Skylark or Strad?

One for the muso's....

I went to a guys house the other day for a barbershop rehersal and saw this on the piano. Weighing in at several thousand dollars, this specimen was built entirely from "found" wood. So in other words it was made from whatever was in the area at the time the dude was making it. Interesting features, appart from the obvious, was a 5th notch on the bridge and extra peg (unused in this photo) but can be used to mount a C string, hello viola! I had a go off it, in a few of the guys rooms as I wanted to get a good idea of its sound in various acoustic surroundings, verdict: fan-bleedin-tastic! its dimensions are to full size violin spec but it has a sound that can only be described as a roar! Amazing instrument. Im going there again next week to have a cup of tea with the owner to find out more about this violin-a!

Who is that handsome silhouette?

Beers by sunset. Ah de life...... 

Its a dogs life....

Reilly checking out the sunset after a hard days frisbee catching. 

Sunset at the Dog Beach

Hi Guys.

It was a long weekend here and we had a fantastic time! Where to start!

We finally unpacked the last of our stuff (which we packed last November) so it was great to finally have a place for everything and feel settled into the new house. We had a great saturday of hanging around the house doing odd jobs, furniture making and having turns on the new hammock I have in the bar. That beer I set off brewing 2 weeks ago is nearly ready, but that didn't stop us having a bellyfull of it over the weekend. I started another brew yesterday morning, having a much better idea of what to do, so this batch should be even better!

Did a lot of music this weekend too, had that metal band rehearsal, (which totally rocked!) and I have joined a barbershop quartet. One of the members is in another BBshop quartet which is singing the national anthems at the upcoming Ireland v Oz rugby match here in Perth in July so I am going to do my best to oust their bass so I can sing it. Suggestions of how to eliminate the competition are welcome....

Then yesterday we all went down to the dog beach (beach where its permitted to let teh dogs off the leash and play with other dogs....right next to the horse beach) and sat on the beach till sunset, twas fantastic! The sun sets really quickly here (latitude and all that etc.) and the colours are unreal! Then went back to the house for a BBQ and lots of more homebrew.

All in all it was an exceptional weekend, not bad for winter with a high today of 24!!! 

There were 60 green bottles sitting on the wall....

Adam looking as professional as ever, bottle capper in one hand, 40 pints of beer in the other...

Here is Adam and I bottling my first batch of homebrew beer. All went well, filled the bottles with from the keg easily enough and Adam had a capper so it was really easy to seal the bottles. They should be all ready for consumption in about a week, and all going according to plan, they should taste like Corona. Gonna get another batch on this weekend, might try for a stout this time…


Me and my first bottle of beer............ 

Top Gun.....

Here is Maverick and Iceman (Hally and his brother, Hally) just before they took to the skies last weekend for a spot of ariel photography. This is passage and you can just about make out 24 Bloomingdale just over there in the far centre right.




 

Age confusion....

I'm 28!

I spent the last 5 months thinking I was 29! Trevor just pointed it out there as its his birthday tomorrow (28) and I had a hunch that there was no way I was a year older than him. Right. Out with the calculator. 28. Well there ya go. I just gained a whole year! Imagine how good I feel right now, 1 year further away from 30 than I was yesterday!

WOOOHOOOO


 

Parking in Perth....

Just to be safe, I sat while I took this, didn't want to get on the wrong side of the Department of Calm... 

He doesn't carry loose change, he only deals in Millions!!!

Met Trevor Spring today for lunch and found him with this shiny briefcase attached to his wrist. Off for another lunchtime billion dollar deal it looks like..... 

Ozzie Wildlife

Here is one of me on the menu at Aqua, Perths underwater zoo.

The homebrewers dream...

In about a year I hope to aquire this beauty. Its a keg fridge. Description is in the name for this one.

It contains and chills, three 19 litre kegs and can dispense alcohol nearly as fast as Mick The Flah can drink it. Clocks in at a grand for the fridge, about 500 bucks for the 3 kegs, and they will throw in the gas for free. So, for 20 bucks you can brew 23 litres of beer, 19 for the keg, 4 for you while you put it into the keg and then thats it. The beer will keep in the keg for about 2 years (as long as Mick is in another country.....) 

Something is brewing......

Well, this is it. 23 Litres of homebrew. I loaded it up around midnight last night, fermentation started this morning, its bubbling away nicely as all the yeast eats the sugar, the byproducts being CO2 (carbon dioxide, which stops bacteria from developing) and CH3CH2OH (alcohol, which gets us drunk at parties). Results should be out in about 2 weeks once the process is all done. 

Aaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Heres Reilly, having a nap in her busy daily agenda of being a dog. 

Back to the Bar

Here is this weekends carpentry display. We made a bar counter for Adams Balcony. Here is Adam testing it with a pint of homebrew and 3 MONSTER T-bone steaks. Looking good! 

Charlesberg.....

Morning Guys. Took a trip to the home brew shop last Saturday and picked up this starter kit. All came to about $60 and will generate 2.5 slabs of beer similar to corona. That was for all the equipment and everything. For the ingredients alone it costs about $16-$23 bucks for all the hops, yeast & sugar and that will be enough for about 23 litres which is roughly two and a half slabs with some left over for "tasting" when your putting it into bottles. To put that to Euros: 24 bottles of premium, no additives or preservatives beer = 6 euros. Not bad eh?

International Violists

Heres one of my good travelling viola buddy Nick Fielding at the IYO reunion gig last year, enjoying some of brussels best beer in tribute to that month when we lived with the Countess of Belgium! Happy days! 

Tres Classique

http://www.tresclassique.com.au/
This is Jane and her good friend and flute teacher Tresna. She has been doing an amazing job of looking after us on the gig scene since we walked off the plane. She is like the G.Kelly of Perth but twenty times better looking...... 

Another Fire

This fire just started outside my window a few hundred K's away. Apparrantly these forrest fires happen all the time! Big smell of burning outside too. 

Ultra Tough Puncture Resistant Dog-Proof Frisbee.....

Well, I spent a lot of time researching a dog-proof frisbee on the net and got this beauty. It lasted approximatley 10 mins in the jaws of Reilly. 

Who let the dogs out?

Here is Reilly and Jamie, a dog we are babysitting/dogsitting for the last 2 weeks while his owners are touring China with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO or WAZZZO as its pronounced here) They are getting along great and are hilarious to watch when they getup to their doggy antics.