What better way to spend a day off than having a picnic at the park and look at who decided to show up.





Kookaburra, up close and personal. Just when I thought this was a pretty good photo, I saw this other one HERE.


and a few cockatoos joined in to suss out the food we brought. After they realised they weren't getting anything from us, they all flew off. It's awesome to see these birds just in the open like this rather than in captivity. I am absolutely loving it!


I was quite baffled the first time I saw this sign. What do they mean? I understand the last one as it's clearly "no diving", but what about the third one? River dance allowed?


The Yarra River


What's a picnic without the food eh? Fresh avacado rocks!


Hommus, avacado and salmon sandwich.


Flavoured cheese. Yum!


The Coles Home Brand hommus was really tasty...

Labels: Eastern Adventures, Warandyte Park

The weather was awesome on Sunday. The sun came out to play yet the breeze was still cool. Driving aimlessly without the guidance of a GPS unit or map was refreshing. It was pure exploration.

Stopped for strawberries and ice cream. The strawberries were really fresh, but the ones from Sunny Ridge still blows me away.


The outdoor stall opens on weekends.


Further long the drive, we stopped by a cafe to have some coffee and apple pie. Neither the coffee nor apple pie was great, but it wasn't terrible either. The cafe though, is located across the road from the river so after the coffee, we decided to take a stroll along the river. This is what we spotted just out in the wild! Oh, it's an echidna in case you were wondering what it is.

I've been living in Australia for over four years now and I've been hearing stories of people stumbling upon all kinds of animals packs of kangaroos, wombats and various others in the open and I've always wondered why I haven't spotted any. I had been really keen to see echidnas so I ended up catching a glimpse of them at the zoo. But now, this happens! Woohoo!

Come to think of it, I've seen some pretty cool things during my time here. I've seen kangaroos or wallabies in the middle of the road in Canberra and Tuggeranong, echidnas crossing the road, and now an echidna up close and personal! Can you feel my excitement? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a country boy that ended up in the city. I suppose I'm a nature boy!


It's times like these I wish I had a wicked camera!


Echidnas eat ants and termites but they're only distantly related to anteaters and although they resemble the porcupine, they are not related at all. It's amazing what wikipedia can tell you these days.

Labels: Eastern Adventures, echidna, Warandyte Berry Farm

It wasn't the perfect day to take a drive out to the Yarra Valley as it was really cloudy in the photo below, but there's just something about the Valley that somehow manages to find a way to surprise you when you least expect it. Oh, this was a few weekends ago by the way. Delayed post.

Tokar Estate Winery & Restaurant was one of those pleasant surprises.


Come to think of it, the weather wasn't half as bad as I thought it would have been. There was still sunshine after all.


We were busy chatting away and didn't even realise that the food was taking a while to arrive but this platter of dips was sent to us on the house, for the wait, without even asking for it. Now this was impressive! Definitely appreciate the gesture.


My steak went really well with a glass Tokar Estate's Shiraz. Yum! I should have bought a bottle home. Next time perhaps.


The wife had grilled salmon on mash potatoes which was grilled to perfection.

Labels: Eastern Adventures, Tokar Estate, Yarra Valley

On Sunday, 17th October, I mixed An Autumn Gray Symphony at BMW Edge, Federation Square which was one of the highlights of my mixing career as an audio engineer. The entire set up of over 30 plus inputs on the mixing desk was for Orchestra Nouveau (40 piece orchestra) and Autumn Gray (7 piece rock band). It was a challenge having so many inputs as well as a very reverberant room to manage but it was exhilarating! It was heaps of fun to work with the variety and sheer number of microphones available on the day.

It was a privilege and honour to work on such a huge project like this alongside an amazing production team! Everything ran like clockwork. Zach Tay, hats off to you brother!

The opening band, Sleep Decade were amazing and their music suited the night perfectly. When Autumn Gray and Orchestra Nouveau came on, let's just say that the rest was history and the night was permanently engraved into my skull. Amazing musical trip! You have to keep your ear and eye out for another one of these concerts in the future. I can't begin to tell you how much you missed out!

Here are some photos.


Sound checking the band and the orchestra.


Before we hit the lights.


After. Simply magic! Photo taken by Damien Weatherley.
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Labels: An Autumn Gray Symphony, Autumn Gray, BMW Edge, Orchestra Nouveau

I was talking to Alvin the other day and he said that people don't really care about what you did last week. They want to know what you are doing now. I guess that's why twitter and tumblr work so well.

Labels: CD Collection, We Came As Romans

I suppose this is the closest we get to snow in Melbourne. I was indoors almost the entire evening on Friday as I was mixing Empra and when I got out of the venue, I thought it had just rained pretty heavily. Then, when I drove to South Melbourne, I couldn't help but notice a row of cars covers in what I though was snow! I must say, my heart almost skipped a beat and I got excited. After all, I came from a warm climate country so it was only natural to be fascinated.


So I whipped out my camera and snapped a show shots

Hey boys and girls, it's been a crazy few weeks but we can't wait to rock out our new song at the Limelight in exactly a week's time! We're going old skool. Instead of releasing new songs on iTunes like most bands, we're gonna release new songs live, just like the good ol' days!

It's gonna be a huge night so come on down and rock out with us.


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Hey boys and girls, we're playing two acoustic gigs in October that you need to catch. We're gonna be playing an acoustic version of brand new song called The Sound too. Be sure to catch it. We're playing it early in the set so make sure you show up at the gigs early! It's gonna be rad!


7th October. 730pm. Free Entry.
80 Gigs In 80 Days @ Bertha Brown (562 Flinders Street)
Come and show some love as we play at the filming of the 80 Gigs In 80 Days documentary! Be a part of history!
http://80gigsin80days.com/

Labels: Broken Scar Gigs