News 2011

December 24: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The last entry for the year. Eleanor has done the annual family drawing. You can see that we have a new addition, baby Bede on the bottom right and Bernadette wants you to know that the sunglasses are a result of slight artist error rather than any habit of hers. Thanks to all who have shared the journey this year. Merry Christmas to you all and blessings for the new year.

December- Family Christmas Events: The last few weeks have had many family Christmas and end of year events. Amelia had her Christmas Concert at Gumnut preschool; Eleanor had her end of year piano concert and was brilliant; Cecilia's mini-music group put on a Christmas pageant at the Salvation Army Hall; we got to see Fr Sean in pink on Pink Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent; and Eleanor and the Malone boys have done lots of busking around Bowral and are sounding great and earning good Christmas holiday money.

December 12-December 16: Christmas Concerts Week 4: The last week of concerts for 2011 began fairly close to home at St Paul's, Camden, where I performed over two nights as they're such a big school. The amazing thing was meeting four ex-students from my teaching days in Liverpool, who are now mums at St Paul's.

Without doubt the most stylish principal of the Sydney Christmas Concerts was Mr Richard Blissenden of Corpus Christi in Cranebrook. It's a huge school so we put on the big light and sound show. At this time of year you see more South Sydney than North Sydney jerseys, but some people, like my old teacher's college mate, Mark Feneley, are plain tragics! One of the funniest men I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

To the coast and back to Corrimal to visit St Columbkille's, where I had a grand time two years ago and won a huge raffle. This is a vibrant school in many ways but they have real artistic flair. Last year they helped with my Mary MacKillop book and this year they entered the Advent/Christmas art exhibition at the Cathedral in Wollongong. This one, by a Year 5 student, was my favourite. And another ex-student, Jarod Simpson and I caught up again. I taught Jarod when he was in Year 2 back in 2000.

Last day of school and I got to witness a farewell tunnel at St Pius X, Unanderra. I sang with a beautiful choir which included formal Bowral girl, Jessie Green. Her big sister Cassie sang on one of my CDs and was on one of my DVDs and she joined me in singing the Irish Blessing as we farewelled Year 6 and some staff from St Pius. Then it was home for the drive back to Bowral and the many repetitions of Jose Feliciano's version of Feliz Navidad.

December 5-December 9: Christmas Concerts Week 3: The week began at St Patrick's at Kogarah, where each class had created artwork to accompany their song and decorate the hall. And leaving Kogarah I came across this business: Chinnie's Beauty and Nails!

Then to Sydney's west to my old friends at St Andrew's Marayong for my third Christmas Concert with them, now in their fantastic new hall, where earlier in the day I witnessed their own film awards, called the Andy's! Off to Manly by the sea, where my hotel was right behind the school and church of St Mary's. If it hadn't been for the rain, guests in the hotel could have had box seats.

On Thursday I was at Sacred Heart, Pymble, where I caught up with one of Eleanor's old friends, Anita. The week finished at one of my favourite Sydney schools, Sacred Heart at Mona Vale, which featured another spectacular teacher performance to Feliz Navidad.

November 28-December 2: Christmas in Sydney and Wollongong: The week started at St Rose's Collaroy. Two of the highlights were the best dancing performance ever by teachers at any of my concerts. They stole the show with Feliz Navidad! And the Year 6 class were just brilliant. I also got to catch up with an old teaching pal, Barbara Clarke and her husband Ron and their grandchildren.

On Tuesday, I celebrated Christmas with the children of All Hallows at Five Dock. Thanks to the lovely choir and to Chantelle and the great dancers from Year 5 and 6.

The month of November finished at Our Lady of the Rosary, St Marys. Another dear friend, Fran Sidoruk, teaches there- we were kinder teaching buddies at Hoxton Park in 1999. Another great teacher performance to Feliz Navidad and Andrew was the star of Christmas Where the Gum Trees Grow.

This time last year Danny Sykes was doing his best Elvis impersonation at St Brigid's, Gwynneville. Now he's principal at St Michael's, Thirroul and is looking a little more respectable! The highlight of the evening was the new school song launched by the great Year 6 class and Jan Rowland, a parent, who wrote the song with the children.

The week came to an end at St Margaret Mary's, Randwick North. Since I was there last they have formed a Music Ministry team who helped with the singing all day and we even did a live performance of Maranatha. Thanks to Zoe, Angus, Imola and especially Alana!

November 25: One month to Christmas at St Michael's, Meadowbank: Last year I visited St Michael's for Christmas but our evening event was rained out. So I returned this year as their hall was back in action. The whole school was brilliant but Year 2's singing was unbelievable- no microphones needed! And Year 6's movement to Shine Among Them was simply brilliant! Thanks to Stevie too for being my buddy for the day.

November 21-24- Christmas in Brisbane: And so the Christmas run begins. Brisbane has only two weeks of school left so they're keen to celebrate before school breaks up. I started the week at St William's Grovely, then on to St Bernardine's Regents Park, St Joseph's Kangaroo Point and finished up at St Columba's Wilston. Some of the highlights were meeting old friends from Pukekohe in New Zealand,  and one of the Mary MacKillop artists from Kangaroo Point.

You have to love how five year olds decorate Christmas trees when left to their own devices- I'm sure there's a tree under there somewhere! And how about these "Feliz Navidad" glasses. And Julia was my helper of the week!

November 20: First Holy Communion for Georgia: My eldest granddaughter Georgia made her first Holy Communion. She had spent the weeks before being prepared and what was lovely was that she went to lessons with her mum, then me, then her grandmother, so we all shared a bit of the preparation with her. Eleanor not only played violin but sang the Psalm for the first time!

November 18: St Bede's, Red Hill: I celebrated my grandson's first week of life by visiting St Bede's! This was my fourth visit to St Bede's over the past ten years and in fact they would have been one of my first ten schools- I'm now up to 825. A lovely day and evening- Helena and James both impressed wtih their fuzzy-wuzzy hair.

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November 17: St Mary's, Crookwell: Back to the Country: Crookwell is a beautiful country town about 30 minutes north of Goulburn. St Mary's was hosting the principals' meeting so I got to catch up with Claire Frazer who helped me write "Tell The Good News". Brock and I shared guitar tips and Alex did the best sales table display of the year.

This was a big event at St Mary's, their annual concert night and as a result there were some great outfits on display: Hands and Hearts shirts, butterfly tops and Rainbow socks. The highlight for me was when the school captains read out a poem about me! A fantastic fun day!

November 15: St Gertrude's, Smithfield: The day began with a visit from an old friend. I met Simone Bozza when she was 12 and a good friend of my eldest daughter, Kylie. Now she's a mum and her daughter is in kindergarten. St Gertrude's is a huge school in south-western Sydney as you can see. I had to get a shot of these four fellas who easily take out this year's best roadie awards. They really knew how to pack leads and stands- better than most adults, in fact, better than me!

November 14: Back To Good Shepherd- Where These Hands began! From 1998 to 1999 I was the Assistant Principal and a kindergarten teacher at Good Shepherd, Hoxton Park. I taught a boy called Ryan, who one day said he wanted to sing nothing, which became the Nothing Song, which in turn became These Hands, my most used song. It was grand to go back and visit a place that holds many memories. It was a really great day with the kids of Good Shepherd. I caught up with many old friends: Dave Hurley, Lisa Wells and Pauline Michael (all former colleagues) as well as some ex-students who dropped in. Dominic Cabusi is the young man in the middle. He was in my kindergarten class in 1998, we swapped guitar picks in 2005 when he was in Year 6 and now he's studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has his own successful pop/rock band. The Bugeja family is one of only two remaining original families of Good Shepherd. It was great to see Carmen and Josh and all the family again.

November 13: One In Faith- Annual Frenchs Forest Mass: Each year I am privileged to be asked to lead the singing at the combined Mass in the Catholic Parish of Frenchs Forest. This year it was at St Martin's at Davidson out in the fields. As usual there were rainbows everywhere even on the feet of the amazing music teacher Janella! We had the traditional releasing of the doves for the prayers of the faithful which is always a highlight. Jordan, entertained the crowd afterwards with his own compostion, "The Music Is Me". I really think he has a future in music. And I had to say goodbye to my dear pal, Zoey with a Y, who is off to Davo next year! Bye Zoey! This year was the most fun of all- thanks to Fr Michael and Kate Brown and all the team.

November 11: 11/11/11 And a new grandson is born! Bede Andrew Hart came into the world at 6:06pm, weighing in at 3.4kg and at 51.5cm. Nicole is doing well as is the rest of the family. Bede is a beautiful name that means "prayer" and of course Andrew means "strong, manly and comical". Bede was also the name of Australia's first Archbishop, Bede Polding. In the middle picture Bede is being held for the first time by his big sister, Eden. Together they make "Beden"!

November 10: Frenchs Forest Catholic Parish: OLGC and ST Martin's preparation day: Every year I'm invited to help with the music at the big parish Mass held in Frenchs Forest. I spend some time in each of the schools, OLGC at Forestville and St Martin's at Davidson and then work with the parish musicians in the evening. At OLGC I was reunited with Annabella who I remember as "Helicopter Girl" because of the amazing tricks she can do with her pony tail! And I caught up with Caitlin and Josh who found out that their photo had made it on to the artwork for my new CD.

Then it was off to St Martin's. These three very talented people are known as JAS (for Jordan, Annalise and Sally) who already write their own songs and perform as a trio- brilliant, especially their creation song. And my old friend Zoey with a y, brought me some flowers!! In the evening the youth band of the parish got together along with musicians and singers from the parish to practice for Sunday's big Mass.

November 7: Our Lady Help Of Christians: A Song and a Concert: Last time I visited OLHC it was for Christmas. It was amazing how many of the children remembered the night and what they were wearing! This time we started with a songwriting session and came up with something quite pretty I think. Lorenzo won the quiz with ease- what an amazing knowledge of the bible this boy has. Great singing from Amy, MIchaela and all the girls and Lorenzo. And my pal Bernard came for a visit too!

November 4: A morning with the DRSs of Auckland and then homeward bound across the Tasman: It was an early morning start for breakfast in Ponsonby before a morning session with the Directors of Religious Studies of the Diocese of Auckland. It was a great honour to return to this group which I last visited in 2003 when I was so new at what I was doing and had so little to offer. I relished the chance to return and offer some of the  ideas from my new CD, People Of Peace. It seems that the African Blessing, We Gather At Your Table, This Is My Body and Mass for God's Children will be valued and used well. The DRSs of Auckland are up there with the best adult singers I have ever worked with: the RECs from the Sandhurst Diocese, the music teachers and APREs in Perth.

One of the highlights was the folding competition at the end of the Rainbow Song: we had a bishop's hat, some guacamole and even a tribute to Mary. I then made a quick dash across Auckland Harbour to my old friends at St John's Mairangi Bay to drop off the gear before boarding my flight to home, sweet home.

November 3: Our Lady Of The Sacred Heart, Epsom: What a beautiful school and we were given the opportunity to perform in the most beautiful of churches- so many levels and everyone could be seen. And while I was in the church I learnt something. There was a list of all the Popes throughout the ages so I've committed myself to learning the first five: St Peter, St Linus, St Anacletus, St Clement I, and St Evaristus. While wandering around Epsom I could see the iconic Mt Eden in the background.

There were a few stars on display in our evening concert. OLSH's own Will I Am was a star in If I Were A Butterfly as well as being a guitarist of some note. Sabine was one of the great performers, not just of this tour but of the whole year. Thanks to Grace and Antonia for their gracefulness and Antonia-ness. Takumanawa had a great fish face along with so many other gifts. The highlight of the night was the way the great teachers of OLSH joined in the evening with their hearts, souls and voices.

November 2: St Dominic's, Blockhouse Bay: A lot of schools in New Zealand have this great tradition of teaching the boys and girls communication skills by looking after the office at lunchtime when the secretaries and bursars are having lunch. The principal of St Dominic's is a vibrant young principal who I've actually known for a few years, Daniel Pepper, and he is doing some great things at St Dominic's, including his active participation in these Shine awards. His son Thomas, the Big Pepper, impressed everyone with his gopher face and Charlotte was the life of the show along with Eric. Margaret Fitzpatrick and Mary Siebert have helped me with my recordings over the years as St Dom's has twice been the scene of my choir recordings.

November 1: People of Peace- new CD on the way and the cover is here already! My new CD is in its last month of production. Part of that process is getting the artwork together. Here is the cover! It started with an idea my eldest daughter Kylie saw and then we workshopped it with my wife, took lots of photos, and then Tracey Lee Cooper, our graphic design artist, worked her magic to come up with this! If any of the choirs are reading this the hands belong to one of the Adelaide groups.

November 1: All Saints Day at St Mary's, Ellerslie: I see red and a choir of angels! This was my first visit to St Mary's. there's a school in Australia called St Mary of the Angels and this school could be called that. What great singers. I had a small choir of just six but they were amazing. My favourite part of the day was the way they sang Walk Humbly With God. The choir joined me in my red-headedness for the night thanks to Mrs Bush. There were a couple of North American gophers. I was really touched, when very quietly before the concert, Yasmin came to personally thank me for the day we'd shared. Thank you Yasmin!!

And while walking around Pukekohe and Auckland the last couple of days I've seen these great number plates: St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes and belonged to an insurance company! And someone loves Elmo...

October 31: St Joseph's Pukekohe- fun times with old friends! This school holds many fond memories. I think I was the first person to perform in their new hall in 2006 when I met the famous Arizona. Her cousins Will and Ingram were around this time. And I was honoured to be greeted by the lovely Talafekau (I can still spell it!) and Tori who remembered being nice prize girls last time around. Speaking of Tori, she's a triplet along with Amelia and Elizabeth. But their brother is my twin because we share the same birthday! Ekaterina was a brilliant gopher. Thanks to Tricia, Noreen, Judith and all the teachers for a lovely dinner again, just like last time. May our paths cross again.

October 27: Back to All Saints: Back in 1984 I was a beginning teacher and started my career at St Mary's Primary, Liverpool, in Sydney, which is now called All Saints. Of all the 800 schools I have visited around Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, All Saints is the one I have visited more than any other. I think I've been there every year since 2004! One of the great attractions is working with Trish Giusti and her classes. For years Trish used to inherit a Year 6 class and immerse them in music for a year and turn out an amazing group of musicians by year's end. Now she has transferred the gift to Year 4, where with the help of the other Year 4 teachers, David and Luke, she has created a band of 90+! We had a great time working through my new Mass setting, Mass for God's Children, as well as a few old favourites and my new African Blessing.

After lunch it was the turn of the Year 3 classes. Some real movers in there, especially Harrison, Elizabeth, Jacob, Cassidy, Ashleigh and Mia with the swinging hair! At the end of the day I went to say goodbye too Mrs Gobeli's class and they'd written their own version of the Walking Out The Door Song just for me- thanks 3 Cahill!

October 25: News from Cobar's Mini-Vinnies! These are my pals from St John's at Cobar. Last week they were attending a Mini Vinnies conference at St Joseph's Condoblin, when as they walked in someone spotted my tile that I donated many years ago when St Joseph's was rebuilt after fire damage. So the gang all stopped to have their photo taken around the tile! I think I can spot Emily and Taylor. Thanks to Jacinta Thatcher, their teacher for passing on the great photo too.

October 20: St Mel's, Shepparton: Welcome to Cow Town! Not St Mel's, but Shepparton is famous for it's decorated cows. The good thing is that they change all the time and all of these were new since my last visit. I like the Cockatoo Cow best.

And from cows, the last thing I saw on my morning walk was a real life camel, celebrating water wise week in Shepparton. Keeping the animal theme going this is Connor, who had one of the best gopher faces of 2011!

I love this picture of St Mel's logo- the sun streaming across the image and the simple words "Christ Our Light". We learnt a new move in the folding competition- the Shot Put! One of the junior classes brought in their own version of In The Beginning. It was just beautiful and this was my favourite picture.

October 19: St Luke's, Shepparton- Our Hearts Burn Within Us: St Luke's is the newest school in the Sandhurst Diocese. Their first ever Preps are now in Year 6. Back in the beginning I wrote their school song, again with the community of staff and children, based on the story of Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, written by St Luke. You can see the story alive in their logo and motto here. It's a song I'm very proud of, and we sang it with great joy today ad even took some video footage too for future filmclip.

Here are two new friends I met on the journey at St Luke's. The young lady is O-livia who was in everything today, when she wasn't giggling! And the young man is Fr Rob Galea, the famous composer of music of faith. We got to share stories and ideas and a friendhip was formed.

October 18: Back to Sandhurst, my favourite Australian Diocese- St Joseph's, Numurkah: Totally unrelated to anything I started the day with "Breakfast at Tiffany's" something I'd always wanted to do! St Joseph's is a school with a proud tradition. It was the first school established by Mary MacKillop's Josephites in Victoria back in 1890.

I also have an association with St Joseph's. I wrote their school song with the community back in 2006 and because of their proud Josephite tradition I invited them to be part of "Mary MacKillop- Beneath a Cross of Stars" last year. Alysha, one of the artists is still there, now in Year 6. What I loved about St Joseph's when I first went there was how friendly the staff and students were and how everyone used names. It's something I value greatly and it is still valued here- a great community builder. And Bryce won the fuzzy-wuzzy competition at our great evening concert.

October 15: People of Peace- recording all done! Now for the mix... Eleanor and I travelled to Springwood for the final recording session for People of Peace. One of the best parts of my ministry is to hear a song that began with an idea years ago, become more than you hoped it would be through the many talents of others. So now it's over to Nick McKinlay and Ben Robertson to sort through all of the sounds, mix it together and give it all a polish. That should be done by late November.

October 14: Our Lady of the Rosary Day at Kellyville: It's been a few years since I shared this day with OLR. We began the day with a beautiful Mass in Our Lady's honour. The Year 5s and 6s did a beautiful job on the liturgical movement to I Sing to Mary, led so well by Adam. Claudia and Jack did a great job on lead vocals too. I also had the opportunity to lead the singing of my new Mass Setting- Mass For God's Children. The celebrations continued all day with workshops, an afternoon concert and then an evening concert too. Sarah was an amazing "Nice Prize Girl". And the young lady in white is Bianca Vella who I taught in kindergarten back at Good Shepherd in Hoxton Park. And on the end is my nephew Toby, who has now mastered the art of lead-winding, and gave himself a halo to celebrate!

October 12: On the Big Stage in LA! Three Aussies Together As One! My friends and colleagues John Burland and Michael Mangan and I have been invited to provide the lunchtime entertainment in the Arena at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim in March 2012! It's a wonderful honour to be part of such an event and to share our music this way.

October 7: Last Choir Day: After spending the week before all over Australia it was good to be back home at the Robertson Brothers Studio in Springwood, recording all of the NSW and ACT children- and one Tasmanian too! That's Kirby from St Aloysius in Hobart down the end.

We had another bunch of adult singers too, this time singing "Carry Me Now". Holly, Georgie and Juliette got to help out. Eleanor was singing with her fifth and final choir. We gave her the afternoon off to go to a birthday party. My granddaughter, Georgia made her first appearance in one of my choirs too. Matisse joined Eleanor and I for the redhead shot and Clare was enjoying her snack.

This is the Gillespie Gallery! On each album I ask the children to wear bright clothes for the photo shoot. Not only did the Gillespies do that but they also added the Butterfly and Rainbow effect too!

And in the afternoon we did it all again, with a completely different lineup of songs. As you can tell by the smiles it's actually a lot of fun recording and I have to say that this time around it was the most fine I've had. I think I've also got a little better at doing it too.  This choir was mainly from around Sydney, the Central Coast and the Southern Highlands.

We had a couple of boys with Angelo and Riley. We had a storm as well and Riley attempted to drink the rain. The three girls on the end are all from St Bernard's in Berowra in the far north of Sydney.

This is Rosemary and Krystalle who were part of the Central Coast gang from Holy Cross Kincumber. And what a talented choir of adults to finish off with, including four relatives of Monica Brown! Some brave brothers in there too- well done Thomas and the boys!

October 6: Back to Marymount, Burleigh Waters: As you can see from the images below, Marymount Primary School in Burleigh Waters prides itself on its visual arts. There were so many images all over the school that spoke of the Marian charism of the school. The school logo welcomes everyone at both entries to the school. These Hands of Reconciliation were painted by two talented teachers on staff. Images of Mary can be found everywhere- the first by Dylan and "Our Lady of the Southern Cross" was painted by a former student named Sarah.

I was at Marymount again to write a new song for them based on their charism statement "We walk with Mary". So in the morning we held a school wide consultation. You can see 5JH working together here as well as one of our junior representative teams giving me some feedback on words for the song. We made great progress and I think the song should be ready in the next week or two.

A beautiful award exists at Marymount called "The Mary Amongst Us Award". Each month a student is acknowledged who has shown one of the Marian qualities in their daily life. I met one of the award winners, the lovely Tara.

October 5: Assisi Catholic College on the Gold Coast- The Franciscan Five! I woke to a beautiful Gold coast morning with a view to the Pacific. Speaking of peace I headed north to Coomera to Assisi Catholic College. Set in beautiful surrounds it is a school that has done so much to immerse itself in the charism of St Francis of Assisi. One aspect of this that I witnessed was the Franciscan Five. Assisi CC is a large P-12 college with well over 1000 students yet for five minutes each day, at the same time, the whole school stops for five minutes of peace-filled spiritual reflection. Thanks to the beautiful choir, especially my old friend Hannah S.

October 4: These Hands reaches East Timor: Helene Boller, who is the Religious Education Co-ordinator at St Bernard's School in Batehaven on the NSW South Coast, sent me these photos of students and teachers in East Timor learning These Hands. Helene has just returned from a three week visit volunteering in schools there. Apparently These Hands has been translated in the local language, Tetun.

September 30: Homeward Bound: After a gruelling 6 cities in five day tour, Eleanor and I had a big sleep in, then a big breakfast, a long swim in the pool before heading to the Qantas Club where we caught up with our friend John Burland. Then it was time for the long flight across this great country of ours to Bernadette and home. Thanks to the Mercers, Newmans, Oorschots, Bogonis and Gahans and all our other friends, new and old, who made the journey so rewarding.

September 29: Day 4- Last Stop- Perth and the boys (and girls too): An early start! Eleanor and I were awake at 5:30 to head the airport to catch the plane to Perth. We got some great shots as we left Adelaide behind.

When we arrived in Perth we were lucky enough that our hotel let us in early. Eleanor loves this hotel- we only get to stay here when I have enough points to make it a free visit but it is spectacular with glass elevators. After a swim and a shower we headed off to the Loop Studios in West Perth to meet the WA choir.

There were a few butterflies about: Elouise had this spectacular butterfly top and Daniel made the advanced butterfly with his hands. Emma Oorschot has been singing with me since 2006 and she's now the senior choir member. Here she is with Luke, who at 8 years of age, is the youngest butterfly choir member from any of the choirs.

This is Rose who loves Justin Beiber! We made our crosses again and then gave the adults their chance to shine. The WA choir was at their best on Southern Cross Shine but sounded good on all of their tracks. You can see Jack, Annie and Emma singing with the adults. These guys are my "veterans" from Good Shepherd, Kelmscott.

One of the highlights of the day was continuing the sticker tradition with Emma. "People of Peace" is Emma's third CD with me. You can see her here when she was about nine I think and her over the years doing her sticker thing!

Eleanor and I did the tourist stop on the way to the hotel, stopping in for an ice cream by the river and Swan Bells before heading out to dinner with the Oorschots, Bogonis and Newmans.

September 28: Day 3- How Sweet The Sound! The Adelaide Butterfly Choir: Eleanor and I managed a bit of a sleep in. The day didn't look too good to start with as we went for a quick drive out to Henley Beach. But things were looking much brighter by the time the Butterfly Choir arrived at Deep Blue Recording Studios in the city. Tapiwa and Bonnie had travelled all the way from Whyalla.

Neema, Annabel and Jola came down from the Riverland. This choir was simply sweet. When they sang Light the Way and We Gather At Your Table it brought tears to the eyes of the adults gathered. We got together for our photos and cover shots.

At the end of the session, Jola from Our Lady of the River School in Berri recorded some lead vocals for One More Step and Light the Way. The young man is Simon, who along with Reid, was sound engineer for the day.

We'd finished in the studio by 3:00 so Eleanor and I took the chance to be tourists. We'd never been to the Adelaide Zoo so we took the recommendation of Susan Angus-MacInnes and headed off to see the pandas, Wang Wang and Funi.

We then headed off for a quick dinner with our friends Peter and Robyn Mercer. Peter is famous for his ties and because we were heading to the Adelaide Catholic Schools Music Festival he had on this musical tie. And the festival! Just sensational. A choir of 400 children from Catholic Schools performed a wide range of songs. My favourite was Dancing in the Streets. Three of my choir members, Tapiwa, Bonnie and Sarah were in the choir and I managed to spot all three of them. Secondary students also provided some brilliant support acts. I loved the performance of Killing Me Softly With His Song from one of the secondary school girls ensembles.

September 27: Day 2 of the recording tour- Melbourne: After a late arrival into Melbourne Eleanor and I had a big sleep in before having a walk along the beautiful Yarra River and grabbing some breakfast. The it was off to St Peter's at Bentleigh to catch up with Drew again who was now engineering on his home ground where he teaches. First off in the recording area was my dear friend Jane Mitchell. Jane, who wrote the beautiful song "Gifts", wrote a song with me called "The Spirit of the Lord" back in June which is on the new album. Jane came down to record her vocals and was able to stay to hear the choir sing.

The choir came from all over Victoria and we had 9 amazing children who travelled from Tasmania to be part of the recording: 6 from Launceston and 3 from Hobart. We also had Eleanor and Brooke from NSW. We worked hard for the first 90 minutes and got most of our work done then. My own favourites were what they did on "The Spirit of the Lord" and "Forward In Faith". We went outside to work on the photos for the CD cover.

It's amazing when children get together who share the love of singing. The last two in this line are Molly and Abigail. Now they'd never met until today but Eleanor thought they must have gone to the same school together. Catie, on the left, was the choir veteran, having been in one of the choirs for Many Roads, One Journey.

We again asked the parents, teachers and grandparents to sing and they did a really lovely job on "The Spirit of the Lord"

Then it was time for us all to say thanks and goodbye. I had to say goodbye to my new friend Drew who had done such a fantastic job in all ways- his way with the children, his organisation and all round professionalism. Eleanor and I then headed off to the airport for our trip to Adelaide for the next leg of the journey. Thanks to all of the beautiful Victorian/Tasmanian choir!

September 26: The grand recording adventure begins- Four cities in four days- Day One Brisbane! Last night Eleanor and I left Bowral for Sydney to begin the great recording adventure. We caught an early flight to Brisbane where we picked up Drew Lane, who'd flown in from Melbourne to be our sound engineer for the day. We were greeted by the lovely Susan Angus-MacInnes, the Assistant Principal of St Kieran's, who had kindly agreed to host the recording.

First job was to get the amazing vocals of Bec Thomas recorded. While Bec is a brilliant violinist her vocals have added a lot to some of my songs in the past, especially I Light A Candle. And then the choir arrived from all over Queensland: from Mackay, Sarina, Bundaberg, Longreach, Toowoomba and Brisbane. Shea travelled up from Tasmania and McKenzie Batty caught a 1:45am flight from Darwin! And of course there was Eleanor from NSW.

Right from the very first words of "We Are The Body of Christ" the choir was fantastic. They sounded just as good on the ballads as they did on the boppy songs. A couple of songs were just transformed by their vocals, especially "We Are One" and "Let Your Light Shine On Me". While we did the photo shoot outside we worked on the cover photo: a cross made of human hands- a nice link to People of Peace.

The surprise highlight of the day was the performance of the adult choir who sang the choruses to "Come Dance With Me". The choir was made up mainly of the parents of the choir as well as the three high school members of the choir and choir captain, Bec Thomas!!

The recording session went so well we finshed 40 minutes ahead of schedule. We fittingly finished, as Emily suggested, with a grand Butterfly Bow. Courtney had brought her butterfly headband for the occasion too. The last photo is of the locals from St Keiran's.

And now the great recording adventure heads south to Melbourne where we will catch up with the Victorians and Tasmanians as well as my dear friend Jane Mitchell. Outstanding work Brisbane Choir! You brought tears to my eyes on several occasions!

September 23-24: Tulip Time in Bowral! I was able to get home in time for the last day of term and have breakfast in the park with my daughters and granddaughters. It's Tulip Time in Bowral which is spectacular when the weather is great. Eleanor and I spent Saturday morning doing our green screen shoot for the DVD, the very last bit of shooting for the project.

September 22: St Joseph's Nyngan for Footy Fever Day and then to St Mary's Warren: I left Cobar and my dear old friends Bill and Fae Mahy to travel down the highway to St Joseph's, Nyngan. It was Footy Fever Day and I managed to find three other Bronco supporters! What a classic Australian country school scene welcomed me!

I then continued down the highway to the town of Warren where many years ago two of my mates had been principal, Brian Lacey and Michael Leahy. And the current principal, Beth McCole and I have a shared past in the Wollongong Diocese. The kindy loved performing These Hands and Alice (I don't know why she's leaving) walked away with the nice prize!

September 21: St John's, Cobar: It was two years to the day since my last visit to St John's and now, like so many other schools, they have a spectacular new school hall for us to work and perform in. I got to catch up with Me-with-a-G also known as Meg, Taylor and met some new friends too like Gustavo who is "awesome" and can speak three languages so I guess that is pretty awesome! Thanks to Todd who finished is picture of me, to Jasmine of the many faces and to my old friend Lauren, all the way from Roxby Downs in SA!

September 20: Off to the country! Holy Family Parkes with St Joseph's Peak Hill: Today I ventured into one of the largest dioceses in Australia. The Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese in NSW stretches from the QLD border to the Victorian border and from just west of Dubbo to the South Australian border. And its a special place with a real sense of missionary commitment in the spirit of Mary MacKillop, reaching out to the more remote communities of outback NSW. I was hosted by Holy Family School in Parkes and the Assistant Principal Chris Kupkee had produced this great slide that was our backdrop for the day. We were also joined by the children from the tiny school of St Joseph's in Peak Hill, thanks to the generosity of the school community of Our Lady of the Rosary in St Marys, who sponsored the bus that brought them down for the day.

September 19: St Michael's in Belfield- an early Feast Day- The Feast of St Michael usually falls in the school holidays so we celebrated early at Belfield. This was a joy-filled day, highlighted by Sara and Ati as the conductors and catching up with my old pals Maria and Massimo who I remembered from my last visit to St Michael's back in 2008. And not only is Ben a great singer but his mum makes the best sandwich I've had at a school since St Mary's in Wellington back in 2007 I think! At the end of the day I headed west to OLR at St Mary's where I picked up a gift package for the kids of St Joseph's Peak Hill who I'll meet tomorrow! Thanks Colleen! Off to Parkes!

September 16: Royal Treatment at Stella Maris! Maryanne Heddles has been such a great supporter of my music over the last few years so it was always going to be a grand day at Stella Maris. I received the royal treatment with a welcoming sign and this spectacular morning tea. And I met River, so of course she had to get a copy of my book that has her name on it!

Here are some of the groovers from 5/6 like Hannah and the Rene. I also caught with an old student of mine, Tyler Ryan, who was in my Year 2 class at St Joseph's in Moorebank in 2000. His younger sister and brother are now at Stella Maris.

Sam River and Kayla were great conductors for the day and how about this cute little gopher!!

September 15: St Joseph's North Goulburn: I first visited St Joseph's in 2006 when I wrote their school song. At the time it was a beautiful school with beautiful people but its buildings were in a bad way and in real need of renovation. And now it's done! It's an amazing new place and I received the grand tour! In their new hall they've remembered their history with this backdrop.

They really love to sing at St Joseph's, none more than the very talented Amy. Not only can she sing but she and her friends have started to write songs and this one is really good. I was so impressed with Amy that I made her the very last inclusion in the Butterfly Choirs.

September 14: Last trip for the year to Melbourne- St Peter's Hoppers Crossing: My last school visits in Melbourne for 2011 and I awoke to a beautiful Melbourne morning overlooking the Yarra River. St Peter is my favourite saint. A man of strength and weaknesses who learnt from his mistakes and sins and became "the Rock" on which Jesus said he would build his church. St Peter's at Hoppers Crossing has had the chance to create some amazing gathering spaces and have incorporated words and images that link Peter to Jesus.

September 10-12: Remembering September 11 and in the studio with Lauren Moore: On September 10 Bernadette and I headed to the grand Sydney Town Hall for a very moving musical experience called Mass for the Ordinary Man, a reflection on the evils of war over countless centuries.

On Monday I was back in the studio with Lauren Moore. Lauren now remains the only person, other than me, who has performed on every one of my CDs. She first sang on These Hands when she was 9 years old and now does much of my adult lead work. Here's Lauren today, in the middle, and five years ago, recording Many Roads, One Journey!

September 9: A Journey Through the Bible with St Timothy's, Vermont: From the first time I visited St Timothy's I knew they had a great music teacher and today I got to meet her- Mrs Lorraine Costa. She has a huge, enthusiastic choir and lots of boys- always a good sign, but St Timothy's is a strong singing school from Prep, all the way to Year 6. In fact both the music captains are boys. The choir performed a beautiful, multipart version of "Ubi Caritas" so I reciprocated by sharing my new song, "An African Blessing".

September 8: St Joseph's, Black Rock: St Joseph's was celebrating Jersey Day, where you wear your favourite sporting colours to support a charity. How about Kate! She was easily the best-dressed teacher if not the best dressed overall, although Millie the Rock climber did a great job too. The boys in year 6 are getting band together and were working on some Coldplay when I walked in. Judy is an old pal from Bundy and we have common friends in the lovely Gahans. And down the end is the amazing Carly can sing, dance, smile! She did a great vocal performance on These Hands.

September 7: St Joseph's Sorrento: When I was a young boy I lived at Queenscliff and would look out across Port Phillip Bay, which was such a long way to drive but you could almost reach out and touch it. So I finally got to vist this beautiful seaside village and the beautiful community of St Joseph's. I was really impressed by Savannah, Siobhan and Kiah who have been running a craft club for young students for nearly half a year!

I met the butterfly girls who had these beautiful butterfly hairbands. Just beautiful Octavia! And Olivia and Addy were such amazing performers I should have realised a lot earlier that theyr were sisters!

From butterflies to gophers- Adam's gopher face was legendary and inspired a whole class of gophers for a great performance of Arky Arky. Special thanks to Mrs White, who did such a great job promoting the evening concert. We had more than 90 percent of the children there! And to Gavin and the great staff at St Joseph's- you made me so welcome- thank you.

And let's not forget the fishies!

September 6: Back to beautiful Melbourne, my favourite Australian City! After two weeks in the Top End it was surprisingly nice to be back in a cool climate. I love Melbourne- it's such a lively and beautiful city. I love walking along the Yarra at different times of the day. First stop was St Richard's School at Kilsyth. It's a school that is is visually dynamic. Lots of great signs like this and plenty of beautiful artwork from the children on display wherever you look.

September 3 and 4: Tourists again- Jumping Crocs! As we headed off for our last weekend Eleanor thought she'd have a good look around, a really good look! We went on the Adelaide River Cruise to see the jumping crocs and weren't disappointed- they are amazing, stealthy and prehistoric creatures. We spent the afternoon at the Darwin Museum and Gallery before heading off to see our last Arafura sunset for dinner.

On Sunday we wrapped up our visit to Crocodylus Park. For a Father's Day treat I got to feed the meanest of the crocs and then we all got to hold one. Another great tour guide too.

September 2: Last Stop in the Top End: St Francis of Assisi, Humpty Doo: Last time I was in Humpty Doo I lost my voice but at least I'd found it in time for my visit this time. Jaz and I remembered each other- I think it was that redhead connection again. Zali was a great singer but even more than that she was just so helpful and packed up without being asked. And the lady at the end has had a profound effect on the singing and liturgical life of every school she has worked in and led. Her name is Mary Cutjar and I first met her in 2003. Through introducing "Sacred Song" she transformed the singing culture of Sacred Heart in Palmerston and then St Paul's. Her legacy and her love and valuing of singing lives on on in those schools and to some extent around the Territory today.

September 1: From Holy Family to Holy Spirit: This 2/3 class was one of the best singing classes I've met anywhere in the NOrthern Territory, right up there with Meredith's class out on the Tiwis. Holy Spirit commissioned some great mosaics last year which now adorn their playground. These were my favourites. Can you guess why?

August 31: Back to Darwin and Holy Family Karama: What a beautiful bunch of conductors today led by the fabulous Marly. And some specatular redheads, especially Johanna who starred throughout. Not only could these boys sing but they had an array of fish faces too. At the end of the day I led a teacher workshop for the teachers of Darwin. Thanks to Tracy Flinn for being my dance partner and for bringing in this great piece of writing from James of St Paul's in Nightcliff.

August 30: St Francis Xavier, Daly River: St Francis Xavier is an indigenous community school between Darwin and Katherine. It was so lovely to see the kids singing so full of joy and I met some great characters, none more memorable than Lleyton, who loved Eleanor's Disneyland hat.

I met Frank and Joe, who are travelling around Australia and whose mum and dad have offered to help out teaching at the school for a few months. On our way back north to Darwin we stopped to take some photos of some typical Top End sights: a bull by the side of the road and one of the massive termite mounds that seem to be everywhere.

August 29: St Joseph's, Katherine: The day began with a minor disagreement with young Taylor here. As she was preparing for College Prayer with her class I noticed she was singing Rainbow so I thought I'd help her out. She said that she was sure it went her way because her big sister Eloise made it up! We agreed to disagree! We had the most beautiful early evening concert on the lawns of the college. Great performances from Noella, Will and Leon. Special thanks to Bev Hayes and Renee Breeze for their invitation and love of music too.

August 27 and 28: The girls arrive in the Top End and it's off to Katherine and Nitmuluk Gorge: Eleanor and Bernadette arrived late on Friday night and we headed south for Katherine on Saturday afternoon but not before stopping for a Barra Burger at the famous Adelaide River Pub where I do believe they filmed part of Crocodile Dundee. On Sunday we headed out to Nitmuluk Gorge for a cruise around the first two gorges. There was a huge colony of bats there to greet us. Our tour guide was just amazing with his knowledge of the history of the gorge and its meaning to the people of Nitmuluk.

The large rock below is known as Jedda's Leap as it featured in Australia's first colour movie, called "Jedda". Eleanor fed a wallaby that was just hanging about and we caught up with a camel on our trip back into town.

August 26: St Mary's In The City: Not far from St Mary's is the Darwin Entertainment Centre where the St Mary's children will perform next year. Apparently a few of my songs have been sung in there over the years, especially "In The Beginning". This is the Cathedral of St Mary, Star of the Sea, in Darwin. It's been built to withstand the harsh weather of the Top End. Had a fun day in the new hall at St Mary's with great performances from Ava, Alexis, Tom, Stephen with a PH, JJ and beautiful singing from Laura who wasn't in the choir and Celeste, who was.

August 25: Sacred Heart, Palmerston: This is Emerald who greeted me with a balloon face and a picture of me she had drawn on the way to school. Courtney, Jewel and Maddie couldn't stop waving all day and Cameron impressed with his moves and many faces. It was Maddie's birthday so she celebrated with a fish face, some fuzzy wuzzy hair a CD from me and some cake, which she shared with me- thanks Maddie!

Check out the middle photo- best roadies ever! The boys not only packed up the gear but did a great job on the leads as you can see! Sacred Heart has, over many years, run one of the best after school programs anywhere. I really get to see after school at work when I pack up and this one is sensational, right down to the Friday Singstar Competition which still goes on to this day- I lost last time I was here! The After School cares came out to sing me farwell which was a really lovely gesture- thank you.

August 24: Another Top End Adventure- to the Tiwi Islands: Another early morning start to catch the flight from Darwin north to Nguiu on Bathurst Island. The plane was an 8-seater so I took the chance to sit behind the pilot and get a bird's eye view of the flight. Then it was off to work with the children of Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic School, starting with the T-2 classes.

Year 3 were my favourites because they sang so well and were so brave! We got our photo together and they all came back in at lunch for a personal performance of their favourite song of mine "I Went Walking". Bobby even got up to dance! Then I got to meet the big kids including Eil and Jarwin who I met last year at St Anthony's in Kingscliff on the Tweed Coast.

After school I did some work with the teachers before going for a look through Sr Anne's Tiwi museum. Sr Anne Gardiner has been on Bathurst Island for 52 years! And she's still a proud Swans supporter. I loved the church- open air!

This is the Nguiu airport terminal where I said bye to the boys and the teachers and caught the 15 minute flight back to Darwin.

August 23: A Top End Adventure- Off to OLSH at Wadeye! Many years ago, Peter Juniper and some of the boys from OLSH at Wadeye sent me some clapping sticks to thank me for the free CD I had sent their school. The clapping sticks have since been used twice on my recordings: on This Day and my recording of the Aboriginal Lord's Prayer, which was written in part by a local of Wadeye. So I was really looking forward to my early morning flight on the "Pencil Plane" from Darwin to Wadeye which you can see on the map below. Wadeye is the blue dot. The flight was a breathtaking journey over land and sea and so many colours.

this was the shortest distance ever from an airport to a school. It took me 30 seconds- and I was walking! I was greeted by the voice of an old friend calling out "Chinny, Chinny!". It was Alanga, a teacher at OLSH, who I have now met three times: in Darwin, In Sydney and now at her home in Wadeye. Alanga calls me Chinny because she lost a loved one who shared my name and in her culture, she can no longer speak that name (and I love being called Chinny- it takes me back to my younger days). She was my constant companion as I worked with the children, with Alanga translating my words into Murrinhpatha, the local language.

I also got to meet Sr Tess Ward, who a couple of years ago helped me to solve the mystery of who wrote "The Aboriginal Lord's Prayer". It was written in 1973 by Daniel Puautjimi and Peter Willis for the International Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. Sr Tess and Alanga took me on a quick tour of Wadeye. The tour started in the beautiful church, rich with the stories, artwork and histories of the sacred place. The stained glass window is of the seven watering holes symbolising the seven Sacraments of our Church.

For a small town the museum is unbelievable and the curator had a great amount of enthusiasm for sharing the story of the land and its people. From there it was back to the airport for the flight back to Darwin. Thanks to all for a memorable experience!

August 22: A Song for St Paul's and O-Livia again! Three years ago when I visited St Paul's in Nighcliff the star of the show was a girl called O-Livia and we got to renew our friendship. And now she can really sing too! As can McKenzie, Imogen, Indi and the rest of the choir. Devlin and the one syllable boys were a real hit and I was so pleased that a former student, Julia, now in Year 7, came back to join in our night of faith and fun. I also got to work on a song for my beloved St Paul's, called "In Faith and Love" and it's shaping up quite well. Thanks to Miss Flynn for such a great first day in the Top End!

August 22: Up to the Top End- the tour of the Northern Territory begins: About every three years I head north to the top of Australia to visit schools in and around Darwin. This time it's even more exciting because I'm heading out to some of the more remote schools as well as catching up with old friends like St Paul's and Sacred Heart. And speaking of old friends I bumped into two at the airport in Sydney: Margo Craig, an old teaching pal and her daughter Amy who I haven't seen since she was in Year 1 at school!

And what about my car- they won't miss me in that! I wonder how yellow it will be after two weeks in the Territory. And you haven't been in Darwin until there's been a crocodile headline on the front page of the NT News- and here it is on day one!

August 19: St Patrick's, Nanango: The heart of Mangan territory. When Michael Mangan was a boy this was where he went to school! Some real characters here: Patrick with the best gopher face, Chelsea and the choir, Louis came up with the gym move at the folding competition and then I got interviewed in a very high-tech way by Chelsea and Lachlan.

August 18: Star of the Sea, Torquay: Hervey Bay is a beautiful place and it was great to get the chance to start the day with a beach walk. Then it was off to Star of the Sea School where I again got to work in a grand new hall. Chris Mead showed me their school's specail cross. Eloise gave me some birthday cake- I did give her a birthday present, after all. A grand choir and who could forget, not me, the fabulous Daisy, who has a sister called Lilly and another sister with the middle name of Rose!

August 17: Xavier Catholic Primary, Hervey Bay: This is me about to fly a helicopter into the Grand Canyon in the USA! No, it's not but Nic Constable says that's why he picked his pilot when he was on his honeymoon, because he looked like me! This is Claire, also know as Lachlan, my great choir and two of my favourite redheads, Kyla and Rani. Thanks too to Ella who sang beautifully not just in the workshop but helped me out at the staff afternoon too.

August 16: Back to Maryborough: Maryborough is a very musical place blessed with one of the best band and string programs in the country. I was privileged to sit in on the string ensemble and listened to them play "Au Clair de la Lune" and "Allouette"- tres Francais!

After a day of workshops we gathered in the brand new hall for a family concert. The two Gabbys were sensational! Thank you to the beautiful choir, to Tristan and his hat, Darcy the shoulder boy, Rhys and the Chelseas, Bella and her fishface, Callum, Luke, Hugh, Annabelle and all the gang. A grand night!

August 15: Feast of the Assumption at St Mary's, Maryborough- you can't more Mary than that! I flew north on Sunday to be in Maryborough for the Feast of the Assumption, with the parish and school community. I was privileged to sing with the St Mary's College Choir led by none other than the fabulous Anna Parker who I met back in 2003 when she was in Year 4. Anna sang on "Wherever I Go" and seems to have been singing with me every couple of years since. It was also the international debut of my new Mass setting, "Mass For God's Children" and it went very well. A few of the older girls from St Mary's came to say hello and say that they remembered my visits when they were cute and little!

then I headed North west up the Bruce Highway (only in Australia would we call a highway Bruce!) to one of my favourite Queensland country towns, Childers. This was my fourth visit to St Joseph's and although the number of redheads are diminishing it's still a great school. I was a good Catholic and went to my second Feast Day Mass for the Assumption before our concert in the hall with the gorgeous Emily, Brooke and the choir. My good pals the Gahans from Bundaberg came up for a guest appearance as well. And William on the end is in the running for Best Performance by a Boy in an Andrew Chinn Concert anywhere in the world!

August 12: St Bernard's Berowra: In terms of concerts I am sure this will live on as one of the highlights of the year. A grand choir, great children, a big crowd to celebrate the 4oth anniversary of St Bernard's School and Parish. We were all amazed by the vocal performance of Zoe and she, along with Georgie and Tashi have been invited to sing on my new CD, People of Peace.

Nick and Nathan came up with a whole new "pie in the Face" routine for the folding competition. And my pal Bernard came along. He loves St Bernard's. Can you guess why? Thanks Maria for such a grand day!

August 11: D Day! Well DVD Day! After the practice on Saturday all the gang gathered at St Paul's at Moss Vale for the shooting of six clips for the new DVD, which now has a name: In Your Footsteps! It began with Mahnee and Sarah who had coem up with a beautiful movement to "Come Back To Me", a reflection n the story of the Forgiving Father. Then we were joined by the groovy Year 2s from St Michael's at Mittagong who caught the train over so they could be in my clip for Arky, Arky. Great work from my friend Sarah who was my left hand lady throughout the clip.

Liam took a chance to be relaxed and comfortable while waiting for his turn on the set- what a star! Holly and Jade had the most prayerful faces as did Honey and Sarah in "I Light A Candle".

Will and David did a great job portraying Jesus and Peter in "You Are My Rock" and Magill and Indi were so graceful. And there's Liam rocking away again for the African Blessing. Thanks to the Abbey and Nicola for their Shine card!

And sadly it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful Holsworthy connection: Mrs Roumanos, Kaylee, Mahnee and Sarah who gave so much to this DVD. Thank you ladies from the bottom of my heart!!!!

August 6: DVD preparation in Bowral: On Saturday afternoon I gathered the "Southern Highlands All Stars", all the great movers from the local Catholic schools, for a preparation day with the "St Christopher's Professionals" led by Miss Kathryn Roumanos. Liam, Sam and Will are working on their moves for my new "African Blessing".

During the break we took some photos which I'm hoping to use as the cover for my new CD, which now has a name "People of Peace". Sarah, Hamish and Georgie worked on "Tell The Good News" while Mahnee and Sarah showed us their movement for "Come Back To Me".

It was a bit of a family affair too. Bernadette and Eleanor came to help out as did Mrs Straub from St Christopher's and her son Blake. I taught Mrs Straub when she was in Year 6 back in 1989! And this is Mahnee's sister who was one of the stars of my last DVD, "Come Dance With Me".

August 3-4: Holy Spirit Parish, Gungahlin- three schools in two days: I was invited by Pastoral Associate, Fiona Wilkinson, to do a series of workshops and a family concert at Holy Spirit Parish in Gungahlin in the ACT. The visit began at Holy Spirit School in Nicholls where I worked with a fabulous choir with some great boys like Liam and Nhiaga.

On Wednesday I headed to the newest school in Canberra, Mother Teresa School in Harrison. Mick Lowe, the proud principal, took me on a guided tour. I loved the vibrancy of the place- not just the colours but the energy of the children and teachers too.

In the afternoon I headed to Good Shepherd School in Amaroo where I was greeted by the greeted by perhaps the greatest collection of redheads since Xavier Catholic College, Hervey Bay 2008! In the evening the combined choirs of the three schools got together to help me out- I needed it, I had a cold and my voice was rapidly disappearing! Paula was absolutely brilliant and thanks to Grace and Katie for their help too- nice cloths!

August 2: Our Lady of the Angels, Rouse Hill: OLA is the newest school in the Parramatta Diocese and so only has the younger half of the school. But Mrs Stenning's class sang like big angels, especially those boys. Well done Ben! The last picture is of Ben and the boys doing the best "kangaroos and kiwis" of 2011!

August 1: Mass for God's Children approved by ICEL: My new Mass setting, Mass for God's Children, has now been approved by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and the National Liturgical Commission of Australia has given permission to publish as has the New Zealand Liturgy Office. Thanks to all those teachers who sent emails encouraging me to write it. As soon as I get permission to publish, the setting will be available for trial. Please email me for more details.

July 31: The last musical piece falls into place: The fabulous Bec Thomas travelled to Sydney on the weekend to put down her beautiful violin tracks on the new album, which now has a name: People of Peace! All the music is now recorded. We just have to add some solo vocals and the choirs. The invitations for the choirs will go out later this week. I will be recording in five cities in September/October: Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney.  And how about sound engineer Nick's shirt!

July 29: Mary Immaculate, Bossley Park and another grand new hall! there are many important factors that make a great choir but the most important is joy and the choir at Mary Immaculate had it in loads! I had the privilege of singing with the choir and their teacher, Melissa Olic at the official opening of their new hall. I also got to catch up with some old friends: John Panuccio and I were Religious Education Coordinators together and shared a passion for music. John even played on my first three albums. And Jeanne Pestana, the principal of Mary Immaculate and I worked together many years ago when she was the principal and I was the Assistant Principal at St Peter Chanel in Regents Park.

July 28: St Stephen's at Pittsworth: This was my fourth visit to St Stephen's since first going there in 2003. I have watched the children grow up and have performed in four different halls in that time. They now have this beautiful MacKillop Hall to perform in. Thanks to Jess and Josh for all of their work during the day and particularly for the spectacular work they did in setting up the "nice prize table". And Lily thank you for your beautiful fish face!

July 27: Old Friends at St Thomas More, Toowoomba: I'm lucky enough to visit Toowoomba just about every year. I lived here as a boy for a couple of years and have some good memories but it's my more recent memories that I treasure more. To walk into a school like St Thomas More and have all the children know and sing all of my songs with such great joy is truly humbling. Today was one of those days that makes me feel truly blessed to do what I do.

Last year St Thomas More was one of the leading contributors to the book I wrote with Sr Jill McLoughlin about St Mary MacKillop, "Beneath A Cross of Stars". Josie here was one of the artist and I got to meet her AND... she can sing too! I got some other artistic gifts too. Jeremy and Harry, the twins can sing too and apparently do grand harmonies in the Irish Blessing. What a choir! Special thanks to the Year 7s for their great work on Prepare Ye.

July 26: On The Road Again in Queensland: After a great four weeks in and around home it was time to hit the road again and head north to be a part of Catholic Education Week in Queensland. I spent Tuesday at Holy Spirit, Bray Park, a school that has been using my music for years but one that I hadn't paid a visit too. So we made the most of it and worked on a new school song which is well underway and then had a great concert with the beautiful choir you see below. Jess was amazing! Great voice and a real joy in performing.

And I was lucky enough to meet two old friends. Lara, the tall girl on the right of the choir, and I met three years ago when she was at St Francis Xavier in Lurnea, a school where I taught many, many years ago. And this gentleman and I met about three years ago in the west of Tasmania and a beautiful little school called St Joseph's in Rosebery.

July 5: Back to the Studio- Boys' Day: Today it was time for the boys to add their parts, starting with John Darcy on piano. John is Eleanor's piano teacher and a great pianist. Then my son-in-law Tim Hart added some classical guitar and banjitar- that's a cross between a banjo and a guitar. In the evening, Scott Carroll, a teacher from Mary MacKillop Primary in South Penrith, added some trombone and trumpet. It was a long day, beginning at 11 and finishing at 9, but by the end of the day most of the music was recorded with only violin yet to be done.

July 1: Back to the Studio- Girls' Day: Recording this album seems to be a lot smoother this time around. I think because so much has been written and recorded along the way and also due to the great talents of Nick McKinlay in the studio. Today we added Karina's vocals to Maranatha, Eleanor did some singing too and then Amanda O'Brien, who has played on all of my albums since "Wherever I Go", was back to record her flute parts, including my new Mass setting, tentatively called "Mass for God's Children".

June 30: DVD Filming Day at St Christopher's Holsworthy: No it's not the Wiggles but the boys from St Christopher's getting ready to perform on the shoot for my new DVD. We recorded three songs: "Be Glorified", "We Are The Body Of Christ", and "Shine Among Them" as well as a bonus version of "Rainbow".

You can see by the images that it was a lot of fun. A lot of that is due to the talents of teacher Kathryn Roumanos, who is so good at doing this sort of thing I've asked her to help with the remaining shooting day in the Highlands. And in the middle are my favourite old students, Julie Straub and Juliette Pantaleo, who I taught back in 1989. These two have now helped organise my last two DVDs and, as you can see, have not lost the joy of teaching!

We had planned a whole day of filming but were all done by 11:00! That's when we hit bonus territory and had a lot of fun doing Rainbow.

June 28: Ss Peter and Paul's, Goulburn, a new song:It was quick trip down the Hume Highway to Goulburn for a day at Ss Peter and Paul. I spent the morning working on a new song for them to celebrate their 25 years as a school. In the afternoon I worked with one of the most lively choirs I've met in a long time!

June 27: Holy Family, Gowrie- We Are The Body Of Christ: Holy Family School is one of three in the largest Catholic parish in Australia. The parish, in southern Canberra, is called Corpus Christi, so tell celebrate the parish feast day we had a day together. Holy Family's theme for 2011 is "We Are God's Hands" so because of their theme and the name of the parish, we gave the first ever performance of "We Are The Body Of Christ", one of the songs on my new album. I had a great little choir of eight, with great performances from their all, especially Ashy, Emily and Megan. They were also haveing a cake stall for Missions day and I found (and ate) a butterfly cake!

June 24: St Joseph's at Moora, then home! I was up early in the morning, heading two hours north of Perth to the country town of Moora. There was even a boy there called Moora! That'd make life easy- one less thing to remember! We had a fun half day with the highlights being Kim, James, Mooraand Vanessa's performances

Then it was a drive back to Perth and on the plane to Sydney. The highlight of that flight for me is about 40 minutes out of Perth you fly over the spectacular salt lakes.

June 23: St Columba's, Bayswater- What a choir!! This is a school with a real musical tradition. The choir there is one of the best of any I have met in my travels around the world. I found out that a dear friend of mine, who loves and supports liturgical music, Phil Billington, was once the principal here. She'd be so proud of the musical life here.

As well as a great choir we had a great venue and superb organisation by Mrs Megan Dwyer. Thanks to Kayla, Sophie(s), Daniel and Rose and all of the choir; to Tegan, Scarlett, Gabriel and Digby for their moves and grooves and to Audrey and Alex for keeping it all together! Can't wait to see you again.

June 22: 800 Schools Day! Celebrating with Queen of the Apostles School, Riverton WA: It's a long way from Our Lady Help Of Christians School in Rosemeadow, NSW to Queen of the Apostles, from one Marian school to another. But here I am having racked up my 800th school and it couldn't have happened at a more joy-filled place. I didn't get to meet their music teacher but she must be something special. So many stars to mention: Justin, Josh (the gopher one and the fish one), Ayla, Natalia, Stephanie, Luke and the eyebrow boys, Luke and Matt. Great singing from Justin, Luke, Darcy and Sophie, the Vice-President.

June 21: The Golden West and messages from Moe! Just in time to beat the volcanic ash I flew out of Sydney on Monday night for four days in Perth. First stop was Christ the King School in Beaconsfield, near Fremantle. I caught up with Isaac, whose grandmother teaches in Bowral, where my daughter Eleanor goes to school. And how about this fish face! Max and Jenna had good ones too. Great singing from Anais as well.

During the day I had about 50 emails come in from the kids at St Kieran's at Moe in Victoria. We had a great day together two weeks ago so they wrote to thank me. ]Here's what Ella had to say: "Dear Andrew, It's Ella. You should remember me from the concert that you performed at St. Kieran's. I was the colour violet in "Rainbow" and I was the tall one at the back when the boys performed. Thank you so much again . I really like your singing . Keep up the butterfly magic!" They even sent me a photo from when they were on camp.

June 17: A Journey Through the Bible with Sacred Heart, Mosman: Sacred Heart has one of the most beautiful logos I have ever seen anywhere in the world. They have a motto that they use often: "reaching up in prayer, reaching out to care". Their choir was simply beautiful and learnt so quickly.

Here's what their principal, Vince Campbell wrote on the school blog: "On Friday we all had a terrific day as we welcomed Andrew Chinn, affectionately known as “Chinny”, to Sacred Heart. The kids know many of Andrew’s songs and his catchy number, “These Hands”, is something of an anthem at many of our celebrations. Andrew, who sports a crop of reddish-tinged hair, is also a supporter of the ‘Australian Orangutan Foundation’ and drives a car with the number plates RANGA 1! He proved a great hit with everyone, kids, parents and teachers. His concert at the end of the day, in which each Year Level presented an item, brought our week to a close in the best possible way as we enthusiastically celebrated the many elements of the Christian story with joy and exuberance."

June 16: DVD Preparations at St Christopher's: The stars of my last DVD were undoubtedly the children of St Christopher's and their preparations, led by Kathy Romanos and Julie Straub have been brilliant. I dropped in on Thursday to see how they were going and I couldn't stop smiling! They've been working on three songs for me: "Be Glorified", "Shine Among Them" and "We Are The Body of Christ".

June 15: A Journey Through the Bible- Best So Far with OLD Chatswood! This was my fifth visit to Our Lady of Dolours in four years. I've now known Princess Nina since she was in Year 2. She's become a beautiful singer over the years as has Justin and Christian too. I've done about 15 of these Journey through The Bible In Song Concerts over the past year and this was the best, probably because the children were so familiar with the music. One of their favourites is my favourite, "With You In The Morning", and they have had it up on visual display (done by Year 3) throughout the season of Easter.

The day began with a beautiful rainbow in Bowral and my wife said you could actually see the end of the Rainbow! The day finished not so beautifully with me and Sam being disappointed by Queensland's loss in State of Origin Two.

June 10: St Kieran's, Moe: I love this school. You always get a warm welcome. This time it was from my old friend Frosso as well as another red-headed Andrew. It was great to see Siobhan come to life as the day went on. Sarah and Elise (Navidad) were great on the microphone as were Lachie, Liam and Josh.

June 9: St Michael's, Traralgon: E-I-L-Y is how you spell Eily! There were some real characters at St Michael's. The "Yellow Boys" were stars and part of this best Rainbow folding competition anywhere in the world!! Some great singing performances especially Melinda, who later went on to take out the quiz.

These two boys could sing: Daniel- not David and my red-headed pal Will. And Jane MItchell was still present with her beautiful depictions of the life of Mary MacKillop in the new hall.

June 8: St Mary's, Newborough: It was a cold and wet day in Newborough but we gathered together in the church for a night of faith, fun and song. Nicola was one of the stars as were my two fantastic conductors Jerri and Bailey. Thanks to Josh and Iszac for their moves too.

June 7: St Gabriel's, Traralgon- home of the famous Jane Mitchell! Jane Mitchell is a multi-talented lady (though she says she can't dance!). Jane wrote the beautiful song "Gifts" along with many others. We've got to know each other over the years and have become friends so that's where I stayed during my week in the Latrobe Valley. Jane is an amazing artist and has just designed this beautiful logo for St Gabriel's and is working on this frieze of school life which will go on display in the foyer.

Here are the beautiful choir of St Gabriel's. I also got to meet up with my old friends Alicia and the Hayes girls and their mum too. Grreat singing from Emily today and Selby and all of the choir.

June 1: St Vincent's Aranda: Marg Koenen is one of the finest principals I have come across anywhere- a genuine leader with a real gift in building community. So it was grand to cross paths with her again and to see her gifts at work again. The morning began on a light note in the car park with my RANGA parked next to a ROO! I loved my band of Yera 6 singers: Matisse, Maddie, Chris and Nikeyla and was lucky to meet some old pals from Darwin as well!

May 31: St Thomas Aquinas, Charnwood: Another St Thomas Aquinas, another Eleanor but this time in Canberra. I last visited St Thomas Aquinas in 2005 and amazingly back then I picked a girl called Eleanor and a boy called Ryan to help me out. Today I did the same thing six years later! Thanks to Jenna for her hair and to the choir for their backing. Loved the boys! Amelia and Holly you were truly brilliant too!

May 29: Spirit Dream in Burning Hearts- Day 3: The Conference came to an end on Sunday. I provided the lunch time entertainment with some help from my parish Baptismal team of Eleanor, Georgie, Juliette and little Charlotte. My nephews Jesse, Toby and Jude also provided some moves along with a team of friends and relatives. My beloved pal Peter Mercer spoke beautifully and movingly at a forum. Like the LA Congress the Conference was a sign of hope for the future of our beautiful church.

May 28: Spirit Dream in Burning Hearts- Day 2: Another highlight of the weekend was to spend time performing with my colleagues. Australia is really blessed by the gifts of John Burland, Jen Charadia and Michael Mangan and at different times over the weekend we got to share the stage and time with each other.

I had the great pleasure of reconnecting with this lovely lady from St Francis Xavier School in Manunda in Cairns. We met on the Feast of Mary MacKillop back in 2003, before Mary was a saint. This teacher had a real passion for Mary, so much so that she dressed up as Mary for the day and encouraged all of her colleagues to do so, so that "our history could live for one day". She was partly responsible for inspiring my song "A Cross Of Stars". It was written ten days after we met.

In the evening, John, Michael, Jen, the Willow Connection, Christine Carlton, the great comedy team called "Carpe Idiotus" and I took to the stage to perform in concert. We did a fabulous interstate version of the Rainbow Song and finished the concert with a rousing version of These Hands. We then headed over to the bar where John, Michael, Amanda McKenna and I performed some classic hits from the past like "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "I'm a Believer" and "La Bamba".

May 27: Spirit Dream in Burning Hearts: A Conference for those involved in Catholic Education across Australia began today and I've been fortunate enough to be asked to be a presenter and performer. The event is being held at Homebush Bay, site of the 2000 Olympics and is organised by the legendary Monica Brown who has given much to the life of the church in Australia. I've been singing her songs for years, with my favourites being "Speak From Your Heart", "Hello My God" and "Just Little Old Me".

The opening ceremony was very powerful. The most moving part was when four people from the north, south, east and west of our country brought water from their oceans and poured them into one font, symbolising unity. My friend Bernard Cumming carried the Paschal candle which was then used to light a thousand candles of all the participants.

What I loved most about the days was catching up with old friends from near and far. Colin Smith and I taught together for four years in Regents Park; Julie Straub was a student of mine in 1989 and now assists me with my DVD productions; this is a younger friend from All Saints in Liverpool, who remembered her fish face from when I visited last year; I taught Rita Messina in 1989 and now she's a teacher too; and the last picture is of Maureen Cowan. She and her two sisters are in Catholic Education in three different states and were able to come together for this weekend of faith.

May 23: St John Vianney, Morriset: After a nice stretch of days at home I headed up the coast for a "Journey Through the Bible in Song" with the children from St John Vianney. Little Isabella in Year 2 was the real star- she can really sing and dance- a voice of the future. I got home in time to see this beautiful sunset in Bowral.

May 18: Together As One: Small Schools Day with St Peter's Coleambally, St Joseph's Jerilderie, St Columba's Berrigan and Sacred Tocumwal: Every year these days are among the highlights. I love to head out to the country and work with the children and teachers in the small schools. This year, these four schools got together at St Joseph's Jerilderie to celebrate Catholic Schools Week in the Wagga Wagga Diocese. On days like this "Together As One" takes on a new meaning as we all come together in our shared faith.

The day began with a lovely warm welcome from Julia and the gang who helped me set up and there was a great visual welcome too. One of the art activities was to draw me and this one was my favourite. And Grace grooved yet again.

I was a little sad at the end of the day as Tom and Darcy from St Peter's Coleambally left. I've actually known them since they were in kindergarten and now they're ready for high school. Thanks to Mr and Mrs W for your welcome!

May 17: Back to St Joseph's Wagga Wagga:I have a soft place in my heart for St Joseph's. I visited them in my very first year, had three singers come from the school to sing on "Wherever I Go", and visited again in 2004 and 2006. And I have a dear teaching friend there in Megan Masterson, we taught together back in the early 1990s at St Francis Xavier's, Lurnea. We discovered not one star, but two. Salvero can sing and do the moves and Maisie was the star of the show featuring in every song except one!

May 16: St Anne's North Albury: It was a very early morning drive down the Hume from Bowral to Albury. I so often talk about butterflies and their religious significance so I was really pleased to see this beautiful Resurrection Cross in the hall. This is Kate, one of those fabulous school captains who lead with joy and enthusiasm. Isaac was a natural showman but it was so grand to see Lara and Natasha emerge from their cocoons as the day went on.

These were my beautiful senior singers, Kate, Amy and Lauryn who did a great job on the microphones. And this is Wodonga's Masterchef, Chris Cotter, who cooked me and his wife Julie the most beautiful post-concert dinner accompanied by even better conversation.

May 14-15: From Autumn to Winter: We spent the first part of our weekend with my father-in-law up in Blackheath. This is Eleanor and Georgia looking out over Govett's Lookout. In Bowral, the last of the trees are changing colours. This is the beautiful liquid amber in our backyard, along with my beautiful wife! it looks like we're heading in to a very cold winter this year. We may get our biggest snowfall since 2004!

May 13: And so it begins!! A new CD in production: Nearly two and a half years since the release of "Let Your Light Shine" I have just begun producing my seventh studio album (there is a mystery 8th double CD called Together As One, but this is only available in North America). Today, my sound engineer Nick and I set up about 6 tracks, including a lovely new offertory song I've just written called "We Gather At Your Table Now".

And yes, thanks to the persistent request of many, especially, Nicola Connors, Shelly Fitness, David Wastie and Susie Giannasi, I have just finished writing my new Mass setting for the new translation of the Missal and it will be included on this CD. It may even be available in the second half of this year as a single release. Other tracks include a cover of Sydney Carter's "One More Step", "Maranatha" an Advent anthem, and my song for the orangutan, Hand to Hand. The CD will be ready for release in Australia and New Zealand in January and in the USA, Canada and on iTunes in March.

May 9: St Peter's East Bentleigh- Welcome to the land of Michaels! St Peter's has four Michaels and three Michelles and that's just among the teachers! This is a school which is fully alive in its musical culture, due in no small part to Drew Lane, the performing arts teacher. Drew's agreed to be my sound engineer on the Brisbane and Melbourne recordings for my new CD which will take place in late September.

Thanks to Gus, Maddie, Eve (It's Christmas!), Tamsin and Loke Yee for their great singing and to all of the choir. Beth, Claire, Maddie and Bella, you're stars!

May 7: Mary Poppins Day in Bowral and New World record! Bowral is considered to be the birthplace of the character Mary Poppins. The author, PL Travers, lived in Bowral from 1908 until 1917 and it was during that time that she formed the idea for the character of Mary Poppins and her adventures. So we commemorated this in Bowral with a world record attempt at the "largest umbrella silhouette" and biggest umbrella dance. the previous record was made in Serbia with just over 1000 people but we more than doubled that number and set a new world record.

The news teams of Channel 7, 9 and 10 flew over and this is what we looked  like. Eleanor and I were in the arm holding the umbrella and our other daughters and their families were there too.

The day continued with another umbrella dance and then an open air viewing of the Disney Mary Poppins movie with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. And it all finished with a great fireworks display.

May 7: New overseas tours announced! We're going back to the USA and Canada in 2012! Thanks to the support of so many people we will be returning to the USA for the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in March 2012 and hoping to visit a few schools again as well as heading north and east of LA to see a little bit more of America the beautiful.

In October we plan to spend a full month in Canada, visiting schools in Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, before taking part in the "When  Faith Meets Pedagogy" Conference in Toronto.

May 6: St Joseph's, Warrnambool- another spectacular new hall: Again I was fortunate to be the first performer in a new school hall. St Joseph's have a huge hall which fits all 500 students with room for probably 800 parents after that. Thanks to all of the Georgias, Harry and Sam, Harry and Tom, Amber and the Rainbow girls. The last picture is of Mr Mark Hyland. He was the teacher who gave me the idea to put my picture books on to DVD, like I did with "Under Your Star" and as a result all five picture books will be available digitally on my new DVD, coming out in January. Thanks Mark!

May 5: Sacred Heart, Croydon: this would have to be one of my favourite Melbourne schools. Last time I was there I had a ball, met some great singing sisters and made a few friends along the way. This time I got to be the first performer in the new hall, met Jill the Luthier, Chris the singer, Bronte my red-headed pal, and Zoe the little songwriter, who not only shared her songwriting with me but also gave me a gift of a picture she had painted of me! Thanks Zoe!

There were some real performers among the boys. These are the now famous Clayton and Kieran, Josh doing the "Joshua eye" move and Chris, who did a great job on the microphone.

We had a grand evening in the new hall and a full house too. A special bonus were the number of redheads! Check out James' smile!

May 4: Happy Star Wars Day- May the Fourth Be With You! One of the best things about St Catherine's at Moorabbin was the quality of the 5/6 classes- really vibrant kids with a real joy and energy. Amazing vocals from Grace, Emily, Emily and Indi and there were some real star perfomers in Bob (also known as Mattia), Gracie, Emily, Matthew, Grace, Austin, Jasper and so many more!

May 3: Living in harmony- St Anthony's, Noble Park: St Anthony's reminds me of the school I began my teaching career at, St Mary's in Liverpool (now called All Saints). Filled with children from all over the world, living in happiness and harmony. And they really love to sing and dance and pick up new songs so quickly. Thanks to Abigail and Petra, all of my singers, Magadalen, Yolana, Amelia, Georga, Tiffany, Sunday and Giselle. Great work girls. And I met two great kids with lovely names to add to my collection: Sunday and Wai!

May 2: Butterflies and Rainbows- St Mary's Alexandra: Hi Chelsea! had a very early morning trip from Sydney to Melbourne. On my way to Alexandra I stopped by St Mary's in Seymour to pick up my gear and saw these great Rainbow vests! And from rainbows to butterflies, I was greeted by these mosaic butterflies on the walls at St Mary's Alexandra. I was really thrilled to catch up with some old friends: Mrs Cowan, Mrs Brewer, Chelsea and her family. Met some real stars too- check out Henry's fish face! Great singing from Mia and an all round fabulous performance from Shiralee. Thanks to Marlie, Amity, Tom and Harrison for your help too.

May 1: An early Mother's Day: Waffles and Mary Poppins: When we were in Canada last month we fell in love with waffles so we decided to get Bernadette a waffle maker for Mothers Day. We also had a family outing with my newly found mother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, daughters and granddaughter to see Mary Poppins in Sydney. Lots of great dancing. My favourite part was the dance sequence for Supercallafragilisticexpialidocious.

April 29: Chappo, Matty and my old friend Olivia- St Joseph's, Tweed Heads: I had some grand views from my Gold Coast window. On the first morning I saw this strom come rolling in from the sea (oh Mull of Kintyre) and this morning I saw the most brilliant sunrise.

This is the famous foot of Matty! Matty could do all of the moves but the highlight, along with Alyssa's sound effects, was his leg move on Shine Among them. Darcy had some great questions about the meaning of life and did this groove in Walking Out The Door. And just to prove he is a man of many talents, Matty joined Olivia in the nice prize move. Thanks to Paige, Miranda, Trent, Byron, Karly, all the Summers, Tyger for a great day.

April 28: Ben, Max the bull rider and Will at St James, Banora Point: The day started with this brilliant rainbow hanging over the sky in Banora Point. It got better when I caught up with Ben, who, it turns out, is not the only Malone to be captain of his school. His cousin Will is captain of St James and did well to handle the "on behalf of challenge" (no behalfs allowed) in his thank you speech. And you can also see Lincoln here, who along with Jessica, put in the vocal performance of the day on "Light Of The World".

One of the highlights of the day was when I picked Mickaeli to be my dance partener in Lord of the Dance. I didn't know that her grandfather Ed used to teach at St James and that Lord of the Dance was his favourite song. He came along for the afternoon concert just to see Mickaeli sing and dance. By the way, Zali and Finn, you were fabulous too! On the right is Kahty Towhill who gives her heart and soul to the beautiful choir of St James.

April 27: Joey, Coey and the Hoey Moey- St Francis Xavier's Woolgoolga: had a fun day with the kids at St Francis Xavier's at Woolgoolga, just north of Coffs Harbour. Met a couple of groovy guys in Year 4 called Coey and Joey. The funny thing is that Coffs harbour has a famous pub called the Hoey Moey! Helen Hunt is a dear friend who teaches kindergarten there and Helen and her mother made these beautiful Easter signs for the kindy kids.

April 26: Ben and a pair of great Pauls: On Tuesday I picked up my young pal Ben, who was heading north for a month on the Gold coast with his cousins while his parent s head overseas. We had a ball playing "name the song and artist" as we drove to Sydney Airport and then from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.

It was a day of two great Pauls. While we were waiting for our bags in Brisbane we caught a glimpse of Australia's greatest living singer-songwriter, Paul Kelly- that's him in the middle picture. One of my true idols. That evening I caught up with my old mate, Paul Hunt in Woolgoolga.

April 23-25: Good Friday, Easter and ANZAC Day: Our Good Friday tradition is to head up to the Marist Brothers for the outdoor Stations of the Cross. The music was beautiful as always and I love how the prayers relate the scripture to the issues of the world today. On Easter Sunday we gathered with our new extended family and finished the day at Sunday evening Easter Mass.

When we were in Canada last month a friend of my father's gave Eleanor the gift of her grandfather's slouch hat which my dad had given as a gift many years ago. So at yesterday's ANZAC Day in Bowral she carried her grandfather's hat in his memory. One of the more moving aspects was seeing the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club playing such an active part in the ceremony. And the Chevalier College band did a great job with the music.

April 18-20: In and around Perth: We love Perth and each time we are there we go to some of our favourite places like Kings Park and the Swan Bell Tower. Bernadette got some great photos of Eleanor and a kookaburra in Kings Park.

On our last day in Perth we went up the bell tower and Eleanor and I both had a turn ringing the bells.

The best part of travelling is the people you meet. We had our annual Perth dinner at Sebastian's restaurant with the Oorschots, the Newmans and the Bogonis. Here are Joseph, Laura and the very stylish Emma Oorschot!

April 19: Currambine Catholic Primary School for Holy Week- As Good As It Gets! This is the amazing Susie Giannasi, music teacher at Currambine Catholic Primary School. This was my second visit to this fabulous school. The choir is just amazing but beyond that the whole school was so well prepared for our Holy Week Remembrance which led to a very powerful afternoon ceremony which brought a tear or two to the eyes of the more than 200 parents who gathered to be a part of the afternoon.

Part of the preparation was the artwork that adorned the walls. Year One had made butterflies as signs of new life and resurrection and Year 5 had done these Good Friday silhouettes. My favourite was Courtney's. Year 6  were just stunning. I'm so glad I have this photo so in years to come I can show other schools just how good it can be.

Here's the choir below. Now girls, you were great, really Laura! But the boys!! Stunning, especially on Garden of Gethsemane! I was lucky enough to have three little Easter Bunnies come and give me some Easter Jelly Beans which came complete with an Easter Prayer, where each colour was based on the events of Holy Week.

The Two Year 2 classes wrote thank you letters. One class wrote individual letters while the other one wrote this one below. Thanks Susie, Gloria, Tony and everyone at Currambine CPS for the perfect end to my Holy Week tour.

April 18: Arriving in Perth: We crossed the rest of the way across Australia to Perth. Eleanor was lucky enough to get the opportunity to see in the pilot's cockpit and wear the pilot's hat! My first day in Perth was at Loreto school in Nedlands, a grand old school with some beautiful statues.

April 16-17: Ali's Wedding and Victor Harbour: After a hard working week we had the great pleasure of spending the weekend with our friends Peter, Robyn and Claire Mercer, and Robyn's mum Maureen, at the beautiful seaside town of Victor Harbour. We had a grand weekend touring around, walking along beaches and catching up with each other.

This is Peter, also known as Aussie Bob because of his hat. Peter introduced me to a local South Australian delight called honey Sticks, from the famous Port Eliot Bakery. Fantastic!

The reason we were in Victor Harbour was to witness the wedding of Ali Bright to Alex. Ali is the music teacher at my favourite South Australian school, St Columba. She is right up there with the best music teachers I have met: Rebecca Thomas, Amanda O'Brien and Diana Newman. It was a beautiful wedding and an honour to witness it. I loved my friend Simon's tie so much I suggested I could use it as an album cover one day!

April 11-15: Holy Week Remembrances in Adelaide: The week began at Whitefriars School in Woodville, where we shared a normal concert day, the .highlight of which was the singing of Deana, one of the best this year.

On Tuesday I began the Holy Week remembrances at St Francis of Assisi School in Newton. Here's what one of the mothers had to say:

"I am one of the mothers who was fortunate enough to witness part of your performance today at St. Francis of Assisi School. What a joy! It was a consolation to me that the children, including my sons, were being spiritually nourished through songs based on the truths of our faith. We need more people in the world today like you, who are prepared to stand tall in faith and use their gifts for the greater glory of God and the benefit of young children who are so receptive to all that is good and wholesome.
A big thank you from a very happy mother!"

On Wednesday I went to a beautiful little school, St Joseph's in Ottoway, a very multicultural school which reminded me of the schools I taught at when I was a teacher. One really good idea was how they used the colours and symbols of Holy Week as the backdrop to our re-enactment. I also loved how SImon McCullough talked the children through the colours and then the events.

Then it was off to my favourite school in South Australia, St Columba College. The children were so beautifully prepared that I could have spent the whole day not singing. A couple of highlights: my old pal Jesse playing Jesus, the singing on With You in the Morning, and just the all round performance of the choir. It was also great to catch up with Michael and Jason, my old singing buddies. Thanks to Jane Bailey and Ali Bright for their great work in ensurign a powerful remembrance.

If St Columba is my favourite then St Joseph's at Clare would have to be right up there too. Wow! Was this an amazing event, but Brandon's portrayal of Jesus in Garden of Gethsemane was so powerful, many adults were moved to tears, including me. Kate, Xanthe and all of the choir were a delight but again I was stunned by how a little bit of preparation can make for such a moving event. Thanks Kylie (Mrs Pud!).

April 8: Holy Week Remembrances Begin: NSW schools finished on Friday but Holy Family in East Granville wanted to recall the events of Holy Week before they went on holidays. They did a great job of preparing from the singing to the actions for the verses and just the way everyone participated so wholeheartedly. I got to meet some old friends too. This is Lauren Hadchiti, who I taught in 1997 when she was in Year 3 and the principal is Sue Guilfoyle who went to teachers college with me way back in the 80s!

April 7: Happy Birthday to Bernadette and the new DVD begins: It was back to work on Bernadette's birthday as I began my first local shoots for the next DVD (we did do some shooting in Adelaide last year too). I headed off to one of my favourite schools, Holy Cross Kincumber, to work with Chris Franklin and his fantastic choir. I had to do it this year before his amazing group of Year 6 children leave.

One of the highlights was this photo of me and Ashleigh, who I think may be the new poster girl for Butterfly Music! The choir was so ready- they were brilliant. We managed to shoot five clips in one day: Walk Humbly With God, I Have Called You By Name, In The Footsteps of Jesus, Let Your Light Shine, and Maranatha.

April 3-4: The Journey Home: And then it was time to go home. We boarded the Qantas A380 and left Los Angeles at 10:30pm. We flew through the night and saw the sun rise as we came close to home. We headed from the airport to home saying hi to Eden and Cecilia on the way home and say Happy Birthday to Nicole. It was good to see home again and find our own beds. But what a time it was, full of happy memories, wonderful people and new friends made.

April 2: LAX, Manhattan Beach then home! We spent the light at the LAX Crowne Plaza where we could see (and HEAR) the planes take off and land. In the afternoon we caught a shuttle bus out to Manhattan Beach for our final sightseeing of the trip.

Out on the pier there was an aquarium run by volunteers which was very good. We decided our final meal in the US had to be our favourite- Mexican! I had my favourite, a chicken burrito. Then it was time to salute the flag one last time before heading to LAX where I sit now typing.

Here are Bernadette and Eleanor relaxing before the big flight. We'll take a photo or two on board.

April 1: Timmy's, Niagara Falls and on to LA: Who is Tim Horton and why is he everywhere? Tim Horton was a famous hockey player many years ago who opened a coffee shop which was distinctly Canadian but which has since become iconically Canadian. The whole time we were in Canada it seemed he was everywhere, which to us seemed grand to see a Canadian idea dominate the landscape. And it led to a new family expression, "Time for a Timmy's". The last one is our final Timmy's as we left Toronto, bound for LA.

In the morning we awoke early enough to make good use of our last day in Canada by making a quick trip down to Niagara Falls. We are sop glad we did as it is well and truly deserving of the title of one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We had lunch in the restaurant that overlooks the falls.

Before we headed back to the airport we checked out the souvenirs where I saw this great interpretation of the Canadian flag. The Canadians are so rightly proud of their unique and instantly recognizable flag. It is my favourite flag of any in the world.

Then it was time to cross the continent again as we headed from Toronto to Los Angeles. As we flew out of Toronto you couldn't help but noticed how ordered it is from the air. We got some great cloud photos and this shot of LA by night as we flew in.

March 31: Farewell to the Team and to Kingston! Gathered below are the team who wandered around the Kingston and Lakeshore Catholic District Schools Board for the last week and a bit. It's neen an amazing time for us and in no small part due to Ann Boniferro and Bronek Korczynski who directed the tour, led us around, loaded and unloaded and above all, became our friends. We had early breakfasts, late lunches and many, many Timmys. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Ann and Bronek!

In the morning we farewelled Francine and Kingston, our home for the past week. As we headed down the 401 to Trenton we were really thrilled to see snow falling! The locals weren't so thrilled because they thought that winter was over!

St Peter's at Trenton, now this was a fun choir! JT, Emily and Alora and the gang were just so much fun to work with. I also managed to collect another great gopher face. Bernadette, as you can see, was loving it too.

In the afternoon it was time for our very last school of the Canadian tour, St Joseph's at Belleville. the afternoon was amazing, not just because of the outstanding choir but also because of Kristen, Savio and Colin who really gave life to the whole concert. In the evening we moved to the church for the final concert where I heard the best rendition of Walk Humbly With God since we recorded it three years ago. It was sung by Maddie who has a real future in country music. Great singing too by Brynn, Molly, Che and Eve.

March 30: St Thomas More and Napanee, home of the Raiders: Another audio-visual highlight! St Thomas More School has so much to see. The school has amazing murals in so many places. I caught to catch up with Bridget and Alexandra again. Of all the choirs I worked with in North America I think these guys would be hard to beat. Well done Mrs Neely!

This is me with the choir in front of one of the murals. We had a great crowd in attendance: St Mary and St Joseph school joined us as did some guests from the local retirement village and my mums friends too: the Crowes, the Harts, Audrey Sutton and Jane Kirby.

This is our friend Francine, who teaches kindergarten at St Thomas More. Her class sang These Hands beautifully.

From there we rushed out to JJ O'Neill School at Napanee where we were joined by the children from St Patrick's at Erinsville. This is Fr Rod McNeil, the Parish Priest, who loves his parish, the school and his hockey! As a result I was given a gift of a Napanee Raiders hockey jersey which I'm sure will be the only one of its kind in Australia. The evening concert there was a real highlight. Thanks to Abbey and all of the gang from the choir!

March 29: When I was a boy... I lived in Kingston and in the afternoon we traced down my old home- the road had changed names and it was now Canal du Nord. We then found my old school which is no longer a school. We then headed out to the home of Jane Kirby, a dear friend of my mum and dad. We got to meet her daughter and son-in-law and shared a lovely warm meal.

From there it was back out to Our Lady of Lourdes for our evening concert. Well actually I led the singing at the 7pm Mass first and the concert followed. Amazing singing by Maureen and Claudia. This is Jack, who wowed everyone with both his singing and moves in "If I Were A Butterfly". Fr Brennan is the parish priest who is a lovely gentle man. The way he spoke to the children before Children's Liturgy on Sunday was just beautiful. And at the end of the evening Bronek rewarded me with a .... "Nice wine!"

March 28: St Peter, St Patrick, St Marguerite Bourgeoys: My first stop on Monday morning was to St Peter's School where on the wall Nicole, a grade two student, had written a procedure called "How To Write A Song". If only I knew that before- so easy! This teacher did the best adult fish face I've seen in a while. In the afternoon I headed over to St Marguerite Bourgeoys.

So many of the Catholic schools in the Kingston area are visually vibrant schools with their faith so alive as you walk through the door. This stunning wall frieze is part of the entry area at St Marguerite's.

Here are some of the choir from the evening concert and Eleanor joining on the kangaroo and kiwi act. The choir sang beautifully and we had a lot of fun.

March 27: Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, then Tweed and the Crowe family: Sunday morning saw us at our first ever Canadian Mass. There were one or two differences which were interesting and the music featured a very talented quartet. In the afternoon Bronek and I headed out to the town of Tweed for my afternoon concert at St Carthagh's. The highlight for me was the choir, especially the singing and preparation of Melissa and Tanyka (hope I spelt it right!) I also had my first Canadian interview too.

The church at St Carthagh's is truly grand, built largely by Irish immigrants who founded the parish in the 19th century. It was a fun-filled community concert.

In the evening I caught up with the girls who had been out shopping with the Korscynski women and we headed out to dinner with old family friends, Fitzie and Denny Crowe. When we came to Canada to live in 1973 they went to Australia but stayed on so we met and became good friends in Canberra. We had a very tender moment when Denny passed an Australian slouch hat that my dad had given to him as a gift back to Eleanor as a memory of her grandfather. She's now hoping to wear it on ANZAC Day in Bowral. We had a fun evening with them and their son Dave and his family.

March 26: Barry's Bay to Kingston: We awoke on Saturday morning to a stunning sunrise over the frozen lake. This was followed by a famous Artymko brunch featuring Natalie's specialty: a rasher of bacon with whipped cream covered in maple syrup! This is the view from the lake looking up to John and Susan's home.

After brunch we headed down on to the lake for a walk. Bernadette looked simply stunning in the snow. John gave me the opportunity to skate on the lake, something I hadn't done since I was a boy. It was then time to farewell John, Susan, Rachel and Natalie. I did manage to try on a Candian hunting hat and John's going to send me a good one when he finds one.

When we got back to Kingston we headed off to the very musical home of Ann Boniferro and her husband Rich for a great dinner and company. Ann is a talented musician and Rich is a professional drummer so their home is full of music in many ways.

March 25: Onwards to Barry's Bay: For a long time John Artymko has been using my music in Canada. Back in 2008 he and his family came to Australia to teach at St Bernard's on exchange for a year so we were able to meet them and become friends. So when John heard I was heading to Kingston he invited us to head three hours north to his town of Barry's Bay. The local press did a nice article on me, mentioning me in the same sentence as ACDC and Powderfinger! If you look carefully at the speedometer you can see just how cold it got on the drive north: -8 degrees and -18 overnight!

Had a great time singing with the choir, especially with Natalie Artymko. Special thanks to Tori with an I, Max, Ashleigh and to Mr Artymko's class for their great cards and pictures.

Tori can do a great fish face and Max led us in the Walking Out the Door Song.

In the afternoon we headed back to John and Susan's beautiful home out on the snow-covered lake- breathtakingly beautiful! We saw lots of local wildlife before heading off to a hockey game which was part of a community tournament. It was great to see the game played live.

March 24: St Carthagh's Tweed and Holy Rosary Belleville: The day began with a rolling country drive out to the town of Tweed where I met the fabulous Melissa and her great choir. It was Brigid's birthday so we sang for her and got her involved in May God Be In My Heart. We'll be heading back to St Carthagh's for a community concert on Sunday.

When we arrived at Holy Rosary we were greeted by these amazing pieces of wall work. Each class had taken one of my songs and illustrated it and reflected on it in some way. My favourite was the Year 8 class who looked at Shine Among Them and then went searching for all biblical references to shining and light.

We shared a truly beautiful evening concert at Holy Rosary. This is my new friend Jenna who wrote me a beautiful thank you Rainbow card. Even Bronek and the Chair of the Schools Board, Tom, joined in the action.

March 23: First School Visits: Archbishop O'Sullivan School and Mother Teresa: And so the tour begins! I started with a visit to Archbishop O'Sullivan School in Kingston. A great choir, especially the boys- well done Derek, Andrew and Colin. The star performer was probably Logan who brought the audience to life.

Then it was on to Mother Teresa catholic School for the afternoon and evening. The Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board is really committed to making sure that the faith life and Catholic character of the schools is very much alive in the schools. One of the way they do this is through very powerful visuals like this poster and many others just like it. Children constantly see their faith expressed visually and are given so many opportunities to do so themselves. The Kindergartens gave me their famous Cowboy salute.

Mother Teresa School not only have a school song composed by the Grade 4 class (thanks for my copy!) but the school has a flag which was designed by the students in consultation with the gentleman who designed Canada's brilliant flag back in the 1960s. The flag and the hall have the trademark blue stripes of Mother Teresa and her sisters. As you can see, together with Claire, John-Paul and Victoria, we had a grand night!

March 22: From Toronto to Kingston: First sleep in since we got to North America! I checked out our number plate and very fortunately we have out-of-province number plates so at least when I make mistakes people will know I'm not from round here. We found this milk container at the service centter on the highway- milk that is 18% cream!!! Then we finally made our way to the Big Apple! No not that one, the little Big Apple near Belleville.

Bernadette found these typical Canadian scenes of a farm and barn, geese flying home at the end of winter and the most beautiful flag in the world, the Canadian maple leaf.

We arrived at the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board in the afternoon to meet Bronek Korscynski and Ann Boniferro from the Religious Education team, who welcomed us to Canada. The map below is the map of the area I will be seeing a lot of over the next nine days. The ALCDSB obviously values the visual and performing arts. the office area is filled with banners and artwork created by the students of the area. Each month they feature a school who submit work for display on the walls. The last two pictures are from a program designed to promote virtues in schools.

And this is Sue, without doubt one of the hardest working secretaries in a Catholic Schools Office in the world! We left Napanee to find our way to Kingston, a city I lived in as a child from 1971 to 1973.

We had a great lunch in a beautiful bar in downtown Kingston and even spotted an Aussie beer. The Holiday Inn in Kingston is where we lived back in 1971 for about a month when we first arrived while we waited for our furniture to arrive.

This is the foreshore of the beautiful city of Kingston. From there we collected the music gear and headed home to Bronek's for our first home cooked meal in quite a while. Simply grand.

March 21: From LA to Toronto: We woke up early (again) and headed to the airport to catch our American Airlines flight across the USA to Toronto in Canada to begin the Canadian leg of our tour. There was a lot of cloud but we did get to see some spectacular sights.

We flew over deserts, farmland, the Rocky Mountains, and as we got closer to Canada we flew over one of the great lakes which still had large blocks of ice.

We landed in Toronto at about 6pm. If you look behind Bernadette and Eleanor you can see the "Welcome to Canada" sign in the background. We picked up the hire car and Bernadette was amazed by the fact that the car comes complete with an icebrush! I managed to successfully complete my first short drive in a left hand drive car- very strange!

March 20: Congress, the last day: Up early in the morning for the last day of Congress. I did my last workshop, looking at music and liturgies with children. My old pals Ezekiel from Hawaii and Feliciano from LA came and helped me again. Eleanor sang very well, even though she was feeling sick.

Then it was back to the stall to say farewell to old freinds and new, including Sr Zina, who loves to sit in the front row. And a very old friend came to visit. This is Kath Houston who I went to University with in the the early 80s. We were in a musical together back then. She came all the way from Cairns for Congress.

We packed up our stall and headed off to St Irenaeus to drop off our gear and say goodbye to Darlene Hembreiker, the principal of the school. Then we headed to LAX and we said goodbye to Leo for at least another year. Off to Canada tomorrow!

March 19: Congress Day 2: This is our dear friend Sr Monique who we met last year. We met her at the special St Joseph's Day celebrations at the Sisters of St Joseph of Orange County and she took us out to visit the historic mission at San Juan Capistrano. Little Amada helped us with our workshop yesterday and she stopped by to visit. The lovely lady with the blonde hair had this most magnificent smile which gave me so much confidence during my workshop. And the redheaded lady is Maureen, who is an Australian living in LA.

We caught up with more old friends last time and then I saw Jesse Manibusan, the man who wrote one of the most beautiful hymns ever, "Open My Eyes, Lord".

In the evening we caught up with the May family. This is Mary Ann. Last time we were in LA Mary Ann was just about to start radiation therapy and had no hair. Now she is doing so well and has a gorgeous head of glorious curls. Eleanor and Rebecca have become friends and email pals over the past year. We went to a rainforest cafe in Downtown Disney which looked a lot like a real rainforest, complete with gorillas, butterflies, rain and thunder. As we walked home we saw our last Disney fireworks for a long time.

March 18: Congress Day 1: Friday brought us to the start of Congress. This is the view from above the main exhibition hall. We had lots of old friends from last year come up and visit, like Kath, Janet, Lynda and Clara as well as a couple of new friends like Donna.

In the afternoon we headed off to my first workshop at the Marriott. It was a bigger room than last year which was a bit scary. It was a lovely audience again as we made our journey through the year finding songs to suit the occasion.

We finished with the Walking Out the Door and I asked all the Mexicans and Canadians to come up and help because they'd travelled the furthest. Eleanor sang beautifully, Kylie did a great job on the computer and Bernadette did her usual great job motivating the crowd from the back.

In the evening, Leo, our faithful friend and driver when we are in Anaheim took us out to his favourite Mexican restaurant. We had a lot of fun with him and his lovely wife, Julia. Kylie and I both tried some hot food- I tried eating a whole jalapeno!

March 17: Happy St Patrick's Day! Los Angeles Religious Education Congress begins- Youth Day and setting up: Early in the morning I headed on up to the Convention Centre to get my bearings and amazingly again one of the first people I saw was John Burland. Then I headed in to sign on and grab my paperwork. It was amazing to look across and see some of the great names of Catholic Education and Music on the envelopes: David Haas, Marty Haugen and Thomas Groome were all in one pile together.

Each year the LA RE Congress begins on the Thursday with a youth day where teenage Catholics from across California come together to share and enhance their faith. It's always a colourful and vibrant day with lots of great music. Another feature of the day is the great t-shirts that different parishes get for the event. My favourite today was "Godbook- everyone's invited!" I sat in on a workshop run by Cooper Ray I think. A brilliant mix of music, humour and, above all, faith.

Then we turned our attention to our stall where we'll live for the next three days. We were a bit better prepared this time and thanks to our new, sensational banner (Thanks, Tracey!) we had it all looking good in no time. Well enough time for Bernadette and the girls to head off for yet more shopping, this time at Macey's.

March 16: St Norbert's and farewell to Disneyland for me: My friends Peter and Robyn Mercer spoke so highly of St Norbert's that I put them high on the list of schools I'd like to visit and thankfully the principal, John Loffer, extended the invitation. Patty works on the Faith Formation team in the Parish and also agreed to be my photographer.

We did both the bows and the pick me smile as you can see. there were a few redheads so we also did a special version of An Irish Blessing because it was St Patrick's Day Eve.

We celebrated a special birthday for Maddie- she was in everything! We found a great fish face. I have to say again what a beautiful choir they have at St Norbert's. Shannon and Aimee you were amazing!

Then there was time for one last visit to Disneyland for me (Eleanor and Kylie are going back on Saturday). Eleanor and I stopped in to take a look at some of the original Mickey Mouse cartoons, including the very first one, Steamboat Willie. I had a look at a 1986 3D movie with Michael Jackson as the star called captain EO. We watched the fireworks show for the last time and then had a ride on the very funny Jungle Cruise.

March 15: St Irenaeus and Disneyland: Last year when we first came to Anaheim, we were so lucky to have St Irenaeus School accept us as visitors to their community. So it was great to return and share another day with Mrs Hembreiker and all of the children and staff of St Irenaeus School. One of the loveliest things was to see Mrs May with beautiful curly hair! This time last year she was bravely enduring treatment for cancer but she has come through and looks great! Thanks to everyone for another great day- we love you and your school!

And while at St Irenaeus we set a new mark for the world's tallest butterfly bow. We set it last year at St Irenaeus with the famous Cody but he's grown so we took it to new heights!

One of my favourite comedians is Billy Connolly. When he firsrt started to travel the world he would take close up photos of famous places and send them to his dad, but so close you couldn't tell what you were looking at! So the first photo? Disneyland... We were all trying on hats so I was a natural for the Mad Hatter.

How good is this? Even the benches are shaped like Mickey. And we found out one thing you can't do in Disneyland: "No bench hopping!" While the girls were having dinner I got to visit my favourite Disney attraction, Great Moments with Mr Lincoln.

Walt Disney had a great love for Abraham Lincoln and how he so much believed in the spirit of America. One of the ideals he valued most was the ability to dream a better future. So this attraction doesn't just honour Mr Lincoln but many other Americans who dreamed a better world: President Obama, President Kennedy, Rosa Parkes who symbolised the fight for civil rights when she refused to give up her seat on the bus because of the colour of her skin, and then Walt Disney himself.

March 14: Hollywood and Disneyland- how USA is that? After a late night we were on the road again early with a very USA kind of day. We headed out on a Hollywood/Beverly Hills tour. If you look really closely you can see the Hollywood sign just over Eleanor's head. here's an interesting fact. When Pope John Paul visited Los Angeles more than 20 years ago the city fathers covered one of the Ls to make the sign say "Holywood" while the Pope was there! We drove past the houses of the famous and this church is where part of Sister Act was made. We drove along Hollywood Bouelvarde and saw all the stars on the ground. Speaking of stars, here's Darth Vader looking for his. When will he find it? May the Fourth, that's right! the tour finished with a visit to Madame Tussaud's wax works where we met President Obama and I found out that Simon Cowell and I have very similar dress sense!

This is Ryan Seacrest and this is American Idol. Speaking of Idols, Moses wasn't too keen on them so we'll move right along. Bernadette and Eleanor couldn't resist re-enacting the famous scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho movie and Bernadette got to meet my favourite actor of all, Robyn Williams.

What do Andrew Chinn, Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg all have in common? Their birthdays! We were all born on December 18th and Brad Pitt and I were actually born on the exact same day: December 18, 1963! We finished with Bernadette insisting that I take a photo of her nose and Meryl Streep's because she thinks they were separated at birth!

We finished with a glance of the Kodak Theatre, where many big Hollywood events take place and where American Idol is filmed. In the afternoon we were re-united with our old friend and driver Leo Rojas, who picked us up and drove us out to Anaheim along the amazing freeways of LA to our home for the next three nights, the Homewood Suites at Anaheim.

In the evening we took Kylie up to Disneyland where we went on a few rides, including "It's a Small World", and "Pirates of the Caribbean". Eleanor and Kylie saw the beautiful Disneyland fireworks from one of the rides (just like she did last year with our friend Claire Mercer- hi Claire! We miss you Mercers!). Speaking of Disneyland, that's where I'm off to now. The girls are up there already. More tomorrow!

March 13: Universal Studios and Beauty and the Beast: Started the day with a yummy breakfast and then we headed off to Universal Studios. I got to pose with Marilyn and then a classic shot with Fiona and Shrek where the redheads all stuck together.

Kylie decided we should all get our caricatures done and we were really happy with how they came out especially Eleanor's- to check out hers have a look at her blog: Eleanor's Blog.

The first thing we did when we got there was go to the best ride I have ever been on in my life, the Simpson's Ride. This time I kept my eyes open the whole time! Kylie tried out the Marge wig and then we headed off on the Studio Tour, which took in the set of Jaws and many other movies.

At lunch I tried my first Dr Pepper and as you can see, it was a hit with me. On our way back to the hotel we saw this number plate! In the evening we headed off to Pantages Theater to see the stage show of Beauty and the Beast. Before the show we got to spot some of the stars on Hollywood Bouelvarde- Bernadette is standing above Barry Manilow's. Beauty and the Beast was a grand show- we all loved it.

March 12: LA at last! After we settled in to our hotel we headed up Beverly Drive for a walk to the famous Rodeo Drive. Kylie had an interesting and confusing conversation when she ordered our lunch so she thought she'd drink some smart water to improve her communication skills! We saw the name of a restaurant that suited us except they were missing the extra n. And Johnny Depp may be Rango but I think I'm still Ranga 1. And the last photo is of the famous Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel.

March 12- Still- In The Air: Here we are relaxing in the Qantas Club before the big trip across the world to LA. Here are the girls walking the gangway to the plane, a Qantas A380.

The three redheads started the flight sitting together. Here's the view from SkyCam, which gives a great view of take off and landing. In between, it's just cloud, ocean and darkness! As you can see Bernadette feels the cold on the plane- or perhaps she was practising for Canada. So after 14 long hours, some airsickness for Eleanor, 3 movies, some Simpsons episodes we finally landed in LA.

There were long delays in Customs at LAX but we were looked after beautifully. One of the customs officers even said Kylie looked 22?! And the last picture? It's the white kerb (US spelling) for the famous "white zone" at LA airport, made famous in the movie "Flying High"- Roger Over.

March 12: We're going to America! And Canada too! After a mad week of preparations we got ready in time and today, March 12, left Bowral, bound for North America. March 12? Well, we'll have 41 hours of it all together. We left Sydney at 3:30pm and we are due to arrive in Los Angeles at 9:30am, six hours before we left!! As I type away we are midway across the Pacific Ocean. It's 9:15pm in Sydney and 2:15am in Los Angeles. Two movies so far but I think I'm ready for a sleep.

Bernadette tested out her Canada Coat and was thrilled with the new rainbow ponchos. We also got our new banner too for the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress. Then it was time to say goodbye to the family and make our way to LA!

March 4: St Mary's, Scone, NSW: I was fortunate to be the first performer to perform in the new hall at St Mary's! Some real characters at St Mary's, especially, Mac, Sam and Jack! Rhys and Georgie were great fish and there were some scary gophers too.

March 3: St Catherine's, Singleton, NSW- Open My Eyes: I visited St Catherine's in 2008 and found the voice of Sophie Klecha, who then came and sang on "Let Your Light Shine". She made a guest appearance with me today too, which was great. I spent the morning working on a school song for St Catherine's and came up with a few good ideas, thanks to some Year 12 students Dom, Ruth and Chloe, as well as Mrs Harris's Year 6 English class. The song is shaping up so well it could make an appearance on the new album.

March 2: St James, Muswellbrook, NSW- so much to see! St James is a very visual school. There walls are filled with children's work, signs, symbols and sayings that bring the unique culture of their school to life for all to see. Year 3 wrote a description of me with some lovely pictures. This one was my favourite.

At lunch time, the principal of St James gave me a tour of the school. Many things caught my eye but especially the butterfly garden which was dedicated this week to the memory of Rhylee, a student from St James who passed away last year.

March 1: St Joseph's, Merriwa and Denman, NSW: March began with visits to two small schools in country New SOuth Wales. Like so many, both are named St Joseph's, a sign that I was in St Mary MacKillop country. I love the beautiful old sandstone church in Merriwa. the highlight of the morning concert was the guest performance by Mrs Peebles on Lord of the Dance!

After the morning concert I headed down the Golden Highway to visit my old friend Aaron Moon and the children at St Joseph's Denman. This is Dominica and her family which was a lot like ours- filled with redheads. There was a great turnout for the evening concert and great singing by Shona, Clodagh, Anna and the gang.

February 26: Hannah's Wedding in Mudgee: When our daughter Belinda was sick in hospital we became very good friends with another family, the Mahys from Cobar, whose daughter Kelli was also battling cancer. Hannah, like our Nicole, was an amazing support to her sister and her family so it was just beautiful to share this day with them all.

February 24: St Albert's, Loxton, SA- Zara the Super Chook! Zara spent the whole workshop waiting for her chance to be a chicken! So when we did "In The Beginning" she got her chance, after spending the whole concert whispering to me "Chicken now?" And then she got the whole choir doing the chicken! Zara is a fantastic performer as is Charlie and all of the choir. And the pirate ship? Loxton has a Mardi Gras Festival in the town each year and this was the school's float. If you get a chance check out St Albert's website- probably the best of any Catholic school in South Australia.

February 23: In All Things Love: St Joseph's, Renmark, SA: All of the Catholic schools in the Riverland have a link to St Mary MacKillop and they are all joined by this one motto: "In All Things Love", a saying linked to Mary. Had a fun day in the beautiful outdoor venue at St Joseph's. Star performances from Tori, the fuzzy-wuzzy bear and Lachlan. I finished the day with a beautiful evening walk along the mighty Murray. Of any part of creation it is the river that I am most drawn to.

February 22: I Am The River and the River is Me- Our Lady of the River, Berri, SA: I just love rivers, with the Waikato in new Zealand being one of my favourites. But the mighty Murray is flowing well at the moment so I went for two walks along the river today, one at sunrise and the other at lunch time. Speaking of time, someone in Berri thinks it's still Christmas!

J-O-L-A Jola!!! One of the best singers I have heard in all of my travels, Jola would be in the top ten of any of the thousands of children who have sung with me over the past ten years on my journeys around Australia, New Zealand and the United States. She brought tears to my eyes not once, but twice, when she sang "May God Be In My Heart". Thanks to the Charli(e)s, Antonios, Leah and all of the great children at OLOTR.

February 21: Back to Barmera: Plenty to see here folks! Some schools are great at making their schools bright and attractive places through the visual things they do and St Joseph's in Barmera is certainly one of those. From the beautiful banners created by Louise Stavrou, to the St Mary MacKillop banners of Briony and the Rainbow window on the 3/4 Class window there is so much that brings our faith to life here.

Fantastic singing from Neema, Annabel and the gang and Claudia was one of the best "nice prize girls" I've seen in a long time. Back in 2004 I visited St Joseph's for the first time and sang with Kirby, seen above, and this time I got to sing with Taylor, her younger sister.

And the last time I was in Barmera the lake was pretty low, but the Murray is flowing well at the moment and you can see by looking at the "then and now" photos of the jetty that the water level is up nearly a metre.

February 18: St Michael's Mittagong- so close to home! So many friends! I just love this school. I've made a visit every three years and each time I think that the children at St Michael's are just so fantastic to work with. They've always had this great sense of joy and self-discipline and in recent years the music program has really come along. Indiana and Will made a sensational and joyful leadership team for the workshops and Sarah was one of my best dance partners ever. Singing awards to the fabulous Hamish and Liam, Honey (do-do-do-do-do-doo) and Fionn, especially on Rainbow! It was great to catch up with old friends too. Paul Gardiner and Michelle Quinn taught my grown up daughters, Kylie and Nicole and Tim and Bec Ryan are the children of Dave and Deb Ryan. Dave and I played cricket for a few years and I took many a catch from his deadly accurate outswingers.

February 17: St Mary's, Seymour, VIC: Last stop! This is Beth. We're not sure yet whether she will end up as a Prep teacher or a flight attendant with Qantas, but either way she will be a great success- such life and energy. Speaking of, thanks to Will, Jacob, Phoebe, Courtney the moonwalker, Eliza, and Georgia for their great joy. Voice of the day? Shay-Lee!

February 16: St Mary's, Myrtleford, VIC: Years ago I visited the beautiful town of Myrtleford and found the beautiful voices of Caitlin Rowney and Jade Gibson who came to sing on "Let Your Light Shine". They have a fabulous priest at St Mary's, Fr Peter Taylor, and a lovely REC in Anne Kerlin, and together they came up with the idea of an outdoor welcoming liturgy and concert for the school and parish community. I even wrote music to a Psalm, psalm 150, especially for their school, whose motto is "Praise the Lord Always!". We gave Mikayli a birthday to remember, with 400 people singing Happy Birthday and she danced with me to Lord of the Dance as well. Claire and Jesse and their beautiful mum had a great time as did Annie and Samuel the super fish!

February 15: St John's, Mitcham, VIC: Back to Melbourne with some spectacular views of the Snowy Mountains (without snow!). Then on to St John's in Mitcham for a lovely idea- a twilight school day designed to get parents along and involved in a day's education. My role was to lead a "Journey Through the Bible In Song". St John's is a very visual school, with many beautiful peices of artwork in the school and a lot of them say clearly that they are a proudly Catholic school, such as this stunning cross at the front of the school. Daniel and Olivia are the new captains and I have to say I've never met better! They were so helpful and informative and showed a lot of initiative. And thanks to Marcus for his great gopher face!

February 11: St Michael's. Brunswick Junction, WA: The tour came to an end with a visit to St Michael's, a small school about 15 minutes east of Bunbury. Did a big workshop with all of the primary school and we then presented a concert to the younger children. Luke and Taylor had fantastic voices but it was the big kids that made the performance. The principal, Maureen Tully, passed on this lovely comment: "The students loved you! Oaklee said, "It was the best fun I ever had in my whole life". And she went to Europe last year, so that's high praise!" We also saw the most detailed presentation for the folding competition: pin the tail on the donkey!

February 10: Our Lady of the Cape, Dunsborough, WA: A beautiful name for a beautiful school. Sometimes you walk into a school where music is just so much a part of the culture: St John's, Mairangi Bay in New Zealand, St Brigid's, New Norfolk in Tasmania, and St Kieran's in Brighton, Queensland to name a few. Our Lady of the Cape is now added to my collection of great singing schools and there is no better in the Bunbury Diocese. This is due in no small part to the fabulous Maureen Horrocks, the gifted music and Kindy teacher at OLC. And they must have liked me because I got my first certificate since I was in Year 6! I loved their beautiful Mary Garden in the middle of the school too- a very sacred space at the centre of their school.

February 9: St Brigid's Collie, WA: Has one of the best assemblies I've seen anywhere! I was amazed how no-one had to tell the school to settle down. Casey and Corey, the head boy and girl, ran the whole assembly and did a great job. Then the Year 7 team stood up to explain the raffles and guessing competitions they had organised to raise money for the victims of the Queensland floods and cyclone. This was real student leadership. Thanks to Mr Paul Cronin who has now organised visits for me to his last three schools, including Sacred heart in Goomalling. Paul organised my whole tour this time around! Cameron- you're a star!

February 8: St Matthew's Narrogin, WA: Back in 2004 I made my first ever trip to Western Australia and St Matthew's was the first ever WA school I visited. When I got there, Tiffany, who is now in Year 7, remembered m from my visit when she was a little Pre-Primary. Courtney was one of my favourites because she got my joke about the town nearby called Darkan- whenever it rains there in the night, it's always a "Darkan stormy night!". Kyle has officially patented the "Kyle move" and we sang Ruby Tuesday for Ruby because it was Tuesday. She has a lovely voice as does her pal, Ashton (just brilliant) along with Andrew and Shelly.

February 7: Across This Great Land: A long day, both in time and distance! I woke up at 3:15 EST and drove to Sydney airport. Then it was on the plane for a five hour trip to Perth. I picked up a car and some music gear and headed south to a little town called Boyup Brook, about three hours drive south of Perth. There are lots of towns in South Western WA with names that end in up: Dardanup, Manjemup, Mokup, Kulikup and my personal favourite, Bailingup! I had a great time with the children at St Mary's in Boyup Brook. Mitch was probably the star of the show while Grace and Annie had beautiful voices. From Boyup Brook it was a two hour drive north east to the town of Narrogin, famous for being a part of the life of Albert Facey who wrote the classic Australian book, "A Fortunate Life". By the time I got to bed, I'd driven 600 km, flown 3000km, and been awake for 21 hours!

February 6: A Mother and Child Reunion! My wife Bernadette was adopted and for years has searched for her mother. In the last month we finally located her and with the help of the Post Adoption Resource Centre, she was able to make contact. Today, for the first time in nearly half a century, they met. It was a day that will live in our memories and hearts forever.

Bernadette and Sue meeting and hugging, for the first time!

Bernadette with her mother Sue, her newly found sister Mel (front left) and our two older daughters, Nicole and Kylie.

For Mel!

Late January: Australia Day and Back to School: We celebrated Australia Day in our usual way, gathering with family and friends in historic Berrima. Eleanor and the fabulous Malone brothers, Ben, Tim and Sam formed a band for the occasion and busked the streets of Berrima. My granddaughter Bella looked beautiful waving her flag and watching the live music on stage which featured the older members of the Malone family. And then it was back to school. Eleanor had her traditional photo taken by the front door, holding up four fingers for Year 4. My second eldest grandchild Bella started school too. I helped out when Bella was born so it was especially good to be here for this day too.

January 18-20 in Brisbane: Back to work already? Some years I head up to Brisbane in January to work with teachers on how to use music in Religious Education and Daily Prayer as well as sharing some ideas on Catholic School Character.

St Bernardine's, Regents Park

The highlights of these days are watching teachers become children again and for them to find the hidden talent on their staffs. I love gathering these images that are created when create a song book for This Day.

St Mary's, Beaudesert

The teachers here from St Mary's, Beaudesert are preparing their group verse movements for In The Beginning. The green-shirted fellow is Luke, the teacher who inspired the song "I Light A Candle". We also worked on a school song for St Mary's that day too.

St Kieran's, Brighton

I've had a long and happy association with St Kieran's, having helped them celebrate their Feast Day, Christmas and Catholic Education Week over the past four years. It's home of Lois and the best Berry in the world- Hannah Berry, and the fabulous, dynamic Susan Angus-MacInnes. We all spent a beautiful day together up on the Sunshine Coast.

Happy New Year! Happy Holidays! Some January highlights. One of our holiday jobs is always a bit of a cleanup and while we were sorting out boxes of photos I came across this photo of Ryan Evans when he was in my kindergarten class back in 1998. Ryan is thefamous Ryan whose comment inspired the Nothing Song, which later became These Hands. The quote I found on the Bowral Library- I just love it. I had a couple of days at the cricket too and met up with some colourful Catholic identities from the Central Coast.

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