The Gold Coast is a step closer to delivering a unique floating artificial reef that will attract tourists from all over the world. Last March, contractors handed in their visions for the new underwater wonderland. Everyone waited excitedly to see the ideas from the potential builders. Mayor Tate’s priority was nature. “The material has to attract marine life so that when we go down, we can say hello to all of the critters that live there.”
The Coast Dive Precinct is projected to bring $32.8 million into the region’s economy in the first 10 years of operation.
New Reef Attraction
The new tourist draw card is 3.5 km south-east of the seaway and 2.5 km offshore from Main Beach, at a depth of 30 m. Said Mayor Tate, “With 220 diveable days per year, this will be a unique attraction luring divers from across the world. It will offer something for all certification levels. From those who can descend to 8 m, right down to 30 m. A dive precinct will generate 166,543 new overnight visitors. It will inject an estimated $32.8 million into the region’s economy during the first 10 years of operation. We’re ready. The dive industry is ready. And the tourism and business sectors are waiting.
“The Gold Coast has delivered many world firsts. And this floating reef will take its place as an iconic eco-tourism experience unrivalled on a global scale.The floating reef will establish itself instantly as a must-do or bucket list experience when you are on the Gold Coast. Divers will be able to swim around and through the floating reefs. Over time, it will become covered in marine growth, attracting schools of fish and other species.”
Last month, Mayor Tom Tate and Member for Gaven Meaghan Scanlon awarded the contract to Australian company Subcon Technologies Pty Ltd to deliver the City’s dive attraction.
What a Concept
The concept design is made up of nine buoyant ‘sculptural reef flutes’. These flutes are individually tethered to the seafloor by reinforced concrete and steel pyramids. They will create living sculptures, standing 16-20 m above the ocean floor.
Furthermore, Ms Scanlon said the artificial dive site would create 18 jobs during construction and 82 jobs once operational. “Today is a huge milestone. To see this project come to life will be a dream come true for many tourism operators on the Coast.” Renowned Queensland artist Daniel Templeman worked on the reef sculptures. He has brought his creative interpretation to the marine engineering capabilities offered by Subcon Technologies. It will undergo further design development in consultation with the dive industry reference group.
A Project by Subcon
Subcon Technologies have delivered more than 20 industrial-scale engineered reefs in Australia and abroad. Primarily for habitat restoration, diving, and recreational fishing. This will be their largest artistic reef. It will combine innovative technology and engineering methods to create a thriving ecosystem in a harsh marine environment. Other artificial reefs delivered by Subcon Technologies include Simpson and Hardy reefs in Hervey Bay and Turner reef off Scarborough. They are also responsible for the multiple installations off New South Wales, Darwin, Perth, Exmouth, and Mauritius.
The Art
Subcon Technologies CEO Matthew Allen said, “We’ve carefully incorporated features we know will rapidly recruit marine life, including fish, flora and reef invertebrates. It will be no time before the reefs are teeming with a diversity of marine life. This will create a living artwork of ecological ocean habitats.” Mr Templeman describes the dive attraction as “sculpture gardens, where simple geometric forms support the generation of marine life. The opportunity to create floating art for a floating audience is an exciting one.”
We just need to wait a little while longer for this project to be completed. Watch this space for more updates about this Gold Coast floating artificial reef! ■
The whiskey conference: This is now a thing. There are whiskey appreciators, whiskey connoisseurs and now, whiskey nerds. If you are all, neither, or one, then this is a “conference” for you, says Nicole Buckler.
The Experience
As you read this story, the Nth Universal Whiskey Experience 2020 is being held in Las Vegas. This is the 10th year of the event’s existence, and it is becoming quite the famous gathering for those who have a penchant for the finer things. But this isn’t just any whiskey—it’s old, rare and some brand-new whiskey that you wouldn’t get anywhere except at the conference.
The annual event is the brainchild of Mahesh Patel, who calls himself a “whiskey enthusiast.” Mahesh’s great passion in life is whiskey. A connoisseur and enthusiast, he frequently attends exclusive whisky events and gatherings globally. He has been a collector of fine and rare whiskeys for more than 20 years. He recently bought a bottle of The Dalmore Trinitas, one of the world’s most expensive whiskies ($230,500-a-bottle kind of expensive). That’s around $50k a glass.
Every year, Patel invites all of the famous whiskey makers to his conference and has asks them to bring their best and most rare whiskeys. Paying punters can taste excruciatingly expensive bottles by the dram (shot glass). This event is not for the faint of heart. If you are the type to take your clothes off and start poledancing on the nearest streetlight after three drinks (not naming anyone…okay me) then this isn’t your gig. But if you can pace yourself and enjoy that swirling feeling of burning old wood on your palate, then you’ll be just fine.
Admission
You can buy different levels of tickets to the conference. For example, the High Roller Ticket costs $4,150. This is only for the most passionate of whiskey aficionados. But, if you just like to dabble, a connoisseur day ticket costs $840. Every ticket gives you the opportunity to be exposed to drams you have never had, nor may ever see again. That rare bottle you’ve been dying to try? It will be there. Mmmm…I can taste it now (and will feel the room spinning later.)
For those who purchase the more expensive tickets, you can go to classes. It is like school but only much, much better. Whiskey nerds are very excited about the schooling. They blog obsessively about unique drams or tastings they are being exposed to by the educators.
These are the teachers you prayed for in school. They are master distillers and blenders, sharing a lifetime of experience and knowledge with guests…along with “super pours” (whiskeys valued at around €300 a dram). And you don’t just hang around some Las Vegas conference hall. Last year, whiskey conference attendees were taken to the Grand Canyon to sample a 50-year-old Glenfiddich. People stood around the giant natural phenomenon, while they drank “liquid gold.” Most of us call it liquid lunch, and sometimes, Burleigh Heads is just as good as the Grand Canyon. Cheers! But if you want to do it with like-minded whiskey nerds, then this is your gig.
Food Pairings
The organisers also feed you, which is probably an act of self-preservation. It’s gourmet, designed to match the whiskeys that are being enjoyed. It really is an all-round pleasure fest, and the Instagram opportunities are endless.
This month’s event will showcase the world’s five most expensive bottles of scotch: Dalmore Trinitas, Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee, Royal Salute Tribute to Honor, Macallan Lalique and the Glendfiddich Janet Sheed. The total value is over $2.62 million. If you love whiskey, then get on your private plane and get over to Las Vegas. Or you could fly economy and pretend you flew in your private jet. The whiskey will still be just as good. Happy tastings, Gold Coasters! ■
The Most Expensive Whiskey In The World
The Macallan 1926 60-year-old
This whiskey recently sold for a whopping $2.3million, breaking previous records of the most expensive whisky in the world. Christie’s of London moved this item at the Finest & Rarest Wines & Spirits auction. This bottle was part of a twenty-four bottle limited edition series. The ultrarare beverage was distilled in the year 1926. It sat aging in ex-sherry casks in Scotland for 60 years, until 1986, when it was bottled. The bottle was hand-painted by renowned Irish artist Michael Dillon. There is only one hand-painted Dillon bottle in the world, which explains its price.
The Macallan Valerio Adami1926
This whiskey fetched a whopping $1.7 million when it came under the hammer at Bonham’s whiskey sale in Edinburg, Scotland in October 2018. The bottle was designed and crafted by artist Valerio Adami. It was a limited-edition series – only twenty-four bottles were ever released by the brand. Of those, only 12 had Valerio Adami’s name against them. The whiskey was distilled in the year 1926 and is one of the rarest drinks on the planet. It was bottled after sixty years in the year 1986. It holds the reputation as being a unique blend of vintage and rarity.
Macallan “M”whisky
This whiskey recently sold for $964,200. The sum was paid by a buyer in Hong Kong in January. The hand-blown decanter created as much value as the whiskey did. It took 17 craftsmen over 50 hours to complete the final bottle. It is one of only four “Constantine” bottles in existence. The whiskey was aged in casks for 25 to 75 years.
Yamazaki Single Malt Whiskey Aged 50 Years NV
This is a rare Japanese whisky. It fetched $465,000 at Sotheby’s Finest and Rarest sale in Hong Kong recently. The Yamazaki distillery was founded in 1923 by Shinjiro Torii. It was Japan’s first commercial whisky distillery. This whiskey was matured in casks made from mizunara (Japanese Oak). Only three editions of 50-year-old Yamazaki were produced. It is one of the scarcest Japanese whiskies – the first edition consisted of just 50 vessels and was bottled in 2005.
The Dalmore Trinitas
This is one of the world’s most expensive whiskeys at $250,000 a bottle. It is part of a limited-edition series; in fact, the company had released only three bottles. Of those three, only one was available for sale. The whiskey was created from batches that have been preserved from 1868, 1926, 1878 and 1939.
Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee Whiskey
This is a snip at $240,500 per bottle. Assuming that there are 28 drams in a bottle, that’s around $8,590 grand a dram. It is held in a diamond-shaped crystal decanter made by Baccarat, with a silver collar set with a half-carat diamond. Only 60 bottles were ever made, making this limited-edition whiskey very valuable. The whiskey itself is a blend of grain and malt whiskies, all distilled in 1952. It was left to age in a cask of English oak from the Queen’s Sandringham Estate.
Covid-19 is a hellscape of a suckfest. Many of us are struggling here in Australia. We speak to an Australian, Marina Cid, who is trapped in Spain, about how she is coping with indoor family life. And staying glam despite Covid-19 and its fallout.
Trapped in Spain
Starting a business, the month before the world went into a global lockdown is probably not the best timing. But when life hands you quarantine why not make a Quarantini?
In 2018 I flew out of Brisbane airport with my husband and two daughters for a year-long adventure to live in Valencia, Spain. We planned to learn the language and start a new business. Mission accomplished! As we were planning our return to Australia, we were caught up in the Covid-19 lockdown. Our outside life has come to a screeching halt. We are now adapting to life in an apartment in the Spanish city.
Lockdown
The first 15 days of lockdown have been surprisingly a lot easier to deal with than I imagined. But, we can only leave our 250m2 apartment, one adult, at a time, for essential requirements, food and pharmaceuticals. We don’t have the luxury of time out for independent exercise, like most other countries. Despite this it’s okay. In fact, I’d say the love and appreciation of my husband over the last 2 weeks has increased.
My kids, 6 and 9, are ever-present, yet still, we have been bonding as a family unit. My husband and I are the parents, the teachers, the personal trainers, the chefs, the playmates the medicos, the dance instructors. In a lot of ways, we’re just stepping up to slightly more significant roles. It’s not all new – just more intensive and without breaks. Only a few weeks ago I would have said, it takes a village to raise a child, now I know, when pushed, it only takes a household.
Beautiful Valencia
Covid-19 and Adaptation
We are trying to bring the world in, but everything still requires our involvement. We stream in music lessons and PE every morning. And, we have our friends on a video Messenger roster system. Australians or antipodeans in the morning, Europeans in the afternoon. In between, we try to get schooling done and squeeze work in wherever it can fit. It is the least of my priorities, but it carries on, slowly. Which is perfect for right now.
It was just one month ago that I launched my brand Chiqui Alta. I design and produce beautiful Spanish handmade leather flats in bigger sizes EU39 to 46 (Australian size 7 to 14). It’s all in the timing they say, so that sucks! I’m lucky the couriers are still working and come to my door. They’re always hospitable, standing at least two meters away with their masks and their gloves on. I almost throw the boxes to them, and we have a laugh. As they leave, I am thankful and envious of those still working out in the world right now.
Be Calm
Right now, I’m hanging onto the quote: “You can’t calm the storm. Instead, try and calm yourself. The storm will pass.” Buddha (I think).
Wherever the words come from they speak to me. Despite this being a bloody long storm. In this situation, there is so much out of control. Not just my shoe business, but:
-My 80-year-old mother, a world away, who refuses help and insists on going to the butcher and fruit shop.
-The number of people dying.
-The number of people not heading the pleas to stay home.
-The lack of understanding on this subject
-The oversupply of information like there is no other topic
-The failure of governments to heed the instructions provided by the WHO two months ago
-The irresponsible businesses and governments that are still urging people to go out.
Breathe! That’s what I can’t control.
What I can control is my household. Not in totality, I can’t control my husband or my kids, but I can be a calm role-model for my two girls. I can choose to remain motivated, have a positive attitude and try to make the best of being in isolation.
Covid-19 and Motivation
Being motivated is a goal. Every day I get up, get dressed, put my shoes on. It might be that I’m a shoe designer, or that when I was bought up, this was an adage in my family to get ready before breakfast. Whatever the reason, I refuse to spend my days in track pants and slippers. The sound of shuffling across the floor just drives me mental. I can’t wear tracksuits or slippers all day. No way. I’ve not given up.
Due to Covid-19, in Spain, residents were only allowed to leave the house for essentials like food.
It seems I’m not the only one. I rolled across the floor laughing when I saw an Instagram post this morning: “There is only one reason people who work from home get dressed: it’s because you can do f*ck all in a dressing gown. I nearly set myself on fire twice, got caught on various door handles and banisters, nearly resulting in whiplash and my belt dangled in the toilet post-wee.”
Dressing Up
My daughters have taken dressing up also. They’re into wearing my high heels pretty much all day long. I don’t mind. If it means they’re happy and focused on their little worlds, I feel reassured they’re not thinking about the storm outside.
Good Shoes to the Rescue
Right now, my dress-up shoes are my soft butter leather ballet flats. I am very grateful to have them, alternating them daily for variety. I have a pair at the front door to wear outside. They’re easy to slip on to go on the essential runs to the local grocery store. I don’t have to deal with touching laces and or struggling to put my shoes on. I can just slip my feet in (or out), and I’m good to go.
Covid-19 has people in Valencia trapped inside. But they can however, get groceries.
Also, I have a couple of pairs for inside. I can wear them all day. They’re easy like slippers and keep my feet off the hard floors and yet give me a slightly polished edge, as though I care. This helps me psychologically. It reminds me I’m still working as the most critical person in my girls’ lives, more than ever, right now. My Hightails also tell me that I’ve not given up.
Along with my ballet flats, I also prefer to wear either jeans, stretchy tailored trousers, flowy wide-leg comfortable pants or even black drop crouch ¾ length pants. Anything that is not a tracksuit.
Covid-19 and Goals
Having a few goals for each day is also really helping. For my peace-of-mind, I’m trying to take it day by day. I start each morning by asking what everyone wants to get done that day. If my youngest wants to bake a cake or my eldest wants to House Party her friends, we try to make it happen. If we get some schoolwork done, play a few family games, fit some exercise in and some alone time for everyone — we all feel good.
Also, if we don’t get things done, we roll them over.
I’ve heard people getting upset about homeschooling their kids and what a stress it is going to be. I kind of expected it to be horrible, but actually it’s been fun. I’m getting to know my children better, and in ways I don’t know them. Also, we are living in a confined space in Spain. I think if I was in a big house with a garden, I could easily let my girls go jump on the trampoline all day, but I don’t have that here. We’re all adapting.
The roof of Marina’s apartment building has a small space that allows her to jog and stay fit.
School
There’s some role-playing going on in our house too. When school starts at our home, my kids call me “Mrs Cid,” and they love it. This little twist helps me also. When I’m more like a teacher, they know the boundaries are the same as at school.
To make the transition from mum to the teacher every morning, we get in a pretend car and drive to school. When the journey ends, I wave good-bye and drive off and then Ms Cid, their teacher arrives.
It’s all pretty light-hearted and fun. If they call me mum during school time, I say, “She can’t help you, she’s not here.” We laugh, and they ask me again as the teacher.
My friend Gemma said she is playing a drinking game at home. Whenever someone says “Mum,” she has a drink. At least as Ms Cid I get a few hours reprieve.
An Uncertain Future
I’m not sure how long we’ll be in lockdown for. If we need to spend more time inside to decrease the peak of the virus and save lives, I’m good with that. The short-term pain is worth it, and there is a silver lining to spending more time with your family (and not spreading deadly contagion).
I’ll no doubt have to relaunch my shoes again, and they may take longer to sell than expected, but it’s kind of insignificant in the scheme of trying to make my mother stay at home and my kids feel safe and loved. I don’t know what the next 15 days has in store for us. I hope my deepest fears don’t come true and shortly this will be all a distant memory, where we learn to slow down and appreciate each other some more.
And although it might seem long, I do know, this storm will pass.
Marina Cid is the Creative Director at CHIQUI ALTA, home of the ultimate tall chica flat. She is also a mother, runner, blogger, traveller and an Aussie living in Spain building the dream. Follow her on Insta @chiquialta
Sunglasses. We all have them, but what if yours were saving the oceans too? A new joint social venture is underway to turn a commercial gill nets into something useful – upcycled sunglasses.
Gill nets are a danger to threatened marine creatures. In 2018, donations from the public helped WWF buy the licence for the last commercial gill net operating full-time in the northern Great Barrier Reef. WWF then retired the licence. They took this action to protect dugongs and other endangered marine creatures which can be drowned if accidentally caught. WWF were then left with a 600-metre-long net. So, they got together with VisionDirect and they came up with the concept of ReefCycle sunglasses.
Sunglasses That Save the Reef
A target has been set to presell 1,000 pairs. That would signal enough demand to make it viable to continue to turn harmful plastic fishing nets into sunglasses. Said WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman, “Plastic once used to kill marine life becomes a product to protect your eyes. They are ideal for people who value saving wildlife, sustainability and creative reuse.”
Gill nets are being made into sunglasses
O’Gorman said eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year, including nets which drift in the open sea, drowning endangered marine life. “If unwanted nets are upcycled, instead of dumped, we can reduce the pollution choking our wildlife.”
The ReefCycle sunglasses are on sale at visiondirect.com.au. They cost $89 for regular, $139 for polarised, and a prescription option is available. People purchasing ReefCycle sunglasses will help protect local marine life with 50% of the proceeds going back to WWF for conservation work.
So if you are looking for a new pair of glasses, then how about a purchase that will make you feel good and do good? Go on, you know you want to! ■
Good thing you have those sunnies, you’ll need them for lazing in your organic pool.
Evan Connell is the Chief Online Marketing Strategist and founder of Apparition Online. He explains how you can get those sales figures to shoot upward!
So your book is finished. It is sitting on your coffee table, looking all shiny and new. But now what? How do you get book buyers in front of it? And, even better, wanting to purchase it?
There are a few things in the marketing mix that you need to get right. The secret? You will need to make a soft copy version as well as a hard copy. That is, have the same book for sale, but in an electronic version. This can be in Kindle format or using another similar platform. Or it could just be in a PDF format. I hear you ask, “But why do I need a ‘soft copy’ as well?”
There are a huge number of books launched per day. But you need to catch the reader’s attention and make them want to click on your book and then start the purchasing process.
Sell Your Book Online by Creating Engaging Content
You can even create GIFs for your book
You may need to write a new introduction for the eBook, as you are selling it online and you are trying to grab the skimmer’s attention. This is different to how you sell a hard copy book in a bookshop.
When selling online, you need to hook the readers right away. You must have an engaging introduction followed by good content. The introduction to your eBook should both set the stage for the contents, and draw the reader in.
Proofread and Finalise
Once you have finalised the content of your eBook, you must proofread it to death. There’s a saying in editing circles – you can’t proofread your own work. Get someone else to have a look over it if you can. You need to recheck the whole content. Make sure there are no spelling errors or grammatical mistakes and rewrite it. This is especially important in the introduction. If the reader feels that the whole book is going to be a shabby mess, they will scroll on. You must get all of the bugs out!
Make your Content Presentable
Design is a massively important part of publishing. If you don’t have an artistic eye, hand the work over to someone who does. The content of your eBook needs to be visually appealing – to the point of being eye candy. Depending upon your eBook concept, you can also include pictures. In this Instagram-shaped world, visuals do keep the eye on the page and attract readers. Go for it!
Sell Your Book Online with a Killer Cover
Getting the cover right is the holy grail of publishing. The saying goes, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ But every person who buys a book does exactly that. The visuals and taglines are incredibly important. People will decide in 10 seconds whether they like the book or not, just from the cover. Oo you have to get this part of the sales equation exactly right.
Design The Landing Page
Once the whole eBook concept is finalised and uploaded for sale, it is ready for the next step. That is, to create a landing page for it. The landing page is any page of a website that the user lands on when they click the link to find out more information, or to buy it. This page is crucial: it is there to funnel potential buyers into a purchase. You will need an engaging landing page that customers won’t bounce off.
Sell Your Book Online by Sharing and Promoting
One of the leading ways to push your book to many people is to promote it on social media. There are lots of different ways to do this. You can go with facebook and Instagram, and use them as a way to reach many people with your blogs or extracts from the book. You can also share other blogs that are related to your book’s subjects, as a way to keep interest.
Jellyfish chips. Just hear us out here. By the end of this article, you will be willing to try one.
With declining marine animal populations, there’s not enough creatures eating jellyfish. Jellyfish populations have started to bloom all over the world, causing all sorts of environmental problems. So what do we do with these blubbery creatures?
Danish researchers may have developed a solution. They have discovered a new method to rapidly transform the soft umbrella-shaped jellyfish body into a crunchy treat.
Jellyfish have been a staple in Asian cuisine for centuries, but remain an oddity to the western palate. Traditionally, in Asia, the bell or body of a jellyfish is marinated in salt and potassium alum for several weeks to produce a crunchy, pickle-like texture.
Texture
Texture has a powerful effect on how we perceive and enjoy food. Mathias Clausen of the University of Southern Denmark became intrigued by jellyfish when he bit into the marine delicacy and experienced an unexpected crunch. “Tasting jellyfish myself, I wanted to understand the transformation from a soft gel to this crunchy thing you eat.”
Clausen and a team of other Danish scientists then developed a new technique that produces the same crunchy results in only a few days, rather than the long wait the traditional Asian method has. “Using ethanol, we have created jellyfish chips that have a crispy texture and could be of potential gastronomic interest,” Clausen said.
The fishing industry is looking to jellyfish as a viable food source for the expanding global population. Furthermore, jellyfish have numerous health benefits; they are rich in vitamin B12, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and selenium.
This new scientific approach may affect future commercial viability of jellyfish, as well as other foods not commonly found on the dinner plate.
Okay so maybe eating them isn’t your thing. But here is the latest advice on treating jellyfish stings!
