I'm slowly scanning in the photos from the holiday for uploading. They're now about 70% scanned and 25% uploaded. Photos from Britain and Ireland are here in approximately correct order. I still haven't started typing up my diary. I have, however, written about 75% of the trip report that I'll be posting to Flyertalk.

Aviation news

Lots of airlines are introducing a fuel levy for tickets after July 1, Qantas amongst them. Seems a bit sneaky to me. They should really increase ticket prices to reflect the increased costs, but by adding it as a levy it's hidden to some extent. It also means that it's passed on to those redeaming frequent flyer rewards. Luckily I have the honeymoon booked already, so they won't be making me pay. It's $6 per segment for domestic flights, $15 for international. If I was booking now, it would be adding an extra $54 per person to the taxes and charges. From memory that's about a 45% increase. Nasty.

This week the paint scheme and uniforms for the new low-cost airline Jetstar were released. The paint scheme looks ok, but the orange uniforms leave a bit to be desired. And here's some more in-depth analysis. My favourite quote: Once those characters start doing the safety demo the passengers will think it is some sort of '70's cabaret act.

Federal budget

Howard and Costello certainly have some interesting tactics. Sensationalised and possibly inaccurate highlights:

• Tax cuts for people earning over $52,000 pa (ie not me)
• $3000 for people who have babies after July 1
• $600 cheques for people with kiddies, and another $600 next year

Restricting the tax cuts to high incoming earners seems a bit stupid though. Most of those would probably have voted Liberal anyway. Strangely, Costello kept referring to those who benefitted as "middle Australia". Bollocks. Last time I checked the average wage was about $42,000 pa.

They do seem very keen to promote the benefits for having kiddies. It's quite disturbing to hear Howard and Costello telling everyone to go home and "do their patriotic duty for Australia", "your country needs you", etc.

WA Labor Premier Geoff Gallop was predictably unimpressed with the budget. Didn't recognise WA's contribution, the battlers missed out, no relief for HECS debts, etc.

Work

I've been pleasantly busy recently. And there's a hint that my pay might be getting a "bump" (up presumably). It's all good.