Eamonbrau

Well, we had a go of Eamonn's batch f ale last night and "accidentally" finished it all in 1 sitting. Eamonn managed to rescue 5 bottles which he'll take back home. It was a good ol session which featured all sorts of songs and tunes being bashed out till the wee hours. 

Ozzie Wildlife

We all went for a walk along the river yesterday and as usual Reilly couldnt understand why the ducks didn't want to play with her.


Here is Margaret and Hugh making friends with one of the locals...

All the kangaroos like to hang around cemeteries as they like to eat the flowers that people leave behind. This particular cemetery has no headstones, just plaques in the ground, so as a result the place is not all doom & gloom, but nice and tranquil. 

On another, slightly more violent note....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGTkSPXIcH0

Jane got me one of these fairly unheard of Wushu weapons (3 section staff) a few years ago as a birthday present. I nearly took the head off me trying to do some pretty basic moves. This guy (click the link above) seems to have it under control though. You'll see them featured in Jet Li's new film "Fearless" which out next october and in most parts of north dublin with 10 minutes of the premiere as all the Fairview crew upgrade from cider bottles and baseball bats....

First visitors to the outback

Margaret and Hugh arrived today. Picked them up, went for a BBQ and some homebrew then off to bed for these jet lagged travellers. Tommorow will be a day of beaches, sun & more BBQ's, and quite possibly some more homebrew.....

Apres Gig Munchies

Our second gig today was a 3 hour engagement party in a house near where I live. Lots of food at this gig including this profita roll mountain! Yum! 

Road Trip

This is us on the back of the buggy, off to play pachelbel for folk in the fields... 

A hards days gigging

Here is Tres & Jennika, we were doing a trio gig today in an AMAZING hotel, outdoors on the grounds, between the waterfall & the river! A driver took us to our spot on this buggy. Beat that Maryborough!

Red Cross Package

My sister Margaret is arriving on sunday with some supplies from the mainland. Its been tough these last 6 months trying to survive without a minimum of 4 packets of chipsticks per day!

How do you get to Perth concert hall?

This is the local concert venue. There are two ways to get here. Practice OR just hop on the 67 bus, drops you off at the door..... 

Kelly Heritage...

A very determined looking ancestor of Steve Kelly back from the fields after a hard day on the farm....ooo aarrrrrr 

Ozzie Homebrew

This is what it would look like from Ireland (all upsidedown here....) Its a batch of ale (57 bottles) for Eamonn. Hopefully it will all be ready for the rugby match this weekend.

I did an Irish band gig (duo) yesterday with Adam (Janes Brother) and we were playing fairly rough for the first little while as it had been a while since our last practice/gig. Then we had a few guinness's in us and they didnt want us to stop, we totally rocked the place. They kept plying us with booze and chip butties for 4 hours AND paid us extra. What a place!

Other than that a pretty good weekend of dinner parties and beer making. I have 200 bottles in the shed now, a fridge full in the bar and 120 on the way this weekend. Its the best hobby ever. I made an "experimental" batch at midnight whilst watching the Brazil v Australia match, which could potentially be the strongest beer EVER! that story Finbarr wrote below about the beer exploding may actually happen!

Got the front room converted into a bedroom for Margarets visit this weekend, not much furniture in there yet though, I'll just have to find some shelving and stuff for all the presents from home she'll be bringing.....

Got a great call on skype from Baz Halpin and Steve Kelly at 9am my time (2am for the lads) on saturday morning, twas great craic, well done lads! For anyone who has a computer, get skype. Its free, its really easy to use and its FREE.

Feeling pretty tired today, long day of gigs and then up late watching the world cup last night, only about 4 hours sleep so the sofa in the spare meeting room is looking tempting for a snooze right now!!!

Anyhoo, thats all the news for now, I hear the weather back home is fantastic. Its 22 degrees by day and about 6 by night here with the occasional rain showers, so its still shorts & t shirt weather. Not bad for winter! 

Gwon the Punto!

Look what I got today. Its a 1.3 litre, 4 door, left hand drive 1996 Fiat Punto. Exact same as my first car except this one is about 43 times smaller. Still gets the same miles per gallon though....

The Kellys Loo notice

Anyone who has frequented Summerhill South will remember this one, I just found it on my computer. 

Tell it like it is

No beating around the Bush, these Perth folk... 

Eamonn sees the sights

Here is Eamonn at the Swan bells in along the river in Perth today at lunchtime, PRC t-shirt on parade.
 

I gg..g..o..ttt rr...h..y.th...em

Here is me having a fair bash of a friends drum kit last night. Lads, I dont know how you do it, that is some noisy stuff! Also you need to use all 4 limbs whereas on the viola you barely have to use one, and not even all the fingers at that, badum ttsshhhh...... 

The Brewery Expansion

In my efforts to eventually match the output of St James's Gate Guinness Brewery in Dublin, I have expanded my operations and got myself another keg. I have the both of them in a cupboard in the utility room. They are bubbling away like a chemistry set at the moment. Eamonn Nash has his first batch of Ale fermenting in the top keg at the moment and I have my 3rd batch of beer (this one is going to end up tasting like Grolsch). All should be ready in time for the Ireland v Australia game in a few weeks. 

Finbarr's "Bullseye " Report from Perth

Due to my ongoing stockplile of beer, some 150 bottles produced per week (roughly, not including all Adams stuff) Fin decided to to a report on recent "events". No animals were harmed in the production of this blog, all characters are ficticious etc yada yada yada...



"An Irishman is being deported today following an explosion in his shed that resulted in all his neighbors getting outrageously drunk from inhaling microdroplets of the Industrial Strength homebrew that caused the accident.

Forensic Alcohol Experts flown in from the worlds foremost Expert Group, the CSMAU, say it's lucky that all of downtown Perth wasn't affected. Spokesman Iva Can said that the toxicity levels recorded close to the epicenter of the explosion were as if one had inhaled neat Jameson. "Twas a close thing" he said after the inspection. "Not since the notorious Conor Incident have we seen such naked disregard for alcohol."

The owner of the illegal still, one Charles McCarthy (age indeterminate) declined to comment saying only "Twas nathin biys, just a few air pockets, that's all." However experts from the Environmental agency Society Against Mishandling of Beer or Universally Catastrophic Cans of Alcohol (Sambucca) said twas typical of Mr McCarthy's reckless drive to force local pubs and breweries out of business.

"It just ain't roight mate," a Sambucca spokesman said. "There he is in his shed thinking 'Srewth! I could make me a bloody fortune here mate and no mistake' and all he soes is blow up the neighborhood and get everyone pissed in the process... It's just not roight mate, not roight at all"

For his part Charlie said "twas just an experiment that went a bit astray. I'll know better next time". But Sambucca are not convinced... Spokeswoman Eva Cleenbum said "Look all you need is one young Irish jumbuck newly arrived in Oz, give him a house with a bar, a 20 dollar beer kit and a shed and it's a disaster waiting to happen."

Local Authorities are keeping an eye on young McCarthy but are powerless to do anything as no official complaints have been received from any neighbors of the young Irishman. "Maybe when the hangovers kick in they might complain, but as of yet everyone seems well happy to be breathing in alcohol" a spokesman said.

Weekly Reilly Photo

We spent yesterday evening doing the gardening by sunset, showing those weeds and aphids who's the boss! Reilly likes playing in the garden and luckily has yet to discover her natural digging abilities! She is getting better at fetching stuff. She is great at finding socks and sticks, its only a matter of time before she can fetch beers from the fridge! 

Mom & The Mayor

Here is my Mom and the Lord Mayor of Cork at the CCO Bursary award last week. Mom was the Master of Ceremonies and had to make a speech and everything. Go Super-Mom! 

More Beer...

Hi guys
Another productive weekend in the homebrew world. I made a beer similar to Redback (Ozzie beer named after a deadly spider) which should be ready to drink in about 2 weeks. We bottled it on Sunday morning and Jane did all the spiders on the caps. The first brew I did is ready now and it tastes great! Also, after extensive research, there IS alcohol in it.

Did a gig this weekend, on the shore in South Perth, the Bride arrived by helicopter, pretty spectacular stuff. The gigs here are soooo easy. The weedings take EXACTLY an hour as everyone charges by the hour: photographer, minister, flowers & most importantly the musicians! We all get paid for every 15 mins (or part of) after, so if we play for 16 mins we charge an extra half an hour.

Had a good weekend in all, I would like more time off to play with the dog and snooze in the hammock, in fact I think I fancy a bit of early retirement! 

Nash Arrives

I went to the airport last night to pick up this well travelled young man, Eamonn Nash. He has been travelling around Oz getting up to all sorts of adventures for the last 9 months and is going to stay in Perth for about the next month. It was great being able to chat in "cork" last night using all the words & phrases:

Savage mangle yesterday
Did the dawg on the gatts, pure manky today
Gwon ya langball
etc.

We also had a fair go of the homebrew (charlesberg batch no.1) last night to see if it had any effect. Not much. I think I fermented it for too long. What are the odds of the first beer I make being non-alcoholic!

Cork by night

Looks more like Mordor! 

Hammock Time!

This is from Sunday moring in the bar. Probably not the best for a bad back, but by far the most comfortable snooze on record! Notice I am wearing Barry O Dwyers jumper.... 

The Sister...

Heres an old picture I found of Margaret and me on Howth head last year (see the lighthouse in the background) . She is visiting in a few weeks and so is my mom. Cant wait! (you better bring a lot of chipsticks guys!!!)