Category Archives: Life

Remembrance Day

November 11, 2006General, LifeAlistair Lattimore

Remembrance Day, a solemn day to remember the men and women who gave their lives in war over the last century. It is customary for all Allied countries to serve at least one minutes silence starting at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month each year.

On this day, I’d like to leave you with a famous poem which is synonymous with Remembrance Day around the world. The poem “In Flanders fields” was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3^rd 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Please remember to show your respects to the men and women who gave their lives to provide you the luxuries and freedom which you enjoy every day of yours. For those people who find this site and don’t know or understand what this special day is about, please feel free to read about Remembrance Day online.

Peppers Spicers Peak, Pure Indulgence

August 30, 2006Family, Life, Photos, TravelAlistair Lattimore

Saturday just gone saw the Lattimore clan gather at Peppers Spicers Peak to celebrate a belated 70^th birthday for George. In attendance, we had the four boys, their respective other halves and two kiddly-winks.

The Peppers Spicers Peak lodge is located approximately one and a half hours drive south west of Brisbane and rests on top of a plateau with beautiful mountain views. The grounds of Spicers Peak are neatly mowed and have cattle casually grazing in near by paddocks. The lodge also features a heated pool and spa, which has a spectacular uninterrupted view thanks to an edgeless pool design. If I had to describe the Peppers Spicers Peak lodge in a few words, it would definitely include relaxing, indulgent & romantic. As a testament to that, within an hour or so of being at Spicers Peak, I felt as though I just wanted to relax on one of the many sofas and simply unwind.

As soon as we arrived at Spicers Peak, everyone had a cold drink in their hand. We spent the next half an hour looking around the beautiful lodge and soaking in its relaxing ambience.
We were then informed by our hostess that lunch was ready as we sat down for one of the finest dining experiences I’ve ever had. The set menu we had included the following dishes:

Cod with salmon pearls
Tomato gazpacho with goats curd and olive oil
Sesame seared tuna and nicoise style salad or;
marinated veal cutlets with broccolini, polenta cake and tamarillo
Chocolate gateau and mandarin ice cream

I hadn’t eaten any of the courses on offer, so it was an awesome experience. The highlights for me include the medium rare veal, the beautiful tuna steaks that Claire ordered and the wonderful dessert! Claire was of course excited to find out that Ben (the chef) had prepared the entire menu gluten free as well! Wine lovers will be happy to know that each course of the meal included a different wine too.

Given that this was my first Peppers experience, I would have to rate them extremely highly after this outing. If the other Peppers properties rate in a similar league as Peppers Spicers Peak; it is no surprise to me that their guests keep coming back time and time again. If you were looking for indulgent accommodation located around the Scenic Rim and the cost of the experience wasn’t really an issue – I would highly recommend you check out Peppers Spicers Peak.

Bitter Sweet

August 13, 2006Family, LifeAlistair Lattimore

Today was an incredible day, for more than one reason.

Important Reason #1

Claire’s Grandfather, Eric Colls passed away in his sleep at the age of 86 after suffering a stroke a few weeks ago.

Important Reason #2

Claire’s older sister Emily gave birth to a healthy 8lb 8oz baby boy.

Reflection

It is hard for me to begin to explain the emotion we went through today, so I don’t know that I’ll bother trying. What I will say is that Claire’s Grandfather Eric was fantastic. He was sprightly, quick minded and very funny. I always remember him constantly having a joke with us and telling us a yarn. He has lived in the Chinchilla area for most of his life, served our wonderful country in the Australian Army and survived the war. He has an incredible memory for history and can remember most of the people who have passed through the Chinchilla area over the last 50 years, which in my opinion is quite remarkable.

It has been an incredible day which I didn’t expect; then again who would have expected it. The one thing I think is uncanny is that the expression about one door closing and another opening has been fulfilled in this instance. I’d like to leave you with something that I think sums up Eric in many ways, which was presented to him on an award recently by the Returned & Services League:

Your country called
You answered
We salute you

We’ll sure miss you Grand Dad.

Year In Review

January 3, 2006General, Life, PhotosAlistair Lattimore

Another year is behind us, its been crazy and I can’t believe its gone already.

In August 2004, I moved to the Gold Coast for a new job; meanwhile, Claire was still under contract at Middle Ridge Primary School in Toowoomba. She completed her contract there and moved to the Gold Coast with me at the very end of 2004. Once we moved into our new apartment, and we began nesting:

In May, I moved my hosting from HostCentral to McGooHQ. In the last 8 months, the service has been near perfect. To my knowledge, the site hasn’t had any significant downtime and on the occasions when it was offline – it was out of hours for scheduled maintenance. If you’re looking for a fast, reasonably priced Australian owned and powered host – give them a look.

On September 24th, I married my high school sweetheart. It is no surprise that the preceding months were spent preparing for the wedding. It was a glorious day, Claire was breathtaking, literally. The whole day went smoothly with no problems at all, hats off to the staff and organisers at the Stamford Plaza, Brisbane. A big thank you to both mine and Claire’s parents, for without their help in lead up to the wedding – it would have never been quite as spectacular as I think it was.

August this year saw my first year with my employer slide by. Without question, the last 16 months have been an amazing roller coaster ride to remember. The first day I started, I was pointed to the source code for a site that takes between 600,000 – 800,000 hits per day and essentially told to knock myself out. At that stage, there wasn’t a development database or website – so it was all being done live! Since that time, our team has increased from 5 to 15 staff and procedures, standards and best practices are being implemented. Soon we’ll be on track to doing things The Right Way™ instead of The Wrong Way™. I have to give a big thank you to the blokes I work with, they’ve made this time fun and enjoyable in an otherwise fairly tough work environment.

On the whole, its been a fabulous year with a lot more high than low times. I can only hope that 2006 brings even more highs and less lows than we saw in 2005.