Monthly Archives: April 2011

Hugo Knocking Down Sand Castles

Hugo and I visit a park close to our house regularly and take a few toys to play with while we’re over there, such as a bouncy ball, bucket with spade and accompanying rake.

Normally we’ll dig in the sand, build up mini-mountains of dirt and generally have a riot getting dirty. A while ago I showed Hugo that when we fill the bucket right up, we can flip it over fast and start making sand castles. It isn’t a new trick for him now but he is still impressed with the feat, often letting out a “wow!”.

I just need to convince him to let me build a few of them, so we can start building up!

Having trouble viewing the embedded video, watch Hugo Lattimore Knocking Down Sand Castles on YouTube.

Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream

Bluebeards Revenge Luxury Shaving CreamDuring February, Stephen mentioned to me that Schick had a promotion in facebook where they would send you one of their latest razors if you liked them. After receiving their latest Schick Hydro 5, I wrote that I thought it was the best mens razor that I’d ever used.

Shortly after that, Sam from Shave Shack got in contact with me and asked if I’d review their latest arrival – a luxury shaving cream from the United Kingdom named Bluebeards Revenge. I was really excited to hear from Sam, he is a local Gold Coast small business owner and his shaving shop sells boutique, luxury shaving products that the major players ignore – which I think is great.

The first thing that I noticed about Bluebeards Revenge was the kick arse box that it came in. Instead of some puncy pretty boy container, Bluebeards Revenge comes in a simple blue cardboard box with their signature skull & crossbones stamped on the lid. Around the box, instead of the typical ‘you should use us because we are the best’ – they instead inform their prospective clients that it is a shaving cream for real men and that wimps need not apply.

Unboxing the Bluebeards Revenge reveals a clear plastic container with a metal lid, to give it that nice solid manly feeling. The shaving cream has a great fragrance and looks silky & luscious in the container.

It only takes two finger fulls of Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream to lather up in your hands to cover your face. I’ve seen other people use it with a shaving brush & shaving bowl and only use an almond sized amount to produce a beautifully thick shaving lather – so I might need to invest on some of those to experience it to its fullest effect.

Once applied, the shaving cream provides nice protection for your face and my Schick Hydro 5 that I was provided via facebook works with it really well. I’ve noticed that I’m getting very little shaving rash with the new razor and Bluebeards Revenge which is great and it produces a very clean shave. One thing I really like about it is that once you’ve run the razor over your face once, you can put a small amount of water into your hands and re-lather your face to tidy up any bits that you missed in pass one.

After you’ve finished shaving with Bluebeards Revenge, it washes off your face easily with a little water. I particularly liked that it doesn’t leave any residue on your skin either, comes off cleanly and your face feels smooth, clean & refreshed. I haven’t been using it long enough to notice it just yet but it also contains Decelerine, which is meant to slow down beard growth as well – handy if you’re particularly hairy.

Overall I think the Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream is a great product. I love that it has attitude and isn’t another sterile product that you’re so accustomed to in the supermarkets. I like the scent, it goes on well, assists with a really clean shave and doesn’t leave a mess.

Now I just need to sort out a badger hair shaving brush & a shaving bowl!

Angry Boys

On Wednesday 11th May 2011, the ABC are going to unleash a 12 part mockumentary comedy series by Chris Lilley named Angry Boys. For those unaware, Chris Lilley first hit the scene on Big Bite in 2003 and later made mockumentaries of We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High. Angry Boys continues some of the characters from his previous work and pokes a whole lot of fun of what it is like being a teenager growing up in the 21st century. It is rated M and is going to be reasonably inappropriate in places but it is going to be really funny, Kath & Kim funny.

Concerning

On the way to work each morning, I regularly get held up in traffic on Days Road heading east towards the M1 going past the Coomera Anglican College. As I plod along in the traffic listening to Hot Tomato on the radio, I’m looking around at the volume of high end cars flowing in and out of the school and I’ve started to notice something about the kids – 2 or 3 out of 20 have energy drinks.

Just so I’m clear, it is 8:00AM and I’m driving to work and kids are throwing back cans of Red Bull and V like they are water. What I don’t understand is how their parents think that it’s acceptable for children as young as 12 to be drinking before going to school.

The next thing that stumped me about it – why do the kids want/need a drink like that in the morning in the first place? I know when I was at school, energy was certainly not something I was lacking. Is this a response to the fact that most kids don’t exercise anymore and their bodies are getting lazy – even when they are at school? Are they not getting enough sleep or has the average house holds food quality dropped compared to what I was eating at the same age?

I don’t have the answers but it sure is concerning.

Crude Measures Of Popularity

While there are far more sound and reliable ways of measuring the relative popularity of fast food outlets, like their financial performance – but I think I’ve found the simplest measure – the volume of rubbish generated.

If you assume that people are as equally likely to litter, regardless of the take-a-way food that they eat then the most littered product would be the most popular in the market place.

I see a lot more McDonalds rubbish floating around than any other fast food brands such as KFC or Subway. I know the fast food chains spend a lot of energy on keeping their stores clean, some more than others but I think McDonalds recognise that seeing their product littering a neighbourhood works against the image that they invest so heavily to create. To reduce that negative association, you’ll regularly see McDonalds staff picking up rubbish on or near their stores to make sure they are litter free – even though they didn’t litter and provided the consumer ample bins to do the right thing.

What other crude measures of popularity are there?