Bubbly @ North

FREE TAPAS AND CHAMPAGNE FRIDAY! Relax after work with delicious free tapas and glasses of champagne, It's the perfect way to wind down a long week and it won't cost you a thing Friday 5 - 7pm.



Hi Glynn and Jen.


Hi Kara and Alex! See you guys again this Friday.


Nice tip on the venue, but how could you do it to me with rugby the next day!?

Madness @ Moose

Phil is on the surveillance camera at the Moose. I hope they blanked the tape after Friday night! (My tape was mostly blank by the end of our night, too). What - starting with bubbly!


Then it was cheap pints with the lads.


And two dollar schooners with Goose, Charlie and Jester.


Hi Jess!

Rugby: Victory over Queanbeyan, 5-0

A sweet day (still, sunny, 17°C) was made even sweeter when my rugby team, the Owls, put Queanbeyan away 5-0 at our home ground today. Hat tip to the blokes (Options, Hollywood, and Will) who helped line me up to cross the line just prior to half time.


It was a three-yellow-card-match but none came my way. (Can you see that I am half-a-foot off the ground here?) Action photography: Jen

Pizza from scratch

I applied my recently acquired bread-making skill to the formulation of pizza bases. Jenny starts by adding mushrooms.


And I conclude with a thick layer of mozarella cheese.


20 minutes at 200ºC and there you have it.

Back from Peel Street again

Really, I ought to have taken more photographs during my trip this weekend to Bathurst to visit Leigh and Marko. The ride over the Bathurst via Crookwell was exceedingly cold, interspersed with sections of sticky, slippery clay that has been churned up during the week.

The weather in Bathurst however, was bright and sunny. It was perfect to have a kick around and we baked some bread then Marko had worked up a thirst. We caught the tail-end of an all-day (from 6am) pub crawl that the college kids had been on and finished the night perched at the end of the bar at the Kings hotel. I imagine that we were good entertainment for the other patrons..

Sunday being a wipe-out, I rode back from Bathurst early this morning, via Cowra. While lamenting my lack of photographs at around 6.30 am, I took the chance to capture something on film that I have meant to for some time. Do Cowra people remember this Dunlop sign on the left hand side of the road, going towards Cowra? From my childhood, I can picture this sign when it was complete and fairly new. It has been a bit of a chronograph over the years. I would pass it on my way to and from football games as a kid and teenager. Then my excursions to Cowra from Sydney would take me past it - all the while the roof of this sign was shrinking... shrinking... There's still a skerrick left, if you look closely, and I wanted to take a snap before it's gone for good.

Yeah Egg!

Hodgo' has caught the biking bug as well and was trying out the attire.


My head's even bigger than this helmet!


I will continue the Jen theme here seeing as she has been so much in the lime-light... ANU Sixth grade lords it here and gets a 3-nil win.


I have been reading a few chemistry blogs recently. Could my blog be improved by showing exhibiting more chemistry?

Paintball 2007

Head shots were very common in the first few games on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, groin shots were also fairly common...


We made up the deadliest trio in Canberra on Saturday.


This is the whole group that we played paintball with, on the weekend. There are mostly chemists pictured and some of my non-chemistry mates too.


Later that evening, JB showed off his new pet mouse. (Very cute!)

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, friend

Again harnessing the awesome power of yeast, I have produced... Bread! Mmm... Freshly baked bread...


This third loaf, like its predecessors was kneaded by hand and baked in a conventional oven.

Easter @ Tathra

Fish weren't biting on the lines around Tathra wharf, but Marko and I were able to take a couple of leatherjackets on the spear. (~35 cm)


Homies all round.


Take the tip: Hobart Beach campground at Bournda National Park


Hobart Beach played host to bocci, cricket, rugby and body surfing. The water at this time of the year is at a great temperature.


I'm sure you all had a blast - see you at the coast again soon if we can get another trip in before the cool weather arrives!

Archer Fish

The resident Archer Fish applies split-second responses and agility to snatch thrown morsels from the air.


Lor-len does the robot while Dobs and I play on the guitar.


(Very) amateur stylings of your truly. We miss you, Kurt!


Explosive Mel attracted the attention of rabid Archer Fish, one and two.


Did I mention that these Archer Fish are hermaphroditic?

Get your O'Neil's membership now

Ash explores his paternal lineage.

Table tennis at the ANU

On Tuesday and Saturday afternoon's Jenny and I get in to the table tennis at the ANU. Jenny gave the leaderboard a shake-up last week; On Tuesday, I put things to rights...

On the workbench

It's not all beer and skittles at the Fox, sometimes we get constructive! Rimsy and I started work on replacing the creaking and sagging front screen door at the Fox the other weekend. The door was a little old-school, so we went ahead and purchased timber, paint and a few bits and pieces with which to construct an "improved" replica of the original.
A couple of digits were juggled between measuring and ordering, as is evident in the photo above. (Very) thankfully, we compared the door with it's home-to-be before gluing it together! The door was two-thirds of a foot too long!


It was back in to the shed for a little adjustment. A couple of coats of paint, some planing and sanding - and we were in business!


With an appropriately sized door in hand, a new screen was stapled in to keep out the bugs and hungry kittens.


Jenny performed well as a vice but excelled in painting the metal screen a glossy black and now our finished door looks better than new!

Weird Al @ Canberra Theatre

Jen and I caught Weird Al at the Canberra Theatre on Saturday night. Amish Paradise was performed, the fat suit was out, Nirvana was played... and the Segway even made an appearance!

What's missing?

Expermental brew 52:

1.7 kg of CSR Treacle (Molasses)
300 g of White Wings "Corn" Cornflour
1 x Morgans Hallertau Finishing Hops
10 mL of Licorice Extract


This experimental and tasty - yes, of course I tasted it - brew was made up to 12 L. Original gravity is 1.050 g/mL. Visible in the background is brew 51; that honey/wheat beer is complete and awaits bottling.

Welcome aboard, Rimsy, from Jenny and I - to the Circle of Canberra Homebrewers. You are on to brew 3 now? Ah, the memories..

St. Patrick's Day @ O'Neil's

St. Patrick's Day was hosted at St. O'Neil's in Dickson on Saturday afternoon. It is quite a difference to be there during the day, rather than late on a Thursday for our cheap drinks night. For a start, it's much brighter..


I embraced face-painting and look forward to joining the Blue Man group soon enough.


Trusting souls let me loose with the brush on them, too.


And then, there's the Irish Boonie gremlin I was so scared of in my child-hood.


Me lucky charms!


Scotty, you were made to be Irish!


Girls in green.


St. Pat's day was and always will be, of course, my little bro - Marky's - birthday. I know that you had a lot of your mates over to that little slice of paradise in Bathurst, so no doubt you had an awesome time. Best wishes from us here in Canberra! And Katie Starr, for Sunday, happy 25th too.