The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 28 January - 10 February 2019
First Day of School with Maddison.
January 28thI got to baby sit a lost dog at Montage today. Went into the IGA and grabbed him some food, just as the Montage owner followed me and also bought the dog some. It's going to end up a well fed doggy. Such a nice mutt . I took a few snaps and have sent them out everywhere. By afternoon someone had spotted one, knew the doggys owner, contacted them and he was home again safe, and sound and I dare say a few KG's heavier! So a happy ending.I am still amazed that today marks the 40th anniversary since Tony Williams first gig with Skyhooks. No one could "replace" Shirl, so they didn't try, just got on with the job of singing. A joy for many of us fans as the wall between band and fan came crumbling down and we got to be mates, or something akin to older brothers and sometimes father figures. I think this line up of Skyhooks and all those escapism gigs saved my life. I am serious. Urgh, pull off a scab on my eyelid from where a tree almost scratched my eye, and yes SPURT, a big spray of blood shot out, all over my eye, face hand, gross and the scabby skin bit equally Urgh factor 10. Took 15 minutes to stop bleeding but I heal extra fast and you know it was excellent, nearly gone, so i won't look like I am having a cyclops moment. No Dr needed , as I was dreading it. Dr Green report to surgery...! Really nice garden salad (yes from OUR garden) for dinner. Have lost 2 kgs this week, which is not bad. January 29thI charge our phone and work out how to take photos with it. I detest phone photos , I love my real cameras but the Stones exhibit in Sydney has a camera ban, just shitty phone snaps allowed, so what the hell I'll use the phone.The Banking Royal Commission finishes soon, still shocked that Pm Morrison tried (and failed) to stop it, voting against it 26 times. Dodgy banks are the Liberals best friend so that is probably why. I hope the public remember that the Libs fought to stop this- that speaks volumes about their credibility. What did PM Scumo call it , " A Populist Whinge" - possibly the stupidest thing he has ever said. January 30thLooking forward to our adventure in Sydney. I sit down and tell Banshee we are heading away for a few days, she knows, she always acts stranger than usual when we are a heading off.January 31stMelbourne-Sydney-Wollongong.Not much sleep last night , our usual pre-travel restlessness. Too many thoughts rolling around in my head. So I'm awake 40 minutes before the alarm. Almost walk into Mark in the corridor, we are both sleepy. I know to keep well clear of him on sleepless mornings. Nice just to have a carry on bag and not have to wait around at Sydney airport. The drive to the airport is ok, no rain, and a park in long term right near the bus pick up. Into the frequent flyer and we stuff ourselves with food. It's going to be along day and usually the food on Qantas is slim pickings at best in 2019. Marky grabs the latest "Crikey" magazine for Maddison and I have a wonderful Gryphon book from my friend Stephanie K overseas. MIM will love it. We arrive in Sydney to the news that 50,000 houses are out of power in the Sydney suburbs. So much for the security of coal generated power Premier Gladys.!! HA! We are going with Thrifty this time for the car and they give us some wonderful upgrade , for the cheapest price. Very happy. The drive down the coast is really nice, and once out of Sydney traffic it flows. Those golden beaches of the South Coats are beautiful. Mark calls in to see my Mum and then onto his Mums house. A short stay by me as I have to get up to a meeting point to connect with my Sis . I'm heading to MIMs new school , today is her first day, and I want to be at the gate when she walks out, to surprise her. I love catching up with Sis , always a good thing. Lots of parents with cameras. I hide behind a few and there is Maddison. In the cutest school outfit. She runs to her Mum, sees me, stops, shouts out "Uncle Peterrrrrrrr". So excited , jumps into my arms. We take some photos by the school sign. A Dad ties his way too cute dog up, a friendly dog he assures us. As I'm cuddling MIM in a snap a big furry dog 'arm' reaches out for me to shake. So happy to be home for this important first day. I wave goodbye for the moment and head out to Warrawong in the search of a JB Hi Fi. It's moved so I have to go to the shopping mall. It has a weird vibe to it, not sure why but the less time i spend here the better. Buy 1 item, but nothing else is tempting. I'm amazed at how the houses have built up around Lake Illawarra. It still smells of rotting seaweed. I start singing "Wollongong The Brave" from the Aunty Jack Show especially the lines " Stand tall, straight and strong, Hold your nose in Wollongong". I wind up the window, must be a southerly blowing! I'm certainly holding my nose! On the way home I grab some groceries for MUM. Run into my great Uncle at the local IGA, I have a huge watermelon under my arm. Yes a full one. It seemed a good idea at the time. My cousin has dropped in and MIM and Sis are also sitting on the lounge. I cut the watermelon, MIM excited that I bought a big huge uncut watermelon. It's the small things in life that make impressions. Maddison is full of beans, so several hours of fun. Wow kids can sure wear you out. A cool change has arrived so we head out into Mums wonderful backyard and I push MIM on a swing while she chatters on. We water Nans trees, plants and excited that the lemon tree we put in now has small lemons appearing. She's a good kid, my sister certainly has been a great parent. Off they go and all I can hear echoing down the road from Maddison is 'I loveeeee you Uncle Peterrrr". I do a little garden work for Mum outside and some basic house work. We chat, laugh watch some tv and eat more watermelon.! The night is hot, and I'm restless, in bed too early. February 1stNot the greatest sleep, even popped 1/2 a stillnox which did very little. Mum makes me some breakfast while I become human again in the shower. Probably the latest i've picked Mark up from his Mums in years. I feel sad waving goodbye to my Mum, our parents are old and you always wonder if it could be the last time. It was a fast visit but still nice to see the family.Soon I'm heading up the Pass with Marky, nice that this car has some guts, it growls and roars and I avoid being Mr lead foot. We plug in our GPS closer to Sydney and the traffic is overall shite. Sydney traffic so much worse then Melbourne. The Light Rail project is absolute bullshit, such a white elephant. The costs keep rising, its years late and now the NSW government is being sued. Finally we get to the ICC at Darling Harbour. The massive car park is empty, we wonder if we will have a small crowd at the Stones exhibit-that would be cool. We are both starving so head into Bettys Burgers at Darling Harbor, they always have excellent burgers (Thank you Andy P for lunch!). YUM. Watch a few tourists fall off the flying fox in the play area. Fun. We eventually find the exhibition area for the Rolling Stones. A good crowd, so easy to see every item and boy this exhibit is packed with stuff. You start around 3 mock ups of the original Rolling Stones flat. Brilliant, so grotty,a joy to watch peoples faces squirm, like they are seeing the real deal & about to puke at the filth. I wish someone would of mixed up a batch of bad odours to go with it. We spend three hours going through the exhibit, loads of original artwork, stage costumes, you can even mix your own version of Stones songs. Stage sets, loads of photos, original guitars etc. In some ways almost too much, but really this bands career covers so many decades. It finishes under the stage at a Stones gig. The doors open to walk onto the stage. It's such a great mock up, It feels like the area where I have stood, under the real stage stage way way back when. We are all given 3D glasses and suddenly there are the band, in glorious 3D. Thousands of rose peddles falling down around us, and great sound- a live experience to finish the exhibit. It moves onto Tokyo next so if you are in Japan do yourself a favour and go see it. Mark is all smiles so i know he loved his christmas present. We fight the terrible Sydney traffic and head to 83 Moncur St Woollahra next. The "Number 96" seventies TV shows original block of flats. The night Aussie TV lost it's virginity. It's been painted, looks rather classy. Mark stands on one side of the street and takes a snap of yours truly in front of the building and tempted to go through the various mail boxes looking for Don or Vera's mail, I showed some restraint. So cool to see this place. (Ticks check list) . The traffic is even worse heading to Ebley street at Bondi Junction. We want to see what has become of our favourite music venue- The Bondi Lifesaver (The Swap). Mark has worked out exactly where it stood, and so sad as the whole side of the street which was lovely terrace houses has gone and East Gate shopping Mall and a car park now sits in it's place. I change into my Lifesaver T-shirt for the moment. My heart is sad as it was the best night out for us, we were underaged but that venue was magic. So many great live shows. We head into the mall and have a coffee and cheesecake. The escalators near the back Ebley street entrance are where the stage use to be. As we talk about it an old lady rides up the escalator and I wonder if she was a Lifesaver groupie, popped a few Mandrax or gave a hand job near the giant fish tank up the back. You never know. It's now starting to rain outside so we head towards Bondi beach with the windscreen wipers slapping away. The car park at Bondi is packed but the beach is empty. A fine rain is falling and only some surfies are out. I've never seen the beach this empty. We brave the weather and go for a paddle in the ocean. So nice to feel sand under my feet again. We head up towards the Pavilion and Mark points out the bridge where we hung out with Bongo Skyhook after a show, stuffed our faces with pies and felt any barrier between band and fan collapse, into friendship. I take some photos of the awesome graffiti wall. Some nice moments for surfies who are no longer with us. The rain starts to really fall so we bolt to the car. I change in the back as we decide to go to the airport, have a shower and food at the frequent flyer. Lucky we left when we did as the drive to the airport was terrible, snails pace. Sydney just doesn't have it together around traffic. We are in the frequent flyer lounge and watch Qantas plane after Qantas plane get delayed or cancelled. Thankfully ours is only delayed. I have a shower, shave and Mark pigs out on fried chicken. We are both rather exhausted, it's been a long day. I score the latest edition of 'Art Guide Australia' , i always look for this as it's free here, and about $15 elsewhere. So super happy. On board, the flight is now full , but this time we get food. I'm editing photos, a few cute ones of MIMs first day at school. By the time I'm finished we have landed in Melbourne. No bags, so straight out the fornt, Long term car park bus is waiting & drops us off first , so home quickly. No traffic , and after Sydney that is a joy. Miss Banshee is so happy to see us, and she was so good, cat shit where cat shit should be! Hurrah. Nice to be back in our own beds. February 2nd300 mm of rain today in Townsville and it looks like a lot more on the way. So Magnetic Island would be getting a good soaking too.We head outside and pick a bowl of blackberries and a bowl of tomatoes. Now picking one of each every day. We both LOVE blackberries. I have to remember to leave some for jam this year. I handed over one of our hundred or so live gig tapes, recorded on our shitty old tape recorders way back in the seventies. This one is Skyhooks Live at Paddington Town Hall- July 1st 1977. It's rough as all hell, but Mark works some magic on it . So I pop up "Smartarse Songwriters" from that show on You Tube. Thanks Marky the fans will love it. It captures a bit of that Skyhooks magic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDxNNOGFuns and a second track from the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UPDeThqXqs February 3rdI chat to a really nice lady called Sue, loves music, and plays in a ukulele combo called Duplicity. We have a laugh that her first gig was a Skyhooks one on the In The Heat Of The Night tour. She's off to the Blue Mountains this weekend to perform at their Ukulele Festival. Nice when you meet someone for the first time and you get along so well and an equal love of music.Finally the results are in from the Banking Royal Commission. Our useless PM calling it 'Populist Whinge'. Lets hope some heads roll after all those years of financial abuse. February 4thTownsville and now 4 days of rain, it's over 1200 mm, so crazy. I finally hear from a few mates and they are safe and dry, well mostly. They tell me that Magnetic Island has now ran out of sandbags. It's now over a years worth of rain in a few days. Great that the local military are lending a hand.Mark is outside trimming the runaway kiwi fruit vine and Andy the Kookaburra is sitting up in the tree watching him, hoping that some stray insects will fly out for a nice Kooka Entree. The Australian economy is now the weakest it has been in decades. 3rd time in 4 months that NSW's sales have declined by 0.6%. Not good news for the nations biggest retail market. Retail spending has decelerated. If the consumer doesn't have confidence in the government it stops spending. Mark picks some wild orchards and puts them on the table for me, such a romantic guy. Romance is alive and well at Kalorama. Now that's a soul mate! February 5thI'm talking to our friend Jaz who works at Montage and she is a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. So next week I'm going to surprise her and bring in our original Buffy coat, from the "Seeing Red" episode of the show. Nothing like a cool 'show + tell' item.February 6thI love this awesome Gryphon Pin (brooch) that my friend Nikki B in America sent me. So very cool I hope she knows just how much I appreciate this awesome gift. Long live the Gryphon. Australian Border Force opened the parcel, guess it was the numerous packets of Tamales candies that were with it.It was meant to really bucket down today but not too bad. However, I think it has messed up the junction box on our streets, as the phones are very crackly and the internet is slower then usual. Very proud of my niece, she did her first lot of school related testing and was #1, that is brilliant, 82 kids, smart little creature she is. Top of the class. We are stoked just seeing her happy but extra so, off to a good start around school. February 7thI start working repairing a 1940's Sukajan bomber jacket. Made in Yokosuka city. Quite a bit of hand stitching by yours truly.Excited when our groceries are free. Thanks Sis xxx Enzman Nigel Griggs calls which is nice, it has been a few weeks , good to have a chat. Miss Wendy is next , our 5 mins chats always become an hour. The phone is starting to die on us. The lines are crackling and suddenly, it's dead as a Dodo. February 8thI call the hospital on my mobile,as we are heading in to see a friend. I got up early and cut flowers. But looks like she has checked out . Track her down at home. Oh well good intentions, flowers are mine I guess. Happy she is home. Relationships are a two way street, if people stop calling, we stop calling them. Clicking a "like" on Facebook is not a real friendship, how can people be so foolish to think so (rolls eyes) it's just sad.I am 65c under my $100 free groceries, not bad, ready for some serious cooking this coming week. February 9thI'm back in the office and packing some of the Fire Sale items, about half way through the list. Still have 25 people to email but that won't happen for a few days with our Internet down. What am I playing today: - LLT demos, Pansy Division Double , The Ramones and Green Day.I open the last box of TRIP. I love how the box they came in says "The Life & Times Of Peter Green" 72 copies inside. Like you add water and 72 PG clones will climb out of the package. Cute. I recharge my mobile and I'm totally confused as to how to get my photos out of the phone, my email won't link to it. Grrrrr fucking mobiles. Jeff Jenkins piece on me is now in the latest issue of The Music. I find it hard to read things about myself, but nice he penned something. He's a good bloke. Christie Eliezer said that he has written something too. I'm feeling the love, chaps. https://issuu.com/spa_magazines/docs/the_music__melbourne__february_issu February 10thTalking Bowie with Marky over dinner. As one does. Bowie will live on forever.I make some Pin Wheels for snack food. We are still watching The Sopranos and loving every episode. Miss Banshee has fallen asleep across my feet, she looks so content so I don't wake her, I suffer it, like having a pair of pussycat slippers attached to my legs. A couple of really good mates from overseas have been checking on me to make sure I am dealing with 'the big change' (do I have menopause I ask them?) and you know I am. It's been pretty good so far. Not that much has changed. I still get a few emails from people wanting this or that around Neil, what part of no longer working for him do they not get? Weird I know. So this moment is kind of a floating time, learning to be patient and waiting. You get to look inwards , at oneself, outwards at a few others, and also count your blessings. Life is pretty good, just have to remember to stop and smell the Dahlias. xPG |