Today is the first day of summer. Feels like it has arrived too.

Weather is warmer, there are storm clouds building like we remember from years gone past.

Christmas decorations are appearing in yards around the city.

Traffic is building considerably at each of the ever growing suburban malls.

Trucks are selling prawn on the roadside.

Mangoes, pawpaws and pineapples are all cheap in the fruit markets.

Air conditioning systems are being turned on at home although they have probably been on in the car for months now.

Summer is here again.

BBC has reported a dramatic decrease in crimes on buses in greater London. The figures show, that the commitment of 70M sterling per annum on 1200 officers is working.

The figures show there were 16,664 crimes on buses from April to September, down from 18,715 for the same period in 2006.

Of cause the selected period probably shows favourable numbers. Not that we are sceptical about governmental reporting at all.

Following this train of though, this means there is a crime on a bus only every 15 minutes now. Great effort??

While figures could not be readily obtained for Brisbane, with the waves and “thanks driver” often heard its not expected BCC will need to increase their security spending such as London anytime soon.

In a boon for Australian car, and irreverant humour enthusiasts, the highly rated BBC motoring program Top Gear has been licenced to SBS.

The licencing of the show to SBS makes Australia the first cab off the rank, not that cars like cabs feature highly in any episode.

It is expected the Australian series will mimic the original version, both to retain fans of the original, but also to meet licencing requirements.

Author and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has apparently suggested the first guest could by Jonny Wilkinson of cause referring to Britain’s rugby player and World Cup hero from 2003.

The series will be on SBS in 2008.

Queensland based discount furniture chain Super A-Mart eyes off a larger slice of the Australian market. In its sights are Perth, Darwin and Canberra.

The plan is to increase the number of stores up from 25 to 80 while at the same time edging revenue over the $400M mark for the first time next year. Initial expansion will be into Western Australia.

More stores are also planned for real estate boom areas in south east Queensland including Ipswich and Maroochydore.

Super A-Mart now holds over a 20 percent share of the Queensland market. All which must be continually pleasing for Ironbridge Capital who purchased the business from founder John Van Lieshout in 2006.

P&O Cruises has recently named Brisbane as the new, permanent home for the Pacific Sun. A welcome relocation from Sydney.

The 9 deck, 47,000 gross tonnes Pacific Sun has a passenger capacity of 1900 passengers and was built in 1986.

Pacific Sun arrival in Queensland is expected to be a boost to tourism.

Cruising has in the past decade increased from a $15 million dollar industry in Australia to one now worth over $130 million.

Portside Wharf at Hamilton will be the embarking point for passengers with cruises departing every seven to ten days. One such cruise departed for a jaunt up the Queensland coast on Saturday to return again this weekend.

The ship is the sister vessel to the Pacific Sky on which Dianne Brimble died in September 2002.

The Queen Street Mall decorations are installed back awaiting the festive season, but the Christmas tree is still to be erected.

The tree, last year between the Casino and new Council building, but previously in King George Square is a major drawcard.