A post to collect some of my writings, I will periodically update and add in new stuff!

Green and Gold are the colours of Australia... and currently, our garden is awash in those two vibrant colours... making our home look like a national tourism advertisement! Out the front and back near

Like most double musician households... there is generally an unspoken agreement that equipment purchases happen in turns... even though that probably still puts me at a disadvantage due to the fact that

One of the things that I look forward to is the #silvergoldstackers raffles... the giant ones that pop up every now and then... and the randomish little ones as well! And @bulliontools has had a couple

Oh tax time is upon us over here... I'd been putting off doing too much on it until the most recent batch of concerts was done... and now that it is, I'm collecting receipts and records to fix up the tax

There are quite a few smaller place around Australia (and the world...) where I could swear that I've never played in.

My wife recently bought a full sized 88 key keyboard to be able to practice whilst she is travelling... she often has lots of stuff to learn, and sometimes being away can be quite stressful for her as

It has been a while (a few months...) since I changed the second highest string (d string) on my Baroque Viola... it is one of these strings where the guage (diameter) of the gut is sufficiently thick

I've been meaning to fix up my Mazda key fob for a couple of months... part of the housing had fallen apart and I have no idea where it is. I just know that one morning, I pulled it out and it was missing

After our little mini-festival, we ended up selling a few of our loaner bows... these are the cheaper factory bows that we lend out to people who play with us as apprentices, in large ensemble festivals,

Unsplash Phew... honestly, one of the most stressful times in running a small music ensemble is the year planning for the coming year. As a smaller fish, you have to dodge all the big budget organisations

Ahhhh... the joys of doing Early Music. In the Baroque era, there were many different pitches all across Europe for the A reference pitch.... generally, they were just whatever the local organ was tuned

Phew... we finally have a bit of time do some chores around the house... an unusual week, but we have this week and next where both of our work is a little less hectic! That said... one of my arms is a

Unsplash There is a bit of a buzz and consternation amongst creatives about the threat of AI on our jobs and industries, and for some parts of our sector... AI is most definitely a huge existential threat.

Aaaargh... the most annoying thing about gardens is the lack of a pause button when you get too busy to spend some time on general garden upkeep. Sure, we have now slowly gotten areas mulched with either

Unsplash Aaaaahhh... the joys of the non-music side of running a music ensemble. Our group is set up as a incorporated non-profit which enjoys the benefits of a cultural charity (income and sales tax

So, a while back I was searching around for a good general-purpose Baroque violin bow... and there was a colleague who had a couple of bows sent to him from a Brazilian bowmaker. I think that this colleague

Living in Australia, on the other side of the planet from Europe has certain challenges for my job... the primary problem is the lack of specialist period instrument and bow makers, and the lack of a large

Unsplash It is June... and it is my most hated season in the arts organisation calender. So, with the end of financial year approaching all the big orgs are doing their campaigns to their big donor support

The new harpsichord did have its first public outing a few weeks ago at our community playing weekend... and it held its own against much larger harpsichords! So, YAY for our little green harpsichord!

Starting to discover some of the smaller venues in Sydney... and this Art Gallery in Mosman in Sydney is one of the mo