27 years of rehearsing

Well it's taken 27 years of rehearsing but I finally had my first TV audition today. So with any luck I might get my 15 minutes of fame(or even 16!). Unfortunately due to the nature of the business I can't reveal any more than that. Wish me luck, or as they say in the biz 'break a leg'.

The boys

The quote of the week this week comes from Lachlan(my nephew). Nanny had given him a cherry and he asked to have the pip removed "because Mum doesn't let us eat anything that might kill us!!". So here's an updated photo from the boys' Kinder Christmas doo, Lachlan's on the left Nathan's on the right.

Cheesy pop

I had a thought that I could start posting songs that probably won't make it onto my next album so all my fans can experience all my aural pleasures. It will also give my die hard fans something to stumble across in 15 years time when all my secret affairs, illegal activity and closet ghosts have been uncovered.

So here's some cheesy pop just for you: Hey, Little Girl

Missing.... the letter 'r'

Have you ever wondered what happens to the characters you type and then delete? Where do they go? Are the lost forever? Are they recycled? Should we be more responsible with the [delete] and [backspace] buttons? Are there a finite number of characters in the universe?

What made me think about this was that I just deleted an 'r' but now I want it back. When I push the 'r' button it creates a new one but this new one doesn't quite have the same elegance onscreen as the first one had. Perhaps I should put out a Missing ad and see if I can get it back?

A weekend in Fontainebleau

Well I finally got across to visit Paul and Jean in lovely Fontainebleau(south of Paris) last weekend. The visit coincided with a Rugby match between INSEAD(Paul's business school) and London Business School and an Aussie party. Each month a different nationality host a week of festivities related to their country. So for the Aussie week Paul imported two live Australians, myself and Danny, We also got to watch Jean play touch rugby against the London Business School girls. So here are the photos, enjoy:



On Sunday we went for a little frolic in the forest

Catching up - Salisbury

When Mum was over we had a weekend in Salisbury, here are some of the pics.

A different kind of bang

This is turning into a bit of a blog about TV ads it seems. So here's another gem I discovered today. Quite appropriate in light of recent news headlines - Click here or on the thumbnail

Bang, bang..... bang

Another great ad, this time from Microsoft for the new Xbox 360. It's as yet unaired probably due to some censorship laws incase kids start imitating it. However it is very funny. So funny it had me laughing out loud - check it out - Click here or below

UK Debut

Well I had my UK performance debut the weekend before last. Played sax with 'Funky Business' for a 60th birthday(actually 2 guys who turned 30) and I was definately rusty. Although that's probably to be expected having not picked up my horns for over 12 months. It was certainly fun though and now kindof associated to that I've got another gig with some of the same guys in January at a plush Hotel in London. Nice. I should hopefully have some photos of this gig/party soon so I'll make sure I get them up.

Triple distilled

"Oh my goodness" - my first words after I saw the new Smirnoff 'Triple Distilled' ad. Gorgeous. The music. The editing(obviously). The cinematography. Big up to JWT London.

click here to check it out

Les feuilles mortes

The country seems to come alive with colour at this time of year. The grass seems greener. The trees such brilliant colours you'd think they'd been individually painted with fresh tins of Dulux paint. The air has a crispness that you can feel as you breathe in, laying a subtle hint that winter's on it's way. The combination made it almost one of those ideal days.

It was only after recovering from my award winning night at Amy's - a late night which almost resulted in me oversleeping and missing delivering a friend to the train station - that I discovered what a nice day it would be.

The afternoon was spent re-arranging music for a couple of more TV ads. From my seat in the 'studio' the window frames a gorgeous vista alight with colour. Nice inspiration, if only I wasn't arranging Christmas carols. After a productive stint in the aural realm I decided I needed to get out and feel the day.

So I walked. Past trees. Through green green grass. Past bleating lambs, and their protective mothers. Under bridges. Seeing, smelling, thinking, and just feeling good.

In this case a picture wouldn't have painted the right 1000 words so I decided to blog it.

Blogging this phlog

Well I think I'm up to date now with all my photos - until I find that there's a film still in my camera needing exposure. Quite likely.

I keep toying with the idea of blogging this 'phlog' rather than phlogging what began as a blog. It seems to be the done thing these days to have your thoughts read by anyone and everyone. Which isn't all that bad I guess, you certainly discover there are some interesting people out there. You also discover sides to some people you know but would never discover otherwise. So I'm not sure if the world is ready to hear my thoughts, heck half the time I don't even want to hear my thoughts. Like now, for example, my brain is on at least 8 coherent tangents(endless incoherent ones) which is why this has taken me about 20 minutes to get to here.

The new job change so far has been expensive and draining. I made the decision to ditch suits after 4 years and felt the expense of having to stock up my wardrobe with stylish fitted shirts and complimentary(perhaps that should be complementary) jeans and trousers. And the 3 and a half+ hours of travelling each day is starting to take its toll. Combined with the fact that everything I'm doing at work is new, people are new, places are new it's a bit draining. Yet it can all change for 83 seconds when making the treck home in a city of 9million people where I know perhaps 10 I see a pleasantly familiar face. Nice :)

Eye see me

So, for my birthday I went for a 'flight' on the London Eye with Mum. Thankfully the sky cleared up while we went on it. Here are the pics:

Och eets Scotland

Finally, for all those who have been waiting(Dad), here are the photos from the trip to Scotland. We left early morning of the 29th August and spent the day driving from Milton Keynes up to Glasgow. On the way we stopped off in Chester, near Wales, to visit a friend of Mum's. We arrive at about 7pm to the hotel and then just relaxed a bit.


The next day I dropped Mum off at the airport as she was off to Norway while I travelled around Scotland. After dropping her off I picked up Caleb and Merren who'd just arrived from France. We drove across to Edinburgh that day and relaxed a bit then found our beds to get some rest before the trip.


So this is where the trip starts... It was basically a backpacker tour and thankfully we only had 8 people on our tour which meant on a 16 seater bus we all had a spare seat. I won't put commentaries with the whole thing but there are descriptions if you mouse-over the pics.





















































For those that know about our Royal connections and family titles and stuff these pics were from Prestongrange(one of the old Suttie estates) which is now the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club. I played golf here and then met Mum and we got the royal treatment.




This was the main house at Balgone the Suttie family estate.