Lemon - A life

July 2005


On a cold and damp July day, the lemon tree is planted















It grows. Friends come to watch.



















April 2007


The first lemon appears.















July 2008

A moonlit night. That first lemon is now quite big. It has several siblings.














Its fate is sealed.
















The much anticipated ceremonial gin & tonic in whose shadow the lemon has lived.

Incredibow

Bought a new bow from the Incredibow company in Mountain View, Arkansas.


It's curved in the opposite direction to a normal bow. It has synthetic hair. It is very light, and has no screw on the frog so it's always at full tension. Almost as interesting was the packaging: It came in a pvc pipe with tissue paper and gaffa tape at the ends. Was wrapped in a plastic bag and a sheet of black satin tied with gold string. Along with the bow came a red plastic rose (if you look closely you can see the plastic dew drops too)


It's very different to use. The jury is still out as to whether it's better or not than a more conventional bow, but early impressions are good.

Amazing Breakthrough

Wow what a brainwave. I've finally figured out what to do with those annoying little stickers they put on fruit (especially apples). You know - you don't want to eat them, but if you peel them off they get stuck to your fingers and the only way to get them off is to stick them to something else. A couple of dozen of these on the fridge can look quite unsightly. The answer? Simply stick them on the plastic bag that the bread comes in. In a day or two the bread will be eaten and it'll be time to throw the bag out, along with the offending stickers! Another battle won in the war between me and stuff.

Violas for sale

Location: Melbourne Australia

John Van Wirdum Viola - 1987
with bow, shoulder rest, and case


Dimensions
total length: 405 mm (15.95")
nut to bridge: 376 mm (14.80")
width: 240 mm (9.45")


Excellent tone quality

$4,500 ono








_________________________________


Collector's Item Viola
with bow, shoulder rest, and case


Early Australian
William Johnson - 1908
Domain Street, South Yarra, Victoria

Dimensions
total length: 415 mm (16.34")
nut to bridge: 315 mm (12.40")
width: 235 mm (9.25")

If you're interested you can contact me at: psell@mail.com

Transport woes update

Well, I took the 3 month option. This is my current mode of transport:


It makes things difficult, especially in Melbourne's winter. But it's no big deal really. its just not what I'm used to. I don't think you could really categorise having to get to work by: motorised pushbike, public transport, and charitable loved one, a hardship.

I certainly don't feel any remorse or guilt over the incidents that put me in this situation. Travelling slightly faster than an arbitrary speed limit, on roads and in situations that could safely handle a much higher speed, is not what I would call criminal or being a bad citizen. In fact what I would call it is a cynical money making exercise. Or at best, that I was the victim of being caught in a trap designed for somebody else. Sort of collateral damage in the war against hooning.

Anyway it will only last 'till the middle of September. Then beckons springtime in the hills around Melbourne, astride my lovely Ducati.

Those Crazy Americans

Apparently a supercomputer built for the US government has performed the first petaflop in history. So what's crazy about that? Well the computer is called Roadrunner. It seems whatever they do, they have to include some form of cultural evangelism. I mean ok, call it something that's fast and ok, american too, 'cos that's where its made. But why name it after a cartoon character? A bad and boring one at that. (and I'll bet that to most people in the world it IS a cartoon character, not an example of the local fauna in new mexico). They should have just gone all the way and called it Speedy Gonzales, but then they couldn't have gotten out of paying royalties to warner bros. (Which is also why if one was built in Hobart, it wouldn't be called Tassie Devil) To be fair, it's quite likely however, that whoever named it was NOT thinking about the rest of the world at the time.

My mistress' eyes

Sabine came over to Tas for the weekend. Naturally, this reminds me of my favorite Shakespeare sonnet:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight


Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,--
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.