kjp

Staying in at the flat tonight. Couple of reasons: rehearsal went for a fair bit longer than usual, finishing a bit after 8pm or something. Followed by a chat to one of the saxophonists, means that I'm still eating some dinner at 9.10 pm... So going into the Valley for a gig that started at 8pm probably isn't the best of all ideas... duh.

Besides, going up to the coast tomorrow morning for a swim. Been several weeks since I've been at the beach. So that should be good. So not going out tonight probably is a good thing.

The other reason why I'm not going to the jazz thing as for the past two times, the friendly sandwich maker has come along - always, always fun and entertaining. Well, I suspect for me it’s fun, for her I’m more entertaining… But she's busy making sandwiches tonight... booo. The third reason is that I've already gone to a gig today: in the afternoon was Queensland Wind Orchestra gig. Very good, as expected. The fourth reason is that I really should be doing some work on my assignment (ha!).

But instead of doing my assignment, I'll be writing this post, and sorting out the apartment. Ever since my flatmate moved out, I think that I've become slack in organising stuff around the apartment: there's no need to keep the main living area clean / tidy, as there's no-one else that can get annoyed / affected if it's messy. But then, every few days, I've got to do a cleanup of stuff. The answer is for me to be more disciplined about the main living area. And make sure that I empty the dishwasher. (Stacking it is no problem, just emptying never seems to get done).

Anyhow, I’m slightly stressed at work due to the secret santa that is being run. I won’t go into it more ( (a) it’s work, and (b) I might incriminate myself). But it’s of “concern”.

Ohh, before I forget, coming soon will be some photos from a trip to the Glasshouse Mountains.

In music news, preparations for the QWAB end of year gig are going well, as are the music for my other community band. Both are good. Both enjoyable for different reasons. The bigger music news (for me at least), is that I’m going to take up another instrument. I think that I’ve pretty much ruled it down to Alto Saxophone. Why? Well, it has to be something that I’ll have motivation to do practice for (i.e.: that I can play in one of my bands). I’m not really interested in hitting stuff (haha) - I’m a pretty laid back guy - so no percussion for me . While it would be cool to learn french horn (the coolest of the brass), I don’t really think that I really want to start learning a brass instrument (living in an apartment, etc). So that leaves woodwind. Double reeds are expensive, and I don’t want to sound like a duck if I learnt oboe. There’s too many flutes in this world, so that’s out. That leaves a different sort of clarinet, or saxophone. I think that a member of the clarinet family would be too the same as my Buffy, so that leaves the saxophones. Apparently it’s reasonably easy for clarinettists to pick up sax (the fingering is much like the second register on the clarinet). I was thinking about a soprano sax, but it’s probably best to start with alto (a lot more music is written for it), etc.

I should (all things going well), be having a blow of a work friend’s girlfriend’s alto in the coming week. So that should give me a bit of a feel for it and see whether I like it, etc. I picked up a reed from the music shop yesterday for it.

Well, it’s 10 pm. So it’s time for me to go onto other jobs. I’ll try to put some photos up tomorrow, and there’s other important stuff I should post about sometime.

It's great living in a apartment complex that has a pool. Very easy way to cool down after work, especially given the summer heat that's drawing near.

A little while back (a few days either side of my big sister and little girl’s trip to Brisbane), I read The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman. It’s a good read. Very easy to read (a lot of dialogs). It’s all about how different people express love differently, and that learning to recognise your partner’s love language is helpful to your relationship.

The five are: Words of Affirmation; Quality Time; Receiving Gifts; Acts of Service; and Physical Touch.

Very good book, very interesting read.

I’ll be re-reading it in the next few days, I think.

So, a while back my old camera (Powershot A75) died. Because I like my photography, I need to get a new one. I was considering just getting the base model (that had manual everything), but ended up going with the Canon Powershot S3 IS. It seems to be a pretty good camera - taken some great photos, some of which will turn up on this blog over the coming days.

The main features that I like are: 6 megapixel; 12 x optical zoom; manual shutter, aperture, focus. Aperture and focus bracketing.

Good stuff.

Ohh, for the record - the CCD of the A75 died. The guy at the shop said that they'd seen a few A75's come back with the same problem. The cost of repair was very high, so it was cheaper to get a nice new camera!

2 cups oats
1 ½ cups coconut
1 cup plain flower
1 ½ cup wholemeal plain flower
1 ½ cup sugar
250 g butter
1 heaped tablespoon golden syrup
3 teaspoons bicarb soda
4 tablespoons boiling water

1/ Turn oven on to 150 degrees Celsius
2/ Combine dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl
3/ Melt butter and golden syrup together (over low heat)
4/ Put bicarb soda in a cup / small bowl
5/ Add boiling water
6/ Add water / bicarb soda to the melted butter and golden syrup
7/ Gradually add the butter / golden syrup / water / bicarb soda mixture to the dry ingredients stirring as the liquid mixture is added
8/ Flatten mixture out in a flat rectangular tray.
9/ Bake in oven for 20 minutes (or a bit more)

Yes, I'm still alive. Slowly sorting out my (yes - my) apartment. Flatmate moved out about a month ago, enjoying some space by myself, etc. There's lots more adventures to talk about, but they will have to wait for another day - hopefully the weekend. In the mean time, below is a very yummy Anzac biscuit recipe. Thanks mum!

Ohh, it's not daylight saving here, so all blog times are out by an hour. (Until I figure out how to get into the domain's control panel and change it...)

Well, I got a request: "put up a post on your website so I can comment on it".

Well, here it is!

Comment away...

I have a heap of things to post up here, I just don't have the time at the moment.

Tomorrow = buy a ticket for a concert for the following weekend, and go camera shopping: the repair costs are more than the cost of a new camera. So I need to decide whether I want something decent, good but basic; or a fancy bells and whistles camera...