The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 18 March - 13 April 2019
"Happy Easter to all the Diary Readers."
March 18thMarks reading all our Barry Humphries books that are in our library-we have quite a few . One full of those other marvellous Humphrey's creations like Sandy Stone. Who's ancient monologues take us back to a different Australia. The retirees loved this line from Sandy (from 1968)." Old Jim Fleming from the Buying Department was a case in point. He was bursting to retire-reckoned on putting in a bit more time up at their little shack at Kalorama"! I wonder if that was the first time Kalorama was mentioned on stage? of course Mark being a big Sir Les Patterson would prefer him to mention Kalorama ......! The first red leaves of Autumn fell today and a handful of yellow, a sea of red on our 2 acres, I'll enjoy them, now, I'm sure in a month when they are up to our eyebrows we'll be going "Fucking leaves...". Mark hits the exercise bike, off he goes, peddling his heart out. Good, while we are at home we are both using it every day. Edmund Capon dies- he was an amazing man that changed the face of the NSW Gallery, revitalised it, plus he was a good bloke. I met him via Neville Wran the NSW Premier many years ago. March 19thChat to Narelle Everard at Montage today. She is running for the Senate in the upcoming Federal Election. I wish her surname was Everage, she could get good media coverage by saying she was related to Edna *GRIN*. She asked some political advice so i gave it. She seems ok.Jas emails me and my little radio interview is now a Podcast and up on Anchor. You can enjoy it here: https://anchor.fm/jasmine-stiff/episodes/The-Soundtrack-Strikes-Back-Season-1-Episode-1-e3i66g My You Tube page has 2000 Subs. Cool that so many people have checked out our videos, 1,335,000 . A lot of these wouldn't be up if it wasn't for the efforts of Marky, so hats off to you. The fans owe you a big thanks, you unsung hero. March 20th"Roswell New Mexico" has turned out to be a really cool little series. A reimagining of the Roswell tv show from 1999. Rather excellent and I'm left pondering the question, are all Aliens BiSexual? That could explain me I guess. HA! Also enjoying "Flack" but pissed off that it only has 6 episodes. How can characters grow in such small time frames? Good to see Sookie Stackhouse, opps sorry Anna Paquin back on TV in Flack and her hubby vampire Bill producing it. Sophie Okonedo is awesome in it. But Cmon more episodes in Season Two. It's the annoying TV thing to do in 2019, run a handful of episodes and break them up over a year. Even the last "season' of Game of Thrones' is over in a blink of an eye. The hype goes for a year but the season for several micro seconds.March 21stThe infamous Jen Brown calls, so that was a fun chat. Poet, Music lover, writer. Author of the Skyhooks Million Dollar Riff book. She was hanging around Skyhooks during that really exciting time period when they became gigantic here,March 22ndThe Federal Election is still to be announced, looking good for May 18th which is my bet. Go through some basic training stuff, still have to wait and get the job offers etc.Miss Banshee gets a bath today, she has these weird dreadlocks near her tail and they just won't wash out so I'll have to snip snip snip them during the week. She doesn't even look like a cat when she is wet, so skinny, such a super model. All three of us sit in the sun and enjoy the rays , the weather starts turning soon. So want to enjoy the sunshine while we can. Heavy rain tonight, thankfully none of our trees down, parts of the road are washed away. The gardens at Ailsa Craig get a much needed soaking. Mark works on some MP4's for You Tube of Hester/LLT interviews. For the fans , which will go up in a few days around the anniversary of Pauls death. March 23rdContinue boxing some of the last of Fire Sale #1 items. It takes time to do these, mostly paper work and all the other customs bullshit. Start on FS#2 late April.March 24thChat to Louis at Montage, what an amazing man, such a full life. Inspirational.Work in our office till 12.30 at night. Just like the good ol' days. The 64th Kalorama car rally is on at the oval, & I love seeing these superb vintage cars driving along the tourist road. Rosemaree has a new cat called Amber, she is cute. March 25thDrive to Montrose today and post 2 huge bags of bits and pieces. If nothing else the smaller post office on the mountain are doing well with postage. Mark says that I'm working harder now that i'm "retired" compared to before! Ha!.March 26thCan it really be 14 years since Hessie departed? Such things fly by. The fans love the 2 pieces of footage that we have up. Sometimes such things are the best tributes. I sit under the giant trees in our grove and think kind fun thoughts of Paul.Good to see Morrissey covering Roy Orbison's "It's Over" - very brave for anyone to cover the Big "O''s tunes. Spiced lentil soup for dinner. Yum. March 27thI mail my sister a parcel of goodies for Easter, that way it's all out of the way.March 28thWe have Japanese for dinner, Mark points out that his has less portions to what is advertised on the pack so he gets a discount. Good on you Marky. The weather is turning, it's starting to get colder at night. We are lighting our fires early this year.March 29thI was feeding Andy the Kookaburra and he kept looking sideways at the sky. I worked out why, there was a Hawke flying about and Andy was keeping an eye on it and telling his kookaburra baby to sit quietly on the chair under our verandah. Nice to see that our place is still a safe zone for the Kookaburra family.March 30thI give the gold record prize a good clean and manage to drop it onto my big toe. A very loud OUCH moment. No good deed goes unpunished!!!! Ha!The weather is nuts- rain, sleet, snow, lots of hail. Not sure how all the dahlias managed to survive intact. I like the wild weather but always worry that a tree might come down. March 31stI awoke early and think it might of been some snow falling outside our kitchen window. I just stood for 5 minutes and enjoyed it. We managed to get through another Summer without bushfires-hurrah!April 1stHow the hell did it become April? My birthday next month, another year old and certainly wiser (cough cough).Lucky Chris O'Brien (LM #240) wins the cool prize. Blue ticket #570. I get so excited for fans, always a huge buzz for me. I should remind everyone about the 2 concerts in Auckland and Christchurch too- April 13th and 17th. Quite afew cool NZ artists including the always awesome Bic Runga. April 2ndI see Mr Frydenberg has announced the Budget. Notice how everyone avoids our National Debt. Three times larger now, $865,000,000,000.00 !!!! That shocks the hell out of me, will take decades for future generations to pay this off. I wonder if Australia will now be in debt for the rest of my life! A rather depressing thought.Banshee is outside in the sun and enjoying sniffing the Bidens and Bracteantha's. Cats love flowers eh? April 3rdI hear from the AEC about possibly working at the Election, they are really nice to me, have a bit of a laugh.We get a call from Wollongong around Marks Mum and not looking good, rips our heart out-told only 2-3 weeks to go. We book air tickets again to head home on Monday. It gets worse, two hours later and his beautiful Mum has passed away. We are in total shock. Just cry and hold each other. The sadness is too much. I light a candle & leave it burning in the window. In shock. April 4thNo sleep, the sadness is at times overwhelming. I just want to take it away from him, and that all is ok, but it's not is it.We spend what seems forever going through photos, remembering stories and contacting relatives. April 5thWe are now heading home on Monday, and the funeral is next day so on a flight (again). I can't sleep, so read a book at 4.00 am.My sister has been amazing around all of this and to make the day shittier, her beautiful dog dies. It's going to be difficult to tell Maddison as the dog has been part of her family since the first day she was born. Rosemaree calls by in the afternoon with chocolate so that is just what we needed, sidetracked us for a moment. April 6thWe are both a bit kooky today, more than usual , lack of sleep-death brings out the crazy in all of us, I feel like I am trapped in a never ending fog. I call my Mum a few times, as she is sitting on my mind too- after all she has known Margaret since I was 6!I cut Marks hair for the funeral, mine somehow magically goes dark brown. April 7thI can't even recall today. Some talk of us being Pallbearers, which we will do out of respect if we must.April 8thEarly to the airport, park car in long term and head to the Qantas Frequent Flyer for some sort of lunch. It's going to be along day so we stuff ourselves. Not even flying Qantas this time , so we have to go in and out of security 5 times!!!! Marks bag is checked for explosives three times! I'm watching Scott Morrisons press conference being invaded by Adani protestors on the freaky flyer tv sets. It all seems like some silly joke , everything does.We arrive Sydney pretty much on time, our suits in the carry bag- car is waiting so off we go. Traffic is not too insane considering it is peak hour. Before i take Mark home we call into my Mums for a moment. Sis and MIm arrive and we all hug Marky. Maddison just keeps on growing , I just stare at some of her comments, there is a very old soul in that child. It escapes at times. We catch up with Marks brother Stephen and wife Annette and his nephews at the hotel. Really, really nice to see them. We all needed this, some laughter and stories. Grab mark some food and we eat it near our old school. We head to his families very first home, and the street lights are out, we look like 2 criminals walking the streets of Unanderra at 1.30 in the morning. I say good night and say a silent prayer that he finally gets some sleep. I pop a pill so some sort of sleep arrives for me. April 9thI ran out of things to do for my Mum at home so headed off early to the funeral place. I'm 45 minutes early, and I must of looked like one of those caged animals in the Zoo, walking backwards and forwards backwards and forwards.The funeral itself is really lovely, family talking, excellent photos and in the middle the snap of margaret in her Vulcan outfit-which we all chuckle over. Only the Lords Prayer, so thankfully not exhausting religious, more about the person which is great. Afterwards it seems like every old lady in the room makes a detour to Mark. I am the last to leave, I head to a man to say thanks for coming and realise he is part of the next funeral which starts in 30 minutes! Opps. We head back to my Mums, get out of our suits and work out how we are going to sneak the masses of Easter Eggs that Maddison has bought for us 'to make you happy again" onto the plane!!! The drive to the airport is another blur- and we invade Sydneys frequent flyer. I remember almost nothing of this. Cut across the car park and catch the plane home. It's a mere 3 degrees outside when we get to Kalorama. I vaguely remember going to Woolworths on the way, I must of looked like a zombie walking around the neon lit aisles. I do remember when I got out of the car at home the strong lovely aroma of roses was in the air. All our roses are gone for the year so that was weird. When we reached the door there was this exceptional rose bush and covered in roses. Our mates Wendy & Doug had left it, to plant for Margaret, a Forget Me Not rose. Plus a giant bag of chicken twisties for Mark- we both smiled, we are so blessed to have such awesome friends. Weird how the brain protects us when one is so sad..... think we fell asleep on the couch from exhaustion. April 10thStrange to be home, we both find it hard to work out what day it is. Calls come in and cards. MIMS easter Eggs are attacked and we consume bits of several.April 11thI go to the office to continue mailing some of the Fire Sale items but my heart isn't in it. Think we will have a few weeks off. Just some "us" time away from the world. Everyone and everything can wait. I drive to Montrose post office & mail a few items, but I am full of anxiety and just want to get back home. I say to Mark , "do you think people look at us at the moment and see madness in our eyes"! I certainly do.April 12th78 years ago today the infamous Cape Girardeau UFO crash. 6 years before the much talked about Roswell incident. I've seen Charlette Mann talk about this a few times, her grandmother gave a death bed confession with regards to her grandfather who was summoned to pray over crash victims outside Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1941. I wonder if anyone has ever located Garland Fronabargers photograph taken on the night of the "crash" -it's meant to be a dead alien held up by two men, as they posed for the image. Who knows what it was... maybe in some attic in Missouri there is some evidence waiting for someone to find....or not. As a footnote- Garland D. the photographer was added into the Hall of Fame, into the Missouri Photojournalism on the Uni of Missouri Campus in 2017. To my knowledge none of the photos displayed at his exhibit were of any dead Aliens.Rosemaree calls by with some meatballs for us for dinner. A nice thought , as i'm finding it hard to even cook. I give her a little box of the last of our heirloom tomatoes. April 13thI get an old leather jacket out of my cupboard to wear today, a bit of an airing. I was happily surprised to find my Oakley sunglasses in an inside pocket. I thought I'd lost them forever. The only REALLy expensive sunglasses that I own. Those excellent plutonite lens.April 14thA really lovely "Good Luck" card arrives for me from Sylvia R in Ireland, I've been gone for 4 months now around 'work' but I'm still getting emails and cards etc. I've been so lucky, got to know some amazing , wonderful people.For the next few weeks we are taking some time off, just to recharge and become human again, i figure everything can wait, emails etc. A few weeks won't hurt , the world will continue to turn. So don't panic if you try to contact us and don't hear back straight away , just in our bunker . All the best PG |