were only just recently hired and I hadn’t had a chance to meet them. We’d spoken online before (either by email or by Skype – being remote means our company relies on instant messaging for the small things) but never physically in person. I actually got quite nervous hoping that I would make a good impression!

Continue reading →