The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 28 July - 9 August 2020
"Mark and Peter staying Stoned during Covid-19"
July 28thLots of calls and cards still coming in for Marks birthday. Far more popular than little ol' me.Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after battling the coronavirus. He was 74. He learned of his diagnosis on June 29, nine days after attending President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If it wasn't bad enough having to sit through a conceited orange skinned idiot on stage, then you go and catch Covid 19. 99 days till the USA election, ever get the feeling that Trump is running scared? Now he wants to postpone the election. Oh yeah. Coward. Good old Stella Immanuel - and the Americas Frontline Doctors group. What a bunch of whacko's. Claiming the DNA from Space Aliens was used in Hydroxychloroquine. One has to laugh- America the land of the insane. That's what it feels like in 2020. Telstra give us a small refund for the time when the communication lines were down. Wentworth (Prisoner) new season started tonight and what a joy it was-great script, new characters (well re-booted ones). Fantastic. July 29thThe Kalorama Discorama opened in our lounge room tonight. A very poor attendance-just Mark, myself and Miss Banshee. Banshee has a bit of a thing for Cyndi Laupers "She's so unusual" album. So a 53 minute dance workout for us to that fine release. The track 'All through the night" is her favourite- especially the lines " All through the night, Stray cat is crying, so Stray cat sings back". The lasers were turned on as well. Boys just wanna have fun eh?I mailed off a gift to our mate Wendy C in QLD, I've had this aside for awhile but Covid lockdown has prevented me from posting it. Just a little "thing" , sometimes it's nice to mail people a present for no reason at all. Well maybe kindness. July 30thOur home delivery arrives on time and no substitutes. I still can't believe the incredible delivery rate we get - as long as we get it delivered during the week. I've converted my Woolworths points over to Qantas. Not that we can fly anywhere -we VCL's- (Victorian Covid Lepers). HA!A lovely day so some exercise 2 minutes form our house. Thompsons Track. We venture down a fire trail , one we've never been to before. Bloody hell it was steep at the start and lots of shale- so nearly crashed onto our backsides. Amazing views. I kept looking for Koala's as there were quite a lot of Koala gums growing. Sadly no signs of them. No people at all, just us. We did wear our face covers- doing the right thing. Something glorious during a pandemic to be able to sit on a fallen tree in the sun and talk. Simplicity is a joy. July 31stI was watching "Afternoon Briefing" on the ABC and thought Ken Whyatt-the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians was really good. I rarely give out compliments to that side of Politics- mainly because they are shit, but in this case he was excellent. See miracles do happen. I think he genuinely cares about the Indigenous population of Australia.I spend the rest of the afternoon in the art room, finishing one of Maddisons Volcano's for her Mars landscape. Who knows when she can visit, which is ok because it gives us more time to have fun on her little Space Oddity set. This volcano is basically chicken wire and a lot of paper mache. The latest batch of flour glue resembles a big vat of snot! I get all the paper mache done, hair dry most of it and start to paint. Using both acrylic and a lot of spray paint. Still costing for it is almost zero. I am excited as I do get the volcano to cough out some smoke, at one stage a hell of a lot so I disappear while trying to find the off switch. So proud of my working art piece i send the image to Mr Noel Crombie and Miss Sally. They'll appreciate it! Either that or think we are crazy. August 1stBloody hell it's August. I'm having problems working out what day it is let alone what month. I do feel like I have gone into a 6 month hibernation and the world has drifted by. I'm ok with that.Another beautiful day, so working in the yard this afternoon, because it's turning again soon. Some cold weather heading our way and chances of snow. I don't mind The Stones "Scarlet- Why You Tearing My Heart" one of the bonus tracks from Goats Head Soup reissue. It's not brilliant but compared to a few of the other unreleased demos I'm ok with it. I do agree with Marky, the vocal is a bit low and unclear. In a Covid world-coffee beans are becoming rare. A total joy when I found a large bag of Vittoria Italian blend beans for HALF price. The last bag and a year to use them. Mark is happy. My bargain for the day. August 2ndWe watch "Girl, Interrupted". Insane this fine movie is not on Bluray. Angelina Jolie is SO hot in this movie and we love her character. Winona Ryder excellent too. Jared Leto a bit sexy as Toby. The book was great- read that one a few times. I like Jared Leto he has no shame and just does what he wants. I like his band Thirty Seconds To Mars. Plus he was kind of cool as Angel Face in Fight Club.I watch "The Sound" on the ABC. A bit of a Skyhooks tribute during this episode. Ross Wilson, Daryl Braithwaite, Laura from Bongos band and Patience Hodgson from The Grates. I really enjoy The Grates and thought Patience shone during this- a bit of personality and some excellent notes. I'm not really a fan of such karaoke type events but i've seen worse and I did enjoy the archival footage used. Good that "The Sound" has a few aussie bands on it, some fresh talent, so more power to the show. I liked the setting for Brisbane band Sheppard , some amazing soundstage , truly beautiful design. The wonderful HOTA outdoor stage. Apparently landscape architects TOPOTEK1 worked on this. A "State of Disaster" declared for Victoria from 6PM tonight. Curfews and closures. We'll just run with it, whatever keeps one safe. August 3rdHappy 7th Birthday to our adorable niece Maddison. We are all so fortunate to have you in our life. Love ya MIM! I wake up early so call her and sing. Apparently I am her 5th caller for the day. She makes me sing and sing and sing.I can visit the IGA's (supermarkets) in either direction from our place, both are within the 5km radius. So lovely outside I decide a little bus journey to IGA is needed. With all the extra singing I miss the bus- for the first time EVER! Only slightly annoyed- instead of heading home and waiting, I get some exercise and walk to the next stop at Five Ways with the cool Lookout-views of Silvan Dam. I sit on a log in the sun, wearing my mask and scalf and meditate and write in my diary. Nelly drives past the other way and gives me a smile and a wave. She tells me later she saw this young man chilled out and relaxed and realised (because of my 'star' scalf-it was me). I should of taken the omen of my scalf getting stuck in the door at home to be a sign to head off later. I am a bit worn today, Miss Banshee had a restless night, she climbed all over me, & decided the top of my head was a great place to sit at 4.00 in the morning. Still I always forgive her, we love the old furball. I clear the mail box and some amazing stuff arrives. An incredible parcel from Wendy C in QLD-so generous, she is such a beautiful lady. Extra excited as Miss K's fantastic Rolling Stones tongue logo covid masks arrived, Marks birthday present and 1 for me-these are so special. Finally my K-Lee design bamboo black cloth covid face covers-so easy to breathe with these and made locally. I love it when we get parcels- it feels like Christmas morning. A small private funeral for Dave Flett from the australian seventies band Captain Matchbox. Bassist and a rather cool ukulele player. Brother of the talented Uschi Flett who designed so many of those exceptional Skyhooks costumes. Sadly I believe Uschi has passed away too. I met her twice and a few phone calls, we got along really well. I should of made a bit more effort. Anyway RIP Dave. Bongo Skyhook gives me a call around this, and big thanks to Jen Brown for the extra details. JJB ALWAYS has her finger on the pulse. August 4thSNOW!!!!!! As predicted it does snow, like the feathers from a million angels. My timing is perfect, I walked outside just as the first few flakes fell. I think of our mate Allie and her love of capturing snowflakes in her mouth-so I do the same. The novelty of snow is so intense, I run inside screaming "Snow, Snow, Snow" like I expect Mark to be as tragically excited over this as I am. It snows on and off all day, not massive but I do make the odd snowball and hide near our back gate waiting for victims.Friends call during the day "Snow, Snow, Snow" is all i could mutter. Fen & Giles call, i feel ridiculous getting excited about snow to two people born in England and they've had real snow falls. By 7.00 i decide to head out and get a few laps of Kalorama oval done as my 1 hour exercise before the curfew at 8.00. I take the shitty camera in case my wish comes true and a decent snowfall eventuates, plus if I fall over I only smash the crappy camera not my amazing Canon gift from Marky. Strange as the oval lights are not on, maybe to deter people from breaking curfew. I finish 1 lap and a massive thunderclap rings out, like a sonic boom, almost knocks me off my feet. The atmosphere changes , I can feel a temperature drop and the wind picks up and not feathers from angels but a blizzard from the Ice Worlds of Ardeth! It's really full on, and hitting my face, almost stinging. I cross to the kids playground and find shelter in a spinning Orb. I snuggle in tight , I can't see 2 cms in front of me-white out. I feel rather primal, some stone age human hiding from the elements, fearful of the old Gods. As I sit in my protective Orb, I think to myself "see sometimes it pays not to wish too hard"! 20 minutes later and there is a break in this mini blizzard, so I'm making a run for home. The entire Kalorama oval is a quilt of glorious white, maybe 5cms deep. The old romantic in me takes over so I find oval centre, and dance- not a groovy Go-Go motion, or the twist, more like across between Fred Astaire (I wish) -some fucked up ballet and a few of my kick boxing moves thrown in for good measure. There have been zero cars on the Tourist Road- Curfew and insane weather have kept them away. I wonder if the community building at the oval has security cameras and captured me making a total fool of myself with my dance? Oh well, I'm sure it will pop up on Australia's Silliest Videos! I slip and slide but manage to get back to Ailsa Craig 5 minutes before the start of curfew. The yard and house look incredible- the full Disney work over. Snow and trees and bushes bent over, even little animal footprints. A nice cuppa green tea is waiting to defrost my fingers-thanks Marky. We watch a few movies and the fires at Ailsa Craig are roaring. At 11.55 I feel that temperature drop again so I head to the back door to check it out. The entire East Lawn and decking is covered. I head up to the garage to grab our toboggans. By midnight the two wild boys are speeding down the East Lawn on them. It's a bit freaky as the house lights up 3/4 of the snow run, but the final quarter is black. So the white of the snow takes into 'the black zone'. It's a bit of a head fuck. I take the fall a few times before the zone- prefer the frozen over the fear of the unknown. Even with our cave climbing lights on it's a disturbing ending. Of course we are laughing like crazy bastards. (sorry neighbours). I usually am up for anything but refuse our mate Pips offer of $10 to one of us who does the tobbogan run fully naked. I like my popsicle not frozen. My poor hands were pure ice by the end of this marathon moment. Did I tell you i love SNOW! August 5th700,000 dead worldwide to Covid 19. So many countries are not reporting their real numbers, I bet it's really closer to 1 million. Very depressing. Our infected numbers in Victoria jump. It's that 1:1 ratio, causing grief and stupid selfish prats who do not do as they should.All the snow has melted! August 6thMetro Melbourne is now at Stage 4, Regional Victoria stage 3. We are fine with this, what ever gets the job done. I guess I'm lucky, in lockdown with my best mate , certainly makes it all easier. We still have around 65% of our emergency supplies , and only need to stock up on a handful of things. So food is ok.In the afternoon I pick all the oranges off our little orange tree. I squeeze them all, get 1/2 a huge jar of juice, even add one lemon into it. Keeping our vitamin C levels up. It's the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima today. I'm so glad many of the Hibakusha (person affected by exposure to bombs) get to tell their stories. Such an important part of history. Not sure if the snow and cold snap triggered it, but lost of Camellias out at our place. Flowers everywhere. August 7thHow wonderful is the Victorian chief medical officer-Dr Brett Sutton. So calm and rational at the daily Covid briefings on the ABC. He's a tad handsome as well -which seems to be mentioned a lot these days. The NSW Chief medical officer always sounds like he is crappy and has a pole up his bum!For the 20th consecutive week, 1 Million unemployed in America. August 8thJoe Biden announces that Kamala Harris will be his Vice President. Good choice, this will rattle Chump.The 40th anniversary of True Colours debuts at #1 in NZ. I was hoping as much, favourite sons and all of that. Not so well in Australia, only at #19. I'm shocked at how music sales overall have fallen in Australia- to make the top 10 you only need to sell just over a thousand units. For True Colours it did a mere 646, you'd think the multiple coloured vinyls etc would easily give it over a thousand units. I was delighted that the Paul Kelly + Paul Grabowsky new album came in at #3-some great songs on that one. I make homemade Lasagne for dinner, open a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz as I like cooking with that. August 9thMaddisons Birthday Party this afternoon. Sis booked out the entire cinema- so MIM and 6 of her besties (and a few parents) could attend. Uncle Mark created the Unicorn birthday message for her, for the big screen for when she was cutting the cake. Unicorn themed , so everything from blankets to point birthday caps. They watched "Red Shoes & The Seven Dwarfs" and no doubt stuffed their faces with popcorn and chocolates. Super Covid cleaned Cinema and spacing for the adults. MIM called us on the way home "It was FANTASTIC Uncles'!Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton at age 22- long hair, groovy clothes and a bit of a spunk. Posted the photo on my FB page much to the delight of many. Still chuckling that there is a "Brett Sutton Is Hot" FB page (rolls eyes). The power went off last night, trees down on the Tourist road. Thankfully at 1.00 in the morning- it didn't come back on till 9.30 . One of the regular joys of living in a National Park. Despite such hiccups I wouldn't swap it for the world (well maybe 4 months of the year living on Magnetic island)- we feel fairly safe here during this pandemic-and enough room for us to breathe and stay sane. That's it for another 2 weeks. Stay safe xPG |