Wow what a big night was had at the ballroom of the Sofitel in Brisbane for the Queensland 2008 Telstra Business Awards. Design House Fraser Coast was one of the 28 finalists out of over 4,500 applications statewide. Our host was Anne Fulwood and we were a Finalist in the Palm Micro-Business Award for businesses with five employees or fewer. We were first onstage for the evening to receive our Finalist Award.  

A big ‘Congratulations’ to Mumentum who won the category and the two other finalists hottie.com.au and River City Cruises.

I’m glad our category was announced first as I could then relax and enjoy the evening knowing I didn’t have to do a speech in front of 500 people! The food was delicious, the drinks flowed and the conversation lively and interesting. Afterwards I spoke with Anne Fulwood about her Media Consultancy Company and Lote Tuqiri who was staying at the Sofitel to play football today (Wallabies Vs the All Blacks) Go the Wallabies!

Michael Phelps just won his record eighth gold medal at the Beijing Olympics as a member of the victorious US 400m medley relay team, breaking a tie with Mark Spitz for most golds in a single games.
Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps and Jason Lezak won in a world-record of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds, lowering the old mark of 3:30.68 set four years ago in Athens. 
Australia took the silver in 3:30.04
Japan earned the bronze in 3:31.18

 ”I don’t even know what to feel right now,….There’s so much emotions going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom.”
Phelps said.

Click here to find out more…

[Image via CBA. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) ] 

If all of you people ‘don’t care’ about anything Perez Hilton says, then why do you go to his page? … as offending as this American can be, avid bloggers keep going back for more to keep up with all the celebrity goss and to read Perez’s point of view… Perez Hilton!

Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. (born March 23, 1978) is an American blogger and television personality. His blog is Perezhilton.com (formerly PageSixSixSix.com), which he writes under the pseudonym Perez Hilton. On his website Lavandeira posts gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities. He often posts tabloid photographs over which he has added his own captions or “doodles.” His blog has garnered both positive and negative attention for its brash attitude, its active “outing” of alleged closeted homosexual celebrities and for its role in the increasing coverage of celebrities in all forms of media.
Wikipedia

Click here to find out more on Perez Hilton from Rolling Stone….The Queen of Mean

 [Image via Perez Hilton!.] 

Last night I was so excited to see one of my all time favourite performers the legendary Jimmy Barnes!!!

I saw Jimmy perform twice before over ten years ago, so I couldn’t wait to see if he still had the same venom!
To mark the occasion I made special promo shirts to wear and the ladies in the crowd were asking me if I brought mine at the merchandise stall so they could buy one.

The show started with Jimmy’s daughter Mahalia as the support act. Although I found Mahalia to have a beautiful and strong voice, I was alittle disappointed with the overall performance and heard alot of similar comments. Her appearance looked like she had just woken up and she wore what appeared to be a blanket with holes for limbs, inside out with the tag hanging out the back! (Unless this is a new trend I don’t know of yet) She also did not really work the stage or engage the audience and we spent most of the performance looking at her back.

After a short break my disappointment quickly disappeared when her father appeared and the stage came to life!

Now Jimmy was dressed to impress, oozing confidence and professionalism working the stage and crowd at the same time! He told us a story before each song of when they were written, where and what they were about. His voice and high powered scream had me mesmerised and my legs couldn’t stop tapping as I just wanted to dance like there was no tomorrow making it very hard to sit still.

His musicians were extremely skilled especially a guitar player on the right that was very charismatic and amusing working the stage around Mr Barnes. The two and a half hour nonstop performance from a man, who had recently undergone heart surgery, was engaging, entertaining and enthralling creating an electric atmosphere!
The crowd was screaming, singing, cheering, whistling, applauding and full of diehard fans from our Fraser Coast.

The man is a Legend, a true performer!

by Jeanette Maynes

Today I was officially invited to attend the community Cabinet Official Luncheon held in the Fraser Room at the Hervey Bay Boat Club with the Hon Anna Bligh MP Premier of Queensland and the Cabinet.

Finger food and light refreshments were served as the guests mingled with the politicians asking questions of relevance and raising suggestions and issues of concerns within our area.

Anna seemed in high spirits and on the mend from her fall / recent injury. Anna was very articulated and interesting speaking confidently in front of the crowd.

Two local Police officers were presented medals of honour from Judy Spence Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Sport for their long service within the Queensland Police department and the local community.

The Premier presented Fraser Coast Regional Mayor Mr Mick Kruger with a cheque for 4.9 million from the government to go towards the proposed Waterpark. We were able to view the actual plans of the Waterpark that will be located at the end of Main Street next to the seafront oval.

The Mayor was also presented a beautiful photograph of the harbour area in Hervey Bay taken in 1973.

Nancy Bates editor of the Chronicle was mentioned for her 20 years service to the area. The longest period a woman has been an editor in Australia.

Anna also personally autographed my official invite stating, “You go Girlfriend!”

I also met and shook hands with Mr Kerry Shine the Attorney-General and Justice and caught up with our local politicians Andrew McNamara MP for Hervey Bay and Chris Foley MP for Maryborough.