Random snaps of the weekend

 
Well, here we go again, all those uncatagorical photos we all file under 'random'. Here is a bunch of crimefighters and villans I bumped into outside a greek resteraunt on friday night, the television really adds a few extra pounds...
 
Here is a beer i nearly bought the other day, Monty Python ale, all for the princley sum of one shrubbery. NI!
 
This is the entire coopers range of beer, which we worked our way through the other night. Its a local commercial beer, brewed sort of like the way i brew my homebrew except all the secondary fermentation happens in the bottle.
 
And finally, we went to the hills (perth goes from east to west, beach, city and hills) for lunch with a friend from work on sunday, he put on a great spread and even welcomed us with the good ol tricolour.

Dog-sitting

 
We are looking after a friends dog for a few weeks. He is a retriever like Reilly, but a bit bigger. Here is jane being smothered by the lot of them
 
Here they all are after a walk in the park this morning
 
And here we all are relaxing in a smaller park a little bit further down the road and having brunch. Very civilized.

A walk in the sun

 
We went for a walk at noon the other day (bad idea, waaaay too hot) and came across a really cool shadow cast by this tree which has been pollarded centrally to promote growth.
 

Projector stuff

 
Havent seen much of the projector lately, so here is a quick snapshot of what I was doing last friday while Jane was in Ireland. Lego batman on the xbox and the first ever Jackie Chan/Jet Li film. Fantastic!
 

Gadgetwatch (pardon the pun)

 
Yup, its gadgetwatch time again ladies and gents, and this time its a watch! I went and got a Sony Ericsson mbw 150 Classic edition. Its basically a secondary screen for your phone, displaying sms's as you get them, calender reminders, alarms, caller ID etc. so you can reject the call (during a gig for example) without taking your phone out of your pocket AND it also tells the time. Also, you can operate your phones media player from it, so you can play, skip tracks, adjust volume levels, all that sort of stuff from up to 10 meters away, so from now on I'll be doing all my DJ-ing for weddings from the bar!

Howdowns and Hootenannys

 
I am a form teacher in my school, which means I am responsible for loads of stuff, but mainly the students attendance, end of year report summaries and parties, so yesterday we had an end of year party complete with a hoedown!
 
Here they are learning the steps of the heel'n'toe polka
 
 
And here is the show in full swing. We attracted a fair bit of attention from all the other classes and I think I am getting a reputation as 'that crazy music guy', which is one step above the head of music who is just 'that music guy'.

Last few days of school

I have been putting signs all over the school, its the last week here so for a bit of a laugh i have been leaving messages everywhere. Here are two of my favourite.
 
One girl actually asked me what happened last thursday and why wasnt she told, because she is really interested in time travel, and wanted to know when the next meeting was, naturally I replied "last thursday". Baffled, she was.
 

New flight info

Hello wedding folks. Just got tipped off to this airline company from Hugh. It flies london-KL pretty amazingly cheap. If your reasonably flexible with departure and return flight times/days and dont mind sharing an isle with a few chickens and a donkey, then you can get from london (get a 2 euro ryanair flight there) to KL for about 250 euros. This may be really bad timing and really annoy people who have already paid full whack for their tickets, but I literally just found out 5 minutes ago. That airline will also fly you from KL to perth for about 150 euros. So the details agian, we are getting married on the 14th of April in Perth (its the tuesday after easter monday) the weather will be averaging 25-30 degrees in the shade, booze is cheap, food is delicious and its only a day away from europe. We will be running 'events' for the week before and after the wedding so for those people who can be here earlier/later, there will something happening almost every day.

whaaaaaack

 
Here I am at rehearsal today. I am playing snare for a fanfare procession at a concert tonight in the school. There is no chart, I have to make it all up. This job is the best, there is a big rall towards the end where I absolute riiiiiiiiiiiip clean in to the triplets then a big finish where I whack the bejaysus out of a crash cymbal. Hahahhaaaaaa yyahhoooooooo!!!!

30-30

 
Today Feargal left for Ireland. Here he is having one last wrestle with the dogs.
 
All bags packed and squeezed into the car.
 
 
And here he is at departures. It was a fantastic few weeks, highlights being getting lost in the hills, a polka gig and a night at the jazz with a full keg to ourselves. Today it was 20 degrees in the shade, i left a thermometer out in the sun for a bit and it hit 55 degrees, i think its gonna be about 30 degrees less when Feargal lands in 30 hours time.

Music Maestro

 
I had my first big conducting concert last night. It was only one short piece as part of a much larger gig and it was in the Perth concert hall.
 
Here I am at the balance rehearsal beforehand complete with fancy green all areas access pass and a baton you could skewer an elephant with.
 
Observe the exquisite form, the clear definition of the ictus, the absolute confidence in which the conductor takes bluffing to unprecedented new levels.
 
It was great fun, and waaaayyy easier than playing the viola.

More keg shots

Here are a few more photos from the keg night out
 
Here we are with Jon Edwards, guitar player extraordinaire.
 
18 pints later..............
 
And here we have the world record attempt at standing on 1 leg (assisted)

on the side...

 
Check out this menu from Fast Eddies, a 24 hour burger joint up the road from the gaff.

Rockin' all over the world

 
Feargal and I did a gig last saturday night, a string quartet job down by the river. Great craic was had by all. We charged our normal rates PLUS mileage from Dublin which is just under 10000kms i think, so at union rates and first class travel, I think Feargal can afford to retire on the strenght of that gig......

The mini-keg maiden voyage

 
So, we decided to test the mini-keg by taking it to the jazz cellar, that underground jazz club where you bring your own booze and food. I had to disguise it so that it didn't look like a keg so I stuck a black cloth over teh top and a bit of a dog lead as a handle.
 
Here is Feargal at the entrance. No phonebox will ever be the same after entering this one.
 
And here we are pouring the first pint down the back of the jazz club. We attracted a bit of attention from other homebrewers admiring the settup. The keg stayed chilled throughout the night, probably will be a different story when I use it at the beach and at bbq's, we'll just have to drink faster....
 
And here we are in the carpark at the end of the night, all 18 pints consumed wholeheartedly. God bless all who sail in her.