Famous for Sixteen Minutes: Archive

The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 1 November - 12 November 2023

PG and H.G. Wells. Olinda Bakery 2023.

November 1st

The big clean up from Halloween. I manage to get it all done in a short amount of time. The hardest thing is the purple spider webs in the trees and the multiple coats of gothic purple nail polish in the corner parts of my nails. All done and dusted for another year. Some may never look at Wednesday Addams quite the same way again. A friend sends me a picture of her dog dressed as Wednesday, ok it looks better than I did, I give in. Next year I think I'll stick with Wilfred the dog.

A lot of really nice emails from people around the Noise 11 article on our Hester-LLT Halloween youtube clip. I think seeing Paul happy makes people smile, some sadness too, we miss him.

I left my phone charger at work and my mobile drops down to 3%. It's only when you don't have a phone you realise how much you do use it. I always said I wouldn't become one of those "phone people" and I am... well a tiny bit.

I'm in the office rather late and at 10.30 PM I decide to call it quits and head up to the house. I have the torch with me so set it in a more direct beam to try and catch the baby bunny eating food with his parents. The first thing I notice, no noise outside, I can faintly hear the bogans on Bayswater rd in their cars but no animal sounds- very odd.

A movement out of the corner of my eye catches my attention so I shine the light that way in case someone has somehow sneaked past our our external cameras which is close to impossible.

I freeze, in what is some sort of fear moment, my brain unable to comprehend this. Even typing it here feels like a mistake as I'm sure some of my readers will be rallying for a Go-Fund-Me for a padded room for yours truly. The torch shines on this long box shape just drifting above the ground by a few metres. It doesn't seem to be really there, and the only thing i can compare it to is when Klingon ships "cloak" on Star Trek. My torch reacted slightly with it, causing an odd ripple. It was mostly clear in parts, I could see the bushes behind it. It moved at walking pace. I was really scared and I usually am never, always intrigued. I wanted to run but couldn't, my brain felt fried. I followed it with the torch for about 20 seconds, a very long 20 seconds. As it got into the circular drive area, I took off. Bolted to the house and never looked behind me.

I was inside and Mark knew something was wrong, my entire body covered in goose-bumps. I was finding it hard to breathe and the word "cloaked" was lost in my head. It was like my poor old brain was trying to comprehend something that didn't make sense. I was spooked. Even going to use the bathroom I had to put nearly every light on. It felt like the night and darkness held too many secrets. Talk about rattled. Marky looked after me and I slept (what little I had) with a nightlight on. People will ask me what it was and seriously I don't know. It didn't feel alien such as in UFO, but alien like it didn't quite belong here at this time. I have tried to think of more information but my head shuts down around it. Very very strange.

November 2nd

Midnight had a restless sleep last night, very alert at 4.00 am. Between the strange object and the strange kitten I am worn out. I get through the work at charity. I found it hard to even talk about last night as I'm sure most people would think it to be bullshit, so most of the day I don't. I file it away in my head as just another weird moment.

I buy a few Christmas presents at charity, for people like my Mums neighbour, just a few gifts, they had good packaging. Tick tick tick.

When I'm home I let Midnight out in the late afternoon. She has some mud on her and some brambles so she gets her first bath. Unlike Banshee she isn't very fond of water. She can stand in the bath but decides she must swim instead. A quick clean and i towel her dry. She grooms herself for a few hours as wet kittens do.

November 3rd

I have a coffee at the Bakery, Miss T spoils me, I am so lucky. Thanks girls. I run into Dave from the incredible Treasuring Our Trees. I think I mentioned I met him at the Kalorama Storm Disaster & he is the real deal- just set up this incredible organisation and ran with it. The results are stunning. They certainly do impressive work for the community up here. A real hero. So if you are on Facebook, please check them out & give them a "like" More power to them.

I head up to Olinda to the Candy Store located behind the Pie shop and Mangana Olinda as Mark wants to buy my Mum some peanut brittle which she enjoys. As I'm leaving the shop I spy a sign for Elfhame. Oh come on, another Wicca store, how come I always seem to find them. It has tendrils, I can feel them reach out & caress me. So in I go. I meet Ryan, one of the owners (well i assume) he lives near us at Kalorama. All the powerful witches live at Kalorama I am told. HA! OK I made that up...well...! The shop has an interesting layout, they've made an effort. A few things I am a Wiccan snob, others are downright beautiful. I can sense Ryan sizing me up. I chat and in the end buy some Blue Sage, a smudge stick. Just in case my late night visitor was witchy (am convinced it wasn't but a good cleanse of Ailsa Craig will be good). I say goodbye, take a few photos for Sheepbook as a few Wiccan mates on my page will be interested.

ARIA charts are in and it is no surprise that Taylor Swifts reissue comes in at #1 and bumps off The Rolling Stones "Hackney Diamonds". In a Taylor world it is just impressive that The Stones even made it to #1. Still it is not too bad, the wonderful Hackney Diamonds is at #2 , so it is holding it's own. One more decent sales week and they will receive an Australian Gold Record for this fine release. I just love that they are #1. Meanwhile Taylor Swift has seven singles in the Top 10-amazing. I wonder if the "new" Beatles tune will bump her off #1 next week , you'd think so. Maybe not.

November 4th

I turn some of the soil in the big vegetable patch area and put in heirloom Tomatoes- Tigerella and Grosse Lisse. I make mini greenhouse/protectors using the bambo and the plastic covers. Am hoping this will give them some encouragement, love to pick loads of vegetables this Summer. We both have lost a bit of weight, close to the perfect weight for our heights, age etc so the decent diet thing will help.

We remember to call Kevin for his birthday, Laura and Kev are at Festival Hall, pogoing to The Living End. Our Happy Birthday singing drowns out the band.

November 5th

The start of a week of gorgeous weather. An early taste of Summer for Victoria. I sit in my shorts loving the sun on my legs, sipping my Dark Heart juice, a nice kickstart for the day.

Pellegrino's around the corner have some charity Tomato plants , money raised helps local charities , 3 plants for $12.00. So i purchase some Siberian Tom. Plants. Perfect for our slightly cooler climate. In they go too. I make a note to go to the Organic shop as they have some seedlings. Plus I want to continue to support local.

I make some Chocolate Mousse with a drop of Khalua. Not a bad batch. We sit on the decking, reading and devouring the Mousse.

I notice it is 50 days till Christmas , I am ready.

My lovely sister is in the hospital so I make her the priority and there for whatever she needs. Marky offers me an airfare but for the moment no use, if it's an emergency I will drop everything though.

November 6th

A good kitten, she slept well, only an half arsed effort to open the door at 6.00 am. She gave up and came back to bed for a cuddle.

The weather is magnificent, so I spend an hour working on Project X. I need to focus on it again and get over this final hurdle. It's far more effort than I imagined. I tell Mark I finished another "bit" of it and he goes "Oh GAWD!!!" as it means one step closer to his endless filming and editing.

November 7th

Sis returns home from several days in hospital and she starts to go downhill so by late evening she is back in hospital again, yes brothers worry, a lot. She is so good, it seems unfair.

It's a public holiday because of that horse race, I mostly work outside and venture to Olinda in the afternoon. As I'm going out the door Miss K calls from Pittsburgh so that's really wonderful, so happy for her.

I know the charity is open today, so wonder if they are short staffed. I do the right thing and head in for a few hours and work. The boss is delighted so that's nice. I grab some Japanese for dinner.

November 8th

Suns out and I swear my tomato plants have doubled in size already. One plant even has 2 baby tomatoes on the vine.

I email Isabelle in France to wish her a Happy Birthday.

I book the red beast in for a service next week- that sounds sexier than I imagined. The Red Beast being the car folks... dirty minds, dirty minds.

My new friend Aaryn sits with me for awhile and she heads home and grabs one of the Murray River Retriever puppy's (she has three). Such incredible dogs, I think they are the oldest breed in Australia. I get to cuddle this amazing Pup. A nice way to start the day. They are all breeding quality and for sale, such a great family dog too. Contact me if you are wanting to buy a new dog for your family. I'll pass on her details.

Marky's Youtube Wednesday goes up and it's a bit of a rarity. Neil Finn on the UK solo tour. May 11th 2001. The Apollo Theatre, Manchester. If that date sounds familiar it's because it is my birthday. It really was such a fabulous night, loads of guests onstage, some exceptional Happy Birthday singing. The ultimate surprise, ending up back at Johnny Marr (Yes from The Smiths) house for more party celebrations. Johnny & Angie giving me these wonderful silver elephant candle holders, which I cherish even now. The track Marky picked is HOLE IN THE ICE and it has a very cool jam at the start. So you must check this out.

Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFAcOZWzPg8

November 9th

I get an emergency call from Sis as she is unsure if she is allergic to Penicillin ( seem to be the only family member to know she is!!) Thankfully I got back to the hospital in time, fingers crossed she gets to go home soon. I hate my family being sick.

Youtube have a new newsletter function, so each month they send me data around my subscriptions, views etc on my Youtube page. I have 5.06 K subscribers which jumped up by 72 new Subs this month. I had 47.7 K NEW views (4,225,629 total views! Holy shit!). 142.6 minutes of videos on my page watched for the month. A big part of that is Mark adding new videos every Wednesday. People seem to watch his videos and after that go exploring the other 715 videos on the page. So if you want to Subscribe (and I think this means you get an alert when something new goes up) or simply want to go on a musical treasure hunt via the page, here is the Home link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr5Or7-ffQhiLShd67bHyg/videos

There was fog, really thick fog as I drove to work this morning. Half way down the mountain it became sleet. A joy to sip on Lachies rather excellent coffee this morning. I mostly focused on getting the Salvo's store ready for Christmas. Carol the boss was very happy with the suggestions and the team was onto it. The store feels more happier with some extra tinsel.

November 10th

I check out several drones for possible use for Morocco down the track. The Raptor 8K looks like great value. We shall see.

The weather has changed and it is hot. Adelaide far more extreme, around 106 in South Australia. Cooking! I head off into deepest darkest Kalorama and pick a big tub of black berries and make my Christmas blackberry jams. The black jam jars come with this tiny piece of chalk in a box that you attach to tinsel, so you can write on the jar what the contents are. My Pop would give me the thumbs up, a really tasty batch. Well i used his secret recipe so no surprise.

I chat to Tony Williams (Ex Skyhooks lead singer) and his band Reuben Tice will be doing a one off show on November 19th at St Andrews Hall (1PM-4PM). Tonys in the band. Greg Macainsh who was in The Tice for a short time, went on to form The Frame & after that the legendary Skyhooks , so R.T. has a bit of a pedigree. They were the musical Kings of St Andrews, Research, Eltham etc back in the day. They also have a 4 cd box set at the show. So if you want to be part of Aussie music history some check out the band, it's so cheap to get in (like $20.00). The final fun bit of this story is that yours truly will indeed be the Reuben Tice Door Bitch for the day. HA! Marky will be with me as my security guy. Fun! Fun! Fun. There is a Reuben Tice gig/CD launch page on Facebook.

Midnight finds nice cool places to stretch out and sleep during this hot day. We say to her, it's not even Summer yet. We may have to get her a wading pool for the hotter days, like we did for Banshee. She doesn't seem to like water as much. That's the one difference.

November 11th

A warm night on the mountain. Miss Kitty slept well, she sneaked up and cuddled up with her head on my shoulder. She has this strange habit of stroking my face in the morning. "Good human, my very good human".

The bakery boy makes me a rather delicious sandwich today and a great coffee. It seems everyone wants to chat. I must have my "Peter is working" face on as they don't chat for long. The exception is our ex house mate friend leanne. She calls me on the mobile and we have a lot of laughs and a really great conversation.

I make some Tzatziki dip for Marky. Not a gigantic tub that he could bathe in, just a small bowl this time. Give it the old finger taste test-yum. Make a mental note that on Wednesday I must buy some cucumber plants.

I venture out and mow around the fountain lawn and some areas next to the second walk track. I also have a Nana nap. I think I had too much cold pressed juice today, I am a tad fried.

At 4.00 PM I am in the office working for two hours with Marky. You'd think with us "retired" we could lay back in the hammock and read books, but somehow our lives seem busier.

November 12th

Midnight the kitten is sleeping well , but she does get up early. This morning she managed to get into my bookcase and drag out a copy of H.G. Wells double, "The Time Machine" and "War Of The Worlds". I grabbed this 60 year old copy before she got her little kitten vampire teeth into it. So I guess I'll have to read it again now. I decide to take it to morning coffee with me.

So next Sunday the 19th of November, the band Reuben Tice are reforming for this one off show. So please be part of Oz musical history and come along. I'll be door bitch (I just can't say "Door Person" -sorry) so if you come to the show please say "hello" and that you read about it on the Famous for 16 Minutes diary. I'm a bit excited by it , extra bonus is that they are also having some raffles with free tickets when you enter the venue. Wonder if I will be barrel girl as well. HA! Consider this a reminder. (again).

Summer is just around the corner for us, the days are getting warmer, which the solar panels on Ailsa Craig love. The world seems crazy, I can't watch the news, the killing of innocent children on both sides turns my stomach. Decency says there should be a ceasefire. I count the blessings that we live in such a beautiful country. Sometimes being at the bottom of the world has it's benefits.

Love life and stay safe.

xPeter