New Keg additions

 
About once a year I try to make my homebrew settup a bit better. Last year it was the addition of a second tap. Well this year it has all been aobut making the whole system more portable so you can bring the brew to parties OR just drink beer in the front room without having to walk to the back of teh house to pour a pint (i know.......). So i got myself a pair of mini kegs. They are exactly half the capacity of my original ones weighing in at 9 liters per keg.
 
Here we see the whole settup, mini gas system, spout and neoprene (thermal wetsuit yoke) sleeve to keep it chilled for a few hours
 
And here are the two kegs chilling in the fridge. It means I had to re-organise where to put all the rest of the bottles of beer, but i reckon one BBQ should take care of that.

Irish-Italian fusion

 
We took a walk down to Al Sito's last night, its a nice little Italian place near the house that changed ownership a few months back. We had a small pizza to share as a starter and we got this beauty, its a potato pizza! Nicest pizza ever!!!! Genius.
 

Christmas Parties

 
Its begun. In music class this morning, for one of the junior classes, we did half an hour of revision of the last few weeks work (dictation and stuff), a few music games, then we had a disco. I brought speakers, played music from my phone, chocolates and fizzy drinks and let them run amok in the classroom for a while. All was going as expected until I played the most multi-generational floor filler number ever written, U CANT TOUCH THIS, the MC Hammer dance, and everybody, even the girls who usually are the quiet shy ones, the all went crazy doing the MC Hammer dance. Hilarious!

Around the world and back again

 
Derrick came over last night for a few beers so we went international and got a selection of beers from around the world. Here they all are lined up in global order from left to right.
 
And here they all are post"sampling"
 
This one was the oldest of the bunch at nearly 650 years old
 
Then we did another round, this time of all ozzie beers with a pair from tasmania and new zealand thrown in too. They all tasted good except for northern Germany.

I.F.L.

There was a time when there was only one Fionn, and the world could just about cope with that, but there seems to be a growing trend of evolving manifestations of the Fionn entity all over the world. So in order to keep up with things it's important to keep an eye on who is keeping up the highest standards of Fionn-ery, so I have come up with The International Fionn League (IFL). The IFL has several categories into which the three (that we know of, there may be more...................) Fionns can compete in, categories such as:

* Body hair/total surface area ratio
* Ability to snooze for extended periods of time
* Most conspicious public bowel movement
* Ball fetching prowess
* Highest rate of CBHPS (Cowbell hits per second)
* Ability to slam a revolving door

The list goes on, but beware, they say that if you can see the Fionn, the Fionn can see you....and if you cant see the Fionn, you may only be seconds away from a painfull percussion recital.

check this guy out

Genius!

A day in the hills

 
Went to John Forrest national park yesterday for a stroll in the hills and got absolutely lost.
 
We were wandering for a while then it started bucketing down with rain, we were in shorts and t-shirts so we got soaked to the skin, we had no sense of direction and when we did find out where we were we were gone beyond the boundry of the park, we ended up in someones back garden and everything.
 
Luckily, once the rain eased off for a bit, our irish instincts kicked in and within 10 mins we found ourselved sitting in the tavern checking out the locals....
 
Then we got home and watched Casino Royale on the cinema in preparation for the new bond which is out this week over here.

Post-watch

 
Check this out, its a preying mantis hanging out on my letterbox. These guys are great, they take care of all the other flys, spiders and bugs.

More Cowbell

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, this is the video clip from that cowbell post i did last week.

Spillane....

 
This is the review from the impromptu gig i ended up doing with John Spillane a few weeks ago. Apparantly I extemporised, it must have been something I ate....
 

Mazal tov

 
Weddings, funerals, christmas parties, babys first haircut, ive played at a lot of ocasions and finally I get to play at a Bar Mitzvah . Its in a few weeks and we are mainly playing jazz but there were a few special request. Ill keep you posted...

Back to York

So we went to York for the weekend, Denis, Feargal and I. We had a great time. We went back to the motor museum again, here is a nice shot of an old caddilac
And check this out, its a bike from the 1940's, integral lights and bell and an aluminium shaft drive system. Pretty cool!

Here are the lads having a few beers in the Greenhills tavern, where we were well looked after by Sean Roche who fed us the biggest steak I have seen in australia and also the best mushy peas this side of the lee.

Catch the pigeon.....

I was doing bursary auditions all day yesterday at school, in the theatre. Somehow a pigeon got into the theatre at a school function last saturday and has been in there since, fluttering around in the rafters and pooping all over the stage. So I decided to take action and help this bird get out, it had been in there for 3 days at this stage, probably starving and just in a general panic really, so one swift round trip of the kitchen saw me return with a few cardboard boxes, some string and a few buns. It was surreal. Nothing like a challenge on a monday to get you ready for the week. Did i get him out? Not sure, as I was going home yesterday after orchestra the trap was still not sprung and today the whole stage was cleared, so Ill have to ask the janitor.

Fridays gigs

 
I did a gig with Glen Sharrock last night. Rehearsal all day, then a gig in the burswood theatre last night. It was great craic, all rock numbers. One of the songs, where we were tacet (having a snooze), the MD asked the string section to improv some percussion for the chorus, so the other three lads started clapping, clicking etc. but not me, i had my sights set on a higher goal, perhaps the peak of my musical career, and in memory of Gene Frenkle ,to finally get to professionally perform on the COWBELL!!!
 
Yup, i went over to the second percussionist and got me a cowbell, and as you all know you 'gotta have more cowbell...baby'. It was hilarious. I got it all lined up, had a pretty lofty beater and at the chorus 'played the hell out of it'. I didn't realise how powerfull a cowbell could sound, the first bash made everyone around me (and me) jump in their seat (this was during the gig by the way) including the lead singer (Mr. Shorrock to us) who turned with a suprised expression on his face, so i gave him a wink, kept beating away and he knodded back, smiled and got on with the song. It was hilarious. Cant believe I got paid to play the cowbell!!!!

New things at work

 
Here is my first 'real' orchestra. I have been conducting for a while over here, but always convering for someone else or taking an ensemble arranged by the head of department. This orchestra however is different. I auditioned every single one of them over the last fortnight and did my own seating order and all that, so this is my first 'real' orchestra.
 
And check this out. There are not that many viola players in my school, so in order to generate a bit of hype about the forthcoming viola-fest I am organising, i have been sticking these posters all over the school, and telling nobody what its about other than 'its happening.....'
 
And what week at school would be complete without the obligatory novelty quaver birthday cake (not mine..............but don't let that stop you ending me presents...)

Tutti Flutey

 
We all went to Janes flute choir concert last week. It was pretty impressive, lots of variety. The star of the show was Jane of course, followed closley by this beast, its a contra-bass flute and the only one in the southern hemisphere.
 

Feargal Has Landed

 
Ann, (Janes mom) found these imitations a few weeks ago, they were good but nothing like the real thing.
 
Feargal arrived yesterday with a resupply of all the good stuff.
 
And here he is with a present for Finn, much to the delight of Denis
 
And here we are at the bar having a pint of the good stuff. Deja vu?

words of wisdom

 
Some inspirational words from above my door in my new office. This new job is great. I am conducting heaps, and on the 1st of december I will be conducting my senior orchestra doing a commissioned work on the stage of the Perth Concerthall. I even have a selection of batons (well, 2 is a selection).

Gadgetfever

Everything I do is based around adaptability, ingenuity and improvisation, so it helps to take a page from MacGuyvers book and have a few tools at hand should the need arise to fix stuff. So here we have my swiss army card, which holds a knife, scissors etc, and even more usefull, two types of bottle openers. I have had these things for about 10 years, and thanks to airline security measures (because I keep forgetting that I have it in my pocket), i am on my third swiss card at the moment. So in an effort to streamline my selection of pocket tools and gizmo's i went and bought a leatherman tool (a CS4 to be precise)
 
 
After a perusal of their website I chose the one which would suit my needs best and popped off to the local army surplus store and got one.
 
It replaces all my old stuff and does heaps more. Now all I have to do is find out what an awl does.......