The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 27 April - 17 May 2015
"I am batgirl- hear me roar"! Maddison -Kalorama May 2015
April 27thStill incredibly sad over the Nepal earthquake, it's on my mind all the time. Not to mention those violent after shocks. Just horrid. I'm trying to track down my artist friend but it's not looking good.My Sis and Miss MIM arrive soon, so we get the guests bedroom ready. We are both really excited that they are staying. Banshee probably isn't- she's not a big fan of guests being at the house and tends to escape when people visit. I can't imagine what she will think of Maddison, a little person making strange noise! April 28thYou know time is flying by when I notice the diary update is now several weeks old. It only seems like yesterday since we did the last one. It really does go by in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure if it's because we are squashing so much into every day. I'm hoping it is that. It's not old age (which one of you bastards said that!! *GRIN*).!!! Sorry Deb, I'm late again with this. I am a bad boy!April 29thProving yet again we are stuck in our own little world-we go to have breakfast at BRUNCH and ignore all the signs near the drive-we wander in and it's closed for a funeral. The young man who worked in their kitchen took his own life- just incredibly sad. The owners are so good to us.. a bit embarrassed that we didn't see any of the signs out front.So we end up at "Montage", which is cool as Astrid is now back on staff-a familiar face. They do make a fine BLT , and we have our own table. (Think Warhol back room at Max's!!-NOT). April 30thI'm excited as Miss Maddisons Batgirl suit arrives- a Size 2 which is the smallest they make. It's really great, the cowl looks a bit big, I'm hoping it won't scare her.... yes the things we uncle do. This will be fun.May 1stMay- the birthday month, something like 18 birthdays in a row..it's both fun and exhausting.Sis and Miss MIM arrive in the evening and it's so absolutely fantastic to have them stay with us. I adore my sister and my niece is so drop head lovely and smart and yes of course I'm biased as all hell. She stays up till 12.30, so cute falls asleep in my arms. I'm a happy uncle. May 2ndMIM tries on her Batgirl outfit and spends the whole day in it - except for one moment when the cowl falls too low and she walks into the wall (OUCH). She pirouettes with the cape and is such a happy kid. I snap away, and film, these moments are precious and I'm going to capture as many as I can.A surprise at dinner, an early birthday cake and MIM helps me blow out my 10,000 candles. The hills almost burn down because there are so many candles. We watch some dvdrs of trips- and each time Sis in Egypt or Nepal appears- Maddison stares and goes "Mama".... you can see her working out that her beloved Mum was a decade or two younger- it's funny watching an 18 month olds brain tick away. Miss MIM sneaks into my room to watch Banshee sleep on my bed- the cat allows her a few pats and MIM screeches with delight which scares the hell out of Banshee so she gives the youngen' a hiss... never tries to scratch her but I'm careful anyway. Banshees trying to figure out what the hell MIM is! By midnight Batgirl has fallen asleep on Uncle Marks lap- a very cute photo-she adores him too- does my heart good. May 3rdThe infamous Chestnut Festival is on at Kalorama oval- money raised goes to help the local school. I use a bit of clout to secretly get it some mentions on mainstream radio and some other areas. I like that we can secretly do this.We call Rosemaree who joins us and we all head to the oval. The sun is shining, Maddison on a pony ride and of course I take her into the petting zoo. She's so gentle with the animals..loves the little baby goat. We sit on some tree blocks and have lunch- what a lovely place we live in. Walk home and thought Rosemaree was going to croak it on our small hill. keep going you can make it (Puff puff pant pant.. I probably added a few puffs myself). Sis departs in the afternoon and the house does feel a bit empty without them. I take a cute snap of Maddison wheeling her Dora The Explorer suitcase to the car. Mark and myself sit down and watch our Annual Bitch fest- aka-The Logie Awards. For once, (and this is rare) they actually got a few awards right. Danielle Cormack wins Best Actress- and she looks outstanding and gives a great speech (especially around supporting Nepal).. she plays Queen Bea on the re-boot of prisoner (Wentworth) ...and we are amazed Wentworth wins Best drama. A show on cable-how FANTASTIC. The free to air channels must be crapping themselves... we let out a cheer! Every so often the Logies do get it right..... the bitch fest is over for another year. Sis calls from Sydney airport and MIM decided it would be fun to lift her dress and rip off her nappy on the public walk way from the airport.. Sis is horrified-we are amused. May 4thThe Very Very Best Of Crowded House climbs to #10 on the ARIA catalogue chart. Week #111 on the chart. Like Recurring Dream before it, it just keeps on ticking over with sales- heading towards triple Platinum here.Great to see Labors Chris Bowen will now vote YES and support gay marriage. Nice when politicians change their minds- Abbott the vile old homophobe still too gutless to allow a conscience vote. When a prehistoric wanker he is. The perfect day outside, sun shining, you wouldn't think Winter is around the corner- probably the last gasp of sunshine! May 5thSherbet V's Skyhooks on ABC radio. Skyhooks romp it in, something like 16 of the 20 songs are 'Hooks. Still a much loved band. Skyhooks won the war- Sherbet haven't stood the test of time all that well.We order some flowers for both Mums, mothers day approaching fast. They get a buzz receiving them, so we try to be good sons. May 6thWe head to Bunnings and I fill up a shopping cart- grass seeds to re-do the lawn, liquid nails, the new blowtorch- which has about 10 uses from cooking to enamel work and even lighting the big fire in the pool room, plants all other fun stuff. It's so easy to go crazy in this store... we are a bit blokie!Spend the afternoon addressing mailers for next week disc mailing. May 7thNice chat to Spock from BCO- we are going to catch up with him and the band this Saturday-it's been awhile since we have seen them play so really excited. They are still one of the best bands in Oz!May 8thFinish up some work on the steps. I buy a massive bag of carrots at the supermarket-for juicing- amazing Woolworths bargain. No idea why they were so cheap but the bag is so large they only just fit in our fridge and we have a BIG fridge!!!!! Giving my eyes a healthy treat.I spend the afternoon working on Neil Finn work- just bits and pieces, lots of fiddly things that needed doing. May 9thA grey old day, wondering if it will rain for the Boom Crash Opera show at Carrums Harvest Festival. No matter what we still go- down the toll way almost to Frankston. Our good buddy Spock gives us a car park but we miss the backstage area and end up parking in the senior citizens zone.We just wander backstage, no passes, but we look the part so no one stops us. Oh the gig is in a giant circus tent- no one told us that-but where is backstage? A smaller tent in the bigger tent- how silly of us. It's split down the middle so a co-share. The humidity is insane. The band are all backstage, just wonderful smiles and love seeing these guys. Laughter and incredible fun. I go to take my group photos, and the lens keeps on fogging up- next my battery falls out of the camera- -fuck me I'm so professional today. Maybe this is not meant to happen I say to the band. I snap 3, one with super foggy humidity but manage to clear the lens for the others. We head side stage and let them get ready- so excited, I think this will be an amazing show.. The crowd is great, passionate, huge part young. Good set list- they start with "Great Wall" , and all those other cool songs- "Gimme", "Dancing in the storm" just rips the place apart-excellent sing-a-long, "Mountain", "Bettadaze", truly brilliant version of "Best Thing" and huge cheers from Gryphon and Marky- they play "Her Charity". We love that song. By now we are on the other side of the stage with the guitar tech..so we have it to ourselves, some serious dancing. Snapped a few photos but the lighting is a nightmare. They finish the set with "Onion Skin" -once more crowd singing. Peter Farnan just chuckling at us-he knows we are having the best time. A super quick encore- "Hands up in the air" ..... what a show! We wait and head in to say goodbye- nice chat to Spocky and Bungie... I thank Dale for "Her Charity" never thought we'd see that one in the set again and they know it's a favourite- so we are content. We chat about the show all the way home in the car- love a killer gig and it's probably a long time till BCO play more shows , so we are stoked we went. May 10thMothers day so we give our Mums a call... the flowers arrived and apparently are amazing. We head off at midday to get to St Kilda for The Sports reunion show at Memo Music Hall. We make a quick dash to visit Greg Skyhook- he's a mate and we never get to see him enough. Such an important figure in our life.I park at Acland streets car park, which is used for the super market, MEMO just down the street so it's handy, especially if the weather turns. We run into Peter from the Caravan Club and he directs us to the area where the main door is located (around the corner). I like the venue, intimate and kind of funky. We have a table close to the fornt. Two girls nearby chat to us and it's just bizarre how are paths are similar. They headed to Melbourne from Brisbane the same year we came down from Wollongong- in search of music and fame (cough). We worked out we would of gone to many, many of the same gigs.. small world- so they gave us their email addys and we will be in contact. Poor Stephen Cummings, he has that flu bug, really bad and has at all the shows. His voice sounds like someone is running a saw across his vocal cords. Truly horrid and we feel for him. The show must go on and it does. Martin Armiger is great though, passionate and having fun. It's our 100th Sports gig and not brilliant. Think we are just going to pretend it never happened. Outside people on the street keep saying the words "train wreck" seems some are not as generous as many of us over a lead singer having the flu. A few at the bar moaning about the lyric sheet being used on stage. Still if you are handing over $65 a ticket it is a let down. Maybe because the BCO gig was so powerful and exceptional, this Sports show that we were eagerly looking forward to- just had to be a let down. Anyway points to Stephen for trying and even finishing the show. I'm putting this one out of my mind- you can't win them all. May 11thSo here we are , birthday time for yours truly. If I had to full describe it, the diary would be 1000 pages long- just the perfect day, well "days" as it never seemed to end. So many well wishes on Sheepbook- it was a bit out of control but really exceptional. I made an effort to thank everyone, well hopefully . Flowers arrived , cards, amazing presents from so many generous people. They all know who they are, so i won't embarrass them. A lovely surprise in the evening when mates just rocked up- nice and simple. OK when I head some were coming I did decide to decorate the kitchen with numerous Tibetan flags with a nod to Nepal. Just all happened very naturally and what ended up a great night-thanks to all my gorgeous buddy's for making it so. No way Claire are you getting my secret recipe for that tomato soup!!!!! Wendys birthday cake almost made me teary-possibly my best birthday ever! Love that my favourite musicians sang Happy Birthday-even those who were not lead singers!May 12thClean the house in the morning, but left up the flags, they can come down over the next week. Dishwasher and the human dishwasher .. me -both had a work out this morning. More flowers arrived and the house is now fragrant and beautiful- thank you!An incredible bunch of Proteas arrived from Toija, Marco, Surija and Oliver today- really beautiful flowers-thanks guys xx May 13thIt snowed last night. Well 2.43 in the morning. I woke up, I knew it was snow! Not sure how, went outside and it was brilliant. Of course the rain fell 15 minutes later and washed most of it away. It's not even Winter here yet , so keeping it all crossed for a massive snow fall this year-that would be cool. Yes snow is still a novelty at Kalorama!Pope Francis really should demand that Cardinal Pell explain any involvement and knowledge that he had in the possible cover up of paedophile catholic priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale. How can anyone support a church that lets such evil shit like this happen. Out of mind out of sight - shame on them! There has to be a time where students molested by priests is a priority with the Church and not allowed to be handled "in house". May 14thIt dropped to 1 degree last night. My bed felt very snug this morning. It was very very difficult to leave such a warm nest.Any Whites "Live In The Lounge Room" has now had it's 1000th visitor on You Tube. I told him 1000 people would see it- so true to our word. Andys one gig for Melbourne is on June 4th at Yarra Hotel- Abbottsford, that will be a fun one. You should come along dear reader- have some fun. May 15thI Pay a shit load of bills today, all came in at once- but managed to do so- lucky I have a vegie patch or we'd starve!! I think it's just timing, Some weeks hardly any and all of a sudden a Tsunami of bills. It could be worse, the solar panels and water tanks ease the $$$ burden. I've no idea how really large families survive these days.May 16thUp early as Miss Trudi arriving to spoil us with lunch. So the BRUNCH crowd give us our favourite room, people free- so anti social! Trudi's a good mate, it wouldn't surprise me if we all ended up living close to each other when we are really old and crusty. I do suggest the new ECO community at The Cape. Imagine if we all returned to Cape Paterson all those years later- that would be weird. I've checked out some of the houses, I get them, I really do but like all modern homes they are seriously lacking in charm and character. We shall see. Ask me again in 20 years! I like the idea of the complete street being nothing but our friends. All of us oldies stumbling down the beach together with our walkers and golden silver hair. Of course I'll look exactly the same- c'mon you know I will.I'm enjoying the William Ricketts book that Wendy and Doug gave me. Proving life is just strange, I discovered that William was born and spent a decade at 22 Berry Street Richmond, yes right next door to the Dogs In Space movie house (#18 Berry street)- just too weird. It's such a hidden little street - and two classic things happened.. and I love both. Ricketts Sanctuary and Dogs In Space movie. May 17thWe head off to Maroush (1092 Main Rd Eltham) a fantastic Lebanese restaurant. It's meant to be a surprise birthday dinner for our mate Doug, set up by Wendy. Of course they arrive just when we are walking in- busted! A really nice night- and a belly dancer (good dancing Douglas!). The food was truly excellent as was the company. Home by midnight so not too bad!That's it for another diary... it sounds like all we have been doing is eating and celebrating! Well we have. Love life- it dissolves way too fast, make every second count! xPG |