The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 12 January 2025
 "Yes we are still Living in our 70's, fifty years later…." |
January 6thRain glorious rain. The Aussie Summer can be brutal at times, so when you open the door & you smell the rain first and it's falling down on you, so refreshing. No wonder everything is growing so quickly at Kalorama. Sun and rain that winning combination.I finally finish reading William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life". I started this book ages ago and I just read a few pages every couple of days. I usually devour books but this one I relaxed and took my time. For some reason it makes me miss Magnetic Island with its golden bays and stunning waters. Yes you can hear me sighing. January 7thI had to grab my early morning coffee at McDonalds this morning, scary as it was passable.A funny thing happened when I headed over to Woolworths from the charity to grab lunch for myself & the girls. A $100 note blew up onto my leg. Very few cars, no people and at first I wondered if it was a fake. But no the real deal. Thank you Old Money Gods. Sad this made me so stupidly happy. The girls couldn't believe it. I called my Mum in the afternoon and she wasn't surprised. "This has happened to you your entire life". Sure Mum but never $100 notes. I buy some groceries, petrol and take Mark to dinner at Dudleys. Hey old Gods can I please have another one, I've spent this one. January 8thIt is Paul Hesters birthday today, he would have turned 66. Some sadness rolls over me as we miss him so much.I hear from Big Kev from The Largest Living Things so that is nice. I drive to the Free Food Program and we get a lot of donation stock today so we fill the boxes. Lots of nice people come in and we look after them. On the way home I call into the bakery and check my social media stuff and sip on a coffee, make some calls. Marks at home , he has started on a little doco for Paul Hesters 20th anniversary of his passing, late March. It's time consuming and will probably drive him mad but I know it will be great. Markys Youtube Wednesday also goes up . The Finn Brothers and it's live from Canberra. This really wonderful version of "Angels Heap". I will never get why this song had so little radio airplay. I filmed it at the Royal Theatre in Canberra. February 16th 1996. I really really love that live version of Suffer Never from Melbourne. A few days before Canberra and it is potent. It's worth a look, so check it out here. January 9thThe fires in California are horrible, I am shocked at how many friends that I know who have lost everything, house and contents, animals. Just terrible. I sit in the car park at the charity and make some calls to Sydney and somehow get nearly 5000 sachets of fire burn cream. It's great I've used it in disaster zones before. I call in some favours and by evening they are winging their way to California for both fire fighters and those in need . Big thank you to Christine in the zone for distributing them, you are an angel. It's a tiny thing but hope it helps. Of course this sidetracks me most of the day. My boss Carol is very understanding and supportive. I will miss her when she retires. I keep getting the impression the Salvo's are trying to force her out, in fact nearly all of us think that if I am being honest. She's been really good to me.So the money Gods were listening to me. I go to get lunch, again across the car part and little windy patch is in front of me. Are those leaves blowing around? No way. It's a $10 and a $20 note. I even take photos as I am sure no one will believe me. Again I am smiling. I buy some food at the cafe and see a Tattslotto sign next door, so I use the $10 to buy the smallest ticket. I rarely do, but hey it feels like I should. It's for tonight. I make lasagne for dinner tonight. Afterwards I donate the $20 to an animal rescue charity around the California fires. Mark says he will donate $20 too. My husband has good heart. January 10thI am up early and heading to Upper Ferntree Gully. On the way I'm going to check on Andy Whites house & studio to make sure it is all safe.I call into Olinda bakery , today I am having two coffees, so I will be like a ferret on a wheel. The first at Olinda, the second at The Quarry at UFTG. I'm meeting Laura, Kevin and Lauras Mum Janice at 11.00. I check my $10 lotto ticket and I have won $85.85. I knew it felt right, so this week is good luck money week. No idea why, but it is appreciated. I get the only large table at The Quarry-the staff are really nice to me at this place, Andy introduced me to it. Fantastic to see L,K and J. We swap belated Xmas presents which is great, we love ours. Perfect. We end up sitting for a few hours. Good people, good friends, this was nice. Mark sadly is stuck in the editing suite working on the Hessie stuff. Home again and I get Midnight ready in her travel cage. She's off get her F3 vaccine. Moss looks after us today , Midnight loves him, even when he shaves her bottom a tiny bit. He says she is really healthy, a perfect weight. It's all that running around, it keeps her fit. She's such a good cat, back into her cage and home, no hassles. Didn't flinch when she got her needle. Bowie has been gone 9 years now. I put up one of my photos that I took of him from front row at his Tivoli press conference . Mark tarts it up bit with some cool background. I love it. Nice reaction from fans too. January 11thWake up to the sounds of fire sirens screeching through the air at Kalorama oval. Thankfully not a bush fire but a car on fire at Ferny Creek. Still it's always unsettling when you live in a national park. The images of the California fires scar my brain too. We all know how easy it is for this area to explode into an inferno this time of year.I am awake very early, I catch up with Chris from medical services for disaster supplies. I decide to squash everything into 5 boxes not 7, to save T. some money on the flight, but slightly pull my back lifting it all into the courier van. I nearly always lift things "correctly" but I was stupid today, so my fault. It isn't too bad, and will go in a few days after some stretching exercises and the odd pain killer. No good deed goes unpunished. I get Mark to massage it later on, any excuse for a massage. We chat to Hessie's sister Carolyn around project and it was really great to have a talk. We will be catching up soon. The afternoon heats up but I do manage to mow the nature strip, even with the back. Thankfully the local council had done the road area as well as a little bit extra across the top so I get it finished before I run out of mower fuel. Next I clear an area for the Christmas tree to be planted. January 12thMidnight is acting like she is wired and a tad crazy this morning so no sleeping in. It might be because some rain is on the way, maybe she can smell it approaching.I'm at the bakery and Mick and some other locals turn up and present me with this big bag of chocolates. "This is to say thank you for looking after us all up here". Yes that rare moment where I am speechless. (Enjoy that silence world). So kind of them and honestly, I love the community up here , would do pretty much anything for them. I'll never understand why people with spare time just can't get involved, just a tiny bit each week or fortnight. Nothing feels better than helping people, ok maybe chocolate but nothing else. At 4.00 we get our 5 millionth view on our Youtube page. A bit of a wow moment. It's about 4000 views a day Mark tells me. So that's the equivalent of a Festival Hall every day watching our videos. So cool, and thanks to so many who go the extra yard when we are 5 or 6 views short of our target number and I beg you to have a watch. So thanks for that too, plus all the FB pages that share our clips and Deb too for having the links on this diary. I have a cuddle with Midnight and look out the window and the misty rain and warm temperature sees a growth spurt with the Red Hot Poker plants (Kniphofia). They can be bit of a weed but they are rather cool looking. January 13thStrong winds return this week so LA fires will continue. 11 friends have lost their homes now. It was 12 but maybe one may be lucky so a tiny bit of good news. Fires Fighters are true heroes not rockstars. Though rockstars can raise money to help people so maybe they are too.January 14thThe alarm doesn't go off and I sleep in. Usually I am up before the alarm so this is rare. No biggie as I rush and make up the time. In the car park at the charity.I consider finishing up, a few things have changed and it makes it more time consuming being at the Salvos. I will have think about it as I love the girls who I work with. Sis and our niece MIM leave for a three day Disney cruise. It seems insanely expensive but they have great time. I hope they bring me back a set of mouse ears! January 15thMarkys Youtube Wednesday is up. Some live Crowded House from Wembley Arena. 24-6-92. It's the encore and Tim Finn runs onstage as special guest and they perform a rather excellent version of "Chocolate Cake". Tims rather wild. They are wearing the Nick Seymour painted forest Woodface outfits. You will enjoy this one, so check it out here.January 16thSo our new manager (charity) is announced , I have some fun with the girls and say it's me. Gorgeous Jackie gets them chanting "Peter, Peter…" which makes me laugh. It's friend of ours Bec , so at least it is someone we all like and we work well together.Today is good day, the staff are calm, no interference and we all focus on our jobs. I manage to get a lot done, have almost caught up with the donation stock. We are all exhausted though. The handmade Dr Who TARDIS sells , a grandmother buys it for her grandson so that's a bit sweet. January 17thSkyhooks "Living In The 70's" is back in record stores on vinyl (and cd). I'm out and about doing a dozen things but call into JB at Eastlands and check for stock and one of the workers takes a snap of me with the LP, Fifty years old and such a classic debut release. The BEST debut album by an Aussie band. Apart from the LP, CD there is also a T-shirt pack. For those who love Australian Music you can order it here.I spend the afternoon doing some PR for it on Social Media. Greg from Skyhooks gives me a call so we have bit of a chat which is great. We decide on some photos for Warner Music for media use. Some sadness creeps into the office when we hear the news that David Lynch has passed the way. What a talent he was. Well heaven will indeed be more exciting now with Lynchy upstairs. I'm sure the insane amount of cigarettes he smoked didn't help. Anyway sad news. January 18thI was talking to friend about Melbourne overtaking Sydney as the largest city in Australia (via SUA data). It happened around April 2023. Lots of people moving back to Melbourne from interstate and also the border changed allowing Melton district to be part of Melbourne so leap frogging over Sydney by around 19,000 people.I decide to put up one of our Skyhooks live videos each day on the Skyhooks FB page. Following the track listing of the LP (ten songs) in that order, one live video a day. The fans are enjoying it. The one tiny problem, the last Skyhook song on the album is "Motorcycle Bitch". Rarely played and we have no video of it , but we do have an idea and I've thrown this at Marky as he creates such magic. Thankfully it's the last track so we have 10 days to did deep and find something for the fans. January 19thWell Midnight was naughty last night, she vanished in the afternoon when she is meant to come inside. We searched everywhere and called and no sign of her. Both of us were upset as she mostly responds and has been so good around being inside way before dusk. At 10.00 at night she turns up, all normal but super hungry. We did think something bad happened. So today she is grounded, plus it is way too hot outside. Shows how much we love her I guess. Yes teary!Wow double lucky-free pie and free coffee at Olinda bakery today. Even free pie for Mark. Thanks girls, very generous of you. We work in the office, strangely most of it around Skyhooks. This band still means so much to us. Australian icons. I'll get the ARIA charts in a week, Top 500 . Even if it only gets into the Top 500 I will be thrilled to see "Living in the 70's" on the charts. My friend called me on the mobile and said she heard a DJ mention on air about the reissue and our Skyhooks FB page. We have just short of 15,000 followers so that might grow. Hope your start for 2025 has been enjoyable. The California fires make us all realise how fortunate we are to be safe and not have to go through such horror. All the best & be safe. Peter |
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