End of another year

I'm not going to see the fireworks spectacles anywhere.

I'm not going to wear a stupid mass-produced hat with too-tight elastic and the staples barely holding it together.

I'm not going to have one of those god-awful noisemaker things hanging out of my gob, and I'm certainly not going to explode any party poppers.

I will try to count the countdown in real-time, rather than join in with the pissed over-excited crowd that always rushes it exponentially the closer they get to one.

I'm not going to hug random people I've never met.

I'm not going to have a million facebook photos of me with some other person.

I will, however, farewell a rather shite year with my good friends and contemplate the goals I will set to make the coming one a tad more enjoyable.

Listening List

Music makes me happy.

Things that constantly amaze me

• Rain. I know the sciencey blah behind it. But seriously, it just falls from the sky. Then it doesn't. Then it does. Then it sniffs out public holidays and stays! Brilliant!
  
• The abilty of cats to sense when you wake up and appear just in time to wind themselves in between your legs on the way to the kitchen.
  
• My continuing fascination with Matt Preston
  
• Auto Electricians. *Snip *Snip *Snip *Twist *Key-click *VROOM. There you go, done. They make a spidery mess make sense in ten secons flat.
  
• How I can use a packet mix to make muffins yet still feel like a masterchef at 6am when those little bliss bombs roll out of the oven.
  
• The addictive properties of the Zelda series of games.
  
• Tourism-driven art vendors.
  
• That practising scales to a metronome is the best form of relaxation I know.
  
• How much Jonah continues to amuse me. I just watched him bury his nose into the bristle end of an oversize paintbrush and waited for the inevitable sneeze. Cracks me up every time.
  
• Touch phones
  
• The undiminishing libido of my partner... *grin*
  

Smiles

Things that make me smile. Just a few among many:

1. Hugs
2. A mischievous look in the eyes
3. Fresh sheets
4. Fresh towels
5. Chicken
6. Playing music, listening to music. A good bass riff. A nice guitar tone. An interesting drum fill. The sound of a brass band. Playing guitar in the dark.

All of these things, and more.

For future reference:

When attempting to photograph the slow mutilation of a butterfly caught in a spiderweb by the spider inhabiting said spiderweb, a few simple guidelines will avoid disaster, embarrassment, and realisations of grand dickheadedness.

Guideline #1 - If you are unsure of the make and model of the spider, and therefore it's capacity to be scary, it is best not to approach it while alone in a remote location.
... too late.

Guideline #2 - Thoroughly suss out all web attach points. These things are in essence a suspended snare. They have to be tied down somewhere, and severing one of the ties is likely to bring the whole intricately woven contraption (containing spider with possibly unidentified levels of scariness) into a state of being sprung and wrapped around the unwary photographer's entire body, with variable and unpredictable placement of the occupying spider.
... close. Accompany a brush with an attach point with a loud FUCK! Oh thank FUCK! Sneaky little FUCKER! and you have an accurate representation of events.

Guideline #3 - Use a long lens to get in close rather than put yourself in the firing line.
... too late.

Guideline #4 - Make sure it's not windy. Either this or bring some marvellously fat friend with you to conveniently provide a wind break. Otherwise, two disastrous things could occur... One, ninety percent of your shots could be a waving blur of unrecognisability. Or two, you could be in as close as you possibly can with your short lens and end up wearing half the intricately woven snare. In this case you will resort to dancing around in bodily jerks, slapping and grabbing at every available surface with your hands in an attempt to remove the sticky web and the occupying spider (possessing unidentified levels of scariness) from any possible resting positions.

... too late.

Three apparent impossibilities in food production

1. Post-mix orange juice concentrate that does not produce a drink reminiscent of gastro medicine.

2. Appealing airline food.

3. Picture-board menus that actually represent the finished, oversauced sloppy mess that is served up as a burger, rather than the stylised neatly stacked fluffy-lettuced vision of the unattainable.

Sleepytime

In order to prepare for bed one must:

1. Block out weird demolition noises from unidentified source in new suburb.

2. Endeavour to fall asleep immediately due to the nagging suspicion that there may be bitey things cohabiting the bed.

3. Block out the fact that one's surrounds are in such a state of messiness that they resemble the bedroom of an adolescent, except that the papers on the floor are bills rather than maths notes.

4. Focus on the bunch of flowers recieved as a surprise left on my bed today as a warming point of happiness and content.

Goodnight.

Who

I am Vic.
I love catchy music, whether it be funky basslines, elctro, classical or any other genre you can throw into my circle of aural judgement.
I can't draw for shit.
I am an intellectual snob - I have little to no tolerance for idiots.
I like to be surrounded by order in the form of alphabetisation and categorisation.
I hate to sleep alone. I have a teddy bear that keeps me company now and I stress if I cannot find her to snuggle to as I am falling asleep.
I am a sucker for anything limited edition. I am a marketer's dream.
Fresh fruit and vegetables make me happy, and rump steak is my absolute favourite cut of beef.
I take photographs. I am not an artist, just a collector of my own visions and experiences.
A genuine smile from a stranger, or a fun conversation, will make my day.

Some tunes for a Sunday

I could write about Grandma Nobby's Excess Baggage Theory or finally choose a date for the Pigs on the Wing: A Week of Pink Floyd project. But I have a hangover, and a beanbag, and the sun. Like a cat I am curled up in a patch of sunlight and I'm periodically moving to follow it across the loungeroom floor. With my computer in my lap I'm listening to tunes and playing guitar. Here is a random sampling, with reasons just because I can.

1. Corner of the Earth - Jamiroquai
Such a dramatic intro for such a loungey tune. I love it. The song is like me in many ways.

[SKIP] Touch and Go - The Cars
[SKIP] Numb - U2

2. Don't Walk Away - Toni Childs
It's sad, I know. But this is one of those songs that brings out the Groover in me. The happy Vic that just can't help but move even if it's just the top half of me from a beanbag on the loungeroom floor.

[SKIP] Hate this Place - Goo Goo Dolls (hit the high notes, dammit)
[SKIP] Hard to Concentrate - Red Hot Chili Peppers (cool bass riff until the vocals doubled it)

3. Slow Cheetah - Red Hot Chili Peppers
I especially like the outro to this song - and extended fadeout. Basically I haven't listened to the words much but I like the guitar. I get caught up in that and forget to listen for meaning.

[SKIP] Diamond Dogs - Beck from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (I love the music in this one and absolutely detest the vocals. So it gets a listen until I hear the voice, and then it gets the arse. NEXT!)

4. Dilate - Ani Difranco
How low can you tune your guitar? It doesn't matter to me that there is that kind of out of tune thing going on. It's raw. This is a singer I do listen to the words of. I care less and less what people think... What a great line. I'm not a fan of the soprano sax outro for this one, though.

5. Touch the Fire - Icehouse
Oh the young days. I almost skipped this one. Now I'm in the chorus, a dumb grin on my face, air drumming, and I'm so glad I didn't hit the next button. Even through the gratuitous crappy saxophone solo.

[SKIP] Rain on the Scarecrow - John Cougar Mellencamp (too boring for today, sorry. NEXT!)

6. I Don't Live Today - Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band
Ahh, gotta love it. A guitarist similar to Stevie Ray Vaughan covering a Hendrix tune. It's such a shame to... spend your time away like this... existing... Fantastic psychedelic stuff going on here.

[SKIP] Time After Time - (covered by) Rob Thomas (I love different versions of songs, but this one is terrible)
[SKIP] I am the Walrus - The Beatles (Just not today, okay? I mean, "Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the band to come" is a little too much psychedelia for my hung over head)
[SKIP] Don't Speak - No Doubt (even though I can't get enough of the cheesey classical guitar solo)

7. Paradise City - (covered by) Richard Cheese
This guy is gold. He does lounge covers of basically anything. He takes requests on his website. I truly am a covers nut, and this is a really thoughtful and comic arrangement.

[SKIP] Wedding Cake Island - Midnight Oil (Definately not in a tacky surf guitar mood here)
[SKIP] Young Modern Station - Silverchair (too heavy for a day in the sun)

8. At the End of the Day - from Les Miserables
What a great musical. It's one of my all-time favourites. This piece in particular covers so many emotional aspects with a few melodic sections. Fantastic.

9. Pink Panther - (version by) The Skatalites
Another great version, along with all the punk covers that were floating around a few years back.

[SKIP] Staying Alive - The Bee Gees (I've played this too many time to count in covers bands and I spend the entire second half of the song waiting for it to end. NEXT!)
[SKIP] Nobody's Perfect - Madonna (Whoever invented that vocal effect processor thing should be shot.)

10. Pineapple Head - Crowded House
What a fantastic melodic bass line and catchy guitar riff. This is one of those songs that leaves me feeling uplifted. Even though I have no idea of what the words are supposed to mean.

Some days iTunes is my friend and spits out exactly what I didn't know I needed to hear. Not today. But the sun is nice.

I got tagged... twice

HERE’S THE RULES…
- We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
- Players start with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
- People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
- At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people who get tagged and list their names
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them their tagged, and to read my blog.

So to Marda and Me Dear Cap'n, thanks for the thoughts. I'm going to break the rules a little, because I don't want to tag eight people. I'll just hassle the two that I live with. Feel free to do the eight things if you want also, but nobody except Gayman and IcePick can actually blame me for having to do this.

Thing #1: I have a hand made Indonesian-style gong hanging in my bedroom. (Yes, Gayman has joked about Red Symons)

Thing #2: Whipped cream during sex? Anything of that type? Never done it.

Thing #3: I've never seen ET and it has got to point that I don't intend to, just because it induces a reaction of What? You've never seen ET?

Thing #4: I punched a guy on New Years eve at a gig for constantly yelling at my band that we were crap. Everyone else was enjoying themselves and he decided he'd have a sing on one of our microphones. When he was told no he got the shits. And started heckling. He pushed and pushed until I snapped and punched him. A couple of times. I thought I was gone for sure after doing that, but he buggered off. His sister came up to me later and said he deserved it. He came up even later and apologised for making me hit him.

Thing #5: Give me a good book and enough hot water to refill the bath a couple of times, and you've lost me for hours.

Thing #6: I saw Dangerous Minds twice at the cinema. I cried both times. A lot.

Thing #7: I have a pair of boots with cut-off jeans that I used to wear arranged to look like legs as an art piece. They have been in every house I've ever lived in and I view them as part of my identity.

Thing #8: Whenever I get bored, I get horny.

The little things

Things to make Vic happy, even briefly:

Folding the last piece of clothing from the mammoth two-weeks worth of washing spree.

Watching the petrol gauge rise to the full mark.

All the candles in my bedroom lit while the room is tidy and uncluttered. Being able to read in this light.

Clean sheets and pillowcases.

Having my cat, who is fairly independent and stand-offish, tentatively come onto my lap for warmth and comfort.

Watching a child’s face when they realise that yes, indeed, after a week of dedicated practise they can play their set work really well. Watching that realisation turn to excitement about what they might be able to with that sort of effort consistently.

Running in the sun, playing frisbee with friends.

Dancing.

Performing.

Dancing and performing at the same time.

Imagine a whole onion display littered with loose onion skins all through it. Imagine Vic sticking the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner right into the thick of it and sucking all those little floaty fuckers into oblivion. Happiness in the execution, happiness at the outcome – onion skin free display, which also means onion skin free shop floor and surrounding displays. Nobody seems to understand this – it must be bordering on an obsessive compulsive thing. Those bastard skins get everywhere, and the relief I feel to be rid of them is about the same as that feeling after a hard and fast shag.

Knowing that I’m looking good.

Getting set up to shave. The process of shaving my upper lip and sideburns. Being able to feel the smooth bits afterward and still be fascinated by it.

Good coffee.

That first session of playing a guitar after I’ve oiled the fretboard and put on a new set of strings.

Getting a random visit from someone with a gorgeous smile on a cold and miserable evening.

As promised, another fucking meme.

Yesterday's one-word meme was hard. I hate not being able to explain myself (yes, I'm doing it now, I know). So I decided that there has to be a longer version to the questions.

So the new constraint is: answer the questions (well, elaborate on the previous answers) in five sentences. No more, no less.

Since there's thirty-four questions I decided to pick out seven. I don't have the available time or attention span to write five sentences about thirty-four things. Randomly with no memory of what questions were on the thing at all, I picked seven numbers and wrote them down, just for fun. They are my questions to talk about, no matter what.

17. One of your wish list items: dick
I'm embracing a boyish identity. I've always been pretty masculine and frankly I want a dick. This doesn't mean I want one full time, but I'd like the option. I want to be able to present myself as male (depending a lot on the social situation). And no, it isn't because I want to pee standing up.

4. Your mother/stepmother: indifferent
Indifferent isn't the right word to describe her. It's my feeling toward her at this point. She rings up to talk about the weather. She very rarely discusses feelings or encourages discussion of feelings. When she expresses disapproval it can be very overpowering so mostly I'd rather stay away.

29. What are you doing at the moment?: breathing
When you strip it down to basics, you're either breathing or you're not. I'm not dead. I'm not being cremated as I blog, and I'm certainly not burning in hell for the multitude of sins I have committed. All systems seem to be fuctioning normally, so I'm not complaining. What a shit of a question.

25. Your mood: horny
All this exploring identity stuff has led me to be more aware, but also more intrigued by, my sexuality and gender definitions. I think about presenting myself as male and dammit if it doesn't make me horny. I think about having a dick and dammit, I'm still horny. The frequency of horniness has been escalating lately into an almost constant hum. Apart from the frustration, this may be a good thing.

3. Your hair: hathair
I used to wear a cap everywhere. I'm not as big a fan of them now, since I actually like the way my hair is these days and don't feel I have to hide it. Since the morning job involves food, I get to wear a cool black and purple cap. I'm one of those people that caps work well on, so I don't mind at all. Until I have to take it off.

8. Your favorite drink: beer
Last Friday evening I ambled out onto my front porch with a stubbie in my hand. I had a blue trucker singlet on and a pair of jeans. Gayman and a few other friends were there. One friend just looked at me and said Oh my god, butch moment number thirty-six!. So Gayman pipes up with (in typical snide Gayman fashion) - Yeah, in the last hour!

11.
This is a pearler. How many of us who've done this meme realised that there was no number eleven? How reliant on copy and paste have we all become? I know that was all I did, then replaced the previous answers with my own. These sort of shortcuts are so fucking handy, but breed so much laziness, not that I should complain because I'm guilty of it myself.


There. Go to.

Not for Old Knudsen

Yes, it's another fucking Meme. People like Old Knudsen who don't like them can fuck off and get an antidote to this special brand of internet virus. Be warned. There will be another tomorrow. So don't look if you can't handle it.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

Not as easy as you might think...

1. Yourself: tired

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: scared

3. Your hair: hathair

4. Your mother/stepmother: indifferent

5. Your dog: nonexistant

6. Your favorite item: gel

7. Your dream last night: forgotten

8. Your favorite drink: beer

9. Your dream car: ute

10. The room you are in: studio

12. Your fear: embarrassment

13. What you want to be in 10 years: me

14. Who you hung out with last night: girl

15. What you're not: bagpipist

16. Muffin: depends

17: One of your wish list items: dick

18: Time: none

19. The last thing you did: yawn

20. What you are wearing: socks

21. Your favorite weather: warm

22. Your favorite book: fiction

23. The last thing you ate: curry

24. Your life: hectic

25. Your mood: horny

26. Your best friend(S): occupied

27. What are you thinking about right now? shagging

28. Your car: subaru

29. What are you doing at the moment?: breathing

30. Your summer: gone

31. Your relationship status: semisingle

32. What is on your TV?: speakers

33. What is the weather like?: fuckingcold

34. When is the last time you laughed?: today

Five tips.

Welcome to my new housemate, Gayman. Here are five tips to tell if he's moved in with you:

1. You have a house plant sprouting from every half-bare surface.

2. There are roughly twice as many body products in the shower than I'd ever contemplate owning.

3. Boutique teas dominate the coffee cupboard.

4. Mother calls at 10:30pm to make sure everything is all right.

5. Belinda Carlisle's Summer Rain gets played with regularity.

According to Google:

An assignment via Sassy - do a Google search for "[your name] needs". I put it in inverted commas so I got the exact string.

According to Google:

Vic needs:The Beast. Old Vic needs a home. No sissies ...
Yeah, okay.

Vic needs:HIRE ME! Vic is looking for work.
No. But I'd probably fit something else in if I could.

Vic needs:SLICK VIC NEEDS A HOOD RAT!!! ... GURLS ARE LIKE POKEMON ...GOT CATCH EM ALL...
Heehee. This is my less shy self!

Vic needs:Vic needs employment. He left his job two years ago to start a nonprofit drug/alcohol addiction treatment center with sober living houses but due to certian ...
Due to what? The fact that I'm drinking right now?

Vic needs:vic needs to be able to load a user provided file that contains either a ...
Yes! I took me ages to be able to put a photo on my profile!

Vic needs:VIC needs to be confident that the faculty is going to give them the necessary support and ...
Yep.

Vic needs:Vic needs a "babies!" userpic.
Nuh-uh. No way I don't. A woman came to the shop this morning with her garanddaughter to show me. Yeah great. Baby. Am I fascinated? Try harder.

Vic needs:His telepathic dog, Blood (Tim McIntire) depends on Vic for food, but Vic needs Blood to...
Woah.

Vic needs:The New Vic Needs Your Help. Really. ...
Yep.

Vic needs:It's time for an extreme makeover at Vegas Vic's Tiki Lounge, and Vic needs a web designer to help. What Vic gets: A cool, shag-a-delic website that helps ...
Bring that fucker on!

Catch up session.

Well. Weekend over and back [hopefully] to normal daily posting.

Here’s some highlights of the week that was:

1. My nose turned into a snorkel with the second week of battling the flu

2. Seeing a gypsy jazz band The Straightback Fellows with an amazing bass player. He was all over the fingerboard of his acoustic fretless bass and it was brilliant

3. Two consecutive days of drinking with a friend who I haven’t seen in two years

4. Viewing of friend’s heavily pierced penis – strike that off the list of things I really wanted to see

5. Being asked twice, loudly and roughly by a bunch of rural fuckwit uni student boys, if I was a boy or a girl – and having the presence of mind not to hit them but just walk away

6. Laughing with friend about the “straight” rural fuckwit uni students that tried to take a picture of his heavily pierced appendage at the urinals

Nightmare movie challenge

Sassy has posed a challenge: Nightmare Movie. In Nightmare Movie, the players create the worst movie they can think of.

I suck monumentally at naming actors and celebrities in general, but I'll do my best.

Plot: An adaptation of a playstation game.
Director: I don't know much about who directed what. Um... the person responsible for Scream 3?
Leading Actor: Hugh Grant
Supporting Actor: Jean-Claude van Damme
Leading Actress: Nicole Kidman
Supporting Actress: Olivia Newton-John (remember Xanadu?)
Bit Players: Billy Crystal, old mate from the Naked Gun movies (I can't remember his name and can't be bothered googling it) and that kid from the Home Alone movies.

Lyrically Speaking

So the assignment is "List five lyrics and their significance to you"...

This is a difficult one. A lot of lyrics I more enjoy the way they are sung, rather than the actual words. But here goes, in no particular order.

1. Dam at Otter Creek - Live from Throwing Copper

when all that's left to do is
reflect on what's been done
this is where sadness breathes
the sadness of everyone

just like when the guys
built the dam at otter creek
and all the water backed up
deep enough to dive...

So this one is from teenagerdom. The song at the beginning of Throwing Copper that most people skip. But I think it says a lot about being on the edge of things.


2.Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall from Eye to the Telescope

...She fills up every corner like she's born in black and white
Makes you feel warmer when you're trying to remember
What you heard
She likes to leave you hanging on her word

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be...

The recent car favourite - top of my lungs. Played with vigour after giving notice at the Wholesalers job in favour of teaching and being 100% musician.


3. Slide - Ani Difranco from Evolve

...after that she just followed her nose
and fate is not just whose cooking smells good
but which way the wind blows

she laid down in her party dress and never got up
needless to say she missed the party
she just got sad
then she got stuck

.....

cuz when i look at you i squint
you are that beautiful
and my pussy is a tractor
and this is a tractor pull
i'm haunted by my illicit, explicit dreams
and i can't really wake up
so i just drift in between
thinking the glass is half empty
and thinking it's not quite full...

I almost included the entire song.


4. Pigs on the Wing (Part One) - Pink Floyd from Animals

If you didn't care what happened to me,
And I didn't care for you,
We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain.
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.

This is the entire song (well, part one any way).


5. Philosophy - Ben Folds Five from Whatever & Ever Amen

...Wont you look at me
Im crazy
But I get the job done
Yeah Im crazy
But I get the job done

Go ahead you can
Laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
Keeps my feet on the ground...

Also a hit from the years of teenagerdom. But it's one I revisit regularly, and it's a bit of a personal reminder just to be me.


Which brings me to....

This was such a difficult post to write. There's so many songs that when I listen to them, I think I love that line. But stuffed if I know what they are when I'm not hearing them. And there's lyrics that aren't particularly brilliant, but I love to just belt out at the top of my lungs. And there's the looking back over the post and thinking that maybe I should have included something else in favour of some of those choices. And it really depends upon the mood. And there's a teeny voice in my mind that says I'm going to judged as a tragic pop lush, but stuff it. I'm the person in the pub with the pool cue in hand, singing along to the jukebox.

One of those iTunes random things

Lame, I know. But I just wanted to see what would come out.
The first ten songs that play when I put iTunes on random just now...

1. Please Forgive Me - David Gray from White Ladder
Definately not skippable. I like the little guitar riff that comes in, except that it's just a little too repetetive. And what a brilliant line - "I got half a mind to scream out loud". When I first heard this song I was disappointed because the drum beat is so... dance music? Like the producers tried to make it club friendly. But it's grown on me now.

2. I Wanna Ride You - Medeski, Martin and Wood from Uninvisible
Oh yes, funky. A really nice bluesey intro, and then into a great organ riff interlocking with some really cool bass. I first realised I liked these guys when they did an album with John Scofield called A Go Go.

3.Company I. = 96 - Kronos Quartet
Okay, lulling. It doesn't fit into my listening repertoire very often. Not now. Skip.

4. Hard to Handle - The Black Crowes
A cover, which my band does a cover of. It's funny that you can go through years of playing these songs, but still enjoy hearing them. I feel like I know the song more intimately.

5. How You Remind Me (acoustic) - Nickelback
Now here's an example of an acoustic version that doesn't work very well. Skip.

6. Dirty Cash (Money Talks) (Dirty South Remix) - Mind Electric from Ministry of Sound 2007 Annual
This also doesn't fit into my listening repertoire very often. Mostly I like the Ministry of Sound annuals for cleaning to, or pumping up for going out. I'm a fan of the chillout albums a lot more than this style.

7. Four Seasons In One Day - Crowded House from Recurring Dream
It's hard to go wrong with a Crowded House tune. This one fascinates me since it has a canonic solo section. It's just cool that they thought to do it.

8. Mary Jane - Alanis Morissette from Jagged Little Pill Acoustic
I think Jagged Little Pill has been played so much that I know every song backwards, so now it's really nice to hear this album played differently. I could have a rant about riding on the one succesful album she had, but it doesn't beat the fact that I enjoy both versions.

9.This Love - The Magic Numbers
I have a bizarre liking for this band. They're just different to most of the stuff you here. My sister introduced me to them after she heard them support U2. It's pretty, but slow, this one, and I don't know it as well the last song. Skip.

10. Night Time is the Right Time - John Scofield plays Ray Charles from That's What I Say
Just some really effortless playing, not my most favourite from this album, but I still love his playing. My favourite from this album would have to be Unchain My Heart (Part 1) because the way he plays the vocal line is brilliant, falling off the notes, just holding back a bit. Mmm. And the bass line is just funky cruisey stuff.


And now I'm satisfied that I've done it.

List for the future:

1. Organize the teaching studio - this weekend - like most work spaces this gets progressively worse until the major clean-up happens. Then there's a few weeks of ultra-organised bliss followed by a long, slow downhill run. Repeat cycle.

2. Plan and start the vege garden - this evening, continuing into next week, ongoing - it's time to implement the semi-self-sufficiency plan. I no longer get paid to work with vegetables, entitling me to a discount, so I need to make them very cheap.

3. Get the drum kit fixed up - near future, temper and expertise permitting - I have a kit minus cymbals on extended loan from a friend who doesn't have the space to store it. This friend is also the drummer in the City Band, where I play percussion. He's recently undergone medical nastiness and two other percussionists have gone AWOL - leaving me and a boy who hardly comes up to my elbow as the only contenders. He and I both started playing percussion last year, but I think he's a little small to reach all the bits on the kit yet, so this drum kit parts have fallen to me. Crap! I need something to practise on.

4. Start posting my compositions - this month - mostly they're student-oriented, and I'm a bit nervous to put them up for judgement, but I'll get over it. Just need to write more and record them.

5. Build a wood-fired pizza oven - long term, before October - the aim is to have a pizza party in October, where everyone has to bring a weird topping along. Then they can mix and match and cook their own. By then there should be plenty of home brew to go with it.