As is often the case, I checked out the various offerings of live coverage online. Key resources for me on this occasion were the BBC , ITV , YouTube and CNN . At first the BBC coverage seemed the best, yet just when the wedding dress was about to be revealed, the BBC live stream crashed out.

I had been checking on YouTube and CNN also, and these suffered the occasional stutter, in fact YouTube was the most stuttery - even though it was re-streaming the main BBC broadcast. Suprisingly leaving ITV as the only one that managed a continuous quality broadcast.

The sun came out at just the right time, and the pomp and circumstance of the occasion have been magnificent. Even though a sort of republican at heart, I am still charmed by the precision and spectacle of such a ceremony. London and Britain can both be proud.

With so many natural disasters happening already this year, it’s nice to have a joyful celebratory event for the world to share. So far the organisation has been immaculate, and so suprising that the weather has been well behaved, as befits the occasion.

I almost avoided this event this year, but am glad I witnessed it, it’s really quite wonderful for everyone to have something positive to talk about at last.

In a recent article, CNN recommended the ’Top 10 places to spend 2010 Christmas ’. The top destination may come as a surprise to some, but for those who’ve been in Reykjavík over the Christmas / New Year period, few experiences are as magical.

Iceland threads together Christmas influences from several continents and blends old fashioned Icelandic family traditions with the best of American, Western European and Scandinavian festivities. The main event for many though is the spectacular New Year’s Eve firework displays which know no equal outside of Chinese New Year in Shanghai. Many Icelandic households have lights out in front of their house right at the start of Decemember, and the tightly defined Christmas period itself does not end until January 6th - known as the 13th day in Icelandic - nearly 2 weeks of festivities for Christmas is preceded by a full calendar of events right from the start of the month.

10 great things you might expect to experience during your Christmas stay in Iceland: Snow - Iceland gets Christmas Snow most every year, it does have the occasional ’Red’ Christmas too (no snow on Christmas Day) Christmas lights on nearly every house - Icelanders love shiny bright things Jólahlaðborð - Danish-style hot and cold 4-6 course buffet banquet at many of the leading hotels and restaurants trhoughout December Smákökur (Christmas Cookies) - Dozens of varieties of decadent small moreish biscuits Gingerbread everything - Iced Gingerbread Houses, People, Trees, Christmas Ornaments, Cookies of course etc... Glögg - Iceland’s version of Glühwein / Mulled Wine, alternatively you can drink ’Heitt Súkkulaði með Rjóma’ - hot liquid chocolate with lashings of whipped cream Swimming under Snowfall and Stars - Reykjavík has several geo-thermally sourced outdoor pools - for the ultimate in surreal experiences Jólasveinar (Yule Lads) - 13 mischievous Icelandic Santas - each with his own personal quirk (Door-slammer, Pot-licker, Candle-swiper etc.) 13 days of presents - Each of the Yule Lads leaves something for children (and other sensitive souls) every night leading up to Christ... More

Markus was not happy with how our News pages looked on Comrz, and I was set the task to devise a new presentation template to showcase the very best of news delivery currently available on the web. I spent several days trawling all the major news sites, and was particularly impressed with several of these, largely - BBC , CNN and The Guardian . The idea was to produce the Ultimate Topical News Resource - where you could easily seek out, list and review key news stories by key criteria.

The make-up of the main listing template is as follows: RSS and Content Subscription appear with Section Header, as well as at base Articles can be listed out by time range - Latest | Most Viewed | Most Liked | Most Commented | Most Shared You can click through to the Public Profile of the Author Click on the Date to list out all articles within that Section published on the same date Click to add / view Comments Number of Views - also clicks through to article Most recent Article is highlighted with Larger Image and Teaser Text Article Topics are only revealed on mouse-over Facebook ’Like’ is revealed on mouse-over Share icons / function is revaled on mouse-over The following articles are listed in summary format - mouse-over reveals Topics, Like and Share

We may still have a couple more tweaks to do, but so far it’s working pretty well. The ’Detail’ presentation utilises the ’Info Box’ for ’Article Highlights’, we also list Topics in a left hand column, and we include a new ’Quotation’ field.

All the new icons are enabled via additional fields / settings on the Design Style. Some of these icons / elments may find their way onto other existing templates in the fairly near future ...