It’s hard to believe that 2006 is already a memory, the time seems to have just slipped by.

In January I completed the Story Bridge Climb as a birthday present from 2005; the views were spectacular. I became an uncle for the second time, with the birth of Maggie Grace.

Between January and April, a foolishly dedicated group of my colleagues and I undertook an insurmountable task. To this day, I’m not really sure why we did what we did; but I’m truly grateful to have gone through it with some of the finest people around.

In March, as an early birthday present for Claire, she received a very cute kitten which we named Princess. Throughout the year, Princess has given Claire and I a great deal of pleasure and we’re grateful that she came into our lives. Still on the pet front and it was time for the Lattimore family dog, Gizmo, to move onto greener pastures.

Somewhere around the middle of the year, MFS (the parent company of Stella Resorts Group) decided it was time to turn Stella Resorts Group into a force that the market would have to pay attention to. To that end, they started an aggressive acquisition trail, acquiring a slew of other tourism related businesses such as:

• S8, which included Harvey World Travel, Gullivers, Travelscene, Travelsonic, Virgin Travel and others
• Outrigger Australia & New Zealand
• Tourism Hotels Leisure, which included brands such as Pacific International, Plaza Hotels, Grand Pacific and Golden Tulip
• Sunleisure
• and more

At the same time, Stella Resorts Group saw a need to replace their core IT infrastructure and software to accommodate the rapid expansion. The whole process has been an incredible eye opener, especially seeing first hand how swiftly changes of this magnitude can be executed in a large corporate. Its quite a daunting task however I and Stella Resorts Group are blessed to be working with a group of highly talented people and I can’t wait to see it all unfold.

August was a pretty huge month for quite a few reasons:

• I clicked over 2 years with my current employer
• Claire’s Grandfather Eric passed away
• Claire’s first nephew, Oliver was born
• We celebrated George’s 70^th birthday
• We found out that Belinda was pregnant

In September, Claire and I celebrated being married for a whole whopping year! It’s hard to believe that Claire and I have been together for the better part of ten years now, we’re old hands at this stuff.

Claire has been in almost constant employment with Education Queensland since she completed university. Unfortunately, that employment hasn’t come easily at all – at times its been a highly stressful and frustrating ordeal. Fortunately, on the last day of school last year; Claire was offered a permanent full time teaching position at a primary school! When Claire called and told me, I was jumping for joy knowing that we don’t have to worry about that aspect of our lives again. I’m really proud of Claire for continuing to kick the tyres and seeing it through. The Christmas break this year was fantastic, good company and great food. Following on from Christmas was my 26^th birthday and the seeing in the new year!

2006 seemed like a big year, with quite a few lows and highs. Overall the year has been rewarding and I’ve learnt a lot about life and myself. I think 2007 is going to be even bigger but it’ll bring different challenges; which I’m really looking forward to.

It’s that time of the year again, today I turned 26!

After waking up in no particular rush, Claire prodded me to open some presents first thing. So, without getting out of bed I reached into a nearby draw to find some presents stashed away:

• A new pair shorts to play sport in
• A nice casual Calvin Klein shirt
• A few DVD’s (Green Mile, X-men 3 & Hellboy)
• Gulian chocolate

Since it was a weekend and it was a birthday, actually.. mostly because everyone loves a cooked breakfast; Claire and I went out for breakfast at Caf̩ Campanile in the Robina Town Centre. I had a ritualistic big breakfast (it really is superb, you should try it some time) and Claire had bacon, eggs and mushrooms Рmmm.

After returning from breakfast more than satisfied, we proceeded to tidy the house a little before Andrew and Belinda arrived at around twelve o’clock. The four of us fluffed around a little, decided it was time lunch and headed into Toscani’s in Surfers Paradise. Immediately after lunch, Claire and Belinda picked up some odds and sods from the shops whilst Andrew and I washed lunch down with a Mocha Fusion from Zarraffas.

For dinner, the only sane choice was Hogs Breath. Lorraine, Sterle and Jean arrived from Brisbane as a bit of a surprise. We all ate our fill of fine prime rib steak and dessert and whilst there a few more presents popped up:

• An electric toothbrush
• A button up shirt
• Lindt chocolate

After dinner, we decided a movie was in order. Andrew and I saw Eragon, whilst Claire and Belinda watched The Holiday. Without seeing The Holiday, I’m pretty confident our movie was better for, but not limited to the following reasons:

• it wasn’t mushy
• it had dragons in it
• it involved various magical acts
• it featured a red flaming sword

If that isn’t reason enough, well I’m not sure what is! Thank you to everyone who travelled, phoned, SMS’d or IM’d me today; my 26^th birthday was great. See you all this time next year!