The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 15 June - 28 June 2020
"Sunflowers in Winter - we like that."
June 15thI run into a local walking her 4 year old Greyhound "Blue". A rescue dog from the recent bushfires. Such a lovely mutt and he's wearing a Winter knitted coat and leggings. We were both saying how awesome the "Greyhounds As Pets" people are... the local not yours truly & the greyhound, saying that it has been known for me to have chats with critters.Good news that Adem Somyurek has been sacked from the Cabinet. Excellent work Premier Dan Andrews. June 16thI was going to sleep in but had a few things around the house & office to do, so both Banshee and myself climbed out of bed early. Bleary eyed and walking around the house like a Zombie. I never seem awake in Winter.We had an afternoon visit from 24 King Parrots and 2 Rosellas. My own little Alfred Hitchcock "Birds" moment. I'm outside with the tiniest handful of Sunflower Seeds. Of course all of them want to eat at the same time, so Parrots on my arms, my hands, my shoulders and my head. Absolutely crazy. A few little nips to remind me they are wild, which is ok. They are beautiful birds. Another day another Poll with Trump behind, and this one is a Poll that he has never lost. Guess it's making a few of his supporters freak out, they seem angrier and more desperate today. So glad we do not live in America with that goose as President. I wonder how many people will get infected at his upcoming rallys? I know I know, my predictable Trump rant- sorry but the fat turd shits me. June 17thThe final episode of Mrs America. Cate Blanchett deserves an Emmy for her role- loved the original footage they used too.It's good to see Bob Spencer doing his Facebook chat. He's been in so many excellent bands, lets hope the fan questions are diverse. I hope he gets a bit political too- good to poke the bears. I call in to see Drew at the Organic Fanatic at Olinda and he kept his promise and managed to get me some Sunflowers. It's such a nice day outside, Sun shining in Winter and yours truly with an arm full of sunflowers. They also now stock the amazing Medita chocolates- these shiny, almost marble looking chockies. Little works of art, I buy some for Mark. Surprises are nice. June 18thA big jump in Unemployment in Australia. It's getting very close to One Million unemployed here. The highest level of Unemployment since 1997. The Under Employed figures are a real worry too- 1.7 million. I wonder what will happen when Job Keeper finishes, especially during this Recession. All gloom and doom. We are trying to support the local businesses up here on Mount Dandenong, a few have already closed up. Thankfully "the locals" are loyal and amazing so even if there is a secondary wave of Covid 19 I'm hoping that local support will help them tread water.Both Noel and Nigel from the Enz call today, so nice they make the effort. Always great to hear from them, Nige is back writing again, am excited to see what the final result will be from that. June 19thHappy Birthday to our friend Alison. Thanks to Mark we always remember, well nearly always. Found a very cute cat card.I needed to grab some fruit from Olinda so decide to call into Montage. I have my little table away from the world- and it's nice to see all those familiar faces- Bruce, Jean, Mary, Sandra, Peter & Mark the second set, Caroline and kids. A lot of people today, even with space restrictions. I eye them all to see how healthy they look. I swallow some toast the wrong way & actually COUGH! All heads turn frantically and of course I just chuckle. "Toast, Toast " someone screams before I'm dragged to a pole, tied and set on fire as a possible Covid witch! Astrid's on so the best coffee on the mountain today. I've had so few so this is divine. Caffeine kicks in, and he's off and running ..... I mail my Mum some lemons. Crazy as that sounds, she is housebound , and I think Sis keeps forgetting to grab some.. so a box from us. The cost of lemons at the supermarket is nutty so they probably still work on cheaper sent express! Play some of Paul Kellys songs from "Forty Days", so great covers on this collection for Covid stay at home recordings. June 20thWinter Solstice. We are all a bit insane because of this today. Well that's my excuse. Not sure what my excuse is every other day of the year.I watch 5 minutes of Donald Trumps 'Rally'. Can you call it a rally when it's a flop?- as I tweeted- Banshee in a Tutu could draw more people. Not even half full and the giant screens outside for the 40,000 overflow that were meant to turn up were not used because there were no people outside. Just some anti Chump protesters. Considering this is such a Trump "loyal" area and Donald was mouthing off that they had A MILLION people wanting tickets , to get less then half full is so LAME. All we could do was laugh. Maybe America is waking up to him after all. Add to that almost zero Trump fans wearing Facecovers. I wonder how many will die from this rally? Sheer stupidity. No wonder Donald got people to sign waivers not to sue him if they got Covid at his rally. That's like saying - Please come along, give my Ego a big pat but if you catch the Coronavirus and die-don't blame me! I'm only the schmuck who invited you and said you don't have to wear a mask. June 21st90 days for us- some sort of lockdown. It's been pretty good, far easier having my best mate locked down with me. Our Pool playing skills have improved... I'm hopeless at best but fluke some great shots. Cooking a lot more, and not even 1 fight between us the entire time.A small surge of cases in Victoria so some of the restrictions may be back in force. Mostly because a few are just being selfish or stupid. I see Keith Pitt attacking some of the Premiers for doing the RIGHT thing and keeping people in those states safe. He needs to stop playing politics with peoples lives. The Federal Liberals just want everyone out spending so they can rake in some GST. Seems they care more about that than stopping this virus. We watch BEWARE THE SLENDERMAN documentary. Excellent graphics etc. I feel sorry for the girl who was knifed by her 2 friends. Plus all the publicity around it. I see the 2 girls who did it are still locked away , a tad crazy. I go to bed with thoughts of Slenderman in my head, I even consider checking behind my wardrobe door. The chant "I know he is not real, I know he is not real, I know ......he IS..."! I'm giving some of the wall art a dust and smile at the "216 cats" painting i did for Mark way back in 1990. It's only a tiny canvas but somehow, yes you guessed it- 216 different cats are on it. It's on my FB page, someone needs to count the number as I'm probably wrong. Maybe it needs to be renamed "216 Cats plus One"! Mr Peep the cockatoo turns up and brings a girlfriend-the first time I've seen him with another bird. I tease the sulphur crested cocky- "Mr Peeps in Love"! He gives her a peck on the head. Oh, ain't love grand! I'm working on a backing board for MIMs spaceship, hand filing holes for console christmas lights and screens. I have some vision in my head. She's 6 so whatever we end up with she will love. Uncle Mark helps out which is nice. June 22ndA weird restless sleep , lots of rain last night and fog all the way up to the house. I wake up with sniffles, sneezes, and I know it's the fog. Thankfully my nose controls itself by 6.00 AM. Banshee stares at me , inches from my face. Cats are weird.A friends Mum passes away and it saddens me so much, she's unable to go to the funeral. So I head to Olinda to buy some flowers for her as Winter has wiped out nearly all the flowers- except for some cold loving orchards. Montage is closed on Mondays but I see our friend Caroline and she opens "Kellys" for me and makes me a coffee. Bless her, this was so kind, especially on such a shit weather day. I head back out into the fog and the sirens wail- I'm guessing either a big tree down or a car has gone off the mountain in the fog. Like our phone lines, the Internet has basically died too , maybe 10 seconds at a time. I will be glad when all of this has been fixed. I'm staying calm, though it is a pain for Mum not to be able to call and get through. I'm near a pay-phone every few days so I guess it's back to old school calling home. We haven't called from a pay-phone since the days of the Toorak Flat in the late seventies. I drop into the office late tonight and I'm sipping on some green tea in the cup my friend Belle in France sent me. Hand made , and yes we have so many cups, mugs, but I love the shape and size of this so it has become one of my favourites. This has to be the very last mug that is sent to us. No more cupboard space. June 23rdI'm digging around in our Archives and find what I'm looking for. A big Red bag with Crowded House printed on the side - contains parts of the very cool silver stage curtain. Once more a 'saved' item- still shocked this was being burn't , including the cool storage bag- so rescued and ours, many many years ago. I've decided MIMs spacesuit will be mostly white - because we have so much silver and if I add parts of this backdrop to her "production" she will blend in. Director Mark hates the white out from silver overuse. I'm a BIG fan of Silver spacesuits- those early NASA missions, but more importantly the first season of Lost In Space. You know some of her suit will be silver- it's impossible for me to go against my obsessions. I find a few more cloth badges- the Apollo 11 one, the NASA logo and this cool cloth badge from Nepal- kind of a crossover of Space meets Hippydom, so I work out a layout-the suit against the Crowdies silver curtain segment. It's looking good. I've gone for a silver/gold helmut but soft and no face plate as Director Marky is filming so we do need to see MIms face. Plus she has to climb down a metal ladder and don't want my niece breaking her neck!It's a grey and foggy Winters day- drizzling with rain. So many people look so sad today. The Covid lockdowns for Victoria are kind of happening as we have had a flare up. For us a flareup is 11 new cases, which is nothing compared to America and Brazil where it is out of control. I clear the mail box and thrilled to get a T-shirt from Kristy McBain who is the Labor candidate for the ByElection for Eden Monaro. It's the area just past our old holiday place at Moruya. A beautiful part of NSW- and Kristy would make an awesome local member. I check the label on the T-shirt and at least this ByElection will help an Aussie company- the T-shirts are Australian Made (by Blue Gum) so good one Kristy and team Labor. It's such a knife edge electorate, almost nothing separates the 2 major parties. I'll have to check out the local Greens person too. June 24thWe watch a documentary on Burma. We were totally ignorant as to what is happening around the Ruhinya. Forced into Bangledash. So exceptionally sad and brutal. So much for Burma become a democracy.I speak to our providers around the NBN and set the wheels in motion. The woman was really great, going "Oh wow" that we are doing all set up from a phone booth at Kalorama! "You still have phone booths" ? she says. Both Woolworths and Coles now have grocery restrictions in place for this possible second infection wave that seems to be rolling in. Some hysterical grocery buying - I make a mental note to grab some extra packets of flour. I'd be amazed if toilet paper runs out again, surely Australians have enough stocked up in their cupboards for years. We put in a grocery order online via Montages internet and looks like we just got it in on time as the deliveries had all started to fill up. Crazy times ahead again. June 25thNot much sleep last night, brain ticking over. I warmly greet Mark as he stumbled past my door for the toilet at 5.00 in the morning. Banshee had just had an old lady early morning feed so I was awake.I need to check internet 'stuff' so off to Montage again. Mary has called in so it is great to see her and have a bit of a laugh, hell we were even serious for ten seconds. Qantas lays off 6000 workers, this is after 15,000 a few weeks back. The larger planes are being kept in the desert- and they don't expect to return to full international flights till July 2021. It's frustrating with no Internet today as I want to enter Doritos contest to "Win a Trip To Santorini, Greece". With so many international flights stopping I wonder if you will have to swim to the destination. Really do you want to be on any International flight at the moment.? Maybe i don't want to win. America has some massive infection rate today, one of it's largest. So much for it being under control. I worry about our USA mates. .... and finally a Happy Birthday wish to Tim Finn in New Zealand who turns 68 today. Think he was surprised that i remembered- a lovely email back from him. June 26thI head down to the post office box and clear the mail and pick up our NBN box and hardware- looks like fairly easy installation and the box itself is about 80% smaller then the NBN at my Mums house. Saying that my Mum has the awesome full optic NBN, the original Labor version which is great, I wish we had that one. I head to the payphone and call Telstra around the line/net outages and it sounds like someone cut into some massive line and it's no small job for repairs- they are now talking early July. The one good thing is that Telstra are supplying me with a brand new satellite phone and all calls free on it, so that makes it easier to check on my Mum, Sis etc. Shit happens i get that but nothing like your NBN stuff arriving but you can't use it.A nice day outside so a small walk and then home to the art room. Mark helps me move the large chunky work bench - which i clean and paint white. It's going to be the base for MIMs rocket ship. The old ride on lawnmower seat with the cool skull on the back her space chair. I find some freebee paint, so get that done, so zero costs around this. Next i create two landing struts- think of the Lunar Module from Apollo 11. 2 plastic dinner plates-recycled and now metallic silver, attached to some thick volley ball poles-now silver as well and all wrapped in crunched up foil. I'm happy with these-close to perfect. Dinner tonight, strips of fine meat, in soy sauce, vegies from the garden, some hiking seeds and our fave danish fetta. Dig out the chop sticks. It feels almost healthy. June 27thI pick some apples to make an apple pie tonight. Quite decent size , and I'm cutting the apple sizes larger these days. I have 1 pear so that can go into the mix as well. We do love "hot apple pie" in Winter. !!!!Marks vacuuming the Pool room and cleaning the area where he is putting up the NBN box. So while he is doing that I sneak off with the chainsaw and chop some more pieces off the 2 fallen tree trunk/branches. He loves to chainsaw so I do feel guilty that I'm taking some Kalorama Chainsaw Massacre moment of joy away from him. I cut 5 pieces and it wears me out. I carry them to the garage and decide to work on the Marscape backdrop as I'm not happy with it. It needs to be defined, so when the spray paint has tried I'll do a bit of hand brush work. I climb inside the base of Mims spaceship and repaint it- found a tin of some dark mulberry -so that will do, free is good. Really just to tidy it up as it won't be seen when Marks filming. Florida and Texas- gigantic Coronavirus outbreaks, yet Donald says everyone should thank him for the fine work he has done- good grief he really is fucked in the head. Your fellow Americans are dying for fucksake - talk about denial. June 28thI was going to get up early but the temperature dropped to 1 degree last night and after Banshees 5.00 feed both cat and human bolted back to bed. Deep under the covers.The Logies would of been on tonight but not in 2020- blown out for the year because of the pandemic. Sad as it was our yearly Bitch-Fest - and a joy to have a laugh. I hear from our mate Billy who looks after Paul Kelly - loving the FORTY Paul Kelly downloads. I'd Love for this one to be out on vinyl, he says maybe later this year. That would be cool. Ten Million have now been infected worldwide. I see Australia has a more simpler Covid test from next week -not the all the way up the nose invasive one, just a simple mouth swap. People are now going door to door in hot spot areas, Victoria going for 15,000 tests a day. It's good, Premier Andrews looking after the safety of Victorians. I for one am very glad he is being so cautious and not rushing the opening of the state. So that's it, a rather short diary. The two old Mystics are happy and healthy in their wild part of Mt Dandenong. Stay safe. Love Peter |