The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 4 October - 17 October 2021
"PG & Andy White - Ailsa Craig 2021"
October 4thAntony #1 calls and arrives to rebuild the two fence lines. The insurance people are now starting to roll and get all the things done. We have been extra patient. I've kept the fence very basic mainly for wildlife like echidna's to still be able to visit yet big dogs kept out, so Miss Banshee won't be hassled. It's looking good but rain on the way. Ant gets 95% done and will finish it in a week when he repairs the giant metal gate. It's good for another reason as a lot of the fence line now tidied up so good with a hot Summer predicted, which means bushfires.Melbourne has now spent the most time in lockdown to any city in the world. It doesn't worry us too much we just roll with it. If nothing else we get a lot done. October 5thAaron our insurance electrician arrives with his mate and they install the new solar conversion box. A nice sunny day and it clicks into life, the solar panels working fine, they survived the recent disaster intact. I love that it's all working fine again. Creating power for the house and the grid. You'd be crazy not to get solar in Australia, all of that beautiful clean sunshine.October 6thMark pays for dinner, some food from "Kelly's" at Olinda. Our owner mate Carolyn gives us 2 free beers with the food pile- Corona with Parmi, chips and salad. How Aussie. Tastes great.October 7thGood grief PM SlowMo is so weak. Actions speaker louder than words & SlowMo is saying No to attending the Glasgow Climate Change Conference. He's probably embarrassed by Australia's inaction on Climate Change. Morrison is so pissweak. We all know he will be shamed into changing his mind- just wait and see.I love that the new Superman - Clark and Lois's son Jon comes out that he is Bisexual in the upcoming comic. He also has a serious comic book pash with hot dude Jay! Aussie writer Tom Taylor put this one together- so hats off to you Tom. We live in golden times. I head to Eastlands, it has been ages since I was in a shopping centre complex. Three things to do so waited and got them all done today. I also managed to get some jars for my jams and chutneys. Big thank you to Wendy H. for the heads up. I walked past the new Covid vaccine hub, backtracked and asked them some questions. Tomorrow Moderna arrives , so I'm bringing Marky back here for his injection. Good news is that he doesn't have to book. I spot this cool metal unicorn keepsake at the Mister Minit store and they engrave it for Maddison as a Christmas present. "MIM Happy Christmas 2021, Love The Uncles xxx". She'll like it , still in her unicorn phase. October 8thUp early and cold press some wheatgrass juice and some breakfast. I wake Mark up and tell him to get ready so we can be at Eastlands early in case there is a rush. He said he had little sleep because he was worried about the vaccination. It was an easy morning, Eastlands empty so a park right by the door. The vaccine guy comes up and says he remembers me and ushers Mark straight in. He gets his jab while I go buy some groceries. I'm back for 10 minutes and Mark walks out. Apparently he is now the poster boy for Moderna- possibly the first person in Victoria to get that one. He says he feels fine, not even a bandaid needed.I wash my old car, as soon as this Covid lockdown is over , it's off to be sold. It has been a good car. I pick some flowers to go with the chocolate I bought Marky. So far though-nothing he is 100% ok. October 9thFour months since the disaster here at Kalorama. Time flies. It certainly has changed a lot of lives -and for us in many ways-for the better. We have some amazing new friends and appreciate what we have even more.I catch up with Andy White out the front of Montage and pass on his USB with the AW recent photo session. We are leaning on the Yarra Ranges art "structure" and notice 2 people with interesting accents. So we start talking to them, and they are both from Southern Russia. Just really a nice couple- their names are Kate & Denis. We will catch up for lunch when Covid is less insane. For dinner tonight I make a great Lasagne and homemade Apple Pie with cream. Yes back to the basics. Day two and Mark is a'ok. Moderna has been good for him. October 10thFirst Banshee wakes me up early-sunrise. I'm finally back to sleep & a knock on our door and it's the scaffolding guys- only 5 days late but that's ok. I bleary eyed take them to the spot & in the end they need extra scaffolding stuff, so only deliver half anyway. We are so relaxed about the repairs I just shrug.Muy buddy Dean calls and chat about Tesla and other stuff. In the middle of our chat an email arrives around someone wanting my "Gold Andy" (Warhol). So that is very exciting. I head out to the yard in the afternoon -just want to weed around the passionfruit plants and the now flowering lavender bushes. The lavender is very happy. I see all our neighbours are out in the sunshine doing yard work so I make some time to chat to them. What a lovely bunch of people surround us. Mark is on the exercise bike and I manage 25 minutes of boxing. I was trying for 30 but tired from Miss Kitty's early morning rising. I heard from Dan Andrews & from Oct. 30th & live music returns to Victoria-pubs, smaller venues, even the Myer Bowl. Excellent news. Go & get the jab! October 11thUp early & what a fine day it is here at Kalorama. The scaffolding blokes are here again - doing the insurance swap over of the split cooling/heating system. It worked out well-replacement system with 10 years warranty. Nice guys doing the work today, already a few good laughs. The new unit is a bit larger and more efficient. It looks ok which is really good, you don't want to stuff the house up with "ugly". The sun breaks through in the afternoon so it's much nicer to work outside.I suggest to Mark that we work on a possible shot for this years Christmas Card. The Scaffolding is screaming "use me in a christmas photo"! maybe for social media as I have a different shot in mind for our chrissy card. October 12thI really enjoyed Carrington Clark's report on the ABC news today. So this is a shout out to you Carrington! ya big spunk. (: (: (:Very sad news that Eddie Jaku passed away- he penned "Happiest Man On Earth" book. Age 101- what a life. I spend most of the day doing yard work with Marky. The final few fire piles for awhile. I can finally say it, the yard is coming together-it's taken 4 months-but looking good. In the big tree grove we now have loads of beautiful lush ferns. It looks sensational from the road. I'm just lucky that I have this amazing mate who has worked so incredibly hard, repairing the yard and making it even better after the disaster. October 13thA glorious day but rain on the way tonight. We do some final yard work - the last few logs to burn and the fire is perfect. Cleanup almost done. Some serious lifting so our arm muscles get a work out.I head to Montage to buy us a coffee and some of their awesome "Blondie's"-made by Miss Astrid. I give her some bubble wrap and newspaper for wrapping for her move. A new Coffee place has opened a few doors down, near Butlers. I stay loyal, but the decor looks good. The Deli is still closed. The gossip etc continues around it. I make 2 mini lasagne's for dinner and decide to support Olinda Pizza and buy a medium Pizza and some of their excellent chocolate ice cream. That's ten laps of Kalorama oval tomorrow. October 14thWe are having breakfast in the sun on the decking and I spot a cute grey bunny go hopping past. Banshee is in her cat cave in the ivy on the wall and pops her head out in disbelief. She goes and checks it out-that Bunny has long gone old girl I shout.A bloke morning, I hear from Warwick, Tim at Byron and my friend Chris. All very different guys, but all good blokes. I see Captain Kirk has finally made it into space. I can see him sitting in the Blue Original rocket going 'in my day they would of simply beamed me into space". A good PR exercise and great he got to do it as he's getting on. I'm about to leave for a Coffee run and the courier delivers our two "Keith Richards For President" T-shirts. So I head back in & give Mark his & change into mine. I lose track of the number of people who stop me at Olinda and go "Cool T-shirt". We've both always wanted one of these so it's great to tick them off our list. After lunch pose for some photos in it, in the lush new fernery section of Ailsa Craig. All the extra sunlight from the few missing trees has been a bit of a blessing for the ferns. People passing by on the road always comment how incredible they look. At 3PM we head to the broken forest opposite the CFA at Kalorama on Ridge Rd. They've started clearing it. Thankfully the crew are in the back area so we have a few moments to get set up for a possible Christmas Card photo. I'm in the Santa shorts and all the other stuff. Not going to give it away but this could be a possible Christmas Card image. Some guy comes down & basically informs us that it's a work area, despite them working way way away. I think my "yeah and we are tax payers" reply probably pisses him off, lucky I didn't ask him why he wasn't wearing a Covid mask when dealing with members of the public. The shoot is finished anyway so back home for us , just as the weather changes from Sunny to shitty. I try to get to IGA at Olinda , with 35 mins to spare tonight. But get stuck behind some selfish terrible driver, doing 15 kms in a 60 zone. Nine cars behind and you'd think they would pull over and let people pass, but No. People didn't dare overtake them as they were on both sides of the road. Of course it mean I missed IGA by 5 mins. Thank God Duncan opened up for me at Olinda Pizza. I hate selfish drivers who travel at a snails pace and don't pull over for people. Whinge over. October 15thWe awake to find Kalorama fog bound, a really thick fog on the mountain. I guess more rain is on the way, which sucks as I had good intentions to start work on my stone stairs for the garage area. Oh well we have waited this long, will be patient a bit longer. I'm excited to see how they turn out and if I have the skills to make them. Hope I don't totally stuff them, that would be embarrassing.We head off mountain to the supermarket, it's busy again. I guess people are getting a last shop in before Victoria starts opening when lockdown is over. Back to the grind for many. We buy some japanese for lunch , really nice. Rain on the way , so home and a few yard bits and pieces completed before the deluge. It really floods down, the winds at night are horrid. Thankfully and a surprise no more trees down. October 16thWe watched Aussie movie "The Dry" tonight- both of us really enjoyed it. Eric Bana and Genevieve O'Reilly both excellent. We loved that brutal Australian landscape as the background for this mystery, drama, thriller. Worth checking out.October 17thI slept in, well kind of. I tried forcing Banshee to stay in bed this morning, which was a bit of a failed effort, she did but managed to keep me awake for hours. So after she went out I succumbed to a coma. By lunch time the weather changed so I went for a short drive, picked up some pies from the bakery and a fruit flam cake. I sat outside on the decking in the sun with Marky and had lunch and watched Dan Andrews handing out all the information of the next stage of ending lockdown. I see NSW daily Covid D death numbers have jumped back to double figures again. Almost 500 deceased from the Delta strain in NSW, nearly 3 times that of Victoria. Selfish i know but I'm glad my family are still safe in NSW. The media seem to avoid talking about the poor people who have lost their lives, almost ignoring it.I should really start thinking of booking our air tickets home for Christmas. Hopefully this year we will make it. Only 68 days till Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho! PG xxx |