Photos and Friends

I'm totally buried in recording right now. And I'll not have a lot to show for all my time in the short term. You'll get more entries with new recordings fairly soon.

I thought I should at least post some new photos to get your opinions on. So at the bottom are six macro photos I took of flowers. I want to know which photo you'd most want to look at in large on your wall. I wanted to round it down to four as usual but this time the best I could do was six choices. Last week's winner was my shot - Autumn in the Lake District, UK.

Before you move on to the photos, the highest voted of which will end up as Etsy listings in a month or so, I'd like to mention some other friends of mine on Etsy and elsewhere.

These are people who I think do incredible creative work and have a distinct creative personality, something I'm continuing to strive for but do not always feel I yet possess. For this reason, as well as them being lovely people, I encourage you to take a look at their pages. These people are putting themselves and their work out their for the world to see, all by themselves - no mass advertising or promotion budgets - just good products, so show them some support and spread the word!

I've mentioned my lovely friends and appreciated supporters Megan and Janice before. So I won't repeat myself as I'm always writing too much. Just click on their names and you'll soon find your way to their work.


Here are some more I've not mentioned before.


Kerry Cole Fine Art - Card & Print Shoppe



Kerry has some very vintage-styled and emotively-driven work. I bought the post cards above and Kerry very kindly through in some extra cards. The next shot shows some of her card designs, although these ones are specifically gift tags.



And this last one is my favourite painting of hers, that she has incorporated into card form.




Sora Designs

I really like Wen's original approach to jewelry. The mix of colour with the metal has such an original and vibrant feel. Here are a few of my favourites. Quite bold and different. Unique and beautiful. A must-see/must-buy Etsy shop for any hip and individual jewelry lovers out there!








A Foodly Affair

My good friend Hannah is a very creative and original chef (specialising in raw and vegan), blogger, teacher, foodologist (I think this is the title), and healthy eating advocate, not to mention mother of 1.5 (she's expecting her 2nd). I've done a guest post on her blog this week so go check it out, make my recipe and tell me (and her) what you think. It's easy and healthy.

Here are a few other of my favourite out of her blog posts.

Vanilla/Chocolate Fudge Biscuits (YUM!)




B is for Beetroot




Watermelon Candy (and more)



So here are my six photos. Please place your votes in the poll in the right column. There are 2 other "photo's for Etsy" postings if go back over my August posts.

1) Fire Sticks


2) A Pink Pigeon Pair


3) Hello From The Happy Little Pink People


4) A Beacon In The Bleak


5) Big In Beauty


6) The Euro Bustle Blurs To Silence

First Night On The Town Turns Latin

A year ago today I went on a date - a very important date. And I wasn't even late. (Terrible Alice In Wonderland quote, I know)

Needless to say it was with Sam. And it was the most memorable date of my life, hands down.

For once I don't need to send you, gagging and nauseous, for the nearest paper bag due to a long-winded saccharine story explaining the songs inspiration. Just listen to the song and a lot of the story is there. I hope it paints a picture of Sam and I's special night out getting to know each other on own for the first time - my first night on the town in LA.

When I posted my first recording of this tune the response was "I like that new Jack Johnson-like tune." But although I consider that a compliment and have taken many things from him, such as his pick-free playing style, I wanted this song to have more of a "party" vibe. And I wanted it to reflect the fact that it was the night I first found out Sam spoke Spanish and had lived in Ecuador for over 2 years do volunteer work with the Peace Corp. I also feel that a Latin vibe just suits the idea of a night on the town.

Plus I wanted people, Sam & I included, to be able to Salsa to the song and it feel appropriate. I may not have mentioned that Sam and I have done some dancing lessons recently, focusing on Latin. Unfortunately they are on hold while I try to get my EP recordings finished. We'll get back to it before too long I hope.

This recording is just another pre-production recording. Everything is in the process of being recorded again, with the exception of the percussion which my friend in Melbourne, Arunchala Satgunasignham, has done such an AWESOME job of!

For lyrics go to this page - just make sure it opens in a separate tab and you listen to this version of the song, not the one on that page, which was my first recording, done immediately following writing the song.


First Night On The Town

A life-changing moment...

It's only a couple of hours past exactly one year since the moment I first saw Sam. Considering she is already my Fiancé of nearly 3 months it stands to reason that it was a life changing moment.

I saw her first - through a window, looking into a house from outside, her having just entered, and she was smiling at our friends that invited us both then giving them hugs hello. My first words were to my brother, Luke - "Who's that?!" "That's Sam. She's got a beautiful face huh?" "You're not kidding." In my head I was saying "WOW!"

She came outside, where most people were and stood next to me, where we were introduced, then we sat & talked. She got up and to go inside a few minutes later, and funnily enough I found a reason to go inside, too. I went to the fridge, cut into a conversation she was having on the way back (in the politest way possible) and basically spent the rest of the night talking to her. The moment that everyone who was there likes to quote is when I was passed a piece if cake for desert I said "what happened to ladies first?" Everyone laughs about this, saying I was really putting on a show. But I still maintain that I would've said that even if the girl next to me wasn't the most stunning girl I'd ever had the pleasure of sharing conversation with.

A really interesting point I'm going to interject with here is that she was sitting on the couch after a hard day of work considering seriously the idea of pulling out of coming to this dinner, as she often did, as she was doing her Dental Surgery Residency. How's that for a clutch life decision?!!

Back to my story...

Needless to say I was floored. So beautiful. So lovely. So unique. I was certainly nervous and should've been very intimidated but there wasn't one uncomfortable moment. And I can quite honestly say that there have only been 2 uncomfortable moments between us and both were on our first date. More embarrassing moments than uncomfortable really. I find it quite incredible. She has been a ball of surprises since the start, never being what I expected, or exactly what I would've defined as "perfect" previously, but something else so much better, that not even the greatest imagination could conjure in such detail, uniqueness and exquisiteness.

Sorry - there is going to a lot of gushing this month. Then I'll give you a bit of a break until the wedding on January 5th, 2012.

I wrote this song on the last day of the year last year in reflection on that night and how we had both been so "lost in goodbyes" in the years before meeting each other. Although we both say we had made a lot of leeway with moving on before we met it was definitely the catalyst to letting go of our pasts once and for all and embracing a future filled with happiness and true love.

I performed the song for Sam tonight, sitting in the exact spot in the same house where I first saw her standing and smiling that night. It was very convenient that the friends who's house it is have us looking after their fish and plants while they're off getting married and honeymooning.

I also performed her another song that I wrote just for this occasion. I'll put that on my next post though.

Go to this page if you want to read the lyrics.


Penny & Jacob





P.S. I forgot to put my poll on the right column of the page to vote for the photos I posted yesterday! Oops. It's up there now so please vote. I'd love to know which one is your favourite!

Four Landscapes and Four Seasons

Thanks to all those who voted on my four Western Australian sunset photos. Here are the final standings;

1) Yallingup Beach
2) Bathurst Lighthouse, Rottnest Island
3) Government Lake, Rottnest Island
4) Redgate Beach

Second and Third was a close race but Yallingup Beach was the clear winner. This will be the first of my photos to be enlarged and if I'm happy with how it looks it'll be listed on Etsy. I'll keep you informed.

Here are four more photos to vote on, one for each season.

First is Winter - a shot of Big Ben and (just slightly) the English Parliament behind the snow-covered, leafless trees of Embankment. This was "the day that London stopped", being completely unprepared for the volume of snow the night before. The next winter ('11) I actually left London the day before even worse snow storms came through. I was glad I missed it to be honest. But I was really glad that I got this unique shot. I actually like the icicles on the old street lamp (right of photo) the best.




Second is Spring - well, I'm going to confess, this wasn't taken in Spring. It's Australia, which doesn't really get four seasons. So I'm calling it Spring. I don't think you could say it doesn't look like it. I was very happy to get a lucky opportunity with this angle so I could get the Habour Bridge, Opera House, Fort Denison, a little of the CBD, and a fortuitously placed yacht.




Third is Summer - (well, the end of Spring in truth...) I call these "The Windmills of Don Quixote" because it's said to be windmills in this area that are referred to in Miguel de Cervantes legendary novel "Don Quixote". They're in the Spanish region of La Mancha, which falls between Madrid and Valencia. I encourage you to read the book - although, like me, you may not get through it. It is often considered one of the earliest examples of fiction prose (depending on what books in history you refer to as fiction), particularly due to its appeal to the common man. But when you consider what the common man's reading skills would've been like in Spain in the early 1600's I can only imagine how long it took to read!




Fourth is Autumn (and it really is!) - And what a place to be in Autumn, or any time of year for that matter. The Lake District in the UK is without question one of the most beautiful places on earth. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that, despite not wanting to originally move there, my ancestor Robert Southey lived the latter half of his life there. This photo is taken with my back to Derwent Water, facing Keswick (said Kez-ick) with the mountain ("fell" locals would call it) Skiddaw, tallest in the region, in the background. I think that the man-applied red spots on the sheep add a certain something. Something unique. It takes away a little of the stereotypicalness of the scene and makes it different, albeit it in a "tainted by man" sort of way.



So place your votes using the poll in the right column! Thanks!!

A Year Of Love and Surprises

It was a year ago that I landed in LA.

I don't think I need to tell the story again but certainly I'd had to make some very sudden and unexpected adjustments to my life's plans and was feeling rather defeated. Particularly as these unexpected changes had put me out of a lot of money and separated me from my UK bands.

Coming to LA was a big financial risk at a time when I was no longer in much of a position to take financial risks. Due to the love and support of my family, particularly my parents, I was able to make this sudden adjustment, while facing the sure knowledge that I would be returning to Perth at the end of the year to pay back the debt I'd created, then maybe return to LA if I could afford it and felt it was right.

This decision changed my life. Most notably because 4 days after arriving I met my now-Fiancé; the delightful, individual and delectable Samantha Brenner. I assure you that any doubt I had over whether LA was the place for me disappeared the instant I laid eyes on her. And since then she has surprised me daily with something about her incomparable-self that makes me so happy whenever she's by my side, or even if she's not. 

I will get to the relevance of this soon, my gushing aside.

This has been one year of fresh fun, unexpected surprises and endless love. The best year of my life to date, no question. The thing that's most enabled me to grow though is knowing that I still get down and frustrated with things despite all the happiness in my life, and am subsequently learning how to deal with these moments in a more balanced and productive way as I don't have so many extraneous factors to point the finger at.

Again, Sam is a big help with that, and today I'd like to share something she said to me.

I was talking to her about my frustration over getting my EP recordings finished and about other annoying things that are getting me down or angry.

This may not be the exact quote but this is basically it;

"Is expending all this time and energy on these problems and thoughts making you feel happier?"

Although talking things through is crucial, as demonstrated by the fact that talking is what produced this comment, sometimes you can be left dwelling on something that's getting you down. Ultimately, it's positive action that results in you ending your day feeling happy. I believe this is a fundamental part of living a happy life, as a happy life can be simply defined as approximately 30,000 days of being focused on happiness (if you get past 80) and not negativity.

So is what you're doing now going to make you happy at the end of the day? Well...of course the answer is yes as how could reading my blog do anything but make you happy...

But in a more general sense you need to cut out things that aren't adding to your happiness, even if it seems selfish at times to do so. Unselfishness usually results in happiness, but can result in the opposite if not done so with a balance of consideration to self.

Next time you finish the day feeling unhappy, frustrated or angry try pondering for a moment exactly why it is that you've not been happy and satisfied with your day. For me that may be "because I didn't get any writing done", or "because I'm struggling financially", or "because [X, Y, Z] situation is annoying me."

Adjust your plan for the next day to not include anything that can be avoided, whether that means spending less time obsessing over something that is annoying you, spending at least some time getting done that thing that is so easy to put off but so crucial to your happiness (like an exercise program for example), or not wasting time on something which is monopolizing your time and attention but in truth doesn't add to your fundamental happiness.

Some things you may not be able to change though. So make the decision to turn any energy you're putting into being down and frustrated about that thing you can't change and instead put it into something that does make you happy and you can change. You will find this other thing more easily to let go of when you're feeling happy.

Some things you can't change immediately but you can change over time if you're committed. So think about what little step you can take the next day so that you can see that you're one step closer to making the change that you know will result in you being happier, e.g. working on a skill or building knowledge, like playing an instrument or learning about something you want to start a new career direction in.

It's always amazing to me how adjusting how you spend as little as 30 minutes to an hour of your day can be enough to make you feel happy instead of down at the end of the day.

Lastly, consider your day again and look away from the things that are getting you down and towards the things that should've made you happy, were you not so entrenched in what was making you unhappy. This may be a funny conversation you had with a friend (aren't you lucky to have them!), the little task that you've been procrastinating that you finally got done, or the smile you saw on your little child's face when you got home.

For me it's easy - I just look at Sam and I know that any reason I'm finding to be down is easily corrected by the knowledge that I'm the luckiest guy alive!

So there is the final relevance of all my gushing. Thanks for reading all that. I hope it helps you make your days happier.

Thanks to all those who voted on my sunset pictures from last week. The most liked photo was of Yallingup Beach, Western Australia. This will soon be available at my new Etsy store, which I would put a link to here but it doesn't yet exist as you can't have a shop with nothing in it! I will keep you informed though.

Look out for my next post and vote on your favourite photo for this week.

Four Sunset Photos From Western Australia

As I mentioned in my last post I'm putting up photos on my blog, some of which I will enlarge and plan to list on Etsy. I don't think any of these photos could be considered a "traditional" sunset but that's in fact what I like about them. Only one actually has the sun itself in it and as you can see from the photo I had to let the sun "blow out" as photographers say, so that the colour in the rest of the shot can be seen.


I'd like to point out here as I have once before that Australians and Brits spell "colour", "favourite", harbour" and other words like that with that "extra" U compared with the US spellings. Just so you know that I can spell.

So here are the 4 photos. In the right column of my blog page you will see a place where you can vote on your favourite. I'd like very much to know what people's favourites are so please vote.

If you don't work out what the voting thing is you can always just write you preference in the comments at the bottom or email me at - myfighttowrite@gmail.com

1 - Yallingup Beach, Margaret River, Western Australia

2 - Government Lake, Rottnest Island, Western Australia

3 - Redgate Beach, Margaret River, Western Australia

4 - Bathurst Lighthouse, Rottnest Island, Western Australia

Vote for your favourite on the right!