Filming

This weekend our house was used to shoot a commercial for a start up company called WattCost.  It's a very clever product that you can self-install onto your electricity meter and it tracks usage, makes suggestions of how to save money, notifies you if you've left the iron on or the fridge door open and allows you to switch energy providers to get the best deal at the push of a button through the app on your phone.  They will shortly bring the product to market via a crowd funding campaign and we'll be one of the first to sign up - we think the product is a no-brainer.  We got involved through John Rumbold who is the digital marketing manager for WattCost and he thought that our house would work well for the shoot.  It was so much fun as some of the outdoor shots were taken using a drone which was controlled by an iPad.  The technology is incredible and the quality of the camera on the drone was exceptional.  It was fun seeing our house from the air and from a different angle so we're hoping we might get to keep some of the footage.  The filming took all day but I loved every minute of it making "helpful" suggestions, troubleshooting scenes, styling the house, styling Leanne who was starring in it - I clearly missed my calling!  

 You can see the drone on the right of the picture hovering on the deck

In the evening we went out to dinner with John and Leanne.  It's been a while since we've caught up and it was wonderful to spend time with them.  We took the boys down to Manly on Sunday as Noah is also a keen surfer so the boys did a bit of surfing and we also watched a bit of the Australian Open of Surfing which has taken place in Manly over the past 2 weeks.  

 Tom and Noah heading into the surf

At the Australian Open

On Saturday morning Tom took part in the Long Reef Board Riders competition.  The conditions were shocking - horizontal rain, gale force winds, messy surf, tons of bluebottles and a shark sighting which stopped the comp for about 5 minutes!  He came 4th in his heat so luckily we were out of there within 2 hours.  This is the second comp he's done and despite not doing particularly well he's taking the learning on board and beginning to push himself a bit further.  I was very excited when watching him surf on Sunday because for the first time ever I saw him get some air.  He didn't land the jump but he wasn't far off and it was awesome to watch.  

 Ready for his heat

The scene - you can see Tom crouching down in the foreground

Tess had school water polo and then disappeared to various friend's houses so we barely saw her over the weekend.