Stunning!

Aurora is an awesome ship that oozes class. I'll upload more photos soon. There is so much ship to see and so little time. She's huge. 272 metres long and over 76000 tonnes. I'm wondering if i can bribe the captain to change course for us for a couple of weeks. What do you think?

We demolish a Piñata at Xmas

Here's a quick video of the demise of a Piñata that our friend Jo Smith gave us for Xmas 2007.

Everyone had a whale of a time trying to crack it open.

It also records the demise of our broom handle, which was never the same after everyone used it to bash the living daylights out of the poor hapless piñata.

Xmas 2007 on our deck was a lot of fun, and low impact for everyone because we bought all the food (cold meat and seafood platters) rather than cooking a roast. (What crazy person decreed that you had to have a hot roast for Xmas in Australia in the middle of summer?)

Full marks to Josh for busting it open. We knew you would, Joshie.

Warts and All (Live, Unrehearsed and Unedited)

One of the highlights of my week is my jazz music lessons with a fantastic musician named Brian Hayes.

Each week I bring my WX5 and he teaches me as he plays along on Guitar, Sax, Flute or Clarinet. I find it really enjoyable, and am continually amazed at his wonderful musicianship.

Late last year, Brian suggested we record our session. He played some tunes on his guitar, and got me to improvise on the WX5, playing whatever I wanted. I made lots of mistakes, but we decided to record it "as is", and these songs are the result. We called the collection "Warts and All".

Thinking of Lizzie / Elephant Blues / Cheeky Liquorice / Black Brassy Blues / Frightfully Flugel
Laid Back Fanfare / Morning Reed / Not Quite Danny / Saxsquito / Sunset Blue

For each song, I chose a different voice on the VL-70m synthesizer - the challenge being to select the most appropriate voice, and to play it in such a way that my style suites it. I find brass, clarinet and flute voices fairly easy. Sax voices are difficult to do well.

If you can look beyond my mistakes in these songs, I hope you can get an idea of how much fun this is!

I made this!

We are staying at a nice hotel. So when they gave us fresh towels this evening, I couldn't resist my happy cruising memories and made this towel animal!

What a great year!

2007 has been a fantastic year for our family.

As I sat up on the deck this afternoon, drinking some whisky and watching the last afternoon of the year, I thought about how lucky we are.

I'm married to the most amazing woman in the world, and between us, we have 10 wonderful kids who we like being around.

I work with some brilliant people. I work with some fantastic guys, and we all enjoy what we do.

It's great to be alive.

To everyone who takes the time to read this - family, friends, partners, clients... thanks so much for helping to make this year a memorable one.

I hope you and your family have a safe, enjoyable, and prosperous 2008!

Christmas Carols, Sydney Style

I was waiting for a flight at Sydney Airport this morning when a spotted a Turkey and a Christmas pudding playing Christmas Carols.

Well, to be more accurate, a couple of musicians dressed up as Christmas Dinner.

They were fantastic, and I managed to capture them quickly on my mobile phone so you could enjoy them too.

Sorry about all my laughing in the background. These guys had me in stitches and it took all my effort to hold the camera relatively still. The Turkey has excellent sax style, and that Pud makes a great clown.

If anyone knows who they really are, please let me know and I'll give them the credit they deserve.

Update 26 December 2007. These guys are from Wacky Entertainment (http://www.wacky.com.au/). The Turkey's name is Tom Bastian, and the Pudding's name is Adam Arnold. They've got some great footage on their website if you want to see more. How good would it be to get these guys at your office Xmas party?

Fun with Glowsticks at Christmas

Tonight we gave the kids some glowsticks, turned on the christmas lights, got out the camera, and, like magic, these fearsome aliens appeared!

An Oriana Original

My Dad, Bruce, was a crew member on the maiden voyage of the original SS Oriana in December 1960.

She held the record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a P&O Ocean Liner, earning her the "Golden Cockerel" trophy.

When I turned up in 1962, Dad had to quit his life on the sea, and start life as a young father.

SS Oriana sailed her last voyage in 1986, and was eventually replaced by MV Oriana in 1995.

MV Oriana is visiting Brisbane in February 2008, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to check her out with Dad, and Mum, and my brother Kevin.

We're going on a pretty short cruise from Brisbane to Sydney. I don't really care where she goes, whether it rains, or how rough it is. For me, the fun thing will be experiencing Oriana with Dad, Mum and Kev.

The last time I was on a ship with Mum and Dad was in 1965. So that's a long time between drinks!

Lean on Me

Why am I uploading this? I must be crazy.

Here's a copy of a video that my mate, Simon, took of me singing at the "Pop Stars" Karaoke competion aboard Pacific Star last October.

Simon moves the camera around alot, and even turns it on its side, so the editing was a bit of an ordeal, and I made a massive blooper in the first line of the song. But apart from that it was a hoot.

Thanks, Simon, for doing the recording for me.

Would I do it again? Maybe!

We love Andy

We love Andy #4
Originally uploaded by MagicTyger

We had a great time when we visited the Gallery of Modern to see the Andy Warhol exhibition.

This set of photos was taken in a booth they had at the exhibtion.