Howdy Folks, hope the weekend has treated you as kindly as ours has us. Except for the 6 channel desk fiasco. Oh and Rosies Quantum Train Station affair (I'll let him tell it).

Friday  night saw us head up to the Entrance for a gig at the Lakes. Once again we shall delve into the minutiae of a working band. 

First things first, it's time for the OCD/Spectrum moment of the week. A good van pack.

OH YEAH BABY!! 

Note the ample rear vision. Packing is now my super power. For my next trick I shall now fold myself into an origami shape and post myself to the Bahamas.

(sigh) I remember when we didn't have half this much gear. Whose idea was it to improve our production and lighting anyway? Pete D! It's all your doing!

Still, we now seem to have found the right combo of lights, sound stuff and...err...stuff. Mr Wizard explains that the Styrofoam bits are there in case he wants to start making a surfboard at a  gig, and well we may need surfboard with the amount of Rain we've had of late, WTF happened to summer? But I digress.

Getting out of Sydney on a rainy Friday can prove a challenge:

But never fear, we had assigned ample time for the journey! Packing and logistics? Check. Not all of us proved so fortunate but that's for someone else's blog.

That left Mr Wizard and I to get setup whilst the boys found themselves, each other and their way to the venue

We send our fond 'get a new car soon' wishes to Bill V who wrote his off during our Tamworth Trip (ouch) and is stranded until the gods of insurance smile upon him (I recommend a Van) :-)

Shout outs to Steve and Bernie! Dancing started 3rd song into the set. These chaps cleared the dance floor with some Riverdance Moves, I had to try and snatch a few moments of it :-)

And once begun..

You get the idea. Cheers to everyone who spent the evening with us.

Gig 2 - Bondi Royal  ROCK STAR PARKING

Theo organised the most Rock Star of all unloading parking.Bless you Mr Wanders. if you think I get a thrill out of a good pack, you ought to see me when I get a good parking spot. Ya gotta be grateful for all the little victories, they're the stuff of which life is made.

It was Mardi Gras night and the weather held, the city was blocked off in a few directions but our gig was well away from the finish point for the parade so I missed the traffic. Poor Mr Wizard had to drop via Paddington where he called me to remark that the guys in Assless Chaps were already out and about at 6:30.

Welcome to Sydney. Happy Mardi Gras!

I knew there would be plenty of people going out simply to share in the sense of fun that seems to pervade the city around Mardi Gras time and I wasn't surprised to find the Royal pumping.

Cheers to Ms Irene B, for choosing to spend some of her holiday with us, shoutouts to our Dutch visitors from Iowa, our Other Dutch visitors (ye gods Theo is a Dutch Magnet, where he goes, the Nederlanders seem to magically appear), greetings to our Irish/English love match, and a special shout out to JT and the Significant Others, cheers for coming and spending the evening with us.

How was it?

'Nuff said. Big night.

Theo's drum break during Parchment was remarkable, Noodles (Carl) has started singing harmonies and the boys responded very well to an enthusiastic crowd.

It's good to be back.

We have this coming weekend off whilst we do some 'stuff' and then pretty much a run of gigs though until August. Meanwhile I have two videos we're working on so stay tuned!

MJEB