The Punto rides again

You may remember a post I put up a few months ago about Hallys brother, Bryan, driving from cork to africa in a Punto: http://violacharlie.blogspot.com/2006/11/hally-punto.html. Well they made it. You can see their progress and some photos here: http://www.corkbanjul.com/default.html. Well done lads!!!

Guinness Version 2.0

Here is two pints of Adams latest brew, it is the best stout I thnk I have ever tasted!

Here we are after our first sip of this brew of the gods, it was pretty tasty stuff!!!!

And here we are pouring another DIRECTLY from Adams fridge. Yum!

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day everyone

What a weekend.

Friday: woke up, went to the beach for the day (see photo of Jane and Reilly swimming in shark infested waters) and had a duo gig that night to a pub of 5 people, it was actually pretty good, we got away with a lot of messing we would ordinarily not do. At one stage I was accompanying Adam (guitar & singer) on the violin, playing the tambourine with my right foot and doing a whistle solo of the tune on the mic, got a clap for that one!

Saturday: Woke up, went to the brew shop, got some supplies for the homebrew to avoid the inevitable drought due to not brewing over Christmas, then popped round to Adams house as he claimed that his latest brew on tap tasted like Guinness…..verdict: It tasted BETTER, he has mastered the 150 year old recepie and made it better. Its incredible stuff. Had a few of them, then went to the park with Reilly, got home had a nap then went out to a Chinese resteraunt with a few friends, then went back to their place (just down the road from our place) and drank vodka (sensibly) till 4am!

Sunday: Woke up, viewed a house, rented a few films, spent the day in the air-conditioned cinema room and finally went out for another meal with cocktails last night.

The temperature rarely dropped below 30 all week and was a consistent 40+ for most of the daylight hours. I got mildly burned by the COLD water tap yesterday. The only way you can have a refreshing cool drink of water is to leave the glass in the fridge for a few hours AND this 40+ temperature isn’t doing any favors to my homebrewing either, but other than that it is fantastic weather.

Hope all is well with you guys, I am going to post up a few more pictures later on today as I find them on my phone.

Taraaa

Charlie

Killer Chips

Second best chipper in the world (after Mattie Keilly’s on maylor street) KC’s of Douglas. A potent combination of awkward opening hours, unpredictable holidays and insanely tasty food makes this place an absolute goldmine!!! My dish of choice is the Enchilada followed closely by the Creole, both are pita bread filled concoctions of chicken, lettuce, mayo, chips and a touch of magic. One day I had 5 of these bad boys. 2 before a wedding, 3 afterwards and 1 on the way home from town that night, I did not smell too good the following day at my gigs but it did give me limitless power over my immediate vicinity!

A chip off the old block...

This is a present I made for my mom 2 years ago, it’s a brick form the old CSM. I blagged my way onto site one day, feigned a meeting with one of the site engineers, discussed the façade retention issues, picked up a brick, got a progress report from the engineer, then left, with a brick in 1 arm and a A4 copybook (ultimate blaggers accessory) in the other and a puzzled engineer in my wake. The other parts of the present, the wooden base and the plaque have other similar stories…..

Zoolander Dog

I had a few beers before Christmas sitting out on the veranda and having fun with Reilly when all of a sudden out came the camera, these are the results.

"Ferrari"

"Blue Steel"

Last but not least, to show her full range, Reilly does "Magnum"!

More Christmas Photos

Here is a photo from the Christmas period, courtesy of my moms blog (thanks mom) of our Murphy cousins Peter & Declan and Mags & Hugh too. Declan is slowly but surely catching up with me as the tallest cousin.

More wedding photos

I just came across these two photos. Here is the bridal party on the alter in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney after the wedding ceremony.

And here I am doing my party piece (making as much noise as possible on the hotel piano at 4am)

Fin-again

Here is another few photos of Fin in the park the other day

The Speakeasy

For those of you familiar with the house, this is the bar area converted in to a 1920's speakeasy. It really looked the part when it got dark, lots of christmas lights crisscrossed the ceiling and that white sheet at the back had images projected onto it from behind of some photos Jane (twas her birthday) and then we played chicago on it (in the background) while the band were setting up and once they were ready i hoisted up the sheet and they played a swing/20's version of happy birthday much to the suprise of all.

Reilly-cam

Its been a while since I put up a picture of the worlds most photographed dog, so here she is looking into the sunset after a swim in the river.

Sunsets in Perth

Just another regular walk in the park the other night and this beautiful sunset presented itself. For those of you familiar with perth you can just about make out the bankwest tower right in the middle of the photo.

Birthday Cake

Here is the cake, complete with a picture of Jane on the front

Tres Classique (20's style)

Here is a group shot of most of the gigging crew I work with. Tres Classique, run by the lady to my right, Tresna, has quite a few musicians on the go most weekends and here is the most of us enjoying some illicit hooch and prohibition fun.

Surprise Jazz Band

During the party, i had a large white sheet as a partition in the bar area and my projector behind this displaying large images of jane and also the movie chicago (for the 20's style etc.) but the main reason for that large white sheet was to be a stage curtain which was hoisted up at 10pm to reveal a 4 piece 20's style jazz band! They were incredible. They played for 2 hours and an amazing repertoire!!!

McNaught

Ok, bear with me here. You cant really make it out form this shot, but half way through the party the other night the comet McNaught was visible around the side of the house, stayed there for about 30 mins then vanished over the city. Impressive stuff!

Flappers & Dolls

Here is Jane, Ann, Nadine, Megan and Magda all dolled up and ready for some serious charleston dancing.

More Wise Guys...

Here is Adam, Martin and me in front of the fridge drinking, eh, tea. Prohibition times were hard....

Wise guy huh?

And here he is being interrogated by the local constabulary....They have ways of making him talk, they may have to wait a few years though.....