The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 29 April - 19 May 2019
"A surprise birthday cake at the polling office, another year older & certainly wiser..."
April 29thPre Poll voting starts today, the country is excited (?) maybe excited is the wrong word, relieved (?), whatever - that the election is finally on. Just 3 weeks to go. If nothing I get to see the wheels of democracy roll around and a decent wage. Maybe the wheels will fall off, you never know , Elections bring out the best & worst in people. I start my chanting my mantra. "I will be neutral, I will be neutral". In fact I am, my main goal is to make sure every voter that i deal with gets his or her chance to vote. I make this huge effort. I know many might not care but plenty do. Our great greats fought to give future generations such things so I am happy to be part of it.April 30thSo I'm on the phone with my Mum and she tells me that this lead singer has died, aged 74. I couldn't for the life of me work out who it was. "Chew" someone" she says. Now remember my beloved Mum is 81, and 90% blind so she mostly sees blurs. FINALLY we work out she means Chewbacca from Star Wars. Sorry, we had to laugh, surely she remembers my sister had a Star Wars bed cover... too scared to ask if she thought Star Wars was the name of a band!!!!!! God bless her.I love watching the candidates greeting the voters outside my Pre Poll voting place. Surprisingly most of the public seem nice about it. I'm sure politics overseas is more brutal. A long day but i head home 12 hours later feeling that I did my best. May 1stA day off for me, so I drive Mark to the Masonic Hall so he can vote. I stay back as I'm only the driver and still in neutral mode. Bill Brindle one of the candidates has a chat to Mark. The Labor guy handing out the flyers comes up and says hello, apparently he worked with me on a few elections and has fond memories of it. An independent tells me i bought him a coffee last election because it was cold outside. I'm assuming i did , what a good bloke I am *GRIN*. Maybe I should run next election- NO! I'd cave in and get all sad if people abused me , or I'd give them a serve back, plus I'm protective of my family , it must be difficult for politicians families to read comments from people attacking them. I'll stay a small cog.I admire the lovely old Masonic Lodge- those Masons certainly created some exceptional buildings. We watch the first episode of the new season (#6) of "The 100" , it really is a mighty little show. Off to an excellent start. Good to see that young cast age too. A restless night- hot, cold, very windy outside, lots of rain and stupid dreams. Working the election puts me into "nutty world". May 2ndToija calls and we have this really lovely chat. She still has the best "whispery" voice that we know of.510,000 Aussies have already pre-voted and I feel like i have met them all. I cook some schnitzel this evening and a salad to put into my lunch box for tomorrows work day. I even sneak in a Tim Tam. Jimmy Barnes "Working Class Man" song is stuck in my head. I re-arrange it to sound more like The Reels version. May 3rdAnother very early morning, my alarm clock-commonly known as Banshee the cat wakes me at 6.05 am for work. I feed the clock, stumble about, have some green tea and toast. Shower, shave, my hair looks like I've stood behind the engine of a 747 ...so I wear a black beanie today. I figure it gives me a street wise look so no angry voters will abuse me. *grin*.Driving down the mountain and the sun is just rising, blue skies up here but down below "off mountain" the suburbs are blanketed in fog. I am driving along Bayswater Rd and all the huge political billboards are covered in fog, every one of them. Weird. I usually greet the political candidates on the billboards with a cheerie "hello" as I drive past but not today. So far i've arrived early every day, happy for those few extra minutes to get some things done. I am putting up the voting centre sign when the cars wave and pip their horns. I bellow "Good Morning Vietnam" in my best Robin W voice. I try to be cheerful to all, and nice and neutral (of course). Home at 7.00 PM and Marky makes some really lovely spaghetti . I devour it like a hungry beast. Such along day, I must be burning up calories. I adore that he has dinner ready for me every day. I am so lucky! I'm really tired but I head to the office and box a couple more of the Fire sale #2 items. Just a few but that's 2 more on the way. Slow & steady. Today was a good day. May 4thGrey old day, well it probably always is at 6.30 AM. I check emails for next weeks work, I'm in nearly every day. So not much time at home. I still have the vibe, and I like the staff .My birthday in a week, I notice a $20 million Tattslotto draw is on my birthday, so hoping a mate will give me a ticket for that. I could help so many people with a win like that. I see Andy Cowan joins Bongos 'Purple Gang' band on keys/vocals. He played on a few of the Skyhooks albums, all those years ago. Quite a talented player. He lives in the hills near us. I put some lemons aside for the local school, they are making lemonade on election day so we'll help them out. Our tree has been giving us a bumper crop for a decade. May 5thI'm on election time so even on this Sunday off I wake up early. I grab my camera and head down to the oval and help some of the stall holders set up for the Chestnut Festival. The money raised helps the local pre-school so we always support it. It's nice to wander about without the hundreds of other people , sometimes thousands. The stalls are fantastic this year, some great stuff. The mobile animals arrive and I hang out with the cutest little girl piggy. She is orange with black spots and loves to dig up Kalorama oval. I arrive home and Rosemaree calls and wants to go, so Marky , Rosemaree and myself venture back down. Rosemaree test drives some Mulled Wine - and Mark hopes she is drunk enough to go down the very steep super slide- she's isn't easily suckered even after the wine. It's fun.I see Suzi Quatro is returning to Oz in November, always a really great show. She still performs her arse off and looks great in her jumpsuit. She'll live forever. May 6thThe secret of my success during the long pre-poll voting days- a clean pair of cotton socks , which i put on at 3.00! Makes my feet very happy! I think my runners were wet today, so I had a late afternoon 'slimy' moment. Urgh. Tomorrow I'm wearing the new converse sneakers that Sis bought me.Mark tidies up a live Skyhooks song for the fans. It's not all that rare but kind of cool. Love his work. I call into the supermarket and a girl walks up to me and goes "You are Peter Green, I love your Blog". I totally didn't expect that, probably went rather red faced. Stumbled, stuttered a nice reply. See the things that happen to you when you are buying mandarins! A big shout out (as promised) to Jessica! This is your extra minute! Our ex Tour manager Skip calls , sadly i miss his call and no one at home when I try to call back. We will catch up. He's a good bloke, I miss Skip. Great episode of 'Game of Thrones' tonight. Lots of betrayal and it is brutal. Another dragon dies. (sob). It will give my workmate Ericka and myself something to chat about tomorrow. May 7thMiss Banshee wakes me at 6.00 for a snack but today i wanted to sleep in. They had too many staff and seeing how I have training this evening i thought I could cram the book into my brain during the day.A rare "me" moment at Montage, two coffees and some chips and just relax. Nice to be "home". Our friend Alison calls us this afternoon. It has been awhile so a fun conversation. I also send our ex house mate Kathie some photos of the infamous hitch-hiking trip to Sydney. We certainly wouldn't do that in 2019. We were all so innocent in those first years in Melbourne, nothing was impossible and every challenge we met, survival being one thing on our minds, music the other. I love that i experienced all of this with my best mate.... and still in contact with people that we genuinely love. I'm back off the mountain tonight for my second lot of training. I forgot to buy petrol on the way home so lets hope I make it, thankfully it's all down hill!!!!! It's a really nice bunch of people- we are called "the music table" because all of us at the table LOVE music. Forget the training, music stories are far cooler. Even the person in charge wants to join our group. We soon settle down to the training course, I mess up 1 thing but correct it quickly, no biggie, like riding a bike, it all comes back. Out of the building 30 minutes early. May 8thI think the Finns are back in NZ, make a note to drop Neil and Sharon a line for their may birthdays. Elvis might of left the building but he does still wish them all the best on such days.May 9thOne of the AEC guys that I kind of know visits the Voting Place today, good to see him , he doesn't look too worn out, all things considered. The Pre Polling is brutal. Endless onslaught, the staff deal with it quite well- a few fuck ups but all things considered most people are onto it. I arrive at sunrise and head home in the dark-thank the goddess I have music in my car to recharge me.I call into Eastlands very early to deposit a cheque (remember cheques?). I see 1 cleaner, the entire centre is empty, creepy and felt like the world had ended. I expected apocalyptic tribes to jump out of Target' and try to eat me... but no, just me and my echoing footsteps. I try to call Doug to wish him a happy birthday but think their home phone is out. May 10thMark finds a few more photos for our friend Kathie from their road trip to Sydney to see Meo 254 and XL Capris. Work out that their exotic accommodation was the Peoples Palace in the heart of Sydney. It was never a 'Palace' trust me.A long day, lots of rain and some snow in the mountains. The beach at our old digs at Cape Patterson totally 'white' from hail. Looks incredible. We open the pre poll centre late tonight, and it's busy busy busy. I see the Rolling Stones have re-scheduled some live dates. The Rose Bowl at Pasadena in August looks kind of enticing. They just keep rolling don't they! Mark & Banshee sneak into my room at 12.01 and both wish me a happy birthday. I leave so early in the morning that I'd miss the morning singing and calls. My birthday will be spent helping voters get their voting ballots , I'll keep quiet and not mention it's my birthday. I'll let this one float on by. May 11thWell happy birthday to me! OK I look pretty good for my ripe old age of 120. But we gothic, space born Vampyres usually do. I wonder what i will look like when I am a hundred years old? Just as long as we are happy, hate miserable old people , please feel free to hit me with a brick if I ever get like that.A busy day at the voting centre, but I am totally blown away when they wheel out a birthday cake for me and sing. I'm very close to tears but suck it in. Huge thank you to Megan for doing this, honestly touched my concrete heart! The cake was really nice too. One I will remember for many years. Thousands of voters today , all i want for my birthday is a foot rub! (subtle hint Marky). Some really lovely presents and beautiful cards from people- my birthday kind of stretched into several days- thanks to all of you. xxxx May 12thSending our Mum loads of love on this sunny Mothers Day. Still it's a day of sadness as we miss Marks Mum, Margaret a lot, my 2nd Mum. So we look at awesome old photos and have a few drinks and the fire is blazing away in the lounge room. I do find some B&W proof sheets from 1974 , individual professional shots of Mark and his brothers. Amazing photos of Mark-he had a One Direction hair do decades before they did.I send Mum some oversized card, and she'll get flowers down the track, when I get my day back to 'normal'-whatever that is. She's just happy to get a call and a card. May 13thI'm emailed the promo for Bat Woman and it looks great; am hoping Ruby Rose stays true to form and excels in the role. Some awesome people working on the show so hoping it will be very cool.We mail off a bluray for my sisters husband Marks (yes she married a Mark too , so did my Mum, so did I..what's that all about!?) birthday. So many birthdays in May, I can't keep up. I keep thinking I've missed a few. My bad! Sorry. May 14thToday was a long work day, quite a few hiccups. This one wore me out a bit but managed to get through it. Had an early night , so uncool to be sitting upright on the couch-asleep!May 15thI wake up before my alarm at 5.59 every day. or should I say Banshee wakes me up at 5.59 (almost) every day-who needs an alarm. I stumble out of bed, it's dark, I feed the cat, a quick snack as I never really eat breakfast, make lunch, green tea for me, shower, shave, leave my daily cute note for Mark, and put Banshee back under the covers so she is snug. Usually when I'm driving off the mountain the sun starts to rise...I watch a deer on the side of the road having some early morning grass.,May 16thSo saddened to hear that Bob Hawke dies, aged 89. I met him a few times. He was one of those PM's that we certainly don't have in 2019.May 17thI hear from Jon from Pansy Division, they are playing at the Punk Rock Raduno Festival- in Bergamo Italy on July 13th... also Zurich the day before at Dynamo...fun. Of course they are also on the SF Pride, Main Stage (afternoon) on June 30th. Love to see them in San Francisco. That would be brilliant. Those guys are so much fun. Loved them on the Green Day tour too. Shock , gasp, a gay rock band! Imagine!!!!!!!It's the last day for my Pre Polling, & such fantastic people. We all hugged and it felt good. One of the Election people sneaked a political sign out to me for my collection. Am shocked she even remembered, it made my day. I've signed out so I guess I was 'neutral' when i scored the sign. May 18thAfter several weeks of craziness at Pre-Polling, the Election day itself was very quiet. Or maybe it was 'normal' but I was still resonating with those large pre poll crowds. Got to share the Declaration table with my friend Cheryl who i've worked with before, a lovely lady and we are in synch, work really well together. Trust her 200%! My regular OIC is overseas in Europe and I miss her a lot. Still a good day.During the count word gets out that Tony Abbott has lost his seat, people cheering everywhere, it was amazing to see. Add to that Anning also failed, so two positives. Sadly Labor did not get in, though looking at the Tally room, they still managed 720,000 more votes than the Liberals. If it wasn't for the Nationals , Mr Morrison and his government would not be in power. Got to respect how the people vote , I'll just ignore this result for the next three years! HA! I grab a Pizza on the way home and a small sigh of relief I guess that all of this is over. I did enjoy most of it, but the days were very long. The leave at dark, home at dark started adding some kookiness into my life. I guess we are just waiting for our wage cheques to arrive now. In a weeks time I'm back in the office for a few hours every day, mailing the Fire Sale items and replying to emails. May 19thMy friend Mary picks me up and we head to Montage. Lots of election talk around people at the tables, some so very sad, our friend Pete suggests we make "The Hills" another state or country as the Labor side of politics increased it's vote , pretty much in every polling area. The Animal Justice Party did very well up here too. Mary is a hoot, she 'gets' Montage.A few birthdays today, so make some calls, Neil Finns birthday in a week, around the time of the Mac's European tour. I check with Rosemaree and she enjoyed her moment working during the election. It can be enjoyable, a bit of hard work but good to have a small part in helping the country vote. I'm in bed by 11.00, which is really early for me, need a few days to recharge. Will be good when my life is back to it's usual routine. Hope you are all well, remember to make some time to breathe, this ol' world can be absolutely nuts at times. XXPeter |