Darts with spiderman

Finns birthday surplus balloons

More balloons

Finns Cake

Jane does an amazing job at making cakes and every year Finn gets to decide what kind of cake he gets for his birthday. This year he is playing a lot of that Angry Birds game so Jane put together this masterpiece.

Ceiling no 3

The back is back

I have been out of action for the last week and a bit with a slipped disc and a dislocated facet joint. It has been an interesting week of reading books, insane boredom and observation of ceilings. Highlights included Ann smuggling guiness into the overnight observation ward, Liam with his womans gossip magazines and of course the ambulance ride. Word to the wise, look after your back, you only get one.

Australia & Guinness, the definitive decision

Australia (along with any landmass 50 miles from St James'gate) is often tarnished with the "it doesnt travel well/made from different water/its the way they pour it/different shaped glassess/flow on the line/phase of the moon etc." tags. Well, after 6 years of intense investigation and research I can put my hand on my heart and say its exactly the same over here, taste, texture, consistancy, flavour, head retention, mouthfeel etc.. Well done guinness, and Tim here, for delivering three of the finest to the band last saturday night.

Ceiling no 1

Ceiling no 2

Observation room

Happy Birthday Mick

Happy Birthday Mick

Micks Suprise birthday

Twas Micks birthday the other day and Fiona organised a suprise party in the city. It was so funny, he was ringing around looking for someone to go for a beer with and we were all forwarned to have "other appointments" at the time, he got a great suprise when he walked around the corner and we were all there.

Tools of the trade...

I have started playing with a new band here called Clover. Its a 3 piece, irish folk and ballad band, guitar, banjo and fiddle and we all sing, thats right, im singing in public now, wonders will never cease.

The young Jedi

Finn and I spent a good 3 hours on the lego project over the last few days, here he is on saturday morning in his Jedi costume/uncle Charlies hoodie ready to use the force

revolutionary new dog-yoga technique...

The Falcon

Jane got me a present about two years ago of this COLLOSSAL lego mellenium falcon, over 5000 individual pieces of lego and for a lot of them, there is only ONE of each. So yesterday we cleared the ping-pong table and got right into it for a few hours

Find the grey piece Finn......

Portable pint glass

Begone are the days when you rock up at a party with your cans of guinness and there is not a pint glass in the house so you are reduced to drinking your glorious bounty of stout from a teacup, filling occasionally and bereft of the visually mystifying settling sequence, behold the latest in fancy stuff here on coode street, the portable pint glass. A quick flick'o'de'wrist and away ya go. Great stuff.

Portable pint glass

Begone are the days when you rock up at a party with your cans of guinness and there is not a pint glass in the house so you are reduced to drinking your glorious bounty of stout from a teacup, filling occasionally and bereft of the visually mystifying settling sequence, behold the latest in fancy stuff here on coode street, the portable pint glass. A quick flick'o'de'wrist and away ya go. Great stuff.

Portable pint glass

Begone are the days when you rock up at a party with your cans of guinness and there is not a pint glass in the house so you are reduced to drinking your glorious bounty of stout from a teacup, filling occasionally and bereft of the visually mystifying settling sequence, behold the latest in fancy stuff here on coode street, the portable pint glass. A quick flick'o'de'wrist and away ya go. Great stuff.

a blast from the pas....future

Here is Finn and his partner in crime Oliver after a hard evenings playing around, kicking back watching a movie with a few pints of uncle Charlies homebrew. Somehow I can imagine these dudes in about 16 years doing the exact same thing....

Lego breakfast with the padawan

Lego breakfast with the padawan

Lego, starwars and smarties

Finn stayed over last night, it was great, we got to make lego star wars vehicles for hours! Here he is after dinner with his smiley smarties

More solo gigs

I did another solo violin gig the other day, playing at an awards ceremony and reception afterwards. This time I went old-school and didnt use any backing tracks, loop pedals or anything. Here is the settup, music stand with suzuki books 3-8 and a few show tunes, fiddle clip and the all important glass of wine holder

How would you like your solo today sir?

Check out the controls on the sandwich toaster at work, I have the exact same controls on my viola....

More spice

the chilli sauce collection grows and grows, not only does it make food taste great, it also boosts your metabolism by 25% so its great for weight loss etc.

Bike in a bag

Check out this bag i got for my bike. I have done a few gigs recently where I have cycled to the gig and had to leave the rothar outside, the last time i had some stuff stolen from it so the last two gigs I cycled to I took the bike inside the venue's, but it looks wierd to have to do that, so I got myself this bag, so now it just looks like I am taking in PA equipment. Sorted.

gigometer

I was playing at a sesion during the week and the battery light on my pre-amp came on, this yoke is rated for 2000 hours per battery, thats a lotta jigs'n'reels!

Roland mobile cube`

I did a gig last night for a home open of a palacial gaff in Dalkeith (fancy area of perth. The place was masssssive, several social areas, pool, ten bedrooms, little kitchenettes all over the place, however, the funniest thing was all the punters checking it out ( the place was over 5 million dollars) were baffled as to the lack of elevators in the place, one lady commented "well i SUPPOSE i can take the stairs...". Hilarious.

I played in the foyer by the door and used my roland speaker, but this time i didn't use the electric and didnt plug the accoustic in either, which was quite nice to be able to wander around the place and still jam along to the most croonable , alphabetically sorted jazz playlist imaginable.

The lego master

Finn is really getting into the lego now, making his own spaceships and racing cars. Here is one from yesterday with its own torpedo launcher and superspeed button. Its great when Finn visits, he is great company AND i get to play with lego for hours!

The Knights Attack

Check out these two medieval miscreants who were pillaging their way around the house last night

Sir Finn, Sir Oliver and their wardog

Bye bye sydney

So our tour came to an end, one last group shot then straight onto the next plane to perth. It was a great experience for all and we are already looking forward to the next one

Pops concert at Darling Harbour

pre-gig-planning

Here I am introducing the pieces, i dont think anyone understood my accent....

Singapore muso's

We got a chance to do a workshop with the chinese orchestra from singapore, all manner of fancy instruments to investigate and explore. My favourite was the chinese violin, the urh-hu (pardon the spelling) two strings, tuned in 5ths, so kinda like half a violin really. I had a go off one, and tried to play a pentatonic system but it ended up being a jig (lannigans ball) much to the puzzzlement of the owner.....

Charlie burger

Here is that gourmet burger place again

Charlie burger co.

Had a burger in this place today, WOW! Imagine comparing a ferrarri with a rollerskate, this burger was like it was from a different food group/planetery system. Wagyu beef with all the trimmings. YUM!