There were 60 green bottles sitting on the wall....

Adam looking as professional as ever, bottle capper in one hand, 40 pints of beer in the other...

Here is Adam and I bottling my first batch of homebrew beer. All went well, filled the bottles with from the keg easily enough and Adam had a capper so it was really easy to seal the bottles. They should be all ready for consumption in about a week, and all going according to plan, they should taste like Corona. Gonna get another batch on this weekend, might try for a stout this time…


Me and my first bottle of beer............ 

Top Gun.....

Here is Maverick and Iceman (Hally and his brother, Hally) just before they took to the skies last weekend for a spot of ariel photography. This is passage and you can just about make out 24 Bloomingdale just over there in the far centre right.




 

Age confusion....

I'm 28!

I spent the last 5 months thinking I was 29! Trevor just pointed it out there as its his birthday tomorrow (28) and I had a hunch that there was no way I was a year older than him. Right. Out with the calculator. 28. Well there ya go. I just gained a whole year! Imagine how good I feel right now, 1 year further away from 30 than I was yesterday!

WOOOHOOOO


 

Parking in Perth....

Just to be safe, I sat while I took this, didn't want to get on the wrong side of the Department of Calm... 

He doesn't carry loose change, he only deals in Millions!!!

Met Trevor Spring today for lunch and found him with this shiny briefcase attached to his wrist. Off for another lunchtime billion dollar deal it looks like..... 

Ozzie Wildlife

Here is one of me on the menu at Aqua, Perths underwater zoo.

The homebrewers dream...

In about a year I hope to aquire this beauty. Its a keg fridge. Description is in the name for this one.

It contains and chills, three 19 litre kegs and can dispense alcohol nearly as fast as Mick The Flah can drink it. Clocks in at a grand for the fridge, about 500 bucks for the 3 kegs, and they will throw in the gas for free. So, for 20 bucks you can brew 23 litres of beer, 19 for the keg, 4 for you while you put it into the keg and then thats it. The beer will keep in the keg for about 2 years (as long as Mick is in another country.....) 

Something is brewing......

Well, this is it. 23 Litres of homebrew. I loaded it up around midnight last night, fermentation started this morning, its bubbling away nicely as all the yeast eats the sugar, the byproducts being CO2 (carbon dioxide, which stops bacteria from developing) and CH3CH2OH (alcohol, which gets us drunk at parties). Results should be out in about 2 weeks once the process is all done. 

Aaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Heres Reilly, having a nap in her busy daily agenda of being a dog. 

Back to the Bar

Here is this weekends carpentry display. We made a bar counter for Adams Balcony. Here is Adam testing it with a pint of homebrew and 3 MONSTER T-bone steaks. Looking good! 

Charlesberg.....

Morning Guys. Took a trip to the home brew shop last Saturday and picked up this starter kit. All came to about $60 and will generate 2.5 slabs of beer similar to corona. That was for all the equipment and everything. For the ingredients alone it costs about $16-$23 bucks for all the hops, yeast & sugar and that will be enough for about 23 litres which is roughly two and a half slabs with some left over for "tasting" when your putting it into bottles. To put that to Euros: 24 bottles of premium, no additives or preservatives beer = 6 euros. Not bad eh?

International Violists

Heres one of my good travelling viola buddy Nick Fielding at the IYO reunion gig last year, enjoying some of brussels best beer in tribute to that month when we lived with the Countess of Belgium! Happy days! 

Tres Classique

http://www.tresclassique.com.au/
This is Jane and her good friend and flute teacher Tresna. She has been doing an amazing job of looking after us on the gig scene since we walked off the plane. She is like the G.Kelly of Perth but twenty times better looking...... 

Another Fire

This fire just started outside my window a few hundred K's away. Apparrantly these forrest fires happen all the time! Big smell of burning outside too. 

Ultra Tough Puncture Resistant Dog-Proof Frisbee.....

Well, I spent a lot of time researching a dog-proof frisbee on the net and got this beauty. It lasted approximatley 10 mins in the jaws of Reilly. 

Who let the dogs out?

Here is Reilly and Jamie, a dog we are babysitting/dogsitting for the last 2 weeks while his owners are touring China with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO or WAZZZO as its pronounced here) They are getting along great and are hilarious to watch when they getup to their doggy antics. 

Look what I made

I spent this weekend, between gigs, making this fine example of carpentry excellence. Its a big shelving unit for our computer room. I made it from scratch (indluded buying the planks and cutting them down to size) all in about 4 hours. Its really satisfying making things that work. Its a little bit rough around the edges and I learned a lot of carpentry (mistakes) shortcuts whilst making it so next week I'm gonna make something nice for the front room. 

Friday BBQ Party

Heres a picture after our BBQ last week. Billy, Alison, Trevor, Jane & Reilly enjoying a post BBQ beer or two... 

Office View

Here is a link http://perthcam.bankwest.com.au/full.html to a webcam on top of the building next to mine. This is exactly what my office view looks like. Its a live weblink, so if you are checking it in the afternoon (irish time) its nighttime here so all you'll see is lights on the other side of the river. Check it early in the morning and you'll have a good idea what my view is like.

More about perth is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth%2C_Western_Australia

Enjoy

Goats

Heres a pretty funny old sign in that Irish bar we play in on Sundays. I found this HILARIOUS after a few beers the other day. 

Forrest Fire

Not sure if this will come out, but in the centre background of this virw from my office, you can see a pretty large forrest fire on the go. Its gone today, but these things can rage for a few days, even weeks. 

Moving House.....

Trevor Spring and Billy came round the other night to help Janes folks move some furniture. Here is the lads negotiating a fridge down a staircase while the girls play with Reilly.

 

Watch Double

Having lunch with Trev and we came accross this ad for a watch, spitting image of Janes brother Adam! Heres Trev getting in on the watch modelling scene.... 

Neill Prenderville stalks us all...

Wait till you hear this. I am being featured on 96fm this afternoon (ozzie time) between 9 and 12 in the morning Irish time, on the Neill Prenderville show. The topic being, people who have left Cork for far-away places and settled down and reasons why they left cork etc. Check it out online at http://www.96fm.ie/index.asp What are the odds!!!!