Tobago is the beautiful, reserved, soul-sister of jump jiving Trinidad, its partner in the Republic. The contrast is awesome. Tobago is small and it has no major industry to impinge on its lush fertility. It has one main town, Scarborough, and dozens of hamlets and villages with names that reflect the Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonial powers which coveted it for centuries.

Outside the small holdings of its sparse population, it is full of nature reserves harbouring wildlife otherwise found only on the South American mainland of which it was once part. At its highland heart, among the many waterfalls splashing down into idyllic bathing pools among the rocks and ferns, Tobago protects the oldest untouched tropical rainforest in the hemisphere.

The rainy season between June and December (short, sharp bursts, and a brilliant time to take a swim) freshens the landscape, which erupts into a natural carnival of colourful flowers. This is matched underwater, where the myriad flashing shoals play lethal hide-and-seek among the cup coral in the canyons and deep caves where barracuda, dolphin and manta rays cruise.

You can dig for chip-chip (a kind of shell fish), in the warm clear water of Manzanilla Bay, or hunt the big game fish like marlin, wahoo and yellow-fin tuna. You can have double fun in the knowledge that there’s nothing in Tobago, in the water or on land, to kill you. Unlike Australia there are no man-eating sharks, box jelly fish, lethal spiders, or poisonous snakes.

Undeveloped (no house, hotel or resort is allowed to build anything higher than a palm tree grows) and peaceful, Tobago does however know how to party.

Carnival here is homespun, but just as colourful, rum-fuelled and happily energetic as anywhere. What’s more, you can practice every week throughout the year at the open air dance they call Sunday School.

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South of Cuba in the heat of the western Caribbean, the three Cayman Islands are the visible summits of the Cayman Ridge, an underwater mountain range which drops suddenly into the 7,100 m (22,000 ft) Cayman Trench, separating them from Jamaica.

Grand Cayman is by far the largest. The Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are mostly a wilderness of fruit trees, orchids and cacti where tranquility and an authentic West Indian culture are the main attractions. Just 145 km (90 ml) to the southwest, Grand Cayman at first resembles nothing so much as a transplanted American urban nightmare.

The capital, George Town, and Seven Mile Beach, its renowned local playground, are full of condos, resorts, satellite dishes and mini-malls. The streets teem with bankers and the faceless suits of the institutions that have made it the world’s fifth largest financial centre.

Five days a week, cruise liners decant up to 22,000 tourists, joining the millions each year whose holidays have given the Cayman Islands the eighth highest GDP per capita in the world.

George Town is so busy, loud, and determinedly up for it, you feel the privateers and pirates of former times have merely put on modern dress in their eagerness to empty your wallet.

In the small towns and villages outside George Town, the atmosphere changes immediately. Grand Cayman’s true self is African-European, deeply Christian, conservative and church-going (there are lots of churches).

The locals are openly friendly and well-mannered, laughing and hospitable. Isolated by the central mangrove wetlands -3,440 hectares (8,500 acres) of lush forests, emerald green parrots and bright orange frogfish, the mainspring of the complex ecology that maintains both the turtle grass and shrimp mounds of North Sound Marine Reserve, Rum Point typifies Grand Cayman at its best.

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So you want to work in a web design company in Brisbane? This article gives you useful tips and advice for all would-be web designers in Australia’s most livable city.

The web development job market is very crowded in Australia, as it is in most countries. Not only do you have fully qualified people looking for jobs, but you also have self taught enthusiasts and those who think being able to edit a MySpace page means they can be called web designers. Fortunately there is also a high demand for web design so new career opportunities are being created all the time.

One of the big choices that you have to make when looking for a job in web design is do you want to work in a small or large firm. In Brisbane we have a good mixture of these two types, so there is plenty of choice.

Let’s look at the relative advantages and disadvantages of working for small or large firm.

Small Firms

Small firms offer the advantage of a high level of variation in work. One day you may be making simple edits to a web site the next you might be designing a site from scratch. Another advantage that you might find is that you are able to effect the strategy and direction of the design firm. If it’s a small team your views will be heard and your decisions will make a difference. Of course this can lead to higher levels of responsibility and therefore stress, but at least you’ll feel in control of your own destiny. You will have to be prepared to use a wide range of skills in a small firm, if you only know Dreamweaver then a small firm is probably not the place for you, but if you are happy to jump into Photoshop, think nothing of setting up an FTP connection and know your way around Flash, you might feel right at home.

Disadvantages of working for a small firm include the amount of relatively menial tasks that may have to be performed. For example you might be hoping to test your design skills to the full and feel disappointed to be doing text updates or admin tasks. The lack of a structure at work may also be frustrating; an ‘all hands on deck’ approach is often used in small firms.

From a monetary point of view working in a small firm can be good and bad. Many small firms are cash strapped and can’t match the salaries of the big firms, but they can experience far higher growth. Your input could result in a small firm’s output increasing substantial and potentially upping your salary. My advice would be to negotiate some kind of profit sharing or commission incentive; it’ll help you get more dollars in your pocket and keep you focused and on your toes.

Large Firms

It can often appear quite glamorous; flash offices, big clients, impressive colleagues. And it is true that you will probably be exposed to the higher end of the market, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be wining and dining clients and working on the glitziest projects all the time. Starting out in a large web design company often means starting at the bottom and working your way up, so be prepared to do the hard yards. The ability for you to make decisions and to affect the company’s direction will almost certainly be limited compared to working in a small firm.

The large firms can often afford to pay web designers very well and in the right place your skills and talents should be noticed and rewarded, but perhaps not as quickly as in a small firm. Larger firms can also allow for a greater degree of specialisation, you may have responsibility for just one discrete element of web design. Whether this is seen as an advantage or not will be an indicator as to your suitability for life with the big boys.

Brisbane’s Choice

In Brisbane we have a wide range of web design companies that can be seen as potential employers. The larger firms tend to be in the CBD and you will have to make appointments either with the human resources department or via a recruitment firm. Sending a resume in will not do any harm especially if you include examples of your work.

I would recommend avoiding the very smallest of firms as these are often home office type setups and may not be run very professionally. The next step up are the small firms with offices or shops, of these I would chose the most visibly and active, after all you don’t want to work in dingy back office with no new clients.

Look in the areas of Brisbane known for creative industries; these include Woolloongabba, West End and the Valley. Have a walk around and get a feel for the how the firms look and how busy they seem. Don’t be afraid to pop in and have chat.

BA Creative is a small Brisbane web development firm with a lovely shop in Woolloongabba. Pop in to talk about great web design. Peter Accini is the Creative Director of BA Creative a boutique design firm (web, print, signage, anything) with offices in Brisbane and Melbourne. For web design Brisbane, contact BA Creative today.

It seems that every cosmetic company is leaping on the mineral makeup band wagon, but is mineral makeup really natural? The promise of being natural is what interests many users, but are we being “green-washed” into believing that just because it’s mineral it is good for us and the planet?

Biome eco store founder, Tracey Bailey said she believed that mineral makeup had fallen victim to the same trend as many successful eco friendly products. “Once the mainstream consumer product industry sees there is money to be made, the integrity of the product becomes lost for the sake of reducing manufacturing costs,” Tracey said.

“Genuine natural brands do exist, but consumers need to be aware of the ingredients because many contain un-natural or synthetic ingredients.”

The original mineral foundations were all natural with only four or five natural ingredients. This simplicity-along with beautiful results and skin health-won over users, turning mineral makeup into perhaps the biggest trend the cosmetics industry has seen.

As more cosmetic companies created their own brand of mineral foundation and fought for market share, they began substituting cheap fillers, chemicals and preservatives. Toxic ingredients like:

* Bismuth oxychloride - found in most of the mainstream mineral brands, it is by-product of lead and copper refining that rarely occurs in nature.
* Talc - a mineral, but a known carcinogen linked to uterine cancer, ovarian cancer and respiratory problems in infants.

“For a start, if the packaging does not provide a full list of the ingredients, then put it down again and choose one that allows you to make an informed choice,” Tracey said.

“The only ingredients you want to see are titanium dioxide, mica, iron oxides and zinc oxide.”

Tracey said there was a good reason to look very carefully at the labels of all skin care. “Our skin is the body’s largest organ and also the most telling when something is wrong. Skin absorbs about 60 per cent of what is put on it directly into the bloodstream,” she said.

Biome eco stores ensures all its mineral makeup, natural beauty and skin care selections list the full ingredients and are:

* made from plants, not petrochemicals
* free from all harmful toxins and preservatives
* free from palm oil, or in transition to palm-oil free
* cruelty free and most are vegan
* perfect remedies for those with dry skin and problematic skin.

Natural mineral makeup chosen by Biome eco stores

Biome chose the Australian-made Musq mineral makeup containing only 100 per cent safe natural ingredients.

Biome mineral makeup manager, Hayley Preston said “we took at long look at many ranges before we decided on Musq. Not only did it need to be safe and environmentally responsible, we had to love using it”.

Hayley said she had tried just about every natural makeup on offer and thought Musq mineral makeup was fabulous.

“The foundations are comparable, if not better than, a lot of the conventional foundations that I have used because they are sheer with great coverage,” Hayley said. “The powder foundation, which I use over the crème or by itself is small but very concentrated, so you only need the tiniest amount each time.”

Hayley says Musq mineral makeup creme is weightless on the skin, giving a quick and perfect coverage. It contains anti-oxidants and organic ingredients that nourish while providing a natural dewy finish, like vitamin E and jojoba.

A pure mineral makeup should only have four or five ingredients

* Titanium dioxide - a natural mineral with particles that are not small enough to be absorbed by the skin.
* Mica - the shimmer from mica is used in makeup as it gives a translucent glow to the skin and helps to mask imperfections.
* Iron oxides - used to produce skin tone pigment. They are considered to be non-toxic, moisture resistant and non-bleeding.
* Zinc oxide - used today as a sunscreen, zinc oxide has been used as a treatment for skin conditions dates back to the early 10th Century. With it’s soothing properties it is ideal for the most irritated, sensitive skin types or those who suffer from acne or rosacea.

Ingredients to avoid in mineral makeup

* Bismuth oxychloride - many people are sensitive to this bulking and filler ingredient that is a by-product of lead and copper refining.
* Talc - a known carcinogen, which is very drying and irritating to skin, accentuates lines.
* Parabens and Alkyl hydroxyl benzoate preservatives - true mineral makeup is inert and needs no preservatives.
* Corn starch and rice powder - cheap fillers, not minerals.
* Dyes - often coal tar derivatives.

A world apart in every sense, Tasmania is Australia’s only island state, and the very isolation that once made it an ideal location for penal settlements now helps preserve its natural riches. Tasmania would seem to have it all, from history and wilderness to friendly people and great food and wines.

Tasmania certainly seems to move at a much slower pace than the mainland, affording visitors the time and space to relax. Over 360 km (224 mi) long and 306 km (190 mi) wide, it’s big enough to allow you to head for the hills on the back roads and escape everyday life. Along the way are magnificent peaks, old colonial settlements and empty beaches. It also purports to have some of the cleanest air in the world.

The first European to sight Tasmania was the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642, and from then on many explorers came this
way, including James Cook and William Bligh. But the arrival of these men was bad news for the Tasmanian Aborigines. They lost their traditional hunting grounds and sometimes their lives, and were resettled to Flinders Island to be “civilized”. Many Aboriginal sites are sacred, but on the cliffs around Woolnorth can be seen some of their unique art.

Corners of Tasmania are often likened to the green pastures of England, but here there are also vast wildernesses: the west is wild and untamed, inland are glacial mountains and roaring rivers.

For the less adventurous, there is the cosmopolitan capital Hobart, spread out over seven hills and with a waterfront location to match Sydney’s. In the heart of the countryside lies sleepy old Richmond with some of Australia’s finest and most pristine colonial architecture it’s now a Mecca for artists and artisans.

Tasmania is often overlooked by tourists to Australia. Yet this discreet island, roughly the size of Ireland, is both gentle and wild, charming and challenging.

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Phang-Nga Bay is one of Thailand’s most jaw-droppingly beautiful seascapes. Covering some 400 sq km (154 sq mi) tucked in between Phuket and Krabi, the bay, edged with mangrove forests, is home to hundreds of limestone formations. Some of these are tiny spires, some are large and bizarrely shaped, reaching up to 300 m (1,000 ft) in height, and all covered in tangled rain forest vegetation

Formed some 12,000 years ago when the sea rose dramatically flooding a limestone range that had already been eroded, some of the islands have been hollowed out by the forces of nature, leaving hidden lagoons known as hangs in their centres. Invisible from the outside, the hangs are accessible by sea canoe, but it’s only during certain tides that the channels beneath the seemingly impenetrable rock face are navigable.

These secret lagoons are tidal, supporting their own ecosystems, while the enclosing circle of cliff walls are covered with extraordinary vegetation, reminiscent of a prehistoric world.

The central area of the bay boasts fantastically sculpted karst islands, including the famous `James Bond’ island, where The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. A stop here, of course, is part of every itinerary and the souvenir sellers are all there, waiting to pounce. Very few of these islands are inhabited, and even fewer have anywhere to stay.

Ko Panvi is an exception, a Muslim fishing village, mainly built on stilts, it teems with visitors during the daytime, but after they have gone it reverts to relative normality.

Here you can rent your own sea canoe, and explore the bay at your leisure. It really is quite something, the cliffs are coloured with red and orange sponges close to the water line, and the scenery is awe-inspiring. Apart from rock climbing, most people come here for water-based activities including sea kayaking, sailing and, above all, fishing.

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Kangaroo in both name and nature, this large island just 13 km (8 mi) off the South Australian mainland has remained relatively untouched for thousands of years; and as such is an unblemished microcosm of the vast red continent.

Towering cliffs protect the northern shores, giving way to more exposed sandy beaches in the south. Bushwalking is pretty compulsory, and trails meander across the national and conservation parks that cover a third of the island.

Wild koalas hug the trees and kangaroos hop down the streets. Isolated from the ravages of European diseases and introduced species that afflicted their near neighbours, the native animals and plants have flourished. Echidnas, platypuses, possums and penguins are all on the wildlife fanatic’s list.

In 1800, Captain Matthew Flinders was commissioned by the British Government to chart the southern coastline of Terra Australis in HMS Investigator. He first sighted this island in March 1802, came ashore and named it Kangaroo Island, after dining well on wild kangaroo meat.

Just weeks later he spotted a French ship on the horizon, under the command of Nicholas Baudin. Despite their two countries being at war, the two men were civil, exchanging ideas and even vital supplies. Baudin went on to map the south and west coastlines, leaving many French names in his wake: Ravine des Casoars, D’Estress Bay and Cape de Couedic, now home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals.

Experienced divers may discover one of the 50 or so wrecks that litter this rocky coastline. Following the earliest recorded shipwreck in 1847, the first lighthouse in South Australia was built at Cape Willoughby, and stands to this day 27 metres (89 ft) high and a healthy climb to the top.

Ferries landing at Penneshaw on the eastern tip make it a hotspot for tourists, but it is easy enough to get away into the wilds and delight in this well-preserved refuge.

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The most northerly and, with Greece’s highest rainfall, the greenest of the Ionian Islands. Corfu lies close to the mainland and the Albanian coast. Described by Homer as ‘beautiful and rich’, it is mountainous, lushly fertile and fringed by fine beaches with lovely aquamarine waters.

From the 8th century BC, Corfu was subject to a succession of powers, though it never became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Venice held it for 200 years, then Napoleon seized it, and for some years it was a British Protectorate. Long a favourite with travelers, its quiet, idiosyncratic life is lovingly recorded in the books of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell. Now despite some indiscriminate tourist development, it remains bewitching.

Corfu Town is a lovely place, a blend of splendid Italianate buildings; narrow alleyways and grand, French-influenced arcades. There are museums and fine churches, including the Church of Ayios Spyridhon, where the mummified body of the island’s patron saint lies in a glass-fronted coffin. (It is paraded through the town several times a year.) A popular excursion is to the photogenic islets of Vlaherna and Pondikonissi.

North from Corfu Town, brash or prestigious resorts are interspersed with fishing harbours and backed by magnificent scenery. Southwards lie the site of the ancient capital, Corcyra, and some large resorts.

Then a winding coastal road reaches some quieter beaches. The west coast boasts long stretches of glorious sand, a backdrop of green mountains - and some of the largest hotel conglomerations. Even here, more peaceful coves can be reached by boat, or a scramble on foot.

Inland, traditional villages offer shade and good food. Corfiot cuisine, unusually, has no Turkish influence, and often seems more Italian than Greek. A stroll and a climb in scented mountain air amid ancient olive trees rewards with views over ethereal greenness towards the heavenly blue sea.

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