'We've lost your boy, here's $7'

A Gold Coast with her young son who went missing from after-school care. She was offered a $7 refund of her daily fee by way of apology. PIC: Mike Batterham Source: Gold Coast Bulletin

A GOLD Coast mother is outraged that staff at a childcare centre lost her five-year-old son, then offered her $7 discount by way of apology.

The distressed mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said her son was missing for at least one hour after wandering off from the Helping Hands Network after-school care group at the Worongary State School between activities earlier this month.

The prep student had crossed nine roads - two of which were ramps to the busy Pacific Motorway - and was found about 2km from the school when he was picked up by another mother.

The police then notified the boy's mother, who claims Helping Hands staff did not even know the boy was missing.

After police returned her son, Helping Hands' regional manager rang the mother to apologise and said she would not be billed $7 for childcare that afternoon. 

Read the full story at The Gold Coast Bulletin

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'We've lost your boy, here's $7'

A Gold Coast with her young son who went missing from after-school care. She was offered a $7 refund of her daily fee by way of apology. PIC: Mike Batterham Source: Gold Coast Bulletin

A GOLD Coast mother is outraged that staff at a childcare centre lost her five-year-old son, then offered her $7 discount by way of apology.

The distressed mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said her son was missing for at least one hour after wandering off from the Helping Hands Network after-school care group at the Worongary State School between activities earlier this month.

The prep student had crossed nine roads - two of which were ramps to the busy Pacific Motorway - and was found about 2km from the school when he was picked up by another mother.

The police then notified the boy's mother, who claims Helping Hands staff did not even know the boy was missing.

After police returned her son, Helping Hands' regional manager rang the mother to apologise and said she would not be billed $7 for childcare that afternoon. 

Read the full story at The Gold Coast Bulletin

Taurus

Apr 21 - May 21

When the going gets tough, the tough often seem to become ever more reliant on protocol and precedent. They like to stick with time-honoured tradition. They feel that things a... Read more

Is prolonged grief natural or a disorder?

1:10AM By Clifford Fram, AAP National Medical Writer A TWO-YEAR outcry by psychiatrists around the world appears to have derailed plans to turn prolonged grief into a mental illness.

Family's cancer tragedy hard to fathom

Jessica Elder FACING the same life-or-death decision as Angelina Jolie, two Gold Coast sisters had double mastectomies while the youngest opted to wait. She's now fighting for her life.

Why men the world over fear forty

LISA POWER IS turning 40 time for a meltdown or cause for celebration? The answer, apparently, depends on your gender, new research shows.

'Teen girls slam 164 doors each year'

4:02PM EVERYONE knows that teenage girls can be volatile but now researchers have measured exactly how volatile.

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View the original article here

Here's what NOT to do on your travels

Berlin's Synagoge Rykestrasse Eingang. Picture: Mazbln

A FRENCHMAN visiting Berlin probably couldn't have picked a more dangerous spot to pull a pretend pistol.

Police say the heavily drunk tourist kneeled down in front of Germany's biggest synagogue and pointed what appeared to be a gun at officers guarding the building.

Luckily for him, a quick-witted policewoman noticed that the weapon was a toy before her colleagues opened fire on the Frenchman.

Berlin police spokesman Dirk Stoewhase said the unnamed 25-year-old man could have ended the day in the morgue instead of a jail cell.

Stoewhase said the gun might easily have been mistaken for a real weapon because "it certainly didn't just look like a water pistol".

Jewish buildings in Germany are routinely guarded by armed police to prevent anti-Semitic attacks.

View the original article here

Here's what NOT to do on your travels

Berlin's Synagoge Rykestrasse Eingang. Picture: Mazbln

A FRENCHMAN visiting Berlin probably couldn't have picked a more dangerous spot to pull a pretend pistol.

Police say the heavily drunk tourist kneeled down in front of Germany's biggest synagogue and pointed what appeared to be a gun at officers guarding the building.

Luckily for him, a quick-witted policewoman noticed that the weapon was a toy before her colleagues opened fire on the Frenchman.

Berlin police spokesman Dirk Stoewhase said the unnamed 25-year-old man could have ended the day in the morgue instead of a jail cell.

Stoewhase said the gun might easily have been mistaken for a real weapon because "it certainly didn't just look like a water pistol".

Jewish buildings in Germany are routinely guarded by armed police to prevent anti-Semitic attacks.

View the original article here

Want to buy in Brissie? Here's your answer

BRISBANE'S median house price sits at $510,000 but just what does that get you?

How close can you buy to the Brisbane CBD, how many bedrooms will you get for your dollars and what sort of suburb can you buy in?

Brisbane's market has always been a bit more affordable than the southern capitals of Sydney and Melbourne, and while nationally there has been a softening in prices, that equation pretty much remains the same.

RP Data figures show there are 210 suburbs within the greater Brisbane area where the median house price is $510,000 or less.

Within a 10km radius of the Brisbane CBD there are 16 suburbs with a median house price at or below $510,000, including Carina, Kedron, Northgate and Stafford.

In Sydney there are none and in Melbourne there are four.

Realestate.com.au currently has 343 houses listed for sale in greater Brisbane for between $500,000 and $550,000.

New listings this week for homes around the median house price include a house at Stafford, about 7km from the CBD. It has three bedrooms and is on a block with two-street frontage.

In the Sydney local government area there are no houses listed for between $500,000 and $550,000, and in Melbourne there are 16.

For $509,000 you can buy a one-bedroom apartment in Kent Street, Sydney, or pay $500,000-plus for a two-bedroom house at James Street, Abbotsford, in Melbourne, on about 138sq m of land.

In Brisbane, for offers over $499,000 you can buy a newly renovated, three-bedroom home at Northgate, on 582sq m of land.

In Kelso, in Townsville, the low $500,000s will get you a five-bedroom house on 1940sq m of land.

John McGrath of McGrath Real Estate says Brisbane is becoming an increasingly aspirational place to live and he believes the property market will continue to grow here.

"Buyers are taking advantage of great value in prime inner city suburbs,'' he says.

"Sub-$500,000 apartments and townhouses in Toowong, St Lucia and Paddington are popular, offering strong yields with low vacancy rates.''

Mr McGrath says investors from Sydney and Melbourne are attracted to the Brisbane market because it's seen as an affordable market and the lifestyle is appealing.

"Investors will be looking for affordability and capital gain,'' he says.

"I think a lot of the smart money has seen Brisbane as the growth market in Australia at the moment. There is almost no risk attached to it.''

Mr McGrath says when you compare what you can buy in Brisbane suburbs, including Hawthorne, Toowong and West End, with similar locations in Sydney you would pay 50 pert cent to 100 per cent more to live in the NSW capital.

"Areas like Surry Hills and Leichhardt in Sydney, which are comparable in many ways, you are paying $1 million plus for smaller homes.

"You look at Surry Hills, you would be lucky to get 200sq m of land for a decent townhouse, in Brisbane I think you will get double that.''

He says the global financial crisis has forced many people to re-evaluate their finances and lifestyle, and as a result more will start migrating to Brisbane, drawn by the property prices.

Things are a little more even in the unit market, with dozens of off-the-plan apartments for sale in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne at or around the Brisbane median of $369,000.

In Brisbane, these include units in the new Lend Lease RNA development The Green, with a starting price of $330,000.

While in Townsville it only takes $320,000 to buy a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit in the CBD, in the High Point apartments which have views of the ocean and Magnetic Island.

View the original article here