Brewmaster 2010

We called up to Anthony's the other night to help him bottle his first brew. I havent bottled a beer in about 3 years.

Here we all are set up for the bottling.

Anthonys first brew. Munich Lager.

Here is the man himself havng a sample of the good stuff.

And here is the result, 3 cartons of preservative free grog for the price of a movie ticket.

The greatest Isle in the DIY shop

Yup, velcro and duct tape, cornerstones of any DIY job.

Moms Concert

Mom had a party at her place yesterday and played a duet with her friend Claire who graduated in piano studies in 1928! Still tickling the ivories at an amazing 94 years old!

More modifications

I fitted a bottle holder to the bike yesterday evening (not that cycling this thing ever makes you thirsty, but its good to have choices. It will also hold a bottle of beer......)

I got out my trusty leatherman and duct tape and velcro combination and made myself a phone holder for the handlebars, now my bike has GPS, hands free phone, the internet and a music player/radio

Here it is again, I think I might move the torch and install the phone landscape mode later on today to see how that works out

Vrooooooooooooooom. Cycled all over the place with this thing yesterday, did all the errands I needed to do in about half the time it would normally take. This thing will be perfect for gigs too, there are a lot of shows I do where I find parking beforehand really tricky and get stuck in the traffic afterwards too, I can cycle right into the pit with this thing!

Forgot to show you two more images

This is the charger for the battery

And this is the handlebars and that red button is the turbo boost (knight rider.....)

All done

Here is where I keep the lock

And here it is all modded up for the mornings ride/glide to work

And here I am 10 mins after leaving the house, already locked up at work. Effortless commute, its exactly like when i had that scooter years ago in cork, but no petrol and it fits in the boot of the car.

Here is another closeup of the motor in the wheel hub, and the businesscard holder i made out of duct-tape with the shops business cards in the side, im gonna be asked a lot about this bike and the guy in the shop was really helpfull so im really keen to spread the word.

Charging the beast

Its electric and has a battery which charge from zero to full in 3-4 hours

This is the charge indicator on the handlebars (its red, so again makes it seem more like knight rider.....)

And here is the battery right behind the saddle

You can pop the saddle forward and slide the battery out if you like.

This is usefull if you want to leave the bike outside but charge the battery inside. the battery naturally lasts longer if you do most of the pedaling, but unassisted you will do about 30-40 kms of freewheeling down AND uphill.

vrooooooooooooooooooom

So, after much waiting and deliberating over the benifits of having a second car or not, i went out yesterday and got myself an electric fold up bike from these guys.

It has a range of about 50kms on a single charge, top unassisted speed of 25kph, and i clocked 35kph on the way into work this morning without too much effort. the important thing to remember about this is that its a commuting alternative, not an exercise alternative, although saying that, I probably will do more cycling on this bike than my normal one as this will give me a greater range. I can cycle all the way to freo unassisted then get a bit of help with the hills on the way back if i'm wrecked.

Here it is all folded up. It weighs 18kilos and you could fit about 3 of these in the back of a small hatchback easily. It has 3 locomotive modes. Unassisted, so just like a normal bike, six gears. Assisted, where its like being on a tandem going downhill with the wind and Lance Armstrong in the back seat giving it welly, the motor kicks in when your speed drops below 25kph and then the last mode, which is sheer bliss, where you just crank the handle and whizz along just like a scooter. You can switch between any of the drive modes at will, instantly, this morning, I cut my travel time in half by using the power for going uphills

So, i owned it for about 20 mins, and you know it, out came the duct tape (and the beer)

I covered up all that shiny writing with duct tape so now it looks sleek like Knight Rider

New dance move

The skip arrived yesterday to take away our demised tree and Liam and Ray kindly offered to help me pack it away. we got 1/4 our way through the tree and the skip was full so it was time for the world famous 'Strand Skip Jig', where the lads dance around till its all been flattened.

Ray got right into it.

Meglagentarianism

There is this word I have been using for a few years, and nobody has questioned it until today when i put it in a school bulletin. The word is MEGLAGENCE, google it if you like, its not a word. I invented it about 7 years ago and its etymology relates to the feeling I had one jazz festival after being admitted to the artists bar and drank 14 cans of guinness, became best friends with the organiser and his wife and then got on stage and played with my favourite band and then at about 5am as my cousin Conor and I sat in a stairwell hiding from security, drinking one of the 20 bottles of bud we had stashed in our instrument cases, feeling on top of the world and full of all the awesomeness one could imagine, we decided that we felt meglagent. As a meglantarian, I generally find that things are easy if you think you are awesome all of the time, hense the general meglagentarianistic outlook I radiate. Use it today. Meglagence!

Hell yeah!

Sunsets on the strand

Ozzie Rules!

We went to an ozzie rules game at the weekend, it was great fun, noce weather, in the shade, lovely burgers and a few beers.



Sarah and Martin flew out on friday night, off to melbourne for phase 2 of their ozzie adventures

Take two of these....

Interesting article on antibiotic resistance in one of my periodicals today. Scientists have long known that exposing bacteria to the right antibiotics will kill most of them, but leave a few mutants that happen to resist the drug better than the rest. These mutants go on to multiply, and eventually the whole strain evolves resistance. Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/mutagen-antibiotics/#ixzz0fHdmDVPo

the craig-man

Martin and Sarah have been staying with us for the last week, I worked with Martin about 10 years ago and we have not seen eachother since, the odd email but you know how it goes, so it was really exciting to pick the lads up last week.

Here we are on the west coast waiting for sunset.

Here is Martin tossing a few shrimp on the barbie in true ozzie style.

Here is the subsequent feast, complete with chilli sauce, crabs and baby octapus!

Here I am taking a picture of Sarah taking a picture of the crabs, I'm pretty sure Martin was taking a picture of the both of us at the same time....