The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 6 April - 26 April 2015
"An old dog of war, has one last sniff of the flowers." (Anzac Day-Kalorama 2015)
April 6thOh dear Mr Abbott now has the worst approval rating for a PM since 1996- he makes Julia Gillard shine! Tick tick tick his days are numbered.Great news with our buddy Bill, being Neil Finns new manager. It's off to a good start with a lot of fresh information and ideas- I am loving it. The happiest I've been around work for the last decade. Excellent. Breakfast with some of the girls at The Deli. A really fun morning. We like our locals up here, not sure if we are freaks but they treat us like friends so it feels pretty good. April 7thPaid my car insurance, one more bill out of the road. They seem to come in faster these days eh? No it's not old age. "Wentworth" Season 3 returns tonight- a fantastic season debut. I hear it's taking off in the States and of course the UK. All those old Prisoner fans -this is one re-boot that is actually really exceptional. Ex BCO member Richard Pleasance working on the music. On ya Rich!Some dog did a big puppy Poo on the side of Kalorama Oval, and we walk past it every day when out for our walk/jog. Mark named the Poo Tony Abbott ...(yes decaying dog shit) and we greet it every day "Afternoon Tony.." as we walk past. Tomorrow we are sticking a small cocktail Aussie flag next to it- do we have to salute when we walk past! April 8thI cook breakfast at home for us- a surprise for Mark. Just had the vibe to do so- really nice.The Easter Eggs have not yet turned up at Wollongong for my family/niece. So I call Australia Post. The guy is embarrassed -can't think of any reason why.... he is tracking them down. Australia Post another pathetic moment. We are watching "Hell On Wheels" Season 4 ... another fine season- possibly the best one yet. An excellent show.. truly underrated. April 9thI transfer some Umatic footage of Skyhooks at the Moomba Music Awards (1975) onto our YouTube area -to be used on Official Skyhooks Facebook page. It has a live vocal- so not fully mimed and Shirl cracks up half way through-just starts laughing-obviously he's enjoying himself. Another fine moment from our favourite band. Also, the Enz at the MCG performing "Six Montsh In A Leaky Boat"- such a passionate crowd at that Sound Relief concert. Still feels like yesterday not 6+ years ago.Summer has faded on the mountain, a very grey day- the locals can light fires again, and they are all burning in the yards as we drive down the tourist road. You can smell leaves and baked chestnuts. Miss Banshee gets a new flea colour- they are bright red- she's really patient when I swap them over- no fight, she hasn't had a single flea her whole life, so it must work. She's knows it's good for her. April 10thLove her or hate her- I hear Hilary Clinton rented campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, so it appears to be all on. That first speech, that first location-very important-symbolism... she is incredibly smart- that 2016 election in her sights.Save $28.00 at Woolworths today on our shopping, that cool little discount book they mailed out-and triple flight points. I was forced to run into a Coles store last week and hated it, just looked grotty and of course they didn't have what I wanted. Urgh! Coles sucks. April 11thOff to the city to see Cosentino live- the grand illusionist. It was excellent, sadly though it's at The Casino-which I go out of my way to avoid. The gambling tables were packed with the desperate. Thanks Sis for the seats, really fun.On the way home we swung by 53 Grange Road Toorak- our original little flat where we lived when we first arrived. It has changed, a massive grand mansion of apartments with some huge penthouse on top. Nearby a party was on in a yard, complete with dance floor and lights, so we faked our way in and had some drinks and a dance. No one even asked.... hell it was loud, I was waiting for a police bust any moment. Finally made it home...not too late-a fun night. April 12thUp early and get some bits and pieces ready for our visitors. Marks brother Stephen and wife Annette, all the way from NZ. We pick them from Upper Ferntree Gully station, again the train is on time. A really good day and the rain held off. So nice to see them and we all had the best time. We are lucky, 99% of our family we love, so days like this are usually fun. So much they stay for dinner and we end up eating at Indian By nature at Olinda. Mark and Louise from Brunch call in and chat- good people. They spoil us at breakfast. We make a pact to all catch up sooner instead of later...after all NZ isn't that far away.April 13thSuper foggy morning, all the way up to the house. The weather has changed. I head to the office in the fog, have a press release this morning announcing Neil Finns Sydney and Melbourne shows. Embargoed till 8.00, so at 8.01 I'm active. A busy busy busy day.Finn-Kelly CD re-enters the Top 50 at #49.... week #18 on chart. It's part of JB's 3 for the price of 2 deal so that helped. The CD is Gold status , platinum not too far away. "Game Of Thrones"- Season 5 returns- it's the highest rating show Foxtel has had. Dragons Dragons Dragons..I'm happy. April 14thAnother day another Finn gig announcement. We managed to surprise the Enz fans today with the great news that Tim Finn will return to the UK for a one off gig at Bush Hall in London (July 12th 2015). It's been so long since he played the UK-that a one off show will indeed be extra special. If people have to travel so be it, it's not like England is a very large country. I keep asking myself, will this be the last time he plays in England- you never know do you. So if you are in the UK- don't blow this - go to the show- it will be awesome. More news on - www.frenz.com/timfinn/The Olinda Pool meeting is on tonight but I'm stuck in the office and can't attend. Apparently Labor did come up with the money and work will get underway soon. Great to see. It should never of gotten to this point, shame on the Liberals and the council for letting this happen, and degrade till the pool was unusable. April 15thA nice day on the mountain, but some massive crashing noise, thunder- and hardly a cloud in the sky-so a strange start.I'm having a coffee at the general Store and Rod Stewart is on the radio singing Maggie May. It's brilliant as different people wander in and they continue the song- it's our own little local choir. Oh the power of music, and a good song. A lot of new members sign on up for the Frenz of the Enz- heaps. The office floor covered in membership kits , there most certainly is a vibe! April 16thLet the insanity begin. The Neil Finn shows sell out in 4 minutes. Over 75% of the tickets are handed down to the pre-sale and it's madness. We end up with 11,000+ emails in our system. I still can't believe it. My fingers ache and we work a 12 hour day again. I find tickets here , there and everywhere, we release some more but the tsunami of madness just rolls on in. I hear from our manager and neither of us can believe how quickly they went.I hate pre-sales, both trying for tickets and dealing with them, it's stressy. Today I am so calm but people get worked up, frustrated, and kind of nutty. I don't blame them, I get it.. I just hate pre-sales (I've made that clear eh?)!!! *GRIN*. April 17thExcellent thick shakes at The Garden Coffee Lounge on Canterbury Rd. So thick you can't use a straw....!The rest of the day still dealing with Neil Finn tickets....it's all part of the job. April 18thNice an early to the General Store today- get a lot of work done on my laptop. Great coffee from Queen Nelly of Wales!Decide we are having a roast tonight, so I dig up potatoes from the garden and pick the last of our snow peas. One pumpkin left. and Mark hates Pumpkin so I leave a huge segment by the door of our neighbours house. It's the time of year to snip the Agapanthus that grow around our circular drive. The black flowered ones still haven't happened-the plant thrives but no flower yet- maybe when they mature. The Honey Bee's love these plants when they flower but they do grow like crazy up here. Move over Triffids- the Agapanthus are taking over the world..... quick run! April 19thApparently Abbott managed to chop $80 Billion out of health and education since he has been PM. Yet he'll waste $60+ million + searching for a plane that has been missing for well over a year. That money would be better off spent elsewhere-what a waste! Spend it on the living I say.The first part of "Deadline Gallipoli" on Foxtel tonight- we were surprised just how good it was. April 20thMr Red Symons calls/emails actually a nice surprise for the day. I hear lunch is on, is it on Red?I drive to Officeworks so they can re-do the Nigel Griggs 8x10 photos. While I'm waiting for them to be printed I sit in front of their freebee computer and take notes on the human race wandering by. I quite like watching people... most are impatient , all shapes and sizes and even a woman with a baby dog in a blanket that won't stop licking her face! Urgh. They fascinate me.. they all look so worked up- a tad frustrated. A short round woman was so aggressive to the staff - she so needed to get laid. Yes that sound terrible but she screamed pent up sexual frustration. I'm stayed out of her way as she rolled by me out the door. Yieks. I see vinyl is up in Australia, by 127%... Australia is #9 in the vinyl LP consumer list. April 21stThe Deli was packed today, which isn't too hard to do, so we headed up to Montage. Loads of room-right decision. Great that Astrid is part of the Montage team- she was so happy to see us and introduced us to Lisa... I'm sure I called her Linda. She looks more Linda-ish!It's still cold outside, meant to be freezing for a week, will hit minus figures later on. I take some time outside and collect firewood, just the kindling - always plenty of that about. I do visit Nigel in the afternoon. I take him a treat of some Marsepein. The lady at the shop where I buy it goes " is this for your bass player friend"? See no secrets up here..what a memory. I call into the petrol station near Nigels and the tough guy in the car sees my "Abbott Sucks" sticker and leans out and goes "What a total C _ _ T Abbott is.. useless prick"! Yieks. Well he is right. As The Hound on Game Of Thrones said "There's no cure for being a C...."! He's right you know (chuckle). Nigel arrives home just as I park the car. He signs some 8x10 and we chat , it's always fun to visit him, a mate and I'm glad he's on the mountain too. For once, I leave on time and manage to get all the mail in the post van on time (well just). It's been a long day but got a lot done. April 22ndGetting my focus back for day to day work in our office. Sometimes it's hard to do. I have a small list of "To Do's" and I'm onto it. Of course Neil Finns ticket sales just played havoc with my week, and now I'm a week+ behind in everything. But things like ticket sales have to be the priority so people will have to understand that. means we'll have to work some long hours in the office this coming week- but with the change in Melbourne's weather-to grey and wet, that's actually a good thing.Windy night last night, so a fine collection of twigs and tree drop for the fire today. Nature provides-you just have to know where to look. April 23rdAll our tax done for last year -thanks Carolyn! Great that we are up to date.A full on day and by late evening we have some sort of munchy moment (without the drugs). A total urge to have toasted sandwiches - with really good ham and cheeses..in the toasted sandwich machine. I remember ours is broken, so i suggest we head to Woolworths and do all our grocery shopping at the same time. So off we go into the night. The staff are great at our Woolies and we that track down a toasted sandwich machine at another store. So after our super shop, I drive again to the next store. The car park looks very suss-like an ICE market place..so Mark stays in the car and guards both it and our grocerys. True to Woolworths word they do have a machine for me...and I'm now wondering if they were actually closed and just let me in while they were doing their shelf packing. An hour later we are home, with the fire going having the worlds best ever ever ever toasted sandwich! Worth the effort! The other great score of the night- a massive bag of mixed fruit/vegies for a mere $3.00. Organic tomatoes and capsicums..all perfect- $3.00 astounding!!!! April 24thNige calls and we chat about harlequin demos and a few other bits and pieces. Kept it to 45 minutes as I was cooking dinner while we talked. Great he lives so close.I did track down a very small Batgirl outfit for Miss MIm when she visits next, got to have fun with my cool little niece. I hope it arrives on time. Great to see Nick and Nat from the States today. Back to the house after coffee for them to catch up with Marky. Today was a fun one. They comment on seeing so many of the Abbott HOPELESS posters around town. Inspired by Shepard Faireys iconic HOPE posters...these posters say it all. It's the only related piece of Abbott "art" I'd own.. Tony Abbott = Hopeless! Just way too clever! I'll have to get us one. Love the carry bags! http://www.abbottsolutelynot.com/ April 25thAnzac Day -100th anniversary.Couldn't sleep and I'm awake way before the sun rises. So I head on up to the Peace Shrine near 5-Ways at Kalorama. The back of the car is full of flowers from the garden for the shrine. I'm the only one as the sun comes up. Some respect for my great grandfather-William Thomas (WW1) and my great Uncle Ronnie who was a POW in WW2. I hate war, but I respect the diggers from those early wars -different times. As I'm about to go a veteran arrives on a motorbike and I don't say anything, allow him his space for his thoughts. I light 2 candles for William and Ronnie and head off for a much needed coffee. Over 150 locals turn up at 9.00 for the service-I head on back and spot this lone dog, who looks really really old-on his last legs- He wobbles up to some of the flowers I left and has a big sniff. Took one photo- an old dog of war- having his last moments! He sees me and comes on over for a pat- and instead of leaving his scent-he leaves me with some thoughts of all the animals that are hurt etc in Wars. April 26thWe are woken by the very sad news of a massive earthquake in Nepal. A 7.8 which is massive, especially for such a poor country. Parts of Kathmandu are in tatters. Two people we met whilst visiting Nepal are missing- but with all communication down it's not surprising. I speak to Sis and she thinks her friend is ok and might of moved back to Chitwan National Park. Sadly the artist friend that I have stayed in contact with, was probably killed as his house and studio are rubble. It leaves me saddened and unsettled and my heart aches for that beautiful country and it's people. The famous Durbar square destroyed but the beautiful Swayambhunath has survived. It's an amazing temple.We send out links for CARE and Red Cross. It should be easy for people just to donate a mere $5.00- it can make a huge difference. I'm hoping the citizens of the world will rally to help, one thing is for certain, Nepal can never be the same. I'm full of sadness and like so many will find ways to help. Nepal you won't be forgotten - the best way to help is to donate! That's it for another diary. As I type this another massive after shock has hit Nepal. Please help this incredible country. Red Cross, CARE etc. Your good deed for the week! Peter. |