Cheap airfares in Australia-How to get the lowest price flights
June 29, 2007
Over the past few years, the cost of domestic airfares has been decreasing with new competition entering the market. With prices so low, why would you not want to take the opportunity to see our beautiful country. Here are a few tips to make sure you are getting the best price possible on your airfares.
There are 3 main Australian domestic airlines
- Qantas (usually not really great value for domestic flights)
- Jetstar which is Qantas’s budget airline
- Virgin Blue
Be flexible with the times and dates you want to travel. Travel mid week and out side of peak times is most often cheaper. If you are more flexible about the times and days you wish to travel you will be sure to save money.
Book your flights early not only do you avoid disappointment of your desired day and time being sold out. The earlier you book, the cheap your airfares will be.
Sign up to all the major airlines newsletters to be first to hear about special offers, discounts and sales which are available quite often. Last month I got flights with Jetstar for only $3 each way for my family, it was a newsletter members only deal that ran for 3 hours. So it certainly pays off to be on their mailing list.
The draw back with these sales are often that the sites get bogged down with so much traffic, it can be very hard to get a booking through. If you get in quickly, have a good broadband connection and some patients, you should be fine.
Also keep an eye out for Tiger Airways which is set to hit the Australian domestic market towards then end of 2007, beginning of 2008. They have been quoted as saying they will be offering single digit domestic fares, so that will definitely be something to watch out for. The other airlines will also have some super sales on, to try and compete.
Airfare aggregators such as Webjet are also great for helping you find the cheapest fares. Input your details of where and when you want to go and Webjet will query all the relevant Airlines to find you the cheapest fare available for that time and destination. They also have a mailing list that would be worth joining for specials and discounts on a whole rang of travel products, not just airfares.
Jetstar has recently annouced a price guarantee policy. If you find a published internet airfare on another airline that is lower than the lowest available JetSaver fare on jetstar.com they will send you a Jetstar voucher for double the fare difference. Obviously conditions apply, check their site for details.
What Women Want Australia
June 28, 2007
What Women Want Australia, is a new political party giving a voice to Australian women launches today in Brisbane. The party is set to contest the 2007 Federal election with a clear agenda; to improve Australian political life and policy through greater involvement of women.
WWW is the brainchild of Justine Caines, a socially active mum of 6 children living in rural NSW. “Much is being said about women taking a greater role in politics and yet little is being done. The major parties behave like boys clubs and despite some wonderful female MP’s, the role of women in Australian life needs to be enhanced,” said Ms Caines.
Formed in April, the party quickly gained momentum with more than 700 members. The party, which in is the process of seeking registration with the Australian Electoral Commission, plans to run candidates in the Senate and key marginal House of Representative seats.
Site of the week- The Pioneer Woman
June 27, 2007
This week’s site of the week is Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I have been a fan of the pioneer woman for quiet awhile. Her photography is really beautiful and her writing is so very entertaining. My favourite section though has to be her cooking lessons, which have now moved to a blog of their own.
Her recipes are mouth watering, and the step by step pictures are fantastic. Some must check out recipes are Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich, Bread Pudding, Cinammon Rolls and..well, you just need to check them all out!
Teaching children to take tablets
June 26, 2007
And people think cats are bad, I have perfected that..can pill a cat with my eyes closed. Kids on the other hand, that is un charted territory.
I spent 30mins this morning trying to get my 8yr old son, Hayden to take a nurofen tablet. I handed him the water and tablet, here take this. I had no idea of the drama that was about to unfold. How hard could it be? I have no trouble taking tablets, I can take 2 at a time or without water, which is weird as I have a very strong gag reflex. I had no idea other people had such problems.
No matter what we tried, cutting them in half, hiding them in stuff…that little sucker would not go down. “I got it!…oh, no I didn’t…yay, it went down…wait, no it didn’t” We went thought 4 tablets and he got nothing down, in the end I thought perhaps he has absorbed enough through his tongue and or his bladder was going to explode. I was tempted to use my very skilful cat pilling technique but thought that probably wasn’t a good idea.
He complained that the hole was too small and that huge tablet (the smallest kind you can get) had no way to fit in there. It’s smaller than the half unchewed food you shove down your face..of course it can fit!
So please, share with me..what are the magical tricks you all use? (apart from a suppository *blink*)
All Women Blogging Carnival #3
June 25, 2007
This weeks All Women Blogging Carnival is under way over at Mad Goat Lady jump on over and join the fun! Your blog can be about anything, as long as you are a woman.
Don’t forget to link to the host, and let your readers know you are participating in the carnival, so we can help spread the word.
Children See Children Do
June 23, 2007
Children see, Children do is a confronting ad campaign from NAPCAN. through Child Friendly Australia It is one of the favourites to win at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, winner are due to be announced this weekend.
We all know how impressionable our young children are, we as parents and society are their role models. The most powerful lessons we teach them are often when we don’t even realise.
What lessons are you teaching your children?
There is also ads for radio.
Firefox extenstion for child safety online
June 23, 2007
Glubble is new extension for Firefox only which allows you to control the websites your children visit. Designed predominately for children under 12, once activated, your children will only be able to access a child-friendly, safe browsing environment that you have complete control over.
We have been trying this out at our place with my 8 and 7 year olds for the last few days and we all agree it is fantastic. It offers a fun and easy interface for the kids, a great range of family friendly sites already bundled with it to start you off ( can take a sneak peak at glubble world.) You can allow them to access as little, or as much as you like. Allow whole domains, or just individual pages. You are able to review and add and remove sites from your white list as any time.It gives parents peace of mind, and complete control over what their young children access online.
Installation is quick and easy, once installed and you have set up your controller account, you will assign accounts for your children. As the controller you will be able to use your browser unrestricted. When the children are logged in they are given a interface a little different to the usual firefox browser. It is fun, kids friendly and easy use.
Glubble also comes with child friendly searches, they will only see trusted results from their Glubble World not the whole World Wild Web. Glubble enhances search results from companies like Google and Yahoo, including image results.
When children come across a site that is not in the white list, they are given an option to request permission form the controller to gain acess. You can allow the whole domain, or just one page.
Obviously it is meant to replace parental supervision, but it can offer children a little more freedom to explore safely.
Glubble is free to download and use. It is currently still in Beta, which means there may be a few small bugs.
Site of the week
June 20, 2007
This weeks site of the week is one for the kids.
Rainforest Maths is an Australian based, fun and interactive mathematics activities. A section of over 800 games and activities for grades K through 6 on topics like Number & Number Systems, Operations & Calculations, Strategies & Processes, Patterns & Algebra, Measurement, Space & Geometry, Chance & Probability, Data Analysis, and Money. My kids really enjoy playing this site.
A maths dictionary for kids is another great site from the same author. An A-Z dictionary on all the commonly used mathematically terms with easy to understand explanations.
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