lifeasdaddy

lifeasdaddy - Tourist adventures in Sydney.

Just received the December 2006 issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine in the post.  The cover of the magazine I have is different to the one on the website.

Anyway, there's a story called "50 trips of a Lifetime" which includes a feature article written by Brook Wilkinson (pages 174, 177, 198).  She details a 3-day adventrue holiday in Sydney called Gods on the Beach.  Go here and scroll down.  Price is USD$3,050

"As an adrenaline junkie, I jumpted at the chance to spend three days with SLS as part of a new program that gives you the opportunity to play hero, practicing rescues in the water and patrolling the seas for sharks and other dangers by helicopter."

It's a good story, and the adventure can be booked through a Florida based travel wholesaler http://destinationworld.com/

For those of you without the $$$ for that, you could try a boat trip delivering mail on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney.  A gentle 4-hour  trip for AUD$45. 

ADDED:  My referrer log alerted me that Wendy Perrin of Conde Nast Traveller found much to amuse her in this blog post.

lifeasdaddy - The watch I wore today was

the Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk Pro 3000m.

Owned by a friend, he let me wear it for a short time today.  It's believed to be the only one of it's type in Australia.

A huge watch, the glass is thicker than the movement.

Technical notes:  Automatic.  Certified to resist pressure up to depth of 3000m.  Screw-down crown at 4 o-clock. Date between 1o'clock and 2 o'clock. Power Reserve, Rotating bezel, diameter = 44mm, thickness = 20.10mm,  2 side decompression valves.

lifeasdaddy - photo retouching example

Brian Dilg discusses here how he did a retouching job for Polo Ralph Lauren. 

" I ended up photographing an adult woman's arms and compositing them in, as well as extending the background considerably. I was very proud of how I made the lean, muscular adult's arms plump to to match the girl's body type, but Polo asked to have them made skinny, just as anorexic as adult models."

You can see the before and after shots for yourself at Dilg's site here.

[ tip from Colbert, and more discussion by him here.]

lifeasdaddy - Various links 29 November 2006

Fake Shaolin Monks beat up police and journalists. 

"Manly is basically the main tourist destination in Australia."   What about the Australian War Memorial?  What about Uluru?  What about the Sydney Opera House?  Manly's  pariochalism to the fore.

Long history of women inspiring car design continues.

"All of life is a choice of genre."  [ tip from Terry Teachout ]

Not enough electrical power outlets at USA airports for travellers needs.  [tip from Frank Arrigo ]

lifeasdaddy - A good life.

Today I was out shopping with Ed and noticed a transaction slip sticking out of an ATM machine.  Being the curious type, I had a look at it. 

The remaining balance in the bank account caught my eye.  It was just $9.13.

I had two immediate thoughts.  Firstly, I'm fortunate that I've got more in my bank account than $9.13 at the moment, and it must be tough trying to get through to the next pay day with just $9.13 to back you up.

Secondly, I thought that there must be something worth writing for this blog. 

So I put it in my pocket.

I've been thinking about it  today.  I've remembered times when I did just have $9.13 or less in my bank account.  They were not good times. About times when Gabrielle and I have been discussing one or another major financial decision and that we've said to each other that if the financial consequences of our decision went bad, at least we would still have each other.  And now Edward too.

I thought about our health, and that we three are in generally good health.  Regardless of how much is in our bank account tomorrow.

I thought about the time when I picked up an ATM slip from a machine in Mosman.  It showed the account holder had about $60,000 cash in their account.

I hope the person with just $9.13 will be OK.

[photo cross-blogged to StreetsOfSydney ]

lifeasdaddy - Making a rocket birthday cake

Edward was mentioning this morning that he would like a rocket cake for his birthday.  We tried to convince him that he would be better off with a circle cake from the bakery but the rocket cake was still on his mind this afternoon.

So I thought I would give it a try.

We began as usual with the concept drawing.

Ed approved the drawing after the addition of an air hose and ball-pump.  He wanted it to look like the pop-up-a-rocket toy he received as a gift yesterday.

Thankfully there was still some plain sponge cake leftover from our effort the other day.  I was able to cut this into the base rocket shape.  Ed requested a pink coloured rocket, so I mixed up the icing with pink food colour.

I've never iced a cake before, and the icing turned out a bit thin.

Edward helped to put the smarties on the rocket and as the ball-pump.  I used small rectangles of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate as the rocket fins.

Edward said the rocket looked good.  I tried to convince him to wait until his birthday to sample the cake, but he was determined to sample the quality immediately.  If you look closely at the pic, you'll see a split in the middle.  We took a thin slice out of the middle for him to eat and pushed the two ends together.

When Gabrielle got home she admired our handywork and noted that the icing appeared to be a bit thin.  I convinced her it was my innovative low-joule diet icing as my contribution to fighting Australia's obesity epidemic.

lifeasdaddy - Ed listens to the music

Ed was searching through Gabrielle's handbag this morning and found a set of ear phones.

He asked to put them on, and then pretended to hear some music.

lifeasdaddy - My new photo blog

Inspired by Jake Dobkin and Russell Davies, I've started a new photo blog called StreetsOfSydney. 

You can see it here.

lifeasdaddy - Making a Fire Engine Birthday Cake

Edward will be three years old this week.  Today we had a little birthday party.  No party's complete without a cake.  Ed has been taking about having a rocket cake of a fire engine cake for weeks.

Yesterday he settled on a Fire Engine.  Gabrielle did some research on Google and I drew up the concept drawing.

She baked some sponge cakes in square tins which we then cut into rectangles to make up the basic shape.

Edward helped mix the cake.

  Then she added red food colouring to icing sugar to make the right base.

I tried to find some chocolate confectionery discs for use as the tyres, but could only find mint patties which have a peppermint centre with a chocolate coating.  They're about 5 centimetres in diameter, which is slightly out of proportion for this purpose.

Edward stuck the wheels on with an icing adhesive.

Then there's a sugar ladder to put on the roof, and some smarties to make headlights and flashers.

On the morning of the party we put on the candles in cluding Ed's favourite Thomas the Tank Engine Candle.  Totalling three of course.

Then, on with the show.  Happy birthday dear Edward; Happy birthday to you.   Blow out the candles.

Making the cake together was a great family activity.  We all enjoyed it, and Edward proved an adept pastry cook.

lifeasdaddy - Edward's development

Edward has been progressing in all sorts of areas in the past couple of weeks.

Gabrielle was helping him with his computer mouse skills and that's resulted in his ability to use some simple kids games by himself.  One example is colouring-in on The Wiggles website.

This was a solo effort.

He has also started singing songs.  We've been singing to him since he was born, but he hasn't been keen to join in. This week he has sung verses of Jingle Bells,  Hot Potato,  and Fly Through The Sky.

Must be that music therapy kicking in.

When we've been reading stories, he has been asking me to read the blurb on the back cover of books.

His play has started to involve wanting us to take on named personae.  For example, yesterday when we were playing a train game, he wanted me to address him as "Train Driver Edward" and he called me "Passenger Daddy".  He must have liked thhose titles, because he kept calling me that for hours later, and asking me to keep calling him "Train Driver Edward".

He's nearly three.