The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 1 January - 12 January 2014
Flamingoes Frolicking At Kalorama January 2014
January 1stI wake up, stumble from sleepland with a maine coon under my arm, and ask myself how it became 2014. I feel like I have been asleep for way too long. As Sherbet once said- "Life is for living"! Oh they were so deep in 1975! Mark grunts and says happy new year, I grunt "same to you" back to him. The Grunt twins! His usual line-"I dream too much".....My biggest frustration for the day is not having a 2014 paper diary. Good old fashioned diaries are hard to find, which is so strange. I need to plan, to scrawl, to put down ideas- I'm not a technophobe but I LOVE having a paper diary. Just the $5 medium size planners that the reject shop sell.That would be fine, but all sold out. I need to plan in my planner, I have plans, I have ideas and they will return to the mist of my mind if I do not write them down. Peter Plan-it that's me. Welcome to 2014 where it goes missing easily! Ideas and the best laid plans of men and cats. January 2ndI contemplate the upcoming Split Enz on facebook page. The Official Enz page, which I hope will be interesting. I just don't want predictable. I've spoken to most of the Enz boys, well some, so probably not most... but the current Enz have all said YES, which was a bit of a surprise. Tim has always loved his "old school" ways but he has faith in me, well I think so, I hope we do it justice. The bands watershed album True Colours was released 34 years ago on January 21st so I mark this down in my diary (if I had one) for the rough date for the Official Enz sheepbook page. Yes it is true I have grown to love parts of facebook, other parts are so predictable it is crap, but so far the good outweighs the bullshit. I do see fellow humans become digital code on 2 legs and no longer know how to pick up a phone or actual vocalise with their fellow buddies. Some people get so protective over Facebook which is so tempting to bait -yes no new years resolution to stop doing that-sorry world. Anyway Official Enz will hopefully be good for band, and music lovers. So we will put the time in, and it will be quite a solid chunk out of our week. I want to put up something new every day, knowing my eagerness it will probably be several "new" things.January 3rdI work on Neil solo bits and pieces for most of the day. Just had that urge to be in the office, windows open and music playing. A lot of people are still away on holidays and officially our office is closed so I can play catch up-it's rare I get such chances. I still don't have a diary so I am determined to go to Lilydale and try and track one down.January 4thA reminder that the Mushroom Records 40th-Melbourne Music Exhibition at RMIT gallery finishes late February (22nd). It is free to enter and there are 4 or 5 rooms of items. My favourite is still the costume area. For more information check out the Frenz Forum . www.frenzforum.comI'll be walking the final Guided Tour through on Sat Feb 22nd. We have 5 spots available still, so if you want to come along on the final Guided Tour of the exhibit, just email me (peter@frenz.com). A grand time will be had! January 5thNot sure what this year has in store for me...something good, a pay rise would be amazing. I spend part of my day addressing the cd mailers for the Feb release of Dizzy Heights, NF's newie.Mr Abbott's "Turn back the boats" scenario has gotten worse, I wonder if he knows how many people are now laughing at him and shaking their heads. I heard a guy on talk back radio that said "I thought Gillard was bad and voted for you Mr Abbott but somehow you are actually worse-can I have my vote back!". Talk about the doomed Abbott experiment, I guess it's easy to be the attack dog in opposition but the reality of running a country when you are in power is a totally different kettle of lies (opps fish). Visitors in this afternoon which is great. A nice chilled day on the decking, we like that. They obsess over my vegetable patch like it is a work of art. I give them a lettuce- because they are such garden groupies. January 6thI win $13.00 on Rosemaree's ticket and a huge $49 on mine....so I venture to Lilydale and splurge on an expensive diary. It is the right SIZE and for me that is important. It's prinetd by "The Last Diary Company"-well that explains a lot, I say to no one in particular. I go to the organic shop and get some bits and pieces for tonights guests.Wendy and Doug arrive, right on time, and it's great to see them. We are given some very cool presents. LOVE the two pink flamingo's from the original 1950 moulds.....exceptional.....and a signed Leunig calendar...god Leunig is brilliant and for our garden this very rare red Wattle. One small cluster was discovered.... so we are trying to grow one big wattle tree here.... the orange red wattle itself looks like fire....so instead of the standard yellow. I'm hoping like the Wollemi pine ours will grow and thrive and Wendy and Doug can take some seeds etc and grow it at their home. I called Rosemaree as well so she visited, so a really nice gathering. Before we all knew it, it was ticking over to 3.00 in the morning.... a nice night had by all. January 7thI woke up early and my brain refused to go to sleep so I was working outside by 8.00. I spent the rest of the day on Neil Finn bits and pieces, I know I got a lot done, my email IN box down to 12.... it's never 12, it's always 500 emails! Cool.January 8thIf he was alive today and lovely ol' Hessie would of turned 55 years young. I play some of his solo material today as is our way.Laura, Stella and Kevin meet us at the General Store again more chrissy presents which is so cool. Christmas is all year round at Ailsa Craig, didn't you know that? My vegetable patch has enough room for one more plant so this lovely Thai chilli plant takes the remaining bit of dirt. We eat a lot of chillies. The garden has been superb, we pick fresh vegetables every day which is a good thing. I broke some coffee cups the other day so the gift of cups makes me smile..sometimes it's meant to be. January 9thA box arrives from Sharon & Neil- a gift box of the best chocolates, expensive champas etc...there was no need for this, but nice they even made the effort. What a fine way to start the day! Thank you Julia too.I look at a house but it's too boxy. 29 One Tree Hill Rd, Ferny Creek....some of the layout is good but a few areas too modern and off white. Modern just fails so many times in my book, no character or warmth- just dull. Mark hated it. As soon as he said "hate" it was all over. I rush some art for Nic the Deli girl, just a little fun piece to make her day... January 10thPay the phone and Foxtel bill, it was a massive $2 less this month. Wow that was some saving on my part!!!!Heaps of cockatoo's have been arriving at our place. Quite a few have been moving into new areas since the Black Saturday Fires. The Rangers have spotted a lot that normally are not meant to be up here, and it's sending some bird watchers into a frenzy. The amount of times we hear "that cockatoo is not meant to be here" while we are having coffee, it's brilliant. Sometimes you just want to go-hey they are birds with wings, they don't suddenly stop flying at Point B! I just love seeing the more rare ones sitting on our bird bath. A few are camera shy which drives me crazy. January 11thWith Australia Day coming up fast (Jan 26th) I thought if the Enz Official Facebook page is up and running, I will dedicate that whole day to Paul Hester and his time with Split Enz. He was the only Aussie to be part of the band , so Australia Day seems a fitting time indeed to make it Paul Hester Enz day! He loved being in that band.I catch up with Giles & Fenella at the general store and Miss R too. Wanted to see them for awhile but as always I keep getting side tracked, such a lovely couple, always liked their humour. January 12thI wanted some "me" time so took work to the Kalorama General store (again). The bicycle riding older woman were in and nattering about something boring, I tried to ignore it but dull makes it duller for me and my peaceful moment was shattered. I was glad when they went off, lycra bike shorts and big bums is never an attractive thing-urgh! Sorry but it really isn't! Every so often i do want to be alone at the store and just focus and invent and create and work.I attacked a fallen branch and made fire wood for winter out of it. Two hours of chainsawing. It was brilliant to have some Mountain Goat Beer afterwards-(organic,steam ale). I drink very little beer but Mountain Goat is kinda nice on the hot days. My arm muscles are looking good-ok I am a puny bastard but every so often little muscles do appear (apart from my love muscle!!) Yieks. Tomorrow morning I am letting slip the Enz Official Facebook Page. Fans have asked for it, so I've let it off it's leash a few days early. Originally I was going for 21st as that marks the True Colours 34th anniversary but the beast can not be contained any longer-so Official Split Enz is on it's way. We've now had about 25,000 people check it out and approx 2200 "Likes" which is great considering it's word of mouth. So head to: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialEnz and remember to give it a LIKE! I'm not a big fan of Facebook, I see the good and the bad and the boring. If we have an Enz page up I want to make sure there is always fresh content. Something new every day, if not 6 or 7 new things. Well it's out on the net now so might as well enjoy the thing. Thank you to the many who have helped and supported this. Viva la' Enz! xPG |