After 5 years of blood, sweat and tears, Dan finally graduated with a double degree in Business and Law. As one of the last qualified lawyers who was able to complete his article clerkship before the program was controversially wound up, Dan was ready to hit the ground running.

The other big news was Dan and Mel’s long awaited wedding. It was a sensational, and rather large, night with a service at the chapel in Dan’s high school, Nudgee College, and reception at the Allan Border field in Albion. This was a memorable event, one that officially joined the two of them in a partnership that was always meant to be.

The other big news of 2007 included:

– Five Australians are killed when Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashes in Java;

– More than 200,000 people walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to celebrate its 75th Anniversary;

– Storms lash Newcastle and the Central Coast, killing 9 people and forcing the Pasha Bulker coal freighter to run aground at Nobby’s Beach. It takes 25 days before the vessel is refloated;

– Dr Mohamed Haneef is arrested and charged with supporting terrorism. The charges are later dropped;

– Peter Beattie resigns the Premiership of Queensland. His deputy Anna Bligh becomes the first female Premier of the state;

– Kevin Rudd fulfils his long held ambition by becoming Prime Minister of Australia, defeating John Howard, who loses his seat to former ABC journalist Maxine McKew;

– David Hicks becomes the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be convicted by a military commission after pleading guilty to providing military support to al Qaeda;

– Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as British Prime Minister;

– The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on a 14 day mission to the International Space Station where a new room is added and a 17.5 ton solar array and truss removed by the astronauts;

– The film and literary worlds each lose twin titans as Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni both pass away on 30 July and novelists Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut also pass away;

– The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Once, The Lives of Others, Hot Fuzz, Zodiac, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Superbad and the Simpsons Movie are released;

Deaths: Norman Von Nida (20 May), Frank Scarrabelotti (12 June), Lois Maxwell (29 September), Bernie Banton (27 November), Deborah Kerr (16 October), Benazir Bhutto (27 December), Boris Yeltsin (23 April)