All posts by Alistair Lattimore

About Alistair Lattimore

My name is Alistair Lattimore, I'm in my very early 30's and live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. I married my high school sweet heart & we've been together for longer than I can remember. Claire and I started our family in September 2008 when Hugo was born and added a gorgeous little girl named Evie in May 2010. You can find me online in the typical hangouts, Google+, Twitter & facebook. .

C Espresso Bar, Gold Coast

Food, General

About two months ago, Claire and I ate breakfast at a new Gold Coast cafe named C Espresso Bar. For those that aren’t aware, it is located in the newly constructed Southport Central precinct at Southport.

We were in the area again this morning and decided to return to the C Espresso Bar for round two, which produced the following synopsis:

  • They make a great cup of espresso
  • The staff are very nice, happy to see you and fast
  • The food was excellent again and served quickly
  • They stock gluten free bread

All the above points make for a fantastic breakfast, however point four really topped it off. For the majority of people, a restaurant providing gluten free food doesn’t make a lick of difference. Unfortunately for a minority of people who suffer from a gluten intolerance, serving gluten free food is a really big thing. Ordinarily when we go out for breakfast, Claire is generally restricted to having straight bacon and eggs with nothing else. Needless to say, when the owner informed us that they stock a gluten free bread – Claire was all but doing hand stands in excitement!

If you’re looking for a Gold Coast cafe for breakfast that you can get:

  • A great espresso
  • A great big breakfast
  • A gluten free bacon, eggs, toast & sauteed mushrooms

then you might like to give the C Espresso Bar a shot.

Roadworks: Notification Is Essential

General

I mentioned a while ago that when a council has to perform roadworks, that keeping drivers as happy as possible is all about the timing. It would appear that in the last seven months, the Gold Coast City Council haven’t learnt a whole lot.

This morning on the way to work, I was traveling North on the Gold Coast Highway into Surfers Paradise at about 7.30am. I was shocked to find the traffic at a stand still at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, when it is normally flowing smoothly at about 70kph. I looked down the road in a hope to see what was going on and couldn’t see any flashing lights or cars frantically changing lanes to avoid the obstacles. After being forced to sit in traffic for about 45 minutes and moving about 2km, I was greeted with a sign informing me to merge right. I was shocked to find that the roadworks which the sign was warning everyone about, started nearly immediately after the sign.

I would have thought it fairly important to actually give the motorists notification of the changed traffic conditions. I’m fairly sure that if that sign had of been displayed somewhere near the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, that most people could have formed a single lane in an orderly fashion. Instead, no one was notified of the changed traffic conditions until it was too late and the start of the peak hour traffic hit a choke point; within minutes the traffic was backed up 2km down the road.

I don’t think anyone has any real issues with councils performing the roadworks, they are essential to keep the roads in great condition. However, a little bit of grey matter from the council workers on duty would go a very long way to keeping the motorists much happier.

Bitter Sweet

Family, Life

Eric Colls & Claire Lattimore at wedding on 24 September 2005Today 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.

Google & News Corporation Strike USD$900 Million Deal

Internet, News

On the 7th of August 2006, Google announced one of the biggest online deals in the history of the internet with News Corporation. The multi-year agreement between News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media and Google will see Google part with approximately USD$900 Million dollars and for that pleasure, it will deliver exclusive search and keyword targeted advertising to the growing Fox Interactive Media network of sites.

The agreement states that Google will provide advertising to the Fox Interactive Media group sites, which include a swag of technology, computer gaming sites, sport related and also the behemoth that is MySpace. The benefit to News Corporation is also clear; with strategic alignment with a leading technology company like Google – it will allow News Corporation to transform its company into the dominant force in the digital media realm.

This deal, in my opinion, is going to position Google to be the premium provider of online advertising in the future. Google obviously already delivers an excellent product for the text based advertising, however affiliation with Fox Interactive Media should see them deliver more image based advertising. If they do start delivering more image/flash based advertising, this should translate into Google enhancing its current AdSense and other advertising programs which should put it clearly out in front.

The amazing thing about the agreement is that it is going to cost Google approximately USD$900 million dollars between 2007 and 2010. News Corporation have to be particularly chuffed about the whole situation since they only began investing heavily in the internet space in July 2005 with their high profile purchase of MySpace for approximately USD$580 Million dollars.

It sure is a changing landscape in recent times.

Uplate Game Show Returns Worse Than Ever

General

In September last year, I posted about The Uplate Game Show and noted that it was possibly one of the worst shows that has ever hit the TV.

I had secretly hoped that with Big Brother 2006 ending, that The Uplate Game Show would have died a swift and quiet death; unfortunately I was wrong. As of last night, Simon Deering aka Hotdogs, has returned for another season hammering. The last ‘season’ of The Uplate Game Show was painful and forced, where Hotdogs babbled on and on. In an attempt to ease that pain somewhat, it appears that Channel 10 have slotted in a co-host. If you’re up to the challenge, try and imagine a female version of Hotdogs that has even more of the superficial fake enthusiasm; I know, it hurt.

I was shocked last time around but I cannot believe that Channel 10 are that desperate for a showing that they’d put it back on. Then again, with the advent of everyone’s favourite ‘please little teenager, SMS and make us millionaires’ tactic, it isn’t really that surprising.