Margaret River Holiday

Yup, Jane and I went on holidays earlier this week to an area of western australia called Margaret River. Its famous as being the best surfing spot in the world and its wineries. It is 300km south of Perth and is an easy drive. We went there to meet Carolyn Goodwin who has been living there on and off for the last year. Here is Carolyn and Jason and I having a wine at sunset on our first night there

Here is Carolyn, Jane and I on the way to augusta to do a bit of touristy stuff between wineries

You can just make out the lighthouse in the back left

And here it is a little closer

This point in western australia marks where the indian and great southern oceans meet, here we are overlooking where the oceans meet.

More new stuff

Here is Jane practicing christmas carols on our new keyboard! Its great, it has loadsa sounds, realistic keys, and a great sound. It doesnt hold as many ornaments and dust as a regular piano but it does the same job.

The Black Velvet Bands first official concert

Yup, we managed to swing a 'recital' of irish music at a local cinema for one of the local councils. We are the main act at the city of south perth's christmas bonanza! Should be a bit of fun.

Tarazan.....

We had a few beers the other day between gigs and decided to go climbing

Here is Adam making the first ascent wearing a nice pair of slippy italian leather shoes.

There was a small casualty.....

Past the first obstacle the ascent continues

And here is Adam, master of his environment, wondering how the hell to get down!

Winerys and Brewerys

We had a pretty interesting weekend. We were guests at a winery, the Darlington Estate Winery, where we were treated to a selection of wines, cheeses and beers! I was invited to offer my expertise on brewing and other beer related issues as they are going for a producers licence of beer and wante some 'expert' oppinions of how to improve its quality

Below is our buddy Jon showing two of his favourite kegs along with a few hundred litres of wine in the cold room

And the following day was Brew Day at the brewmart which is where mere mortals get to meet the beer gods of perth. Here is Simon and Ed at 9am getting ready to make a brew from scratch. We all get to hang around, drink eachothers beers and swap secrets of brewing, mist of which can be found on Simons website.

And here is Neills addition to the christmas spirit.

outdoor cinema

We set up an outdoor cinema screen in Adams back garden the other day, this is a before and after shot, cant wait for a bit of summer outdoor cinema action!

new gig fashion....

I got dressed in a hurry for a gig the other day, stepped out of the car and looked down at this...

Definitely setting a new fashion trend over here.

New stuff about the gaff

Hi guys, here are a few photos of new things that have appeared around the house lately

This is our new tomato plant, doing well, neads lots of water, but doing well, we should be puree-ing our own paste in a few months...

not sure if you can quite make it out here, but that thermometer is touching on 45 IN THE SHADE!

And this is the new fence for our young lime tree. Thats two fruit trees we have new, both of which should be producing fruit to go with our gin and tonics some time next eyar.

And last but not least here is Fionn guarding all our presents under our christmas tree.

From dawn till dusk

This is the view out my teaching room window at Aquinas college, those purple trees are everywhere over here. They are called Jacaranda trees and when they shed their leaves it looks like they are casting a purple shadow on the ground.

And this is the sunset across the road from our house last night, my camera doesnt do it justice, it was like looking at a sunset on mars!

Spiderbaby!!!

Finn got bitten by a spider a few days ago, it wasnt a poisonous one so he is ok and he is on medication to bring down the swelling, but the exact same thing happened to Peter Parker at the start of the spiderman film which kinda made me think what it would be like to be spidermans uncle?!?!?!

A walk in Guildford

We went for breakfast and a stroll in a little town not too far from our place last sunday morning, its a really old town (by ozzie standards) which was the last stop of civilisation before you had to undertake a 800km trip with your donkey and cart to go gold mining.

There are some really old houses (again, old by ozzie standards) with lots of big trees and the like. I really liked this letter box.

And here is a street of some fantastic trees.

Monday Day Out With Finn

We spent the day out with Finn the other day, great craic! This posts theme is all about his vehicles

Here he is in a speedy green sportscar/shopping trolley taking the racing line through the shopping centre

And here he is going off road in his 4x4 super truck, complete with sound effects from the finn man himself, bbrrrrrrrrmmmmm bbbrrrrrmmmm

This is Finn riding co-pilot on my bike complete with police helmet, every time I rang my bell he honked that red squeaky horn, twas hilarious

And last but not least here is the gay-pride super-lovebot i made for him out of his building blocks.

Finn Update

We got Finn a seat for the bike the other day an dhe had his first go off it yesterday, he thought it was fantastic. More photos can be found here

Occupational injuries...

With all this time off i now have as a musician, i am able to do a lot more cool stuff, cycling, beer making, reading, beer drinking, eating, beer making and computer games. I love a good gaming session, but because i havent played intensively for ages I am getting a bit of whats known as "playstation claw", click on the above diagram for to zoom in.

Gigcam....

Remember that solo gig I did a while back, well here it is reviewed with yours truly getting a bit of media real-estate at the bottom right corner. I also managed to make it into this months Irish Scene which means I have been in every issue this year (bi-monthly) much to the annoyance of Jane and Adam. Tee hee hee.

Happy Saint Cecilia's day

Patron saint of music, St Cecilia has a bit of an unusual history but nevertheless tis a day of note in any musicians calender. Happy St Cecilias day everyone.