Japanese homestay 2018

Two more years have passed since we last hosted a Japanese exchange student as part of Alex's primary school connection with ELS21 in Sakai, Japan. This time we welcomed an 18 year girl, Satoe, into our home.

This was Satoe's third and last time in Australia as part of the program and she was eager to improve her already good English.

During the first week we also looked after Hiromu and his host student Ollie, one of Alex's best friends, in the mornings and afternoons as the usual before and after school care wasn't available to the Japanese students.

Satoe was a fantastic big sister to Alex and a wonderful guest. On the second weekend we drove her to eat meat pies and bush walk at the recently discovered (for us) scenic Fitzroy Falls near Kangaroo Valley, the Famous Doughnut Van at Berry and the Blowhole at Kiama. Being a teenager we suspected she might prefer shopping so the next day crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the train to Chatswood, where she tried Malaysian cuisine (the laksa was too spicy for her). On the way back we stopped by Luna Park where she and Alex rode the rollercoaster and dodgem cars.

Okay it's not as impressive as Osaka's Universal Studios, but a retro amusement park was a bit of a novelty and makes for great photos for the Japanese Instagrammer. The young ones would have stayed longer but it was getting late so we caught the ferry one stop back to Circular Quay, this time heading under the bridge.

Each of the students we've hosted described their mother's role as "house wife". That felt like my position as, unlike B, I have the option to work from home so took on the duties of taking the kids to school, making lunches, shopping, looking after many of the dinners when we didn't eat out. And doing my regular job as well. Quite exhausting really, especially when it was three extra kids, although Satoe was really very easy to look after.

Alex hopes to have one more student before he finishes primary school and so do we. Unfortunately the program is a bit up in the air right now. In the intervening period since the previous visit our school got a new principal and she, in her first role, wants to do everything by the book. That means no older kids. Hopefully something can be worked out, maybe with the nearby high school.

To be fair, if this trip was any guide, things do go wrong. One student was involved in a car accident and another witnessed someone jumping off a cliff. And yes, there is some disruption to the students' learning programs. But I really feel they all get a lot out of these visits. Anything to break down this horrible insularity and racism that has reared its head so viciously in the media right now. The only reason I didn't feel more embarrassed by the nightly news was that I know Japan has its own governing politicians who say the most awful things as well.

May our kids not grow up sharing the same views as many older people who should know better.

The farewell assembly at school was full of emotion, with both Satoe and the ELS21 principle reduced to tears. Fortunately for Alex and the rest of us the parting was not so sad as we look forward to catching up with Satoe, Mayumi and Machiko again in a few months time when we visit Osaka. Until then we have plenty of happy memories and gifts of Japanese treats to enjoy!

Extracting strawberry DNA

Following the instructions in Double Helix Issue 24 2018 to extract DNA from strawberries using common kitchen items and chemicals, plus methylated spirits, while keeping an eye on their blog to ensure it doesn't crash under load!

Mixing salt, detergent and water

Mashing up the strawberry with the detergent mix

After adding the chilled meths the DNA separates at the top

Sticky DNA!

Arduino ticket gate - part 1

Alex is obsessed with automatic ticket gates and desperately wants one to play with in the house. Don't ask me why.

The mechanisms in automatic paper ticket gates are extraordinarily complicated and not something I could hope or want to recreate at home. However, modern gates tend to use RFID stored value cards to trigger them.

Using parts from an Arduino education kit along with an RFID module I bought at Jaycar I was able to build a simple system that triggers a servo motor when an RFID card is tapped on the sensor. It also changes the red LED to the green and plays a sound. I put a delay in to "hold the gate open".

The cheap RFID module seems a bit dodgy and the system often requires a few reboots to work. This is the first time I've soldered and used a circuit board in years. I haven't used the Arduino much either, just following a few of the examples given in the book. Still, I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Using the Arduino is so much easier than the electronics I did at uni and as a kid.

The next step is to put it in some housing and attach a "gate" to the servo. Going to get Alex's help to do that.

Sketch


/**
 * Ticket gate model
 * Detect RFID chip and trigger a servo
 */

#include  
#include
#include

#define SS_PIN 10
#define RST_PIN 9
#define GREEN_PIN 6
#define RED_PIN 7
#define PIEZO_PIN 8
#define SERVO_PIN 5

Servo gateServo;
int openTime = 5000;

MFRC522 mfrc522(SS_PIN, RST_PIN);  // Create MFRC522 instance.

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); // Initialize serial communications with the PC
  gateServo.attach(SERVO_PIN);
  gateServo.write(90);
  pinMode(GREEN_PIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(RED_PIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(PIEZO_PIN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(GREEN_PIN, LOW);
  digitalWrite(RED_PIN, HIGH);
  
  SPI.begin();      // Init SPI bus
  mfrc522.PCD_Init(); // Init MFRC522 card
}

void loop() {
  // Look for new cards
  if ( ! mfrc522.PICC_IsNewCardPresent()) {
    return;
  }

  // Select one of the cards
  if ( ! mfrc522.PICC_ReadCardSerial()) {
    return;
  }

  gateServo.write(180);
  digitalWrite(GREEN_PIN, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(RED_PIN, LOW);
  tone(PIEZO_PIN, 261, 100);
  delay(100);
  tone(PIEZO_PIN, 392, 200);
  delay(openTime);
  gateServo.write(90);
  digitalWrite(GREEN_PIN, LOW);
  digitalWrite(RED_PIN, HIGH);
  mfrc522.PICC_HaltA();
}

School dances and a cushion concert

Last night we finally had our first taste as parents of a combined schools performance when we attended the Sutherland Shire Schools Music Festival. Alex had joined the boy's hip hop group at school and they, along with a number of other schools, were performing dances at the festival.

Having seen the boys and senior girls performing the past few days at the local shopping centre and school open day I must say my expectations were low. Right from the start I was blown away by the talent and energy of many of the student dancers in a real performing environment.

It helps that they started with some John Williams music from Harry Potter. Though what was the idea playing the opening to Star Wars for a dance named "Borg" (and yes there were sound grabs of Locutus)? Obviously a proper education in scifi is lacking in our public schools!

Speaking of John Williams, I woke up this morning and spotted an Instagram advertisement for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing Star Wars live in concert early next year. A dream come true! I immediately snapped up some tickets.

The music continued with an afternoon concert today in Petersham Town Hall listening to The Metropolitan Orchestra performing music from movies and a couple of original compositions. This was a cushion concert for families, with patrons encouraged to bring rugs and cushions and sit on the floor up close to the orchestra. One of Alex's school friends joined us.

I'd heard the Metropolitan Orchestra perform the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular at the Sydney Opera House back in 2012 and was impressed with their professionalism. Being so familiar with film music as I am it is difficult for me to listen to it being played poorly.

No such problem here. The Metropolitan Orchestra were magnificent with a fantastic sound. Sitting up close we could feel every note, every percussion. More than that, they looked like they were having fun.

Every orchestra member was dressed up in some superhero or movie costume. There were Minions on Double Bass, Dorothy Vader on violin and Indiana Jones on the drums, to name just a few. All lead by their conductor, Princess Else, aka Sarah-Grace Williams.

They played Superman, the Raiders March, the Flying Theme from ET, Batman, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and a medley from Frozen. Of special note was the soloist in Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission. He played with exquisite precision, beautiful.

There were also premieres of two original compositions. The Vikings, composed and performed by one of the orchestra's French horn players was very easy to listen to and I could easily imagine it accompanying a television documentary on the warriors. Bedtime Stories was more classical in nature, with hints of Holst.

The concert ended with the Star Wars main theme, reminding me just how exciting next year will be.

Alex's awesome holidays

The last day of school holidays for the middle of 2016 and I think it's worth jotting down all the activities over the past two weeks. Left to his own devices, Alex would spend far too much time with his devices, so the idea was to get him out and about in a way to stimulate his body and mind with the kind of experiences he doesn't normally get while still having time to "chillax" as he so likes to say. Meanwhile, when he wasn't in vacation care I worked from home.

Thursday June 30

Second last day of school, but we had some expiring movie tickets so went to watch Steven Spielberg's version of The BFG at Miranda. We all enjoyed it, well acted and visually spectacular.

Friday July 1

Alex wrote his first Android apps using MIT App Inventor 2 and following their video tutorials. It''s very simple, much like Scratch, and you can do cool stuff using a device's built in sensors. He worked out how to customise the examples and we put one of the apps on my phone.

Later I had a play with an Arduino set I had recently purchased. Wish that mucking around with digital hardware was that simple when I was at university!

Saturday July 2

Bike riding at Centennial Park, B and I on hired bikes, Alex furiously pedalling his too-small kid's bike.

Sunday July 3

After the previous day's experience we decided to get Alex a new bike. Purchased an adult one so that we can ride with him.

Monday July 4

Vacation care with clowns for Alex after the 4-D cinema cancelled on them. 

Tuesday July 5

Bikes arrived! While I worked from home, Alex relaxed and did his own thing.

Wednesday July 6

Second day of vacation care. Alex went to indoor rock climbing and laser tag.

Thursday July 7

A full day Thinkspace workshop on Scratch programming at Sydney Observatory for Alex. He really enjoyed writing the three games and was very proud to show them off to me. A long way from writing text games in BASIC when I was his age!

Friday July 8

Took Alex for his first ride on the new bike - needed more practice!

Saturday July 9

Riding his new bike in the park, Alex saw his school principal.

  

Sunday July 10

Alex left us alone to go go karting at a friends birthday. Apparently he was a bit nervous at the speed of them.

Monday July 11

Sadly the holidays were not without some homework and Alex had to write a persuasive speech. Persuading him to write it was the real test. 

Tuesday July 12

I had a day off, or tried (forgot to undivert my phone). We built some of the plastic houses and shops for Alex's Japanese N-scale model railway layout. Wish the bath house was real!

We both went for a ride around the suburb on our bikes, but Alex found the hills a bit tricky. 

Wednesday July 13

While Kita was at the vet having his teeth cleaned I took Alex down to the ANSTO nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights for an hour and a half session of Atomic Kids. This fantastic session introduced kids to the periodic table, atoms and chemical bonds. Alex really enjoyed it.

Thursday July 14

Another full day workshop, this time learning about the circulatory and respiratory system at the Junior Science Academy at Macquarie University while I was over at work at North Ryde. They looked at dissected sheep hearts and lungs and made blood from Cheerios, marshmallows and food dye. He was pretty exhausted by the end of it but eager to tell me everything he'd learned.

Friday July 15

A chance for B to spend some time with Alex before going over to his best friend's house.

Saturday July 16

Alex came into our bedroom at 4 AM bawling his eyes out, having just fallen out of his bed. We then discovered a gash to the side of his head. Who knew sleep could be that dangerous? So off to the emergency department we drove. A couple of hours later, no stitches or glue, just plasters holding the skin together. Barely any rest then off to the first karate of the term.

As the head sensei is off recovering from an operation we had Sensei Leighton, the exercise fanatic.

Went off to eat Chinese at Hurstville and had an afternoon tea of chocolate pudding at Brighton. I could feel a headache building and by the time we were driving back home it was ferocious.

Chocolate flavoured vomit.

I was a write off for the rest of the night.

Sunday July 17

Another birthday party for Alex, this one at 10 pin bowling. I came second last amongst the adults. I would have been last but one of them let his toddler bowl. At least I got one strike! Alex won, thereby cementing what was a pretty awesome holidays for him.

A balance between exercise, education and relaxation. Hopefully he's starting next term in a good frame of mind. I think I need another holiday!

Doughman and the karate tournament

I had a very strange dream this morning. I was in a Will Ferrell movie. He was a villain called Doughman and I was fighting him. At one I almost defeated him but a small nodule of dough remained and began expanding into two plates of flat dough. I kept pounding them but Ferrell's face would appear in the dough to taunt me. So I turned them into two plates of pasta with a tomato sauce. The solution was to eat the pasta in the hope that the stomach acid would kill him.

I woke up then, but you know exactly what would have happened. Yes, Doughman would have become Spewman.

You should note that this dream occurred prior to me taking a big strike to the head at the karate tournament.

I was definitely the Doughman there. Somehow I summoned up the courage to join Alex in competing in our dojo's annual tournament. He's been doing it for almost a year now and has a red belt but I had to give it away for six months due to a foot injury and haven't even graded yet. No other senior white belts were in attendance today. Senior, that makes me feel really old now, especially when Alex is still a Pee Wee!

Me on the left getting belted

Alex in gladiator

Alex did well, adding another silver in kumite to the one he won at the warm up tournament last term. And he won both his matches in the gladiator, though his team did not progress.

Me, I got a bronze in the kata, but that's because there were only three of us competing. And a bumped head in kumite where there were four. But I did score a couple of points and I'm satisfied with that.

The things we do to set a good example for our kids...

So I may not be great at karate, but I reckon I could write a pretty decent movie script. In my sleep.

Stardust and satay

We are all star dust, the stuff of exploding stars. But this post has nothing to do with astronomy. On Saturday we took Alex to Stardust Circus, his first such event under a tent.

I think I was about Alex's age when I first attended a circus, as part of a school outing. It may have been Stardust or, more likely I think, Silver's Circus.

I don't know if circuses have shrunk or perhaps we have just got bigger, but the Big Top didn't seem so big now.

Along the roadside there were animal rights protestors waving placards against the treatment of circus animals. Outside I overhead circus staff claiming it gave them free publicity, but inside the ringmaster was careful to explain that the animals were kept well.

I will not delve into the ethics of showing the lions, including a 8 month old cub, rhesus monkeys, ponies, pigs and other beast, but I found myself liking those components least of all anyway. Except for the dogs. But then I know how much dogs love the interactions and challenges, assuming that they were treated well.

Animal feats seem so unnecessary when compared with the displays of human acrobatics and the clown humour, both of which Alex loved best as well.

The performances seemed less spectacular and less polished than I recall, but perhaps again that is through the eyes of an adult.

I had to laugh at the music in the introduction to the trapeze act. Back at my first circus they played the disco version of Star Wars before the trapeze. A decade or so later, at a Silver's Circus performance in Queensland it was the same.

This time they played the full orchestral main title to Star Wars. It's good that somethings don't really change.

There was a gorgeous rainbow on our way home.

Sunday saw us at the Malaysian Festival at Pyrmont Bay Park. We had a pleasant, though packed, tram ride down there and enjoyed some Malaysian snacks. The satay from Loong Fong was really good and I love the Seremban siu pau from Sweet Rita's Nyonya Treats. Pity I can't find a restaurant for them both, Loong Fong only serves bak kwa at their Chatswoord outlet. Bak kwa is a form of sweet and spicy pork jerky that I have utterly gone off after being force fed it for our daily breakfast (along with almond jelly) by one of B's Aunts during my first trip to Singapore.

The construction work around Darling Harbour is very impressive, but I hope they return the family atmosphere once they are done. We had to purchase a Chinese costume for Alex's Mandarin class presentation. Fortunately, there is a small stall at Paddy's Markets that sells such things.

And so ended the first week of school holidays.

Alex and computers

Scratch

I was rather pleased to see Alex playing with Scratch this morning. It's a free Flash web tool designed for kids that enables them to write programs by connecting a variety of elements together. I think it's quite good for teaching kids about loops and logic.

I have also installed Microsoft Small Basic on his machine, though it might be a bit advanced for a six year old. Not for long, though.

Alex is rather obsessed with computers and is very comfortable using them. Right now he's very proud of his ability to change the desktop background in Windows 8. He also made his own slideshow movie with Movie Maker and another with YouTube.

The obsession can be rather funny though. He may be the only person who like Ctrl-Alt-Del and typing in passwords, getting rather upset that you don't have to do it this way for home machines, unlike enterprise systems at school and work.

He also wanted Word and PowerPoint. Unwilling to shell out further money for both until he actually needs them, I installed LibreOffice instead and told him that it was the latest version, newer than at school (him being used to this with Windows 8.1 instead of the school's Windows 7) and that's why the icons are different.

I must get him on to Linux as well. He prefers the iPad to his Windows 8 convertible laptop/tablet, but the reason I chose the latter is that it runs Adobe Flash, which a lot of educational websites, including Scratch, still require.

Unfortunately, the Microsoft Parental Controls are an annoying pain to use, though still beneficial when it comes to learning what not to click on.

What I really need to get working on is controls on YouTube to prevent certain useless topics from being displayed (e.g. EvanTubeHD, adult reviews of toys and endless computer game commentary). There's so much else that's educational or creative that could be watched instead.

I think back to reading my parents' 1950s medical textbooks, full of grotesque diseases largely unknown due to vaccines and antibiotics. Now Alex watches the highly educational Operation Ouch on ABC iView and can tell us the most remarkable medical facts. I'm quite envious actually!

Piggy bank maths

It feels strange watching Alex learn the basics of mathematics. So many solutions that come so naturally to me are a struggle for him, not through lack of intelligence on his part, but from their unfamiliarity as he tries to understand the basic concepts.

This morning it was money. When you think about it there's a lot of basic arithmetic stored in a piggy bank.

Alex wanted a milky pop from the canteen. That's 10 cents. Now he wants 5. For most of us that's easy, 5 x 10c = 50c. But he's barely touched on multiplication yet, so it's back to addition.

Fortunately, they've done counting on tens (a prelude to multiplication), otherwise the addition is very painful.

Okay, so we've got the first answer, now the problem is how to make it with coins. If you don't have a 50c coin then you need to make 50 from smaller denominations, say 2 x 20c and 1 x 10c. Again, we've got multiplications going on, or counting on twenties.

Then he wants to buy one for his friend. So now we have 5 + 1 = 6 milky pops. And we need to add 10c to the total cash required.

My spelling all that out was torturous, wasn't it? But that's the least level of detail required when you are starting out. For me now, I don't even have to consciously think about such sums. This level of mathematics is more of an emotional response than intellectual. Relationships between numbers have become intuitive feelings. Coins have shapes, you don't even have to think about the numbers on them, you just know how they fit together to make new numbers.

But I can see that developing in Alex. Sometimes he'll immediately pick the right answer to a mathematical question and it's only when he starts thinking about it too hard that he might struggle and get it wrong. It's fascinating to watch.

Maniac day

You know you are getting old when your day goes like this...

• Son wakes up and wants to play the new dance game you stayed up late installing for him the night before.
• Go to swimming lessons. Assessor says your son is ready for the next level.
• Have a quick lunch at McDonalds to celebrate and it's not even 11 am.
• Then head off to Chinese School in Miranda for a presentation day where your son performs along with the rest of his class.
• Half an hour later you are at a birthday party at Monkey Mania in Bankstown 
• Two and a half hours later after he's been running, dancing, sliding, driving and screaming you step outside into a torrential downpour and your shoes get soaked.
• Come home and cook miso steak stirfry.
• Your son keeps dancing in front of the PS3 until it's his bedtime.

... And you seem more tired than he does.

Rollercoasters and Dodgeball

I swear my birthday parties were never this big. In this first year of school it seems like you have to invite the whole class and then some. But when you watch them play or at school it's really like a big family. Maybe better than a family, or at least less troublesome!

On Friday I managed to catch the weekly school assembly and it was amazing how Alex's class have grown over the past year. So confident with their public speaking and I'm very impressed by how they seem to get on with the older kids as well.

We booked a supervised session at the local sports centre and the twenty or so kids played a variety of sports, from the planned dodgeball, to touch football and "stuck in the mud" where you have to crawl between the legs of any tagged player to "unstick" them.

After selecting the sports centre I had glimpsed a bit of the Dodgeball movie, inspiring the choice. When some wheelchair basketballers entered an adjacent court I thought Patches O'Houlihan had arrived to throw spanners.

After a sweaty hour they were led back to the tables for a party meal of chips, sushi (supposedly for the adults but the kids hogged most it), cocktail sausages in pastry and fruit.

The piece de resistance was, of course, the cake. We had said we were going simple this year, but Alex requested a rollercoaster chocolate cake and we couldn't resist going to the fondant again. Not that impressed with the result, but it did the job and made for a lot of bright blue tongues (after they were first turned red by raspberry slushies).

Absolutely exhausted as usual. Don't know how to start the week when we've barely had a weekend. Maybe next year it'll just be family and a few close friends... maybe...

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

Alex conceived and constructed "Rapunzel" all by himself while I was busy working. I am so proud of him!

Japanese homestay

My love of Japan is a well known fact so I leapt at the opportunity when Alex's primary school sent out a call for local families to act as hosts to a group of visiting Japanese students.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't the first time for me. Twice when I was in my Central Queensland high school studying Japanese my family hosted Japanese exchange students. Neither worked out particularly well, but older, hopefully wiser, more familiar with Japanese culture and being a parent, I hoped that this time would be different.

Considering that Alex is in kindy (his first year of primary school) we were somewhat shocked to be told that our assigned students was female and fourteen years old. However upon meeting Miyu any fears were quickly dispelled.

She came across as shy and quiet. Questions were returned as single word responses. But through games with Alex like Uno and Twister her cheeky side, a quick smile and a little laugh, emerged.

The yukata was a gift from Miyu

We quickly discovered that she loved chocolate and she hungrily gobbled up snacks like lamingtons, Tim Tams and chocolate ice cream. She took quickly to Alex and B's new fad of loom bands, even though the instructional YouTube videos were in English.

On the first weekend we took her by ferry to Watson's Bay for a disappointing meal of Doyle's fish and chips. Miyu surprised us during that first week by sleeping for about twelve hours a night. She was kept up late one night by the need to meet a cousin from Singapore in the city for dinner.

Friday saw us meeting up with other host families to go bowling. It was fun to watch the normally placid Miyu chatting away with her friends and in high spirits with them at the McDonalds dinner afterwards.

For the second week we were joined by one of the teachers, the effervescent Machiko. We met up with other families at Stanwell Tops, then drove down to Kiama, stopping to watch the tide flow over the rocks at Austinmere and to get lost in Wollongong. That evening we too Miyu and Machiko to eat Malaysian food at Albee's Kitchen in Kingsford. We've seen very few Malaysian restaurants during our travels in Japan. In fact, I can only think of the place in Kanazawa where they serve "raksa".

Machiko and Miyu at Stanwell Tops

At Austinmere

We were too exhausted to go to Featherdale Wildlife Park with the others on Sunday, so instead we visited the closer Symbio Wildlife Park, where there were the ever popular koalas, kangaroos you could hand feed and a wombat that Miyu stroked to sleep. Interestingly a separate Japanese school group were also visiting. Machiko got her taste of meat pie at nearby Helensburgh, where we mucked around at the park, playing Miyu's sport obsession of volleyball.

The only time I've seen volleyball on television in Australia was during the Olympics, but we once spotted an Australia- Japan match in the latter country.

Miyu prepared us a very tasty beef stew for dinner, while the following night she and Machiko made us nabe, a Japanese hot pot dish. Both were perfect for the cold weather.

As the week wound down Miyu spent more time with us in the evenings. She showed me her house and school on Google Maps, so different to here.

We discussed a child's life in Japan, contrasted it with their experiences here. No outdoor lunches at recess, no canteens. Japanese students clean their classrooms twice a day, wiping the floors with towels. It's difficult to imagine something similar here. And they study so late, attending cram schools until 10 pm, barely interacting with their families.

No wonder they didn't want to go back to Japan!

Whilst we have spent at least a week or two in Japan each year and another few elsewhere for the last decade, in working Japan they get very little opportunity to take vacations. Apart from public holidays time off work is difficult to obtain. Rather than using the Japanese to decry the lack of Australian productivity in comparison, I prefer to highlight the contribution that leave makes to our travel and tourism sector, not to mention the psychological benefits.

Normally I find house gets very stressful, but Miyu and Machiko were an absolute delight to have around. Very helpful, courteous, neat and tidy and independent. I felt quite sad when the last night of their stay arrived.

At the school farewell assembly on the Thursday before departure I was so proud to see Miyu amongst the three selected to speak in front of everyone. She did a wonderful job and probably spoke more English words than during her stay with us!

Then a final morning tea and sad goodbyes on the Friday as a coach drove to the city for a couple of nights.

I hope that we are in a position to take on a student again when they return in 2016. And of course we want to see them during our annual (or more frequent) visit to Japan next year. I can't wait!

Boys Day

The last day of the mid-year school holidays and I wanted to spend some quality time with Alex. We had a wonderful time. Slept in, walked down to a local reserve with its recently rebuilt playground. Explored the riverside along a small track, past mangroves and a dead fish. Kita the dog was off his leash and decided to enter the freezing cold water, splashing around.

Walked back up the steep stairs to get a lunch of banh mi from the bakery, then gave Kita a shower to wash off all the river grime.

Later in the afternoon Alex laughed with delight as we encouraged lethargic Japanese trains to run around the n-scale layout downstairs. In taking the models out of the cupboard Alex discovered my old yellowed Star Wars toys, so we ended the day with space battles.

It was a perfect finale to the holidays.

Time and Relative Dimensions in Cake: Baking a TARDIS (and a Dalek)

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." The Doctor, Blink

There was an incident fifty years ago this month. Another that happened a tenth of that time ago at almost the same time of year. The two events are not connected by cause and effect, except they were today and by a big ball of squeezy wheezy blue stuff.

On November 23 this year we celebrate fifty years of Doctor Who. I'm not that old (though my Mum shares a name of one of his original companions), but I grew up watching the British series. I've been fortunate enough too my son Alex has similarly developed an enjoyment of the program and asked for a Doctor Who cake to celebrate his birthday this year.

What better way to celebrate five and fifty years with a cake of the Doctor's time machine, a blue policebox called the TARDIS? After all, it's rectangular, which hopefully meant it would be relatively easy to bake and decorate. We may have been "forced" to outsource the party to a play centre this year, but at least can put some effort into a decent cake.

Cake decorating seems to have expanded into more general society, judging by the number of cake decorating shops and shows on the topic on Pay TV. I have a couple of colleagues at work who are obsessed by the subject. Neither my wife B nor I are professional, semi-professional or even vaguely professional cake decorators. However, articles on the Internet and various YouTube videos make it seem a lot easier than it actually is.

Armed with a YouTube video and a few blog posts we set about making the TARDIS. Whilst the TV version may be bigger on the inside than the outside ours was just cake on the inside covered with icing.

Baking the actual cakes was the easy bit. B did the orange cake and I the chocolate mud cake (sans coffee). Both recipes are delicious. That night we also made the chocolate modelling paste to construct the outer shell of the TARDIS cake. We used melted white chocolate, corn derived glucose syrup and blue gel dye. This formed a thick blue dough which we rolled up and left overnight and into the next day.

I printed out a picture of the TARDIS as a template, but it was too large. How large should the template be? This is where relative dimensions come in, along with a bit of math. Yes, mathematics is useful!

Volume (V) = height (H) x width (W) x depth (D)

First find the maximum volume of cake available for use (Vc) by using the above equation (Vc = Hc x Wc x Dc) and the dimensions of the cake. Also we need to calculate the relative scale of the TARDIS (t) by using the dimensions of the template (m) where the dimensions can be written as a ratio with one side = 1. Despite the template being only two dimensional we know the depth = width as the base of the TARDIS is square. We need

Vt = Ht x Wt x Dt = (Hm x Wm x Dm)/Dm . Because of the square base this simplifies to Vt = Hm/Dm (neglecting units here).

For your information, Hm/Dm comes out to be about 1.6. So the TARDIS dimensions are of the ration 1:1:1.6.

If we let H, W, D be the dimensions that we'll use for our cake and taking advantage of the fact that the base is square then we get:

D = (Vc * Dm / Hm) ^ 1/3
W = D
H = Hm/Dm * D

And those are the dimensions that you need to make the cake. This meant carving the cake into blocks and pasting together with butter cream. The whole lot was covered with butter cream. We then cut out the four vertical sides of the TARDIS from the blue chocolate modelling paste with white icing for the windows and black writing icing for details. I printed the signs on ordinary paper and cut them out - they stuck easily enough to the chocolate.

And there you have it!

Alex gets a second birthday party at childcare, where he has a Doctor Who obsessed teacher. So we made a simpler Dalek cake using leftover red fondant from the previous year's birthday cake (briefly microwaved to soften), liquorice strips and chocolate coated marshmallows.

Now I've educated you about some mathematics, maybe you would like to read Andy Connelly's article in the Guardian about the Science of Cake.

Spider-Alex is 4

These day not a week seems to go by without the release of some new superhero movie. But when have they ever made a film dedicated to the superhero's support crew? The people that feed them, sew up their costumes and clean up after them. Where's The Butler Begins (Mopping Again) or The Incredible Hulk's Tailor?

It's hard work being the support crew, but that was our role on Saturday as we hosted a greater collection of superheros than The Avengers movie at Alex's fourth birthday party.

Three long nights of cake baking, decorating and popping. My hat goes off to my fanatic cake decorating colleagues as it is a fiddly and expensive process, belied by the simplicity of books and YouTube videos. Alex helped where he could, but even he slept late.

When the day arrived we go stuck in a jam trying to enter a Hurstville carpark so we could collect the sausage buns we had ordered from a Chinese bakery. Then a magically lost ticket turned a free park into a $25 one.

We barely made it to the park on time, so thanks to the in-laws for grabbing a table for us. We quickly set up the food as the first guests arrived. Family, B's friends, Alex's preschool friends, many dressed up in superhero costumes, as was a muscly Spider-man Alex.

Faced with a larger crowd than initially expected we hired an entertainer to keep the kids amused and it worked a treat. Spider-man/Isaac had the kids in stitches with his magic tricks and games. The huge smile on Alex's face made it all worthwhile.

When Isaac started making the balloon animals other kids asked for dinosaurs, flowers or weapons. Alex requested an apple!

Much of the food was devoured, the fruits, spinach cob dip, jellies and cake pops, leaving us enough buns for half a week's lunch. And the rain stayed away, despite the threatening grey clouds and the torrential (but localised) rain and hail of the day before.

Afterwards, my side of the family and us headed off to Top Ryde to find dinner, ending up in a pub after the other eateries proved too expensive. Alex fell asleep on the way hope and refused to wake up for a shower or change of clothes or even the gorgeous firework show that magically appeared over the Georges River.

This was certainly a different birthday to last year's in Paris and far more exhausting. It may not be easy being in the superhero support crew, but it is fun.

There's a duck in my bed

"Quack quack!" said Alex, as he slept beside me. "Quack quack!"

I think he was asleep. Or maybe he just wanted to make me laugh before returning to sleep this morning.

Sleeping in is such a wonderful thing.

Like father, like son

I'm was very proud of Alex today. When I picked him up the class was playing cricket and he wanted to play too. Then he told me that he wanted to fly in a plane. The free newspaper on the train had a photo of the latest Dr Who, Matt Smith, attending a premier with Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond. Alex immediately recognised them as the Doctor and Amy, despite not being dressed in character. (Matt  Smith had an ordinary tie, not a bow tie. I thought bow ties were "cool"!)

Father's day 2010

Alex actually slept in the cot throughout last night, despite the ferocious winds outside. Then, when he woke up early this morning I carried him to our bed where he promptly slept again until 8am. What a magnificent father's day gift!

I can't believe that he is already reading numbers now. He is really so much fun to be with, such a lovely, fun personality, despite him trying to rip my face off when I wouldn't let him down on the bird poo covered walkway  to chase seagulls and jump into Darling Harbour today.

The little ones attack at night

Saturday was very busy. After a rough Friday night that saw me struggling to resettle Alex at 3.30am we woke up a bit late. Then race off to Alex's swimming lessons. Return late library books. Eat and shop for Malaysian ingrediants at Kingsford. Take Alex to a playground at Kyeemagh. Buy other groceries at Menai. Dinner at the relatives. I'm exhausted and have a headache.

Finally, everyone had gone to bed. After a whole day of waiting I went to the loo. Relax. When I emerged I could now hear Alex crying. Unfortunately, you can't hear him while in the loo, because he had been crying so much that he had vomited. Meanwhile, B is blissfully asleep.

I remove him from his cot and go to the kitched to give him some water. Then I feel something underfoot. A dog turd!

I lose it, swearing and shouting, before running off to the bathroom and washing my feet in the tub, Alex still in my arms. B awakes to the commotion and helps clean up, but I just feel like nobody will allow me to relax anymore.

It's all better in the morning...