Another great thing is that the recipes are so easy to follow – “cook for 3:00 minutes at 90 degrees at speed 4″. The instructions read like a science protocol, but have so far been far more forgiving in my hands than a Western Blot. My aim is to have a healthy meal on the table 30 minutes after I’ve first stepped into the kitchen. At the moment I make dinner most nights with the use of pre-cut veggies and pre-made sauces. With the Thermomix, I hope to improve on old favourites (like spaghetti bolognaise with home-made sauce) as well as utilise this machine to expand my repertoire (like risotto).

For my first meal, I was looking for something simple and easy that would also take full advantage of all the capabilities of the machine. I decided on “Bangers and Mash” from Full Little Tummies. While the onion/garlic/mushroom gravy is being blended and heated in the mixing bowl, the steam from the process cooks the potatoes in the rice basket, and the (vegetarian) sausages and vegetables in the steamer Varoma unit on top. It was great to hear little Thermie working diligently away in the kitchen while I was able to chat with Adrian and play with Hayden. The instructions were so precise and easy to follow – never has it been easier to add exactly 50 grams of butter and cook at exactly 100 degrees, and the meal came our tasting delicious. The potatoes were especially nice – for the first time I produced perfectly steamed tots bursting with flavour. I think next time I would thicken up the sauce with a little more corn flour, but I think this dish will enter our weekly rotation.

For dessert I made custard from scratch (milk, egg, flour, sugar, vanilla) in seven minutes. It was even easier than using custard powder. So far, Thermie is two for two.

The chair vibrates and bounces with his movement, and the animals twirl, light up, and play music whenever he moves the toucan or the monkey. The “baby-activated” setting has been great for him to learn that he can control his environment with his hands, and he seems so delighted when he can manage to get the waterfall going and sees the animals swinging back at forth. One can also switch off the music and just have rainforest sounds, if two dozen renditions of “pop goes the weasel” is getting a bit much.

• Microsoft Office
• Firefox
• VLC
• HandBreak
• Cyberduck
• Calibre
• Disk Inventory X
• Dropbox
• iLife
• RAR Expander
• Skype

Wish me luck.

(Yes, I have two complete backups of my data and a bootable external hard-drive.)

However, I do wonder how this will affect Hayden as he grows up. Digital cameras and camcorders are now ubiquitous – everyone with a smartphone carries a video camera in their pocket. I know that I need to check my hair and my clothing before I head out to a social event because chances are the photos could appear on Facebook a few hours later. If I make a bad wardrobe choice, it may be broadcast to the world.

As Hayden grows, I feel an intense need to capture every moment. The way he smiles and gurgles in the morning, the way he waves his hands when he sees his bird mobile move, the way Adrian makes him dance on the table. Yet I know how much I hate being videotaped myself. I become instantly self-conscious, picking each word with care and so afraid to make any mistakes. If I put myself behind the camcorder, I too change. I try to stage the event, to ensure that the people act properly to bring about my vision of how it should go. I am no longer in the moment, I am focused on how the film will later look in iMovie.

So Adrian and I have decided that we will not videotape Hayden as he grows up. On one hand, I do feel sad that these fleeting moments may be lost as they pass. On the other hand, this means that I am more present and able to focus on Hayden, rather than making him perform for the camera. As he becomes self aware, we hope to give him as many years as possible where he feels that he can make mistakes without consequences.

As a compromise, we have a nice camera to take good quality photos of him. Much more flattering than iPhone pictures through a 2mm plastic lens, I hope that these capture the special moments of our lives without too much interruption. I try to only use the camera for at most five minutes each day, and its bulky size encourages me to leave it at home, which frees me from the burden of recording every moment.

In Hayden’s generation, I think that anonymity and freedom to control ones own image will be rare commodities. It will be a challenge to balance the joy I get from documenting our lives while still giving him shelter from an internet that never forgets a byte.

I don’t know much about photography other than the rule of thirds, so using this lens is introducing me to concepts such as the relationship between aperture and depth of field, and also encouraging me to cross the line and venture into the manual settings on the camera dial. In low light settings with a wide aperture it can have a very narrow depth of field, thus it can be very difficult to ensure that the focus is where I desire. The manual focus ring can be used even in autofocus mode, but sometimes it is still tricky to ensure perfect sharpness when peering through the viewfinder. I often set the the camera to just use the central AF sensor to lock the focus, to ensure that his eyes and not his hands are sharp.

Despite these technical challenges, when everything comes together I am able to produce some nice shots. I’m having fun learning more about the technical side of photography, and so grateful that I have this beautiful lens to help me catch some of these fleeting moments of Hayden as a newborn. We took a trip to the park to see how this lens performed in the early morning light, the joggers and dog walkers laughing at me as I walked around with a baby in a basket.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Apple shares are at $369.94, down 1.7 percent from yesterday’s closing price of $376.18.

While I was living in the USA I was lucky enough to see Steve Jobs present a keynote at MacWorld 2008.

At 3 AM on Tuesday January 15 2008, I joined fifty other mac geeks at the Pre-keynote meet-up outside the Apple Store on Stockton Street, and we walked together to join the line at the Moscone Center, where there were already around fifty people waiting. Despite the early hour and the bitter cold, the atmosphere was electric with anticipation. We spent the next six hours in conversation over breakfast donuts and coffee, reminiscing over past Apple flops and successes, and speculating on what Steve would unveil during the big event.

Photo by Adam Jackson.

Finally, they unlocked the door, and we streamed into the hall to see Steve Jobs striding on stage in front of an audience filled with MacBooks and iPhones. He talked about the four billion iTunes song downloads, the new apple TV, and unveiled the MacBook Air. To conclude the event, Randy Newman – the composer for Pixar – sang a few songs, including Toy Story’s “You’ve got a friend in me”, saying “I always root against corporations, ’cause that’s how I am, but not this one”.

Photo by Tech Show Network.

This was just the beginning. I spent the next two days visiting all the booths, from Adobe to Microsoft to BusySync to Gelaskins, attending presentations on hardware and software, and even purchasing my first iPhone – one of the vendors saw my new box and gave me a complementary case to celebrate. It was exhilarating to be surrounded by so many members of the Mac community in such a dynamic venue.

Photo by smenzel

By the end of the second day I was completely exhausted, trying to fit a lifetime’s worth of Macworld experiences into 48 hours. There were 191 educational sessions, 479 exhibitors, and 47,908 attendees. Luckily, one of the exhibitors was MetroNaps – a company that provides an essential service and which permitted me to trial one of their pods for much need rejuvenation.

Photo by laughingsquid.

I had a very fun Saturday afternoon with the consultant, who apologised for her less than perfect English. This always makes me feel so embarrassed – English isn’t even an official language of this country. I can’t imagine someone working in a clothing store in Australia apologising for their imperfect French. We looked through some fashion magazine for half an hour, chatting about my likes and dislikes, as well as any practical constraints and the type of occasions that were likely to arise.

She disappeared for a while, then returned with a whole rack full of clothing for me to try on. She even had picked out matching accessories for all the outfits, and showed me how to put them all together. With each piece she analysed the fit and popped out to get a new size or style if something didn’t look quite right. I returned home with two new outfits, feeling a bit more like my old self and looking forward to getting out and about.

Our current model is above the industry average in terms of weight, and showing promising trends in sleep duration.

Here are some things that I have found extremely helpful for getting through these early days.

1. Adrian.

He is amazing. His support and words of encouragement were the main motivators for me during labor. He is so much better than I am at soothing and dressing and cleaning and changing nappies. He is always telling me what a great job I am doing, and he takes Hayden whenever he can so that I can get plenty of naps. He constantly encourages me to take time for myself, and now has taken Hayden out for the afternoon so that I can rest and relax at home. I love seeing Hayden curled into Adrian’s chest. I don’t know how I could do this without Adrian beside me every step of the way.

2. Blood transfusions.

Thank-you to the two anonymous O+ Belgian donors for their valuable and generous gift. My quick recovery owes much to your kindhearted donation.

3. Epidural.

Pain relief that helped me rest during the first stage of labor, manage the second stage of labor, and gave the anesthetist the ability to deliver maximum pain relief during the unexpectedly complicated third stage.

4. “I dream of Sushi” delivery gown.

A cute little disposable cotton dress designed for labor. With a low back for epidural access and an open belly for fetal monitors, I could still feel well dressed for the majority of the 36 hours we spent in the delivery room.

5. Lansinoh Soothies gel pads.

Nursing little Hayden was quite painful at first, but these gel circles provided instant relief, especially when first cooled in the fridge.

6. My Brest Friend

A nursing pillow that also provides back support, I just strap it on and Hayden is in the perfect position. No awkward balancing on pillows or aching arms.

7. SwaddleMe velco swaddle.

Hayden sleeps better when bundled up, but only the straight-jacket-like qualities of these contraptions are enough to control this wiggly piglet.

8. Baby Connect iPhone app.

By simply pressing “start” and “stop”, we can keep track of how many hours he spends eating and sleeping, and see how his patterns are changing day by day. Plus, it wirelessly syncs between my iPhone, Adrian’s iPhone, and the web, so we can both enter data, and later see with just one glance how long it has been since he has fed or been changed.

9. Medela Freestyle Pump.

An easy way to increase my milk supply as well as giving myself some freedom to be away from Hayden for a few hours. Simple to use, though also extremely disturbing as I feel like a cow at an industrial farming complex.

This year I have joined the Bloggers’ Holiday Book Swap. Thank you to Amanda, Amy, Ana, Chris, Debi, Eva, Jill and Lenore for organising this. I look forward to sending a little something to a fellow blogger, and it has also inspired me to finally start a list of my own favourite books. More book recommendations requested.

The first Apple store in France is opening at the Louvre this Saturday. I am tempted to pop over for there for the opening, but it seems a bit silly to buy last-minute international train tickets for the opening of a shop. The evils of capitalism and brand loyalty, etc.