The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 29 July - 11 August 2019
"Here's to the readers of the diary" Indian Dinner feast 2019.
July 29thThe Hills seem to be alive with motorbikes today, I was near the Tourist Road and 3 separate biker clubs went by, some amazing machines, was a joy to watch them, especially the older style bikes.Our daily exercise, walking around Kalorama oval, I take Belles awesome Kookaburra painted bag again and fill it to the top with pine cones for our fires. A jogger heading south, comments how brilliant the bag is. I spend some time watching an eagle flying overhead. It's a Bunjil, a wedge tailed eagle. So majestic. It's having a great time flying around. Probably looking for winter food. July 30thMinus 1 tonight so those pine cones in the fire are perfect, they hold the heat. Banshee loves them, all snug in front of the fire place. In her mink coat and giving me the look to add even more pine cones. She commands we act. Banshee has a Garfiled moment and wants some of my Lasagne for dinner. Shes always been a skinny girl under all that fur, so I am determined to fatten her up a little bit. Not cat obese , but just a little bit more weight on her, she's such a super model.I box a few more goodies in the office , another 50 or so lovely emails from fans. It happens every day- really lovely Emails arrive, also a few job offers, which is nice but i decline. I'm retired (for the moment) so go away. Ha! We catch up with some friends for lunch and a bit of shopping at Butlers. Mark spots the "Queer Australian Fish" book, so we just had to have it. I but a 1950s tiny vase with mesh around it, plan to put some incense sticks inside. It's a bargain too. This was a fun morning. July 31stMinus 2 and Fog outside. Allie calls and adds some laughter into our day. She tells me she has heard from Fenella and Wendy so that's great. Nice that we all call each other.I'm being a bit of a freak around food layout. At some strange time of the night (why do ideas appear during the wee hours of my morning) I think about using my icecream scoop to make circular balls of Chicken Mayo and balls of fried rice. Weird eh? But they look cool on a plate, and both things squash in easy so when you clip the handle they pop out as little food planets! Mark reminds me that they taste the same, I tell him it's all in the head. Plus they add some comments at dinner parties. August 1stMarks brother and wife head to Magnetic, pity we didn't time it better, we like their company, would of been fun. Maybe in the not too distant future if the plan goes well.Lloydy calls, one of our original Crowdies road crew-stage techs. Always fantastic to have a chat and a bit of a laugh. He's now retired too, so we laugh that some old men can not deal with retirement. We add a live version of Skyhooks "Revolution" to our YouTube page for the Skyhook fans on the Official Skyhooks Facebook page. It's special because it is the rarely played live- "U.S. Revolution". Big thanks to Mark for all his efforts. We still easily prefer the original but this one is kind of fascinating. From the 'Hooks "In The Heat Of The Night" tour-December 1975! Hell even we were young in 1975!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpzFRIKNbyg August 2ndI've been looking at ice crushing blenders for margaritas and didn't want to pay for some super professional model. The oster reverse crush seems like the go.Paul Kelly's "Dont stand so close to the window" was playing at the coffee shop today and several tables worth of people started singing along , which was fantastic. Only at Montage, it all seemed so natural, lots of back slapping after we all finished, even a few good notes were reached. Japanese for dinner tonight, Tempura prawn rolls, which tasted pretty nice. August 3rdHappy 6th Birthday to our amazing niece Maddison. You really are incredible. The Uncles call her early in the morning, we sing happy birthday while she is sitting on the loo! Classy guys that we are.I heard from Brian Nankervis , a cool little interview that he did with Enzman Noel Crombie on the Friday review show. Only goes for 5 minutes but really good. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/thefridayrevue/backstory-noel-crombie/11399848 Every crazy person in Victoria is on the roads today. We help Mary with her super market shop and she helps us with ours, and all three of us piss ourselves laughing , I'm surprised we get any shopping done , way way too much laughter, it's a good tonic. We treat her to some Hungry Jacks too , that once a year craving for junk food and she'd never experienced HJ's before so it's one ticked off on her list. Late afternoon and a break in the weather so I hit the garden and trim back all the Dahlias. I double the amount of bulbs/ flowers this year mostly due to Peter and Josie kindly giving me a large bag of bulbs. August 4thMiss MIM is at her under the sea birthday party. Lots of mermaids bouncing up and down in the jumping castle.My friend Pip tells me I have had 20,000 diary readers this year , not sure how he knows that but I smile and say "thanks". It's starting to look like this F/16 page may well end up the longest running blog in the world. August 5th.Today we really go for it in the office, get LOTS done. I lost track how many hours we worked but after dinner I came back and did even more. It's the only way, trying to get everything finished. The media continue to contact me around band related questions, I should ignore the requests but rarely do and in the end I reply just to delete them from the In box.I see China bitch slaps Trump & America. China manipulates its currency and blocks agricultural imports from the USA. The market drops dramatically. Great to finally hear some news on Taboo #2. Writer Steven Knight says 2020. So Devil Delaney and his league of the doomed will eventually return to our tv. I do find Tom Hardy to be very sexy, not even sure as to why. Annoying to that after all of Foxtels hype, the BBC's "War of the Worlds" won't be shown till early 2020! August 6thMy friend Sarah has avery special birthday soon, so i head up to the art room and create a little art piece for her. "Warhol in NYC". Hoping she likes it. (a nice typo that just happened, I managed to type "hope she likes shit"! Doesn't say much about my art does it. Ha!). I'm using my favourite Jo Sonjas art paints- Rich Gold, Napthol Red Light and Carbon Black. I see Jo Sonjas are soooooo cheap at Spotlight. These really are the best presents for me. My favourite paints.I have my checklist for the ingredients for this Saturdays Indian meal. The best ingredients by far are the wonderful people attending. We love them all. We head out tonight to a private screening of "Revolution- New art for anew world". The russian avant garde artists. What an incredible movie/doco. LOVED it, a must see. I wear a very cool jacket as does Mark, and people come up to us all night and say "wow man, nice coat". August 7thSo nice to "chat" to Katja about Egypt. We both get excited about the same cool egyptian things. Promise to catch up with her and Trudi when she returns from Cairo. Long overdue.Yum Schnitzel for lunch. A man was 20c short at the bakery so i happily paid the extra, he didn't even say thank you, maybe he was embarrassed. It was only 20c, what a strange world it is at times. I call Laura, we spend more time laughing then actually talking, but that is good. Excited to hear about their trip to Egypt too. August 8thI catch up with Pip and Val at Montrose, which is near the base of the mountain. Pips heading overseas tomorrow so a fond farewell. I also call into Montrose Meats and grab some chicken fillets for my Chicken Makhani . The staff here are always so good to us. I spot this 100 year old Montrose tagged brick on a wall, it's near the site for the original Montrose brick factory.Skyhooks website has its 300,000th visitor. So thanks everyone for heading to the Hooks page. www.skyhooks-music.com (and Iarla for his efforts over the years). I'm back home and ironing cloth table napkins for Saturday night , got to make the extra bit of effort. They are Indian cotton too, perfect for an Indian feast. I also have a roast in the oven for tonight , our kitchen smells great and is nice and warm with the oven blazing away. August 9thIncredibly sad news today that Ian Magan has passed away (aged 80). I have so many wonderful memories of him, each time we toured New Zealand with the Enz and Crowded House. Especially Split Enz as he really loved that band. He always went the extra yard as tour promoter . Our mate Paul told us the sad news, and out of everyone I'm so glad that it was him that told us. Sending love to Ians daughter Tracy too & wife Anne too.We watched (again) the 2010 movie "The Kids Are All Right". Annette Benning, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruppalo. Our fave scene is where Annettes character screams at the biological father that he is an "Interloper". We all have one of those in our life, like a parasite sucking onto your friends because they are so fucked they can't get any of their own. Bennings character is great , love the strength that she has, maybe we all need a Nic in our lives to piss off face sucking Interlopers. Cool movie, it holds up well a decade later. I have to learn how to cook cauliflower again for the Indian vegetable korma curry. I just don't want the kitchen to pong , thankfully it doesn't. August 10thWith the all preparations mostly out of the road, the day is fairly easy. I even put together a timetable to help stay on track. By 7.00 we have nothing left to do but have a drink, play some music and waitWendy and Doug are spot on time wise, Doug ventures in and I exit and jump in the car with Wendy to grab our friend Mary. Wendy has the backseat full of amazing fake flowers for Maddison for her cubby house-which is so nice of her. Doug shows us a post by the half wit Penguin, she's now looking like an absolute fuckwit and people are saying she's sounding rather nutty. We are all taking the high road and ignoring the rantings of a sad deranged bird brain. When we get home Laura and Kevin pull into the parking area so it's great timing. Lots of laughs and cuddle and dashing in out of the cold, as the temperature is now down to zero. Ailsa Craig is glowing in the fog, that golden lighting and beautiful and warm inside. Like many times before we are all hanging out in the kitchen. Mary fits in so well , the gang love her and her sense of humour wins them over straight away. I finish cooking the food and we are seated. It's dished out and the Indian feast begins. I sneak out a Skull Crystal Head vodka present for Marky and I've replaced that vodka with JD. The guests all pull out presents for us which is just awesome and so sweet. Speechless (yes that is rare). The compliments fly around the food, 2 and 3 helpings , and the company is perfect. It's just such a lovely night and we count our blessings having such good friends. They are loyal and love us, and these gatherings are such wonderful nights. I love cooking for them, it's so lame and predictable to just go to a restaurant , it means jack shit, setting a scene and the effort around food is always a good thing, plus the house is rather cool. Many more dinners on the horizon. The phone rings mid Dinner and it is our mate Allie- she's snow chasing at Ballarat , and we are all shouting hello. She knows she is always welcome for food and play at our place and great that she is so happy these days. I reminder her of a BBQ with Chris and Susan when the weather gets better so she gives a thumbs up to that. Like many gatherings before we end up in the pool room. Mary watches intently as the passion between the 2 pool teams moves to a new level. The games are close so that is always fun. At the clock hits midnight it's time to call it. We're all watching the snow fall while drinking cactus margaritas , happy we are in here in the warmth. As soon as I walk everyone to the cars you feel the cold. Hopefully the Indian in peoples bellies will keep them warm till they get home. My final smile for the night, when I head into my bedroom and a little present and thank you note is on my pillow from the gang. We love you guys too. August 11thWe have a nice chat to Fen and Giles, their wedding anniversary is coming up. To be with someone for several decades , have them as part of your life every day is a remarkable thing. So congratulations you two. Your loyalty is appreciated as well, but you know that. (Sorry Giles that i woke you-still guilting over that).A little bit more snow is falling , so i have some catch up sleep, snuggled deep inside the bed covers, and Miss Banshee has sneaked under too. She's like a little furry hot water bottle on my feet. We have a tiny bit of Indian left (I made three times as much as time) so that will be dinner. It tastes even better on day two. Life is fantastic here, our muscles are rippling from chopping fire wood. Mark is looking a lot like Hugh Jackmans Wolverine .... !!! Keep passing the open windows. X PG |