The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 4 June - 24 June 2012
June 4thIt's one of those days and nights where you wonder if a tree will take out your home. The wind gusts are insane, I risk it and head outside to check on the property as all the power has gone off (again). We love living in a National Park but sometimes it is exhausting. Saying that, candles, fires burning, and only the howl of the elements outside, can be a tad romantic. I'm sure each time the power goes out the pregnancy rate climbs!I'm outside and no trees are down, and only one chunky branch which we can chainsaw for fire wood. I do hear crashing on other peoples property's but Ailsa Craig seems to be surviving. I look up as I walk, that way if something comes flying my way I can try and avoid it. One man against nature... it would take next to nothing to crush me. The weather is out of control, serious flooding in Wales. Our friends have had to move out of their 150 year old house, it's pretty much destroyed. It survived 150 years till now.... June 5thI usually care little about Sheepbook but our mate Jeff who has penned the Shirl (Skyhooks) book has a Facebook site for the book as part of promo. It's up now at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shirl-the-life-of-legendary-larrikin-Graeme-Shirley-Strachan/400128406693336I think the book will do well here, Shirl still has that boy next door appeal. Good Foreword by Greg and an enjoyable read overall. It's out August 1st in Australia. June 6thThis weekend we continue on the "Ghost Cars" Crowdies book... got to force this one through as far as completion, Mark is assisting on this to whip me into shape. I expect the office floors to be covered in Crowdies paperwork and we have to keep focus. The Muse will return even if I have to rent a hand puppet to sit on my shoulder and pretend it is a Muse!We catch up with Tania for some Mexican, all very last minute but still fun. Never tool cold for Midori margaritas. Work till 4.00 this morning, another late night in the office. June 7thWow in 5 weeks The Rolling Stones turn 50. How amazing is that for a band. So many rumours floating about, they'll play Glastonbury next year, they wont... as Mark pointed out till you hear it 100% from the band don't believe any of it and he is right. The Stones 50 book looks pretty good.... Enz 40 this year, Stones 50..seems fitting.Tony Abbott at Mt Evelyn today, I had to sneak in on someone else's invite, I guess I must be on Tony's bad list as I didn't get an invite. I thought I'd give him another listen, always important around politics to keep an open mind. It was such a spin session, and really he was preaching to the converted. I was so tired and it was boring as old socks- where are all the fascinating politicians that wont make you nod off. Yes it was true I did fall asleep but only for a few seconds, I think I actually gave one of those snorts when I woke up, the person next to me laughed. Even the stale biscuits and tea didn't make the visit interesting. I did thank him for coming but the lack of facts around his Direct Action plan makes me understand why he never ever talks about it- such a dog with fleas that idea. he really has no vision for this country. June 8thHave a nice chat to our mate Benny. We may even see them on the Island if it all happens. That would be so brilliant. I'm thinking we need some sun or we'll go insane this Winter, log cabin fever will indeed set in!!!After work I head up to the garage and chop 2 big containers of firewood. Mark holds the fallen tree limb while I chainsaw it to smaller sizes. All hands on in this family. I keep hearing how some of the major churches are going to hand out anti-gay marriage paperwork at their sunday services. What a bunch of hypocrites, all it does is cause hate, no wonder church numbers are falling. It was wonderful to read so many letters from Christians supporting marriage equality in the newspapers. It's one thing to say it, it's another to make an effort and email newspaper Letters pages in support-bravo. I wonder how many Catholics will show some guts and say they Support Gay Marriage. I lend our friend Cathy our Australian Bird book. She now knows about 2 dozen aussie birds, so she is no longer ignorant around bird life- my last diary post prompted her to make an effort- she knows I was baiting but it's good that she can say that's a King Parrot or that's a Sulphur crested cockatoo etc Good work Cath! Now return my damn book. What are you an Ornithologist!!!!! *GRIN* June 9thIt's almost tradition, heading to the general store for a coffee and watching the locals parade by. Today Nelly and Pete try to give their son away to us as a 'house boy' he's going cheap! *GRIN*. They are fun, poor boy, parents are so mean. Maybe we will take Nelly instead she makes a fine coffee.We were suppose to be stuck into the book today but by afternoon we knew it wasn't going to happen. Several people call and want to drop in. Warwick turned up with a roast and food and drink and that was pretty kind of him. A few gals drop in as well and soon the writing is well and truly out the window and the roman orgy has began. You do know I am joking about the orgy, right, right? It was more like a scene from the Club Plato rooms in NYC in the seventies. So the afternoon turned to night, and the night into a party.... and we didn't have any potatoes for the roast so out into the blizzard I go..and takes me 2 minutes to dig up 12 fantastic potatoes from my garden..that always impresses the guests and woman love a man who can just dig up food eh? Is it a cave man thing? (If so Tony Abbott must be amazing at food gathering being so neanderthal). Thankfully I have lots of wood for the fire in the pool room, and the games grow... best out of three, best out of nine... I am still trying to work out if the dutchess (my pool partner) and myself won! Best shot of the night has to go to Marky, we all went 'WOW'-actually he did too! best pool shot of the year. At some stage the party moves to the garage and art canvas's are dragged out and set up for those wishing to paint. Some couched some painted, I actually finished one "Ice Edie" thank god for hairdryers just means I can work quicker on dry hue. I can't remember what time everyone crashed but it was just before the sun came up so really the 10th. I like these instant parties, a fantastic night, so happy people turned up. Such passion and fun, grabbing life by the handful. June 10thI did make an effort to stumble out when guests were leaving. I waved, opened the art room so they could take their creations with them. A few people did some washing up and the house smelt only slightly of pot, mostly burning wood smell from the fire places. So today was a lost cause, I surrendered, slept, Mark made some sandwiches for lunch, or whatever time it was. Even Banshee was tired and she climbed in next to me and cat snored.Our recycle bin was full when I put it out, I'm thinking many of our friends need a week at Betty Ford! June 11thSome old Queens birthday, who do I not remotely care. Australians go "Beauty day off" no one cares about the dull as dishwater royalty. Roll on the republic!June 12thTania had her MRI today, I remembered to call, hopefully just stress and nothing else. We had a laugh about Facebook today, rolling our eyes at the sky.I found some old quote of mine in a diary that said "Hedonism will always be my way in the eve of destruction". No idea why that was penned but it sounded good. I work on The Mullanes area of the Ghost Cars book today, I am on a roll-finally! Census figures are in, 33,000 same sex couples live in de facto relationships in Australia, wow that is enough to win/lose an election eh Mr Abbott? I think we are driving some homophobe in South Australia crazy. The main newspaper ran a poll saying SHOULD GAY PEOPLE BE ALLOWED TO BE MARRIED. Of course the majority of people said YES, but all of a sudden I started noticing some pretty nasty letters appearing from "christians" and at weird hours of the night there would be this "rush" on the Poll. Someone obviously obsessing over the voting and not happy with all those YES votes. So just to stress them out, each time the NO people get ahead friends and tweeter people etc go and vote YES and over take them again. We'll have to lend them Tony Abbott's toupee soon as I'm sure they must be ripping their frustrated hair out! Sometimes you gotta fight for your right for equality. I'm always happy to do that and thankfully we know enough wonderful people that will help too. June 13thWe watch "American Swing" documentary on the rise and fall of Club Plato in NYC. Very cool footage of swingers and the club at the time. Seemed similar to studio 54, opening their mouths about not paying tax and being busted by the IRS. I love original footage, old and grainy...how come people in the seventies always have much hairier pubic areas!?Every day we are working on Ghost Cars book now. I think we have about 200 spots left for copies, so it will be a sell out. Just want the one print run to keep it as a super collectible, I love that, when books are unique. Of course the usual will happen and when it's no longer available I'll be besieged with emails from people who forgot to get a copy. June 14thBig shake ups around Bic Runga, we are still on board but you never know for how long. Sometimes it just comes down to the dollar. At first you get a bit rustled by it all and maybe finishing but life has a way of working out. The thing is, if I finish I just want to finish 100%. So I've left the ball in her court. She's great I'm not too fussed.American Express send me a cheque for all the money they owe me. So glad I'm not with Amex anymore, I've really lost faith in them, my Mastercard direct debit is far better. I call into Mangana at Olinda and find a present for Tim Finn, his big 60th so I mail that off with all his birthday cards that have arrived. Work in the office on book stuff till 10.00, Mark is doing some layout and at the moment focusing on the Live Tour Date area. June 15thAustralia has just had it's best quarterly jobs growth in 2 years, so PM Gillard must be happy with that. I don't think Australians realise just how lucky they have it here, they should look overseas where unemployment is double or triple.I buy a Birthday Card for our friend Alison. Something nice about someone making the effort to go and get a card and write a message and mail it. Sending a Tweet, Facebook, Email for someones birthday is total shit- no effort, and pathetic I'll never do that, about as lame as you can get. It just makes people boring & shows no character....it is tempting sometimes to do it but I can't... I call our friends and remind them to do the same, pretty much they all said the same thing, cards are great. I got some brilliant cards on my birthday, and some of the kids did hand drawn ones, still have them up. It's a nice thing for Alison with her mum recently passing away, thats when you miss your parents the most when it's birthdays or christmas so getting some cards in the mail is a extra special thing. Plus I think she'll appreciate people making an effort. Good that our mates did this as well. June 16thI mail a small parcel to Tania J, she's been so generous with some excess CH Tee's. Hopefully there is something in the parcel that will add to her collection. Took me awhile as I have used up pretty much everything for the recent charity prize haul. So I grab a Nellachino coffee as well and just work on book stuff at a small table.We love Mersey Valley cheese from Tasmania , way too nice. Just grabbed a small toasted sandwich machine so every so often we have a toastie at night, with that great cheese. June 17thTrue Blood Season 5 returns, a fine start to the new season. Jessica looking way too hot, what a Vamp! Still such a fine show!We also watch 'Yellow Submarine' on Blu Ray, amazing really considering when it was made... but you really do need to be taking drugs to watch it! We weren't! Always funny how The Beatles didn't use their own voices for the animation. June 18thWhen you're Fogbound! ...and we are. Pea Soup all the way up to the house, feels very New Orleans here today. Vampire Lestat.Crowdies jump on the National chart with The Very, Very Best Of Crowded house. It moves up 8 spots to #40 nationally. #9 on the Australian artist chart. I see Seeker Judith Durham's solo tour has lost a few shows. It's going to be a short tour for you Bek, at least their won't be voice strain with only a handful of gigs and Melbourne she'll do well. June 19thHappy Birthday to our mate Alison, a big birthday number today. Starts with a 5 and ends with a 0!Mark and myself were going to head for Mexican but there is a private function on at the place. So homemade lasagne for us, one of the best I've ever made. Half way through I think of Alison and call up our buddy Tania. We are going to drive the 50 kms and surprise her for her birthday. Grab a cake and candles and a bottle of Moet. We know she'll hate the invasion as she never NEVER lets anyone into her house. It takes us awhile to even find it, almost singing happy birthday to the chinese people that live next door! Just as she opens the door and we sing, an earthquake hits Melbourne, just a 5.6 so the candles are blown out and the place is a rocking. We have the honour of being allowed in, ok it was for 20 minutes but still remarkable. I think she was touched by what we did and she tells us so a few days later. People are carrying on about the earthquake but it was really lame. Anything under a 6 is pathetic. June 20thCold, way too cold, I rarely feel the cold but I do today. It's warmer as we leave the mountain.We visit our mate Spock today, and get to check out the finished house. Bob is home so it's nice to see her. We head off to Tancks Corner at Yarranbat-really good food, not bad coffee but it should be hotter. Boom Crash Opera have a gig coming up with another batch of aussie bands, I think Spocko said it was one of the winery shows, could be fun. Anyway really nice day to catch up, life flies by too fast and sometimes you need to make time for your friends. Talk to Fran and she says they may be heading up to QLD to the Island so who knows if we go up we may catch up with them. Australia is great for holidays at the moment, not very expensive at all, and with crappy melbourne weather why wouldn't you escape. Life is too short. June 21stWinter Solstice has arrived....that means the Earths south pole is tilted away from the Sun doesn't it? Or have I got it wrong?Melbourne was the "Great Music City" tonight on Foxtel tonight. Good to see Greg Skyhook Interviewed and the band featured. A few promo photos we gave them were used. It was ok, I was happy just seeing 'Living In The 70's' album cover being displayed so prominently. Census are in and there are 33,000 same sex defacto couples in Australia. A lot crying out for gay marriage- isn't it time you allowed a conscience vote Mr Abbott! Such a coward. One of the newspapers runs a poll where 18,154 are asked and 52% say YES, 45% say no and 3% undecided... 18,000 is a lot for a poll, so quite a positive result. June 22ndI hear from Tania about a gig, but we won't be here or fairly sure we wont. Hope she can go with Bek etc. DEVO are one of the bands playing, their shows are brilliant , even after all these years...and The Church., Models, Simple Minds..I add some real ginger into the ginger beer, has a nice edge to it now. June 23rdWe chat to Laura for awhile, she's getting me Sue's new email address, I'm hoping she took some snaps of The Mullanes live which we can use in Ghost Cars book. Get well too Laura, you have to stop playing ice hockey, broken ribs-ouch! All our our friends are falling apart.It must be the day for calls, hear from Merelyn and I totally destroy her sex life by keeping her on the phone..... and Leanne in Perth, and Tania too- which was hysterical- laughing so much I ended up with tears in my eyes. Jane calls on the mobile so the calls are coming in fast today. I'm sitting in front of the fire writing- and the phone rings and Banshee looks at me as if to say "doesn't that thing stop making that noise". It was Allie and we have a wonderful lonnnnnng chat. Telstra did well from us today. I'm having a coffee at the general store and lovely Jodie walks in wearing a "I DO" Tee which is part of the marriage equality promotion. What cool neighbours we have. I cook a rast tonight, those brilliant spuds from our garden and snow peas. Work on book stuff with mark in the office till some strange hour...we looked up and suddenly it was 2.00. June 24thMarks coffee machine wakes me up, was in such a deep sleep, like a bear hibernating.I call Rosemaree and mention that we are happy to feed her cat if she goes away. Trying to figure out where my boss is, I think he's songwriting, I'm assuming for the next CH album in 2013. Tomorrow is Tim Finns birthday- the big 60th- have a fantastic day Tim. So thats it an extra week added to the diary entry .... as I had fallen behind. Love Life and remember to get off the couch and go for a walk! PG x |