The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 26 June - 9 June 2023
 Five Ways (Kalorama) viewing platform. Fog! Fog! and more Fog! |
June 26thThe entire day we spend in the office. Considering we are both 'retired' we seem to spend most of our days here, working away on projects; nearly all of them fun things, nearly all of them with zero budget. I have no idea how we pay our bills. Fortune favours the brave, or fate will step in and save us. There will be a time where that will change and money won't be such a tiny struggle, we just roll with it. Life is too short.I do take some time out to bake some bread, so that's always a bliss in the smells and taste department. Just more creating isn't it, yeast, water, flour = bread.It's a nice crusty loaf. A tiny bit of sun so the smallest moment of meditation outside. June 27thI have this weird early morning dream about both our Mums. It was short and a hand bag was involved. My Mum had one with Winter daisys on it, all very odd. Nice that both our Mums are still friends even in dreams. How could they not be when their two kids are so obviously so happily in love. I'm Marks Mum's extra son and Mark is my Mum's extra son. We are fortunate.Happy Birthday to Stella Constellation. 28! Where did the years go? We hope you have a magnificent day. June 28thI pay our water bill. I need to fix this tiny drip near the hot water system that drives me a tad crazy. I have been pathetically slack about it, so unlike me.We catch up with the other Peter & Mark at Olinda cafe today. A really fun gathering and the food was nice. Miserable weather outside, but we are seated near the open fire so that's really appreciated. Laughter and good friends -nice. We arrive home and start todays "Markys Youtube Wednesday" uploading and head off mountain to do some grocery shopping while it does just that-upload!. I spend a chunk of money on food, but I did click on the Woolworths bonus points so get a few thousand extra Qantas frequent flyer points so that's great for our Christmas air tickets. So a small positive around rising food prices. Home with 1 minute to spare and suddenly it's up. Crowded House performing "Mean to Me" and the audience sets the tempo. It picks up speed and starts resembling the Enz "I See Red". Tim Finn slows it back down. A very cool version. Really worth checking out. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb3RcufC65o I see my subscriber numbers on You Tube have climbed again. I guess word is out that we have some pretty magical clips up for music fans to enjoy. Nice. June 29thI'm waiting for the charity to open and a newsflash comes in over my car radio. Madonna found unresponsive and taken to the ICU , apparently a bacterial infection. She is a'ok- you can't keep a great bitch down. I notice a lot more Madonna getting played today on our in store radio.Another earthquake last night at 1.33 am. It's centred around Rawson in Victoria's East. Once again Mount D vibrated and some very loud bangs. No damage. Bongo calls tonight and we chat for an hour. Lots of plans, lots of ideas, and a hell of a lot of laughs. Skyhooks still in our lives. June 30thOur 9 year old niece Maddison gets the gold award at school. The only girl plus 3 guys. So proud of her, gawd she is doing so well. You know when parents tell kids, you can be anything even the Prime Minister, I'm starting to think she really could.Home made Pizza for dinner and a snuggle with Marky on the couch in front of a blazing fire. We certainly are using all the fire wood. July 1stIntense fog day. All the way up to the doors of Ailsa Craig. I call into Five Ways viewing platform but no view. Fog is inches from my face. I take a photo for Sheepbook.The girls give me a free coffee at the bakery, a nice way to start my Saturday. I sit outside and put on my super chunky warm coat that is in the car. I start on Project X today. This will take a few weeks at least. Not sure that Mark has faith that i can make this work. It certainly is complicated. I'm up for the challenge. Still keeping what it is close to our chest in case it becomes too hard or simply looks crap and we knock it on the head. Don't think we have ever blown one out.... let this not be the first. July 2ndI'm up extra early (again) today so head out for my one a day coffee's. No bike riders on the Tourist Road, almost no cars . I sigh at the beauty of Mt Dandenong, we are so fortunate to live here.I chat to Ros who is riding her bike. We have a laugh, nice to catch up. A lady called Mishka walks out of the Organic shop, arms full of vegies. She approaches me and says "I read your diary". I never know what to say. At first I thought she was going to give me free vegetables. She knows some internet friends of mine like Caz and Jace. Small world. I smile stupidly, truly these moments are always irksome for me, and it soon passes and we chat. Nice woman, so a shout out to you Mishka. You've made the diary, and made my day. Thanks. I need to recognise kindness from stalkerness. Most of this afternoon and evening I'm working on "Project X". If I can do some every day it will keep rolling along. If i stop doubt and uncertainly will bog it down. July 3rdI bake a moist chocolate cake for Marky today, with fresh coconut, it's rather nice.We chat to Spock from BCO this afternoon, he's working on a graphic novel. That's really cool. We talk about Sparks and how nice to see them in the news these days. The tour looks like it is a huge success. Mark films a tiny piece of myself in the kitchen for an upcoming "promo". The first take I stuff it brilliantly and we are all in stitches, I beg him that that is the take to keep. We shall see. Gotta have fun right? July 4thIt's still dark when i depart the mountain. Thankfully Lachie and his coffee van are already at Bayswater so a coffee for me. I'm up early as i need to go to Bunnings to buy paints, varnish spray and some lightglobes. Apart from staff I am the only person in the entire store, which is cool and a bit "end of the worldish". Annoyed as they no longer stock Jo Sonja's-which are my fave art paints, so I am stuck buying what they have. They'll be fine, guess I am fussy.Some of the staff are sneezing and flu like, by lunch I'm feeling really average. I am kicking myself for not wearing a mask at Bunnings. Normally I would but stupidly forgot, but so few people but you never know. We still have not had Covid , and I do not want Covid. Carol tells me it's ok to go home but I hang in there and get everything done. Little martyr that I am. I sleep well tonight, actually not true at 1.30 am another earthquake. I slip deeper into the blankets, what's with all the earthquakes? July 5thI have the urge for a meat pie so drag my body out of my very warm bed. The News tells me the centre for the earthquake was just down the road at Gembrook. It was lame, just a 2.4.The fog has intensified, the road is vanishing, so I drive slow and safe. I sit outside and work on Project X. Just notes and a few drawings in the work book. Chat to locals. I head home and in the office today. Yes it must be Wednesday, so "Markys Youtube Wednesday. It will be something special from Split Enz today. That will excite some of the Frenz. Never before seen footage of the Enz at a Dress Rehearsal show we did at Brisbane's Entertainment Centre. June 6th 2006. Tim Finn out front, hitting all the right notes singing 'Charlie'. It was an absolute joy to let in fanclub members for this, extra extra special. A shout out to David Hughes, who was the Enz manager at the time and when i first suggested this, he said "Yes" straight away. A fun little tour this one, big Venues so only 8 gigs in Oz but all of them packed. So enjoy this clip and thank you Marky as always. He does all this stuff for fans and the odd free coffee. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tXOxwu4DKk While Mark works away on the video sound, I'm play Stephen Cummings "Close Ups" cd in my part of the office. I guess sound has no borders so it's playing in Marks part of the office too. I admire Steve's dedication to continuing with music, putting put a new album every few years. We were and are such big fans of The Sports. We have pretty much everything even the independent released first EP. His voice is unique. Tonight we watch "A Man Called Otto" a wonderful movie, finally a decent movie is released, that's been rare over the past year. July 6thNormally I'd volunteer at the charity on Thursday but was a bit sniffly and worried I may well have the flu so didn't want to inflict my workmates, so a no show for me. Only the 2nd time in two years where I didn't turn up. Carol answered the phone early in the morning and says "I knew it was you". HA! She misses my smiling face early in the morning I'm sure.I sniffle my way through the day, bake bread, say Happy Birthday to our friend Sue. I finish a new level on "Project X, still so much to do. I sit outside in what looks like sun but the wind is nasty. I don't want to waste a immune booster so I let my body fight this tiny bug, it will be gone soon. Just the Kalorama sniffles. July 7thA busy morning and I wing into the bakery so the gals can me me one of their special sandwiches and my coffee. I'm sitting at my table and a familiar guy comes up and asks if I remember him, his name was Dave. He remembers me from the Kalorama disaster and I DO remember him, he kindly donated loads of cut wood so people could keep warm while the power was off for 3 weeks. We chat for awhile, and it turns out he is the President for Treasuring Our Trees. They collect the fallen trees from disasters like ours at Kalorama and reuse the wood to rebuild schools, make amazing spaces and beautiful benches and so many other things for the community. So impressive. I noticed their facebook page had 63 "likes" so I've made it my mission to get it to 200 by Sunday night. Just a bit of support for such a positive thing. So if you are reading this, please please give the Treasuring Our Trees facebook page a "like, it's that simple. Thanks everyone. Just go to this page & give it a "like" or a 'follow" . Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079258639182I spend the afternoon in the office as well as the art room. The art side for "Project X", tiny steps but coming together. Are we all sick of reading the words "Project X"? Still a few more weeks. (sorry). At 5.00 I head to the oval and fill up a large container with kindling and pine cones, I figure it will cover us for tonights fire, so I'm avoiding taking it from our decreasing wood pile. A friend tells me there could be some big windstorms hitting the mountain tonight, so I might head back to the oval tomorrow and pick up any stray pine cones that have been blown down from the giant trees. Nature will provide and she does, for almost 18 years now. We've never bought firewood, except a charity bag of kindling for kids with cancer. Marky asked me to make my homemade lasagne tonight , for dinner so that's a goer. I have to say it's really nice. The tiny touch of cream and fresh basil on top just adds to the taste sensations. July 8thI'm sitting in the bakery chatting to Trudi, our usual jokes around Sherbet V's Skyhooks. The war never ends does it. We all know Skyhooks 'won'!!!! Afterwards i'm standing in front of the Organic shop looking at their vegies and flower plants. A guy comes out of the shop & gives me a plant (flower) he bought. "I noticed you admiring it so knew you had to have it". For once I was speechless. He gives me a wink, hops in his car and drives away. What a lovely thing to do, just a random act of kindness. It changes ones day. I'm smiling all the way home.Miss MIM meets her friend and goes ice skating at Kiama (NSW South Coast). Sis sends me some photos , so good to see her growing up and having fun. Two weird phone calls late this afternoon, sets me off worrying about two elderly friends. Friends of a few of us up here on the mountain. An hour later I'm still being rattled by the odd call, so call 2 friends and I say I'm going to drive to their house and check on them. Sleet outside and cold but I will get some peace of mind. No one home but their two big dogs and they are not running past the windows with body parts so that is a relief. Turns out my spider sense was right , one of them now in hospital but all ok. Sometimes you just have to go by your gut instincts. Make Marky an apple pie for dinner, using the organic apples from the store up here. So nice to have a hot apple Pie to eat in Winter. We watch "Don't worry Darling" and love it. Atmospheric, psychological, 1950 idealised community of "Victory" but is it really? A shock that One Erections Harry Styles was reasonably good at playing Jack Chambers and Flo Pugh brilliant as Alice and hell even Captain Kirk is in it. Really worth seeing. Think we need this one on bluray. July 9thI call into the arboretum as it has a small graffiti wall and I try to set up a shoot with one of our archive posters on the wall, it makes great backing. But too wet and cold, so a fail from me. Will try again in warmer weather.I must of looked cold as the girls make me a jumbo coffee and I sit outside in the wild weather and work away on some ideas. I order our "YES" kit , to lend some support to the Voice vote with the upcoming referendum. I'm very happy for First Nations people to have a voice in what is important in their lives. Well and truly over Dutton the Duds lies and fear mongering around this. Feels very similar to the Liberals fear mongering over the SSM vote and the Sky didn't fall when that won, it certainly won't over a Yes victory for the Voice. Vote how you want, we are voting YES. At 3.00 PM I fight the cold and miserable weather outside and head to the art room to start on another segment for Project X. It's a funny one, usually I have solid foundations in my head and how something will turn out, this project is complicated but am HOPING it could be both cool and fun and a bit fascinating. We shall see.... it will push both of us to our limits. On that note, take care, be bold and live your dreams. Peter x |