The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 13 April - 2 May 2021
Five-Ways Bus Stop- Anzac Day 2021
April 12thMark is happy as the computer memory arrives for our laptop. Apple computers have the worlds smallest screws but thankfully I find a screwdriver small enough, so we didn't have to spend $20 buying one. The new memory is added and the company we bought it from, a great price. Hundreds less then what Apple sells it for. He's happy using this till we get one of the new upcoming Macs for him.India bumps Brazil off the second spot for Covid infections. Rough times coming up for India. I count our blessings that we live in Oz, 400,000 dead in India, so bloody sad. I go for a jog around the oval and on the way home pick up a big bag of pine cones for the fire. We use these a lot, mother natures bounty. They smell great burning in the fire places. April 13thI get a phone call from my niece Maddison. She's hanging out with my Mum today while on school holidays. I love it when Maddions tells us one of her dramatic stories. So cute.I see the Morrison Government missed every Covid vaccination target that it set for itself, Morrison is pathetic. Here comes his excuses ....... April 14thUSA Bachelor star Colton Underwood finally comes out that he is gay. It's 2021, do people still need to come out? I guess it might help some younger people still in the closet. Coltons a bit cute isn't he? My gaydar was so spot on with him.April 15thOvernight my 4WD was covered in tiny spiderwebs, so I spent the afternoon giving it a wash. At least 50 possums didn't crap on it, tiny spiderwebs I'm happy to deal with.April 16thWe are loving the photos that our mate Kim Grange has recently sent us. Hysterical, some from her wonderful Host A Murder dinner, various people in drag (LOVE the BITCH bag that I am carrying-whatever happened to the Bitch bag?), the odd popstar and I'm in a blonde wig. Andrew looks fabulous and Marky so CUTE! Photos from the Grampians. and Surrey Road house and even the Gryphon climbing to the top of a tree to put up Christmas decorations! Love these, big thank you to Kim & Andrew. Nice that you two keep your promises. We love flashback photos.I climb up on the cupboard and take the 3 flying sulpur crested cockatoos off the wall. Yes most people have 3 flying ducks, we have 3 aussie cockatoos. They get washed every few years. I bought them at Monkeys at Sth Melbourne around 35-40 years ago. As I'm washing them, one of our local kookaburra's turns up and stares at the ceramic Cocky wondering why it is not moving. April 17thHappy Birthday Mr Noel Crombie. I rarely forget Noels birthday , out of so many his is one that I tend to remember. We have a really nice chat.Just made this great T-shirt that reads " I'm the Asteroid, You're the Dinosaur"! Going to wear it around one of our out of touch out of date head in the sand friends! Wonder if they will get the joke? I'm certain I'll just piss them off. Just fun. April 18thTalk to Mark Hart about an obscure Crowded House gig in Canada, and not on our live list. Marky locked down a date (well 99% sure) but trying to find the venue. It's at Moose Jaw (what a name)! So still trying to find the place the Crowdies played. It brings the total of live shows for Crowded House to 982.Terrible news, the global death toll from Covid passes the 3 million mark. April 19thI call into The Deli today and sit outside in the sun and sip a coffee. A man comes over to me while I'm relaxing and is a bit obsessed and wants to talk to me about the "great flood". Is there a sign above my head that says "Crazy people please come talk to me". Partially my own fault as I wave the red flag by giving him some facts that go against his mad waffle moment. I try to stay polite but you know I just want to sit in the sun, sip my coffee and relax. He should go find a spot under a tree and reread his "Great ReSet" book with the other conspiracy losers.April 20thRAIN and a lot of it. We do however get out and manage 20 minutes worth of chainsawing before the heavens open.Spagetti with Indian Kofta meatballs for dinner. I do make great Kofta I have to say. April 21stI decide to give a little Aussie online company some support. Happy Valley seeds. Great prices, great selection. I order some Manuka Honey tea tree seeds, some Dahlia bloody mary seed mix, some half price spring onions and the much wanted Sage White seeds. I'm going to grow my own sage and make some smudge sticks from it. Sage can be used for so many things , including the lessening of Grey hair I hear! Anyway within 30 minutes of ordering I get an Email that the seed parcel has been mailed and a tracking number- impressed with how efficient they are.I found a couple of John Lennon postage stamps , so made a little bookmark for my friend Laura and popped that in the mail as a tiny surprise. "What Fun!" as Sally Crombie would say. April 22ndLoads of boring household stuff today like cleaning and dusting and crap like that. But I need a coffee to get me going so off to Olinda. Nice to see Pete & Josie, and Carol and Peter #2. I buy one of the $5 Anzac pins from the bakery, really lovely rosemary design.I clear the post office box and love our solar panels, our electricity bill was (drum roll). $2.32 in CREDIT! How good is that. The Chinese have just passed the 50% mark for energy created for consumer use from renewables. First time renewables have passed fossil fuel in China. They just opened the worlds largest solar/hydrogen plant so that surely has something to do with it. Solar is the future, Coal is dead. April 23rdI dig around the vegetable patch for BIG potatoes as I have the urge for baked spuds. I find some, but it took awhile, most are small to medium. Scrub them up, spike them, bake them and then leave them for awhile and mash insides with a drop of milk, some chives, cheese & a tiny bit of bacon, sour cream and back into the oven. These tasted awesome. Thanks vegie patch!I have the Kalorama sniffles, or that stupid flu. So avoid a social event tonight. I did have some lunch with Adrian, Barry and the other boys. But was careful. April 24thI pick a big handful of rosemary and some white Dahlias from our gardens. I'm making 2 bundles for tomorrows Anzac shrine. I'm intending to be at the main shrine just before sunrise. They look kind of neat. Rosemary, as the shores of Gallipoli are covered in wild rosemary, plus it relates to remembrance.Our friend Jen Brown at Kalorama today, so hoping for a catch up, think she has the sniffles too so maybe not. Everyone seems to have a cold at the moment. Mark has managed to find some amazing things to watch on cable tonight. I'm all rugged up and the flu monster has nearly departed. Yes that quickly. April 25thMiss Banshee is the best alarm clock. She wakes me at 6.15 am. So feed the cat, grab my camera and head off to 5 Ways for the main Anzac shrine. I need the exercise so I walk, in the fog!!! I'd forgotten how foggy it can be. I'm the only one at the shrine when the sun rises. I leave our flowers & pause for a minute. Soon after the two veteran bikers turn up. Each year they drive from shrine to shrine, they come up and say hello, they remember me from years gone by. One is driving my favourite motorbike, so we chat bikes for a moment. I take some photos of the 5-Ways bus stop and two giant trees , fog bound and mysterious. They offer to give me a bike ride to the next shrine, but no spare helmut so I decide to be sensible and say No. Strange eh? Me sensible. Plus it's a really nice walk. Remco & Jang are driving by to open the cafe and wave. The shrine at Kalorama oval is smaller , but one wreath of flowers. I add ours. Four people and their dog hanging nearby and are so loud. I give them a '"try some respect" look but it is ignored. Lest we forget.April 26thMark is checking out the Australian Road Crew website. He's into the semi private area so we get to see current photos of some of our older roadies from the seventies and early eighties. A few have passed away but many still hanging in there. So to Russel K, Puckoon, Steve, Rocket , Bear & Jem and all the others-we salute you. Nice find Marky.My seeds arrive from Happy Valley Seed company. Most I can't plant till Spring so I'll hold onto them till it's the right time. I need to buy some really great seed raising mix. My afternoon was spent cleaning some of the Art on our walls. Really just a bit of dust but with so many originals it's good to give them a good clean. I also add their details into the Archives book. A few questions so I email Peter O'Doherty of Mental as Anything fame. I'm playing Mentals and Dog Trumpet while I work. Peter and wife Sue so talented, love their arty side. April 27thThe new Foxtel box arrives, so Mark installs that. A chance to dust in those places that one rarely ever sees. My sister calls in the middle of it, so we take a break and talk to her and Miss MIM.Late afternoon visit to Montage and 6 Buddhist monks arrive and sit next to me. I'm reading (for the millionth time) "Cave in the Snow". One monk comments what an awesome book it is, I agree 100%. We have a bit of a laugh at the radio/webpage Off Tap Life (USA based) has a listener request of Skyhooks "Living in the 70's" and the DJ just raves and raves about it. Plus a montage clip is played and this sends the DJ into an even more excitable rave about the 'Hooks. They are dope, they are heat! So weird and really kind of cool that someone in America discovers the joys of Skyhooks, 47!!! years after the song was released. We like that. Is this Skyhooks second coming? We wish. Look at a few donation sites for India. Covid is out of control , 3 states in India have zero vaccines left and the infection and death toll are rising fast. Very sad to see. April 28thKim Grange sends us a few more photos. We are just loving these. I forward one onto ex housemate Katja and we have a laugh. Kat's back in Melbourne town in a few days so we are hoping to catch up on the phone.Must be the day for it as Miss Wendy and Fen are also on the line. Telstra has done well from us today. Greg Skyhook has been very helpful tagging and dating several early Skyhooks costumes, one goes right back to the Steve Hill days. I love Maccas croqueted black punk top, before Punk existed-way ahead of his time. 1973! April 29thThe Tassie Election is on this weekend, I know the Liberals hope they will have some massive win- like WA Labor did when they pretty much wiped the Libs out; but I don't think that will happen. I do expect the Libs to maintain Tassie but I doubt there will be any big changes in seat numbers, maybe the one strong Independent might take 1 of Labors seats but not much else. Neither Libs or Labor have laid out any Climate change policy (shame on them both) , pretty much just The Greens. It's an important issue for many Tasmanians, and The Greens will be rewarded at the ballot box for doing so. Well I think that is what will happen.April 30thI email Nick and Neil about the Moose Jaw gig that Mark Hart mentioned but no response. So long ago now, & wasn't that the section of the tour where some of the band dropped acid? No mention of the show anywhere on the Net. I guess I can track down some of the crew and see if any of them kept a tour diary. Annoyingly it was part of the world tour that I didn't do. I remember Neil asking me at Adelaide airport if I wanted to jump on a flight with them in a few hours and do the USA/Canada tour. of course one of the few moments I didn't have my passport with me. Nice of him though, think he was happy to have me onboard for chunks of it. I did work really hard on the road, plus the novelty of touring was still nice and fresh. Do i miss touring, 90% NO. It was great for the amount I did and really wonderful to see new people discover the band live & to catch up with old friends and fans. After several tours the novelty wears off, but VERY fond memories of the ones that I did. It's cool to be able to say "Wow, I was a part of that".May 1stMay-how the hell did we get to May so soon? Horrifyingly it's my birthday again on May 11th. I think I'll avoid it this year, I'll celebrate a late birthday with some mates.I watch the Tasmania Election and no quick win for the Liberals, at midnight they still don't have the 13 seats needed for a majority. The Greens vote is up by 3+%. Liberal vote down, Labor vote down. I'm impressed with Greens leader Cassy O'Connor's great speech. Sadly not impressed with Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam-who sat in on the ABC's election panel-what a rude, conceited arsehole he is. The WA election, the Liberal Mike Nahan came across as decent and sensible , not a wanker - which Duniam certainly was tonight. May 2ndI was awake early and sneaked out to help some of the stallholders set up at Kalorama oval for the Chestnut Festival. I only helped for an hour and back home and into bed. It started at 10.00 so i ventured back down with my camera, took some photos. All Covid safe and talk about the most perfect day for a Festival. Beautiful outside and so many locals came up and said "hello". Some fabulous stalls , mulled wine, lovely Cambodian and Turkish food. Kids getting to meet farmyard animals, the best homemade cakes and cute Pony rides. The money raised today goes to Mt Dandenong Pre-School and Primary school. This year the Ferny Creek scouts were in charge of parking cars and did a great job. The Chestnut Festival has been going for 30 years- chestnuts synonymous with Autumn up here in the Hills.It's late afternoon, Mark points out that we have run out of chocolate. Oh no, disaster!!!!! I throw on a fresh shirt and bolt back down to the Festival, I still have 20 minutes before it closes. I find a local stall with homemade chocolate treats and the lady tells me that i'm wearing the best shirt she's seen all day. That makes me smile, even more when she gives me a free pack of some fresh raspberry slices as a bonus along with our chocolate. Nice! I walk home on this beautiful sunny day & our tiny world here seems like a mighty fine place. There is a message from our buddy Charlotte, who has left some Ginger in our letter box. So I grab this well wrapped parcel on the way inside. Some Festival goers are walking by the house & look at me with this suspicious parcel. "Just some Ginger" I tell them. "Sure" they chuckle. They SO think this is home delivery bag of Pot!!!! I head to the vegetable patch and plant the ginger and fingers crossed it grows. Thanks Charlotte, so kind. By 8.00 the weather has turned, the Festival people all packed up and gone. A massive thunderstorm arrives, so much rain and hundreds of lightening strikes. One wipes out the NBN at Kalorama (again) and yes you guessed it, Abbotts shitty NBN box has been fried AGAIN. So God knows when this latest F/16 diary will find it's way onto the Net. Gawd I detest the Fraudband NBN in this country! It could of been amazing, sadly it is shite. Love to you all. PG xxx |