New Year's Eve - On the year past

One of the things I enjoy most about writing a blog is the chance to think out loud - and to have others critique my thoughts (and point out the errors!).

I have had the chance to meet a lot of really interesting people, drink some amazing coffee, cup with the best roasters in the state and be amazed by the generosity of those involved in Perth's coffee culture.

I have some high points and low points for the year - and I'll deal with the low points first just to get them out of the way:

• Biggest stuff-up of 2008: Announcing that Liar Liar had been sold (when it hadn't). I will have to get to Melbourne to apologise to Nolan personally for the stuff-up, but in the meantime this acknowledgement of error will have fill in. 


• Biggest disappointment of 2008: Having to do financial analysis rather than attend the 2009 WA Barista/Cupping/Latte art Championships.


• Worst Coffee of 2008: Its a toss-up between the coffee-in-a-can I tried and the coffee I got at the airport. I think the airport wins. It was late, I was tired I needed a coffee. Dome at the airport, can't tell you what their coffee was like because the milk was so hot I got a blister on my tongue.


• Worst attempt at humour: April 1st, Kopi Kecilsapi. I should probably resolve to stay away from attempting funnies, but since it is a resolution I am almost certain to break I shall not make it. 
  

And now the good things of 2008!

• My best blog post in 2008: While I really enjoyed writing the series on the concept of 'Third Place', the most accessed content was the reprint of the Faema Family Manual, and the picture of my CT scan (do a google image search for 'CT Scan' and you'll see what I mean!). Unfortunately, neither of those two 'most popular' posts were written in 2008 so I guess I bombed out there! 


• THE Best Blog post of 2008: Abstract Gourmet with the coverage of the Australian Barista Championships, AND the 2009 WABC event, neither of which I could attend but got to live vicariously via Matt's most excellent blogging.


• Favourite region for 2008: Central America, no question and El Salvador in particular produced some truly wonderful beans this year.


• Best Education Event for 2008: I think it had to be the 'meet the grower' event with Fiori Coffee at Entendre where we got to meet Gerard Barrios and hear him talk about his coffee. It is a shame we are so far from so many regions and can't fly more growers to Australia, and lucky that Gerard works for Qantas as well as representing his family's coffee interests.


• Best General Event for 2008: The World Barista Championship broadcast night at European Foods. The big screen, the food, and the coffee - it was a great night.


• Best Cupping Session: Friday, April 4 - Five Senses in Rockingham. The new roastery has a fully kitted out cupping laboratory that works really well as a space to experience coffee.


• Best New Cafe in 2008: A tie between Zekka (King Street) and Entendre (Shafto Lane) - what is it with the Western end of the CBD anyway?.
  

On balance I think I enjoyed this year as much as any I have had. However, coffee was not responsible for that, the most joy came via my own Junior Grendels and from Mrs Grendel and from the community of people that I have met because of my passion for coffee. I think I really maintain an interest in coffee because I love the people who are associated with it - my friends and my family.

Coffee has become something that I see as richly rewarding, because it has provided me with an opportunity to meet and keep in contact with some of the very best people that I have ever met, the most generous, the most outgoing and welcoming collection of fellow coffee lovers.

You know who you are, so thank you.

Happy New Year!

Did you forget someone this Christmas?

European Foods are running a series of courses for the coffee enthusiast - Tom, the Head Trainer has sent through a list of the program they will be running in January. If you forgot to give a present to someone this Christmas, you may be able to redeem yourself yet.

14 January - The 'How-to' of Home Roasting Workshop
13 January - Coffee Tasting Workshop
21 January - Cocktail Creation Workshop
21 January - Get to Know Your Gear and Grinder Workshop
10 March - The 'How-to' of Home Roasting Workshop
17 March - Coffee Tasting Workshop

It's a great calendar of events, all held at the Braziliano SuperBarista Education Centre at 95 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Full details can be found on the European Foods website. Just click on the link to 'Education'.

A highlight will be the the Coffee Tasting Workshops which will be held with Catherine Ferrari, the 2008 Australian Cuptasting Champion. I'm (pretty) sure that just because one of the coffee tasting events is on St Patricks Day she won't make you sample green coffee. . .

Reprise: So you got a new Espresso Machine for Christmas

Well Santa brought you exactly what you wanted for Christmas, a new espresso machine so that you can be your own barista. That's great, and welcome to the world of home coffee bliss - although there are a few things you might want to think about before trying to pull that first shot of espresso.

First, go check out the discussions at Coffee Snobs. The forum has a search function so that you can check to see if your question has already been covered, and the snobs are a friendly bunch with lots of advice.

Second, did you get a grinder with your machine? If not, make one your priority purchase for the new year. In fact, the grinder is more important than the espresso machine as you can't make great coffee without a great grinder. Pre-ground coffee is always stale, no matter how well it is packed. While you can get by with a small 'peppercorn' type coffee grinder (the type with the chopping blades inside) for a plunger, these will not grind coffee well enough for an espresso machine. Look for a conical burr grinder, and again, Coffee Snobs has lots of advice available there.

Third, you need fresh coffee. This means it didn't come from the supermarket shelf. Finding fresh coffee used to be hard but there are so many smaller roasters around in Australia now that with only a little looking you can find someone to sell you freshly roasted coffee beans. If the sales assistant can't tell you when they were roasted you are probably in the wrong place.

You may also consider roasting your own. Look through my other posts for some initial hints on that and then head over to Coffee Snobs for the expertise. If you live outside Australia you might also look at some other sites about home roasting in your area. Sweet Maria's is another good starting point, but is all USA based.

Fourth, and a very important point, while it is not hugely difficult to make a coffee on an espresso machine, there are elements of art and science to making coffee and doing a home barista course is an excellent way to start off - you'll be able to impress your guests and banish nescafe from the house forever.

I recommend the following home barista courses (listed alphabetically)

Epic Espresso Home Barista Course
European Foods Home Barista Course
Fiori Coffee Home Barista Course
WA Barista Academy Home Barista Course

If you just can't wait to make a coffee, remember to clean your machine - learn how to do it properly and do it often. Use filtered water, especially here in Perth. Buy a tamper - the thing you use to press the coffee down into the portafilter (filter handle) of your machine.

Warm the machine properly before use, warm the cups and until you've had lots of practice buy yourself a milk jug thermometer so that you don't scald the milk by heating it beyond 70 degrees.

Coffee is a gift, a machine to make it with must be treasured - start your own coffee hospitality tradition and share the bean!

Merry Christmas, enjoy your coffee.

P.S.

If the machine you got was a 'Nespresso' or other 'pod' type machine I recommend you buy a magazine or other portable entertainment as I'll expect you'll be wanting to stand in line at the 'returns' desk at Harvey Norman. I would consider that a very wise move no matter how long you have to wait in line.

12 Days of Christmas

A classic Comedy take on the 12 Days of Christmas.

Christmas

Not a day for blogging for sure, but certainly a day that generally gets blogged about. We didn't have coffee at Christmas this year, mostly because it was at our in-laws and they don't have so much as a stovetop or a plunger.

So, here are a few brief moments from our day:

It is quite possible we were the only parents in the world to be sitting up 

waiting for their children to awaken.

The individual Gingerbread houses at the place settings

Over-indulged in baubles. . .

Christmas Eve

I can't believe I've never done a Christmas Eve post before. . .

I think I know why - no time for the internet on a day like today, so have a great Christmas, enjoy the time away from work and spent with family, friends or enjoying the quiet solitude, or as much as you can get through the rowdy neighbours.

Pranzo

I'm sitting in Pranzo this morning with the sun at my back, some fruit toast and an espresso. The sun is shining directly onto the screen of the XO laptop and yet I can see it clearly.

It is my last day at work before a short break and I am waiting to hear what the changes will be in the new year in our office - some big ones are likely but we may not know until early January.

It has been a very busy year and Istill have not managed to visit some of the cafes I most wanted to visit. It has been wonderful however, meeting the people that I have in the Perth coffee scene, such a great collection of characters, creative, passionate and committed.

I am looking forward to 2009 and the new learning opportunities it will bring.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the cafe owners, baristas and wait staff who have gone out of their way to make mefeel welcome and to talk to me about why it is they love coffee. It has helped me understand a lot more about the role of coffee in Australian society and culture.

The Christmas Tree Economic Index

The New York Times is carrying a story today about the effect of the economic crisis on Christmas tree sales.

Yesterday I picked up our family tree from the tree farm and noticed that this year there was a marked change in the trees people had bought.
All the smaller sizes were gone leaving some stunning very large trees. In previous years these had been bought by businesses wanting to have a foyer focal point for their Christmas celebrations.

This year they have been left in place. Most of the smaller trees have been taken though, families shifting down a size to save $10 or $20. We opted for a smaller size, wanting to be able to fit it into our station wagon for once.

The trees this year are a beautiful shape, the late rains have given them extra growth that is fresh and soft. The whole house smells of fresh pine - and not the nasty 'air freshener' variety.

It is a nice size, and I guess a lot of people are going to discover that a downsized tree is still a blessing.

I'll be interested to see after Christmas whether we start to see a shift down in sizes of things other than trees - take away coffees may be a further indicator of whether or not people are feeling the pinch.

Chocolate

This post follows on from something I read today over at Scott Vawser's blog.

Back in March I did an Easter blog post about the ethics of chocolate and discussed a range of alternatives that had not been produced by slave labour. No, I'm not exaggerated, bonded servitude of children is slavery, and I think if it was our children being forced to work long hours with backbreaking labour just so some fat aussie/yank/pom can tuck into his Snickermarbounty bar then we would be making a fuss. No, more than a fuss, we'd be rioting in the streets, taking up arms and generally be doing something, anything to stop the bastards forcing our children to work.

But this is West Africa we are talking about, practically the home of slavery for the last several hundred years, out of our sight, children stolen or forcibly taken from parents by armed thugs, but out of our sight. . .

The problem has been exacerbated by the political instability of many West African countries with various groups at times seizing control of the cocoa growing regions - and the capacity to raise revenue from them. Forcing people to work the plantations is a natural consequence. Unfortunately forced labour of children was going on without the power struggles.

Demand for cocoa beans drives the need to produce, and the price cartels formed by the Big Chocolate companies maintain a ceiling on the price of cocoa so that you and I can enjoy for just a dollar a sugar and fat filled treat that we can easily afford - and do not need.

Repeat after me - chocolate is not one of the five essential food groups.

It is not a staple food, and is a genuine luxury item we can afford to pay more for if the additional money means that we can eat it with a clear conscience (from a non-diet perspective anyway).

A lot of the beans produced by slaves are from smaller plantations and the product is sold on the 'spot market' the conglomerated mix of small, and often anonymous producers that feed into the global cocoa trade.

Like coffee- specialty chocolate producers want to know exactly where there cocoa is from and what quality it is. They are more likely to know if it was ethically produced. The larger mass producers of chocolate are less likely to know as they will buy in bulk to meet demand.

The major producers have signed an agreement (in 2001) but have not yet met their agreed actions to ensure that no cocoa is purchased from slave labour. After all, this is all happening in a part of the world that doesn't even have high-res Google Earth imagery so who's going to know?

I know. And now you know too.

Watch the little YouTube clip then check out this list on my old blog post that indicates which chocolates are 'safe'. Christmas should be a time when we think long and hard about how what we give to others might be taking from someone else - hardly in the Christmas spirit.




Hat Tip to Scott Vawser at No Guarantees for the linkage goodness to the new ads.

Friday Night Music

A little of the music I grew up with - Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds'

The Last Day

West Perth today saw the departure of a great barista.

 

Pranzo have been fortunate to have Nicole working with their Wega for a number of years, but sadly she is departing for the East Coast.

 

Farewell Nicole and good luck crossing the Nullabor!

Just in time for Christmas

The upside of the downturn is oil prices:

Meaning you can still afford to drink coffee (just!)

Beans, beans the musical fruit. . .

But definitely they belong in the percussion section.

Roasting coffee beans are their very own symphony of cracks, pops and sussurations. Tonight I was roasting Yemen Ismali beans - hard, nuggetty, misshapen and small, these are among my favourite coffee beans for sheer intensity.

I try to give them a slower roast than most beans and tonight stretched it out to 22 minutes, which should be about right for this batch which are in need of gentle treatment.

Sadly I am currently out of Central American beans and have nothing really suitable to blend, although I am tempted to try some PNG Maragogype beans which visually at least would make an interesting 'Twins' blend. Side by side you'd have the Schwarzenegger of coffee beans (big, lots of bulk but not really much complexity) with the Danny De Vito (Ismali beans - round, small and ugly - but very intense and rewarding).

I'm not sure how it would work flavour wise, so I still haven't thought of a good Christmas blend and considering I only have a week to go I may well be drinking the Ismali as a Single Origin for Christmas.

Not sad about that at all!

The picture on the left shows a Yemeni in the Haraz mountains. 

Coffee is dried on the flat roofs of the houses which are made of packed clay. 

Many small stones find their way from the roof into the coffee beans making de-stoning an essential part of the enjoyment of a true Mocha coffee.

(Picture via TravelAdventures.org)

Blogging on the XO

The keyboard is designed for a child's fingers, the bright lime green of the casing accents is drawing a few wry smiles as are the raised rabbit ears of the aerials, but the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop is everything that Nicolas Negroponte promised that it would be. I can only imagine how it must be for a whole class to be using these together. The collaborative activities available over the mesh networking seem to be fairly advanced and you have to ask why mesh networks are not used more widely in our own education system.

The device itself is a real gem, and it is an important tool. Its existance is a tribute to an amazing vision and the capacity that this gives to students in the develoing world to learn and communicate outside the restrictions of their environment is amazing.

So, what of our own children. The Australian government has been very keen to see laptops in the hands of children across the country, but have they thought beyond the technology to how they should be used. Mesh networking is not common as a feature and yet for an educational environment it offers a vast leap in the collaborative efforts that can occur in the classroom between all members of the class.

I'd love to see the school that the Junior Grendel's attend adopt the OLPC as their standard - with arrangements similar to those in place where the OLPC has been placed in the Pacific - the child owns the laptop.

These are not a high-end games machine, and children who are used to the big screen and ontense games of full-throttle laptops are likeyto look on them with disfavour. At first - they grow on you very quickly and as an educational tool they'd be outstanding.


This first OLPC blog post was powered by Fiori blend coffee at Tiger Tiger and typed to the beat of some weird rap/grunge/jazz/techno stuff that Claire has on the speakers. . .

Christmas Coffee Ideas

James Hoffman has written a great post on Christmas coffee ideas. He also mentions the-machine-that-shall-not-be-named that was pictured here on Sunday as not a gift you should consider.

Not Too Late - Yet

If you have bought the coffee lover in your house one of these for Christmas:



You still have 10 Shopping days to return it and buy something that can make coffee.

Was that too harsh?

No, I didn't think so.

Look, full points for design and creative thinking, and if lack of mess is more important than the coffee and you only drink it for the caffeine hit, then this is the machine for you.

Waking up to this every day would make me not want to wake up - otherwise what is the point of coffee snobbery?

Bean Scene Magazine

Bean Scene Magazine kick off in a big way in the New Year and are keen to cover the specialty coffee scene across Australia. There is a very familiar range of names and faces associated with the launch of the new magazine - all of which make me confident that it will be outstanding.

Here in Western Australia we can often miss out - or feel as if we are missing out, since so many publications are put together in the East and inevitably have an Eastern States flavour.

We are very hopeful that this will not be the case with Bean Scene Magazine.

In a recently released press package, Publisher John Murphy outlined their vision for the magazine:

"We will produce a magazine that makes the best of coffee available and accessible to anyone who wants to know more. Although the magazine is written by the industry’s foremost aficionados and experts, it is presented in a way that can be enjoyed by the home enthusiast and uneducated consumer alike. This is a policy of inclusiveness; coffee lovers come in all forms and BeanScene will bridge the gap and encourage those interested to acquire the necessary knowledge to develop a love and appreciation of the bean. Although we are Melbourne based, the magazine will truly reflect a national perspective – city and state rivalries will have no place in BeanScene. We are about showcasing the industry’s best, no matter where they are based and our goal is to develop the industry as a whole for the betterment of everyone."

Bean Scene Editor Steve Agi has expressed a keen interest in contributions from Western Australia and I know that the vibrant and competitive specialty coffee scene here has much to share with other coffee lovers across Australia.

Friday Night Music

First - a little advertisement:



and now the entertainment!

Where's my laptop?

My laptop is in Papua New Guinea. Which is kinda cool as I wanted it to go to a Coffee-growing region.



Image via OLPC Oceania project

My 'other' laptop is shipping to us from Sydney right now.


Here is a whole class of OLPC users:

Bean Scene

Bean Scene magazine will be expanding their capture of Australia's specialty coffee industry next year and I'll be posting some information up shortly about just what we can expect.

 

It is good to see some industry publications focussing on good coffee - and they provide a forum for discussion that can reach more people than the odd coffee geek/snob discussion group, or that even odder creature, the coffee blog.

 

Western Australian coffee lovers have a chance to contribute to the content and I intend to do so as I think we have a fascinating collection of roasters, cafes, baristas and coffee nuts here in Perth that we should share with the Eastern states.

 

I'm also on the look-out for new coffee based recipes as I have started a new blog (really just an online recipe book) to store all my favourite recipes. It'll take some time to add them all but I've made a start already. This one will be a collaborative effort with Mrs Grendel, since she makes pretty good tucker and takes great photos.

 

You can find it at Gastronomology.

 

 

How many?

Based on a successful execution of yesterday's rumball recipe I can confirm that the recipe makes 24-40 rumballs (depending on the size of each ball).

They are also very rummy. I can recommend saving any extra raisins you might have as they go very nicely with vanilla ice cream - ream rum and raisin ice cream!

Variation on a Theme - Rumballs

My mother has a book of recipes that she put together from recipes of her own, old family recipes, ones from friends and neighbours and weird concoctions we picked up while travelling.

Everything in our house was made by hand so as kids we learned to make most of the things in the recipe book and some I still remember today.

We used to make Rum Balls every Christmas in vast quantities that would be placed into jars and given to everyone. I don't like chunks of orange peel in anything other than marmalade so my Mother's Rum Ball recipe suited me just fine.

Ingredients:

• 12 crushed weetbix
  
• 2 tins of sweetened condensed milk
  
• 1 cup of raisins 
  
• 200ml of Dark Rum
  
• 4 Tablespoons of cocoa (I'll be using West African Red)
  
• Dessicated Coconut for rolling
  

Method:

Soak the raisins in 100ml of the rum. The longer the better - sometimes we left them to soak overnight.

Crush the weetbix into fine pieces (this was always my job) and add the cocoa powder - mix well.

Add one tin of condensed milk and work this into the mix. The consistency you are looking for is firm but pliable like a pastry dough - you may need to open and add all or part of the second tin.

Add the raisins and work them in gently (they'll be quite soft, what with all the rum they've drunk already. . .)

Taste the mixture - is it rummy enough? If not add a little more rum.

Use a teaspoon to measure out enough for each ball and roll the balls, dropping them into a tray of dessicated coconut - roll them in this then place into jars - best refridgerated for storage but removed an hour or so before eating.

Drink the remaining rum (this was always Grandad's favourite bit).

In fact, my Grandfather had a slightly different method that involved a swig of rum between each step. Seemed effective as his rumballs were famous.

Florentines

For the last few years, Mrs Grendel and I have been making biscuits for little Christmas gifts. The most popular have been the Florentines.

Such a simple recipe, but one that seems to work perfectly every time.

Ingredients:

• 6 Cups of Corn Flakes
  
• 2 Cups of sultanas
  
• 1 and 1/2 cups of flaked almonds
  
• 1 cup of red glace cherries
  
• 1/2 cup of green glace cherries
  
• 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk
  

Chop the glace cherries and mix all ingredients well.

You'll also need some chocolate for the bottom of the Florentines - get 300g-400g of the best courvature you can find for this (the 300-400g range is essential as some 'product testing' may be required).

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 160 degrees (Celsius) in a fan-forced oven. Cool the biscuits on a rack. While the cool gently melt the chocolate in a glass or stoneware bowl. Use the back of a spoon to spread the chocolate then place back on the rack to cool.

Share and enjoy.

Commercial Television

It is not often we watch commercial TV but both the boys were off playing tonight and we had it on just to see something that was not Children's Television. The ads are weird when you don't watch them often, and the level of stupidity is appalling. The Junior Grendels came running in to see what had mum and dad in stitches. They didn't quite see the joke at first - we were laughing at the Coles ad for Christmas seafood where they had the prawn fisherman tipping cooked prawns from the net. . .

Almost as good as a nescafe ad for a laugh.

Friday Night Music

Sting.

Tonight, in Perth at the Concert Hall.

And to add it little spice to it all, he's performing the works of John Dowland, an English renaissance composer.

He will be performing on lute with Bosnian Lutenist Edin Karamazov.

Here is one of the pieces they will perform:



And another can be found on YouTube here, but embedding is disabled so I can't post it directly.

NY Times on Coffee

A couple of days ago the New York Times publish a charming series of cartoons all about coffee. Each is drawn on a paper napkin and is accompanied by a caption. They are well worth a look and you can find them here: NY Times Coffee Cartoons

 

A matter of Loaf and Death

For fans of Wallace and Gromit, don't forget that tonight at 8.30 the ABC is showing the latest half-hour chapter in their adventures. Worth recording for the junior cheese-lovers in your house for sure.

A Matter of Loaf and Death premieres on ABC 1 tonight, Wednesday, December 3, at 8:30pm.

Open Office 3.0

Open Office have released the latest iteration of their amazing Office Productivity suite - and they've released it free-of-charge.

Ok - Open Office is ALWAYS free, but I just had to remind you that.

You can get your own version here

I've made up a few disks to take to work to hand out to people who I know can't afford MS Office 2007 and deserve better - this one fits both categories. I've bundled it on a CD with a selection of useful add-ons.

(Had I been thinking straight I would have done a big open source disk with things like Firefox, Thunderbird, Irfanview and Gimp all together!)

It has consistently amazed me that governments do not get the idea of Open Source as a cost saving measure - even if it was just forsaking the tyranny of MS Office, the licensing costs that would go with it would be immense.

To date the only arguments that I have heard are around the fact that people would not like to change and that some features of office around interoperability would not be available.

Since people in the Public Sector are often learning new systems and supposed to have at least a general competence with IT I find the first argument insulting and I've not yet been able to find out WHICH interoperable systems are so precious they must be retained at all costs. The only one that was pointed out to me was one that in our agency was used by only two users in IT.

Throw MS Office in the bin, download Open Office now!



How does this have anything to do with coffee? Well Open Office is released by Sun Microsystems the people who brought us the Java programming language.


Sun = Java = Coffee

yeah, yeah, lame connection. . .

Big news for travellers

Five Senses have just announced that Lemon have opened a new cafe in the Business Centre at Perth's Domestic Airport.

I must say that as a frequent traveller this is very welcome news, and quote possibly a first for Australian Coffee. I could be wrong, but I don't know of any other airport that has a specialty coffee that close to the terminal.

The Holy Grail for travellers would of course be to have a specialty coffee venue actually in a terminal, but given the murderous rents and restrictive lease agreements at airport terminals I think it might be a while.

Lemon is located at the newly developed Business Centre at the Perth Domestic Airport. To get there, turn left onto George Wiencke Drive which is off the second roundabout along Brearley Drive. Lemon is located in the orange and grey building on the right. Apparently the 'Permit Only' signs are only there to frighten off parking scabs and can be ignored by those just popping in for a coffee.

I'll put up a map when any of the online maps sites get around to updating their maps. . .

Full details, including photos can be found on the Five Senses website here, and on the Lemon Cafe website.

As a bonus, you can order by SMS on your way to the airport. To order by SMS just send a message 15 minutes before you arrive with the following information:

• Coffee preference (flat white/macchiato/latte etc); 
  
• Size (small/medium/large);
  
• Sugar or sweetners (or say nothing to have none added); 
  
• Your name

I'll be visiting right before my next trip and will hopefully have a review then.

Lemon Espresso at the Airport is open from 7.00am – 3.00pm Monday to Friday.

Remind me not to fly Saturdays any more. 

Burnt Fig Affogato

One of the joys of working from home is being able to make a coffee whenever I need one.

Today I decided an affogato might be nice. I made one with the espresso shot poured over Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig Jam with Honeycomb & Caramel Ice Cream.

This has got to be the affogato of the year. The burnt fig and caramel really work well with the coffee.

If you are having a dinner party over the festive season and want something to top it off I would recommend this. It would serve well with a chilled white port or a sticky dessert wine.

Say "Cheese"!

While we are assured that the cheese like aspects of the Earth's satellite are nothing but myth or the basis for an excellent Wallace and Grommit adventure, the moon did thoughtfully respond to appeals this evening and gave us a cheeky grin in collaboration with Venus and Jupiter.

What has become known as the "Great Smiley Conjunction" does not in fact refer to a cheeky boy in an outback town who earns a bike and then a gun, but rather to the extraordinary (and I am sure much blogged) crescent moon, which through serendipity was perfectly placed as a cosmic emoticon.

I took photos (naturally). Some even showed the Great Smiley of 2008 in all its glory:

From Cafe Grendel

This somewhat shorter exposure is even more 'smiley'

From Cafe Grendel

Sting

For those who don't know, Sting will be performing in Perth this Friday night at the Perth Concert Hall. All the details are here at BOCS ticketing but be warned, tickets are extremely limited.

I like Sting and I love medieval music so I'd love to be there for this concert, but I can't.

Sting will be playing the lute.

No, not kidding.