If not, you can watch it here – http://www.tvcentral.com.au/2010/07/26/junior-masterchef-australia-promo/

I’m not sure if it’s clever editing or what, but those kids get cook better than me!  Now when I burn the chicken breast or make one very bland stir-fry I have to deal with, “Kids can cook better than you!”

How do they get so good so young?

According www.kids-cooking-activities.com, teaching kids to cook will help instill skills to last them a lifetime.  Cooking can help boost their self esteem, create family time, build team skills and help kid’s appreciate to eat what they make.

When did you start teaching your kids to cook and what’s your favourite thing to cook together?

2010_business_awards_winner_(EPS) Springfree™ Trampoline Australia has been awarded with a 2010 Australian Business Award for Product Innovation.

The Australian Business Awards are a national program honouring organisations that demonstrate the core values of product excellence, sustainability and commercial success in their respective industries.

Springfree™ Trampoline was awarded as the 2010 winner for Product Innovation following an assessment on product performance, technology, visual appeal, cost-effectiveness, benefits to the user, sustainability and compliance.

Springfree™ Trampoline is the only trampoline design that has effectively removed the risk of product induced injury. With over 200,000 kids injured worldwide each year on spring-based trampoline designs (an estimated 9 – 16 thousand Australian kids), for every 15 Springfree™ Trampoline’s sold in the marketplace, one child is kept out of hospital.

 Tara Johnston, Program Director of the Australian Business Awards, commended the achievements of all Winners saying: “The standard of entries for 2010 has underpinned the strength of the Australian economy and provides a welcome opportunity for organisations committed to business and product excellence to receive the recognition they deserve. Congratulations to all the Winners for achieving exceptional results in their respective categories.”

This award joins a host of other national and international accolades such as ‘Product of the Year’ in Canada and the USA, as well as the Australian International Design Award received in 2009. You can see all our Award at http://www.springfreetrampoline.com.au/awards

For more information on the ABA please visit www.businessawards.com.au

Jul 16 2010

My Saucy Story

Hi, this is Richard – one of the newest staff members here at Springfree™ Trampoline in Toronto. I’m also new to Canada, having moved here at the end of 2009 from England.

We have a very international team here at the office with staff from all over the world working together to make the Springfree™ Trampoline as great as it is and I’m sure they or anyone who has left home will tell you every now and again the dreaded homesickness is bound to strike. It can often be the smallest thing that sets you off and in my case there is only one cure….FOOD!

Yesterday was one such day and my mind immediately wandered to thoughts of grilled chicken from my favourite restaurant back home and in particularly their delicious Peri-Peri sauce I would smother all over my plate. It never failed to disappoint.

I knew it was sold at my local supermarket so after I finished up at the office I headed off on a mission to stock up. It wasn’t long before I stood in front my beloved bottles of sauce on the shelf. Without hesitation I grabbed 2 and placed them in the basket with the rest of my groceries. As I rode the bus back to my apartment I was lost in a daydream of the little taste of home that awaited me.

What I didn’t expect to be waiting for me was the funniest coincidence I’ve experienced in a long time. Sitting outside my building was a car, not just any car but a car with this registration plate:

2saucy

I just had to snap that picture on my phone. I was smiling all the way up on the elevator and better still, I didn’t feel homesick anymore. As for my meal that night, it would be safe to say my plate was a little “2 SAUCY”.

Dreams… I love them! Dreaming I’m sitting on a secluded beach reading a good thriller with no sense of time. 

Well to be completely honest I have never had that dream but it does sound good! Rather I have a re-occurring dream that I’ve have had since I can remember and continue to have.

Its sound weird but stick with me here… It involves me fishing at night alone as a little girl on a cracked black river bank.  An old red fibreglass boat drives past me when a fisherman on the boat cast’s his line directly at me.  (This is where it get’s really weird)  The ball that floats on the water (sort of like a red and white ping-pong ball) to show when a fish is hooked, gets stuck in my ear. (I warned you it was weird!) My dream then goes on to me at the hospital and getting it removed.

They say all dreams mean something and I’ve always been interested to find out the philosophy behind my strange dream.

Professor Drew Dawson from the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia said that dreaming could be a vital mental tool for sorting and filing information and discarding what’s not needed. 

Hmm… I wonder what’s important about a fish floaty in my ear. 

Anyway he also shares some other facts about dreaming that I find fascinating and wanted to share:

  • Many think that dream sleeping also known as rapid eye movement sleep is the deepest stage of sleep, but it’s not.  The moments before the dream are when you’re in a nice deep sleep.
  • The Brainwaves when you’re sleeping are similar to your brain waves when you’re awake.
  • Some scientists believe dreaming is an evolutionary survival mechanism, designed to keep our brains alert.

Do you have any re-occurring dreams?  Or have you ever had your dreams analysed?

 Modern women want to achieve a lot in this lifetime… a quality education, travel, career and of course motherhood.Back_Up_Plan_poster-535x856

 But can we have it all? Experts warn us women that our body clocks are ticking and the older we get the harder it is to fall pregnant.

 Well thanks to a break-through in science, a simple blood test could tell women as young as 20 how long she has left to start a family.

Researcher Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani took blood samples from 266 women aged between 20 and 49 and measured levels of anti-Mullerian hormone or AMH (a chemical key to the maturation of a woman’s eggs).

He also obtained medical and lifestyle information of all the women and used it to link falling AMH levels to the women’s dwindling store of eggs to calculate when they would go through menopause.

 So far 63 women of those who took part have reached menopause and the predications have been accurate to within a four-month period.

If the testing continues to be reliable, it could lead to be a home testing kit, which could be brought at pharmacies.

Does this give you peace-of-mind that you could possibly have the ability to plan out your life based on your body clock?

Source: Courier Mail

Jun 28 2010

Who needs a holiday?

Well according to an online study, Australian’s are the third most holiday deprived nation in the developed world. Travel Company Expedia holiday destinationfound that Aussie’s took 16.5 days annual leave on average, while workers in France (whom take the most holidays) took 34.5 days a year.

Why? Apparently we are shying away from the holidays because we fear it would put our careers at risk. Especially workers aged 18 – 34 as they think they will miss out on an important decision at work. Older workers on the hand tend to save up their annual leave and cash it in.

How do you feel about holidays?

Are you one  to save -up your holidays? Tell us why?

If so here is a little temptation ….

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/travel/top-10-hottest-destinations-for-2010/20091103-huml.html?selectedImage=0

 

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/young-australians-afraid-of-taking-holidays/story-e6frg8ro-1225883567828

We’ve got Bieber Fever with a double passes to GIVE AWAY to Justin Bieber’s next Seattle show.

Chance to win tickets and meet Justin Bieber!

Chance to win tickets and meet Justin Bieber!

 

Washington, all you have to do to enter,  is head into our Springfree Trampoline Seattle Store before Monday 28th June to enter:

1875 NW Poplar Way, Suite 1
Issaquah, WA, 98027
United States

First prize:

One winner to receive two (2) tickets to the Justin Bieber concert on July 13th, Comcast Arena at Everett, WA – (2) meet and greet passes to meet Justin Bieber – (1) Justin Bieber prize pack

Second prize:

One winner to receive (1) 8ft. Springfree Trampoline and (4) tickets to Woodland Park Zoo. Trampoline values at $1,350.

You can email kristen@springfreetrampoline.com for more details :)

taxiI’ve just returned from a girlie trip in Melbourne with my mum, my sister and her 7 month old daughter Tia.

Travelling with an infant we tried to avoid getting taxi’s as much as possible but there were situations when it just couldn’t be avoided.

To be completely honest, I never once thought about how babies travel in Taxi’s, I just assumed you could order cabs with restraints installed.

I was surprised to say the least when I discovered that child restraints were not mandatory and all you had to do was hold on to your infant when travelling.

Working for an innovative company where we have taken a 70 year old design, spent millions of dollars in research to come up with a Trampoline design that keeps your kids safe and ‘prevent’ injury, I am shocked that a public system so old in tradition is yet take the same type of initiative.

The Taxi industry is against the idea of mandatory restraints, saying that shared devices would be disease carriers that would put children’s health at risk.

Kidsafe Victoria President Mark Stokes called for a trail of overhead lockers in cabs to hold child safety devices as a solution.

What do you think about the making restraints mandatory? Have you ever had a bad experience in a cab with your children?

 I received a link to a very cute YouTube video this week, showing a 5-year-old girl talking the emergency services through a crisis happening in her house – her father is struggling to breath and needs an ambulance.

Your probably thinking ‘cute’ would not be the best word to describe that sort of situation, but if you watch the video you will see why I describe it so.

VIEW VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=eDARfDJw80s kids

As cute as it may be, there is also an important message in this. How would your kids react if presented with a situation like Savannah? Have you educated your kids on what to do in an emergency, what numbers to call and how to act?

This lesson could be the difference between life and death.

The Triple Zero Kids Challenge is a great tool in educating your kids in an engaging way.

 The game is aimed at 5–10 year-olds and uses colourful, animated characters in nine interactive scenarios to provide lessons to children on the confident and appropriate use of Triple Zero.

Children will learn the important information they need to provide to operators, such as:

 • Which emergency service they need help from,

• What the nature of the emergency is and

 • Where the emergency is happening.

Try it out for yourself first http://kids.triplezero.gov.au/.

Do you have any tips or suggestion that you have found work well in teaching your kids about emergencies?

Springfree™ Trampoline is featured in Australia Women’s Health Magazine as the future in exercise and health that is right here right now for people like you and me to reap the benefits from. Australian Womens Health_May2010_jpeg

The article goes on to say that,

“Bouncing up and down is nothing new.  But NASA recently found that 10 minutes on a trampoline burns the same about of KJ’s as a 30-minute run, with 80 per cent less bone impact. This tramp is the first spring-free option with soft edges, so you won’t crack your noggin if you misjudge that somersault.”

Another health benefit from re-bounding is the good it does for our lymphatic system.   Bouncing gets the blood circulating, hence helping to eliminate toxins  built up in our body.

The lymphatic system can be compared to the dump for our bodies.  It stores all the toxins and waste products in our body and you can only get this flowing by:

  1. Gravity
  2. Internal Massage of the lymph ducts and
  3. Exercise by rebounding (i.e. Jumping on  a Springfree™ Trampoline)

So I hope you are getting your iPod, some comfy clothes and heading outside to enjoy some ‘me’ time on the Springfree™ Trampoline. 

Do you use the Springfree™ Trampoline as part of your exercise routine? I would love to hear more about at erin@springfree.com.au