Time for some cool air and the pleasant company of sharks.

This weekend was surprisingly productive food-wise. I tried two new recipes baguettes/ buns...

And red velvet lamingtons with white chocolate and cream cheese icing. muwahahahaha.

I will be the first to admit I need a proper icing tool. But they were soooo good. I made four giant ones, big enough to share. 

Tom was a big fan, I'm definitely going to try it again. 

Sunday Tom and I went to the Australian Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour. Something I find neat about the harbour is the use of the roads that go over the end section. The bases have the potential to be really horrible concrete monstrosities however, they are decorated with vines and trees and when it's warm visitors actually gravitate towards them for shade. The fountain even masked the sound of the cars over head. I was quite impressed.

It was so warm I had to have a scoop of gelato, I got lemon but I was amazed to see a truly Aussie option. Vegemite!

Another interesting siting was this sky drawing. I'm not sure what it was for and right as I spotted it I was trying desperately to stop my gelato from dripping so I had Tom take the picture... then again from another angle.. then again... and finally one "with more of the dock in it". I'm a back seat photographer.

As we neared the museum I looked over at the water and realized it was full of jelly fish! Yay!

 This is straight down from were I was standing, Tom and I watched the fish for a bit and they ended up putting on a show with the jellies. I not used to seeing so much sea life in a harbour. Or such green water.

Welcome to the shark exhibit!!!!!!!! I totally love the sign that says do not enter. Perhaps they should put those next to all the sharks in the wild too. 

Here's a scale reference. 

Here's another... for the great white shark.

The purpose of the exhibit was to teach visitors why we shouldn't over fish and/or kill sharks. I totally agree, but they did greet visitors with a picture of a shark lunging at you from the water. Gaaah!

This is a dramatization. Not a photo of a photo.

 Here are three of the "teeth" samples I found amazing. This one is from a ray shark. The pattern is incredible, I guess it grinds its food rather than tear it.

I can't remember what this on was, but it is the same awesomeness. 

 

 Saw tooth shark. Those tendrils are partly for tasting if I remember correctly.

They had a display of shark protection suits this was one of the firsts. The concept was that the bubbles had a sodium based deterrent in them. So the shark wouldn't like the taste or if it took a big bite would die. Tom and I were giggling about how silly it looked and it's complete lack of actually protection from the sharks teeth.

Outside the shark exhibit were many things maritimey. One was a pair of parascopes that gave a view of the top floor. A funny side note was that when I first went to try one I found my self automatically thinking of looking for an on button. I noticed later a man hitting things that could have been buttons when he tried. I suppose the technology of today made us forget that some things can just be looked through.

This was the biggest ship sculpture (forgot the word) I'd ever seen. The man it's of was apparently the ideal example of a navy officer.

Our other mission for the day was to pick up an air conditioner. Here it is in it's natural habitat. 

Tom begins the challenge of reading the instruction manual as we deliberated what room it would be put in. 

So far it is working very nicely.