May 29th

Here's the news for this week!

The Salvation Army has been out in full force this weekend as they aim to raise $20,500 on the coast alone. Since the Queensland floods an increasing number of families have been contacting the Salvo’s for support. They have been urging community members to dig deep as they require more help than ever.

About 160 Northgate Golden Circle workers will lose their jobs after Heinz announced on Friday morning it will end beetroot production. Heinz is shifting production of sauces, beetroot processing and some meal production to New Zealand.

Brisbane girl, 20 year old Hannah White traveled to Sydney on Monday to compete in the Schwarzkopf Australia’s most beautiful hair competition. She was amongst finalists from each state including Victoria’s Maddy Griffin who took out the title and gained the opportunity to have a spread in the next issue of Marie Claire magazine.

You may have been on of the lucky ones who saw sixteen men running around South Bank, Alice St and the Botanical Gardens yesterday in nothing but DT’s. The men, dressed in bright red Speedos were participating in the DT5000 raising funds to support Youngcare, a charity supporting young people with high care needs.

It’s been an exciting week in Brisbane this week with not one, but two huge sporting wins for Queensland. In Netball, The Firebirds took out the ANZ Cup Premiership undefeated while the footy boys won the first state of origin game. Congratulations to both teams.

Sunday 15th May

It’s news time again!

This week a great deal of the action has occurred in the sporting world.

The Queensland Firebirds have won their ever first semi final appearance in the ANZ Championship against Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic. Their seven goal lead puts them on the right path to becoming the first ever trans-Tasman netball team to win the league undefeated. The grand final will be held at the Brisbane Convention Center on 22^nd May.

To the Rugby Union now and the Queensland Reds run to the finals could be in jeopardy after young guns Dom Shipperley, Liam Gill and Ed Quirk have been selected in the Australian Under 20’s team for the Junior World Championships in Italy. Reds Coach, Ewen McKenzie and The Queensland Rugby Union are now head to head with the Australian Rugby Union in desperate hope to keep these players in the squad.  McKenzie says "The rest of the team deserve the best players to fill any hole so they can finish of the season”. Shipperley, who has featured in the Red’s side four weeks in a row will be torn from the Reds program for four of the next matches plus the first play-off in late June if the Australian Rugby Union’s decision stands.

It was an exciting day at Doomben Racecourse yesterday as Black Caviar won it’s thirteenth consecutive race. The horse was cheered on by mammoth crowds at Doomben who were there to see the champion horse run in the $400,000 BTC Cup.

In other news, a man is facing court after protesting on the Sydney Harbor Bridge early Friday morning. From the top of the bridge he revealed two signs saying “please help my kids” and “kids first”. He performed the protest after being denied access to his children. The bridge was blocked off to all traffic after 5am causing many delays in the city.

Tony Abbott has called for an early election in his formal reply to Tuesday night’s Federal Budget. He recognises Australia’s “forgotten families” and promises to ease living costs in relation to Gillard’s Carbon Tax scheme. He suggests that “only an election can give Australia a government with authority to make the tough decisions to build a better future” and that “only an election could make an honest politician of (Julia Gillard).”

Sunday 8th May

Can you believe that it May already? 2011 has flown by and what a year it is turning out to be. Alone, Brisbane has been devastated by two major natural disasters, the floods and Cyclone Yasi. New Zealand was hit with a shattering earthquake and most recently, a tornado which we are much too familiar with after seeing them tear through the United States.

Many would think that this was enough for one year however on Sunday, May 1 2011 in Pakistan something shocked the world.  After being in hiding for eleven years, Osama Bin Laden was found by US Navy Seals and shot dead after being tracked by members of the CIA. Bin Laden was the Al Queda leader named responsible for  September 11 and other terrorist attacks. Barrack Obama says it was a surgical raid with a small team of US operatives on ground for 40 minutes and refers to the killing as “our nations most significant achievement to date”.

Since the event, travel warnings have been administered for all Westerners, particularly those planning to visit crowded tourist attractions. Security has been increased at all major airports and train stations as a result of protests in the Middle East.

Some are sceptical that it was Bin Laden who was shot and many conspiracy theories have been developed however the US government is determined not to share photos of a dead Bin Laden as this would be glorifying the assassination and become and even greater threat.

In other news, Splendour in the Grass tickets went on sale this Thursday however some buyers had great difficulty in securing their tickets.  Westpac Bank suffered from glitches relating to their ATM’s which effected the use of  debit and credit cards. Suncorp, Citibank, St George, Jetstar and Cashcards. The website suspended the sale of tickets at 9pm on Thursday night and re-opened on Friday morning when the problem was solved.

The trail of natural disasters doesn’t seem to be stopping as this week, Auckland in New Zealand was hit with a tornado on Tuesday which killed one person and injured others.

7 people were injured yesterday at the Grand Annual Steeplechase at the Warrnambool race carnival in southwest Victoria when a horse jumped a fence into a crowd of audience members. The safety and future of the yearly carnival is being explored.

The Royal Wedding

Just incase you haven’t already heard enough about it, lets talk Royal Wedding! What a beautiful event it was. There was so much hype leading up to Kate and Will’s special day, or should I say the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge.

It seemed like nothing less than a fairy tale inside Westminster Abbey which had been filled with green trees to resemble a forest, under Kate’s request.

Well known guests started rolling in around 3 hours before the bride where we saw faces such as the Beckams (pregnant Victoria wearing her own design), Rowan Atkinson, Joss Stone and of course, all of the royal family.

Julia Gillard, Quentin Bryce and Ian Thorpe represented Australia at the wedding.  

For those of us who were not fortunate or royal enough to score an invite to the event, there were many other options. In the UK, street parties were held left right and center to traditionally celebrate the event.

5500 formal road closures were arranged so that people were able to celebrate traditionally in traffic free streets.

In Australia, I noticed a similar buzz as I heard of people hosting and attending royal wedding parties. (Yes, that is me and my friends below). It seems as though women everywhere still hold on to their dreams for a fairy tale. I watched the wedding with friends and heard constant shrieks of “I wish that was me”, “look at that dress” and “ohhhhhh I can’t to get married”. It was described by a male friend of mine as “the grand final for chicks”.

Veiw it anyway you will, the royal wedding certainly did cause a stir. It had people excited, interested or at least entertained for weeks. Personally, I adored having a positive and heart warming story in news headlines for once.