Yeah, I am with you on that tamlin!
But flash can be quite useful when you want shiney gallery's or stuff like that

It is way more versatile than javascript (as AS 3.0 is more of a coding than a scripting language...).
About the website... Maybe you should change the background (make it more transparent) and try to make a clear what is what on your site... As the colours are neat, but the "where to click" isn't easy to figure out.
some tips:
Try to intergrate the "search" part in you banner.
Make a clear difference between the content of the page and the graphics surrounding it.
Try to make a enclosing thingy to make it look like the sites one thing, instead of 5 elements with the same colour.
Do note that I think the site look good... but I also believe it can look even better!!
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