The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 15 January - 28 January 2024
 "Another sunny day at Kalorama"! |
January 15thOf course the one day I need to get up early I sleep in. I awake with a start and realise I have 20 minutes to get the car to Monbulk so the brakes can be done and all those other fun bits. Midnight watches me run about the house, throw clothes on and out the door. I arrive with 5 minutes to spare. I walk up to Empire for a coffee. My plan is to get the 2 Buses home and back later today. I've had offers from mates to pick me up but I don't mind the bus at times. It doesn't arrive till 9.30. The sun is hot today, suddenly it feels like Summer. The bus shelter offers no protection. I spot this really nice wild mini forest behind the bus area. I smile at a sign on a big boulder. I instantly think of that tool Peter Dutton, the politician telling Australians they should not shop at Woolworths, they should boycott it because Woolies dared get rid of "Made in China" tacky Australia Day garbage that wasn't selling. Such a knee jerk reaction. How many Aussie kids work part time at Woolworths to make money and if Woolworths start losing money so many community projects probably wouldn't happen. As I look at the plaque I notice it thanks Woolworths for putting up the money and supporting this community area. I rest my point. Up yours Peter Dutton. A mini forest full of Australian trees and wildlife for the community is far more AUSTRALIAN that anything you offer this country Dutton the dud. Yeah that's me waving one finger towards Parliament House in Canberra.It's the 10th year anniversary today for our Youtube page. Ten years, crazy. The very first video I put up was Split Enz performing "Outer Mongolia", a rare unreleased song. Tim (Finn) sends me a little blurb around "Outer Mongolia" so I put it up on my Facebook page and Gryphonmusic (Twitter). Marky has a clip for today as part of the celebration. Split Enz performing "Mind Over Matter" from the same show as "Mongolia". The clips were from the HSV7 studios in Melbourne -January 16th 1980. So tomorrow it will be 44 years ago! Both "Mongolia" and "Matter" were not on the official video release. Tim Finn in all his stage glory, doing those impressive pushups during the clip. Anyway you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0A9HdiODK8 I grab the last bus batch to Olinda and the Red Beast is waiting for me, with it's new brakes. So off we go, cruise home to Kalorama. January 16thIt was very hard to get out of bed this morning (again). I had to rely on the alarm to wake me. I didn't feel like any breakfast. I yawn all the way to the charity. Lachie has his coffee van by the road so I grab my one coffee plus a Byron Bay cookie. Yum-breakfast?The boss is back which is good, and boy is it hot. The metal barn is frying us. Quite horrible, a few people head home. Somehow I clear all the stock and a bit of help from Tamsin. The girls are all chatty today. I cut up icey poles in halves so we can keep cool. By 3.00 pm I am ready to call it a day. Nice to be home and I soak my weary bones in the shower. Marky gives me a much loved foot massage. While he is in the shower I make some Chocolate Mousse for us, the old finger test, yeah it tastes great. So that will surprise him. Our old road crew guy Geoff Lloyd calls, a fun chat. Nice he stays in contact with us all. We gossip a tiny bit, not much dear Diary, as I worry i will repeat it all here by accident. Chicken Enchilada's for dinner. The Mousse is ready for desert. The cooling is on in the lounge room, much to our relief. It's hard to get a solid sleep tonight. At one stage Midnight climbs the entire length of the curtains. Crazy. Part Ape , part Kitten. January 17thIt rains again last night and looks set to do the same this morning. I need to buy us some Pies for lunch, it's a Pie sort of day. Part of the Tourist Rd is closed so I turn at the Detour sign. The problem is, no more signs. I kind of know where I am going but other cars look lost, compounded by the incredible heavy rain that has started. The car in front is obviously "Tourists", I can tell by the way they are driving. Suddenly they make some wrong turn and almost flip the car, it's off the road. Shit just me. Thankfully I have my big Disaster coat in the car , so hop out and 45 minutes later get them out. I ask them why they would even come up to a fog bound, obviously heavy raining Mountain? I try not to use the word "stupid". The woman says her phone has now lost it's charge, so we take it to my car and as I plug in my charger in the cigarette lighter I get a zap and fry my charger. Must of been water on my hands or something, so thats kind of annoying as it's handy to have.I eventually arrive at the bakery and chill outside for a coffee. I open my coat pocket to keep my hands warm, and deep inside a new charger? How weird, I have never seen this before, no idea how it got in my jacket pocket, but thank you power force, I got the gift. That made me smile in a spooky way. I am in the office today, uploading Markys Youtube Wednesday. Another Split Enz song. The Classic "I GOT YOU" , which I filmed on the New Zealand tour. Such an iconic pop song, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixlk7FQCwU8 I help out a friend around their visa stuff for overseas and all of our Email collapses. IINET/Netspace tell us their mail is down too. So annoying, I think we are going to ditch them later this year, well and truly over it. So 2 hrs waiting on the phone, at least I can get my diary typed while trying to deal with this bullshit. I have always been calm around them but I have to say I'm becoming more like Mark when it concerns IINET. I will no longer recommend them to anyone, they suck. If it wasn't for my Email address being everywhere I'd happily piss them off right this minute. January 18thAll the "scorched corn" poker plants have opened up overnight. Midnight does some exploring around them, she loves the smell of the rich soil up here. She just sits and watched in the clover while I weed away in the vegetable patch. I pick a few vegies and herbs. I am very thankful for my friend Jan Mc's awesome present of these little wooden vegie signs that i write on in silver marker for the vegetable patch. She sent them a few years back and I still use them a lot.I drive to Spotlight and use my 40% off voucher. I get some new towels and some items for "Project X". I had to go across to Bunnings as well, and apart from the "X" bits and pieces, I also buy some purple carrot seedlings for the vegetable area. They must be popular only one punnet left. I add a post onto our Australian Fanzines facebook page. A little push for Ace Frehley (Ex Kiss) next solo album out in February and it's called "10,000 Volts" and because one of our fanzines from the late seventies was "10,000 Voltz" (yes the "Z") I decided it was a worthy free plug. If it was 1979 I'd try for a phone interview with Ace for the issue. It all seems so long ago. Still in awe that music fans would buy copies of this fanzine. Usually a few hundred. Amazing. File under "the things we did". Lasagne for dinner using the new lasagne dish, it is great. January 19thI hear from Tim Finn, helpful as always. he always gets back to me.More misty rain today, Summer has vanished, it should be on a milk carton "Has anyone seen the Australian Summer". I even wear a jumper. OK made from fine cashmere, but still a jumper. On the way home I clear the post office box and two parcels of archive items arrive from Helen I. So i'll log them in, over the next week, into the archives. Off with some mates for the day and night. It is fun, mostly chatting drinking and even more laughter and chatting. We all needed this. We send a shout out to Stella and Lachlan and the family for the extended wedding celebrations. January 20thI get an email around the line up for the Pandemonium Music Festival. Excited that Placebo return to Oz, Alice Cooper, Blondie and Deep Purple. Wolfmother are playing too so that will be cool. Temped. Covid variant JN.1 may well keep us away. I still haven't had Covid and not going to stupidly risk it. The long term health problems from this are simply not worth it.We start on the stairs today, finally being replaced at the front of the house. I use my mighty sledge hammer which is called Mjollnir (Yes think of Thor). Remove the 3 dodgy stairs, the ones we replaced are still perfect. Lots of clean up and weeding. Midnight hangs out with me so that is fun. She likes human company, well most of the time. I ordered the new Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon book "Gryphon in Light" so can't wait for that, a big Mercedes fan still. Plus Gryphons...come on..... my Gryphon tattoo came from Larry and Mercedes. At 5.30 Fenella and Giles arrive so they are staying the night which is fun. We are absolutely spoilt with presents. So lucky. I make a really great vegetable curry and yes the predictable Chocolate Mousse. We spend most of the night in the kitchen. It's really nice, good friends. They head into bed and Mark and myself stay up and watch some late night tv. Midnight eventually adjusts to them, hissing at the start but soon after cuddles and cat hugs. January 21stI never sleep when we have guests, neither does Mark . Midnight snuggles next to me and sleeps in to about 5.30. I am up at 7.00 and cooking breakfast for everyone for when they rise. I grab the cold pressed juicer and make some juice too.After breakfast I take them to Burkes lookout as it is an easy walk and a half decent view from the top of the mountain. We say our goodbyes at 10.10 and that was really a nice visit. The new Covid variant JN.1 is behind dramatic rises in cases. NSW has had its highest level of Covid in a year. It directly evolved from BA 2.86, the Pirola variant. People need to be sensible about this and not so flippant. I need sleep so that's what I do most of the afternoon, even Miss Kitty is tired and she snores next to me. We watch "Daliland" and it is fantastic. I love the party scenes, I love the Alice Cooper character. It's a biographical film by Mary Harron. Set in NYC and Spain. Ben Kingsley is an excellent Dali. Christopher Briney is great as James, Dali's assistant and yeah he's a tad cute. I love Dali's tempestuous wife Gala, I do get her, totally. Anyway another good movie, we are shocked, several in a few weeks. January 22ndThe Tourist Road is closed for a few days while they remove trees from William Ricketts sanctuary, we all have to take Ridge Road to get to Olinda. It is great they are finally working on the sanctuary, I love going there during foggy misty wet days when there are no tourists. I hope Mr Black, the black faced wallaby that lives at the back of the sanctuary survived the disaster, I'll have to take some apples for him when it eventually re-opens.Work on Project X for a part of the day. I make us dinner and I still have the vibe to keep working on it, so Mark and myself head up to the art space till 10.00 PM that night. We get a lot of the structure done. We still have to make sure we are happy with the end result, we've never had a Project fail yet but this one is complicated. So a tiny chance it may be a disaster and not happen. Come on it's us, we will SHINE. Absolute confidence in Marky especially, meanwhile I'm a tad dodgy! HA! IT WILL HAPPEN. January 23rdThe alarm woke me, not the kitten. I just wanted to stay in bed but ripped off the covers and forced myself to wander the corridors of Ailsa Craig. Midnight gives me a cat kiss which is always a nice way to start the day.Lachies coffee is not working, i am very "foggy" this morning especially the first hour where it is just the boss and myself. The staff trickles in, a few no shows. My donation area is over flowing, Miss Tamsin arrives for a few hours , it all helps. I call Mum at morning tea and she tells me that Scum Man has left politics. Who? Oh Slowmo/Scumo the Ex Prime Minister. Good riddance , he was as pathetic as Tony Abbott. I still remember how so many in disaster zones suffered as Morrison-Dutton etc refused to open the Emergency Disaster Fund to them. One last A-hole in Australian Politics. See me do the happy dance. I mention to the charity girls over lunch that SlowMo has departed, loads of "Good Riddance, he was useless". No love lost from the Charity Gals either. Today was long but I got a lot done. A tiny bit of vinyl comes in. Before Oasis there was Oasis, the Aussie group. Their 1978 album part of the vinyl that arrived today. I watch as it all gets gobbled up. Chatting to MIM tonight, 45 minutes later she is still describing her beauty products as ten year old girls do. I am a patient, loving Uncle. She makes me smile. Beauty products and Taylor Swift,welcome to my world. January 24thI am woken at 2.30 am buy a huge leg cramp. I usually take a magnesium tablet once a week but have failed to do so for 2 weeks. So stupid of me and I am paying the price. OUCH! Numbs my entire leg , like I have been kickboxing for an hour. I go to take one and this wakes the kitten who now wants food so she is awake extra early. I drift off a bit. But no more real sleep so awake when Marky arises. The magnesium kicks in, slowly.Our mate Peters birthday on the 26th, so we get him something he will use. 10 coffee vouchers from the bakery, the perfect present. I've also agreed to make the Coleslaw for the Birthday BBQ, which is something I have never made. I sit outside and chat to Ian and Peter, we all decide to head home as today is going to be a hot one on the mountain. Our electricity bill arrives and I pay it straight away. $115.00 for 3 months- how brilliant is that. God bless our solar panels, still bumping our Bills down. Our 66c buy back rate is truly exceptional. We love you SOL! Marky's Youtube Wednesday is today. A bit of a surprise for the Skyhook fans. Mark still finds some cool bits and pieces. From the Festival Hall Concert on July 3rd 1975. THREE songs, photos etc. "Whatever Happened to the Revolution", " Hey What's The Matter" & "Balwyn Calling" . Nothing came close to Skyhooks in 1975 in this country, including overseas acts. Even if you are not a big fan it's a rather cool time capsule. Down under in the Southern hemisphere there was this local band that shook the foundations of Australian Music venues and 6 months at #1 on the charts, a record still unbeaten. You can view the mighty 'Hooks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJ-uLnMu00 January 25thFor Summer it sure is foggy this morning. I take a photo of Mt Dandenong from the back area of the charity and all you see are the three radio towers. It reminds me of San Francisco. For once I manage to keep all the stock updated in my section of the store and at one stage we were packed. The Book Nook full of people and so nice, many familiar faces coming up saying "Hello" .Home early afternoon and I make my first ever Coleslaw. Marky assures me it is really nice and he would know, he's a fan of the 'Slaw. I put it in a big bowl to take to our mates BBQ for his birthday. January 26thAustralia Day and it doesn't phase me, I love this country every day of the year. Australia day hasn't been the same date all the time but I am certain those who celebrated it on other dates did so with equal gusto and cheering. Anyway I prefer Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon over Arthur Phillip and Cook. How mighty were those early Dutch Explorers, Willem arriving at the western side of Cape York Penninsula 164 years BEFORE Cook. He stepped foot on Australian soil February 26th (maybe make Aust day Feb 26th!) . So I'm celebrating Willem today, nah just celebrating our mate Peter and his birthday.We arrive at the BBQ at 1.00 and home by 8.00 PM. A fun day, nice people, I had a tiny bit too much too drink, I say tiny because more than 2 Ruski's and I am drunk. The food excellent, thumbs up for my Coleslaw. Great Taylor from the bakery turns up and we all hang out and talk crap and loads of laughter. A fun gathering. I converted my Made in China el cheapo Australia flag hat to a mutant Aboriginal flag overlay- people loved it. Nice. No one punched me-extra nice! Home and we remember to watch "Don's Party" the only Australia day tradition we have. We love that movie. I find John Hargreaves who plays Don to be so hot. Turns out he was gay in real life and so very sad that he died of AIDS in 1996. What a talent he was. I loved him in "Long Weekend" too, a psychological thriller film shot in 1977. A cult classic. We will have to watch that again soon. January 27thToday I work on Dahlia's, Daleks and Dagswain! A D day! The first dahlia's are out for the season which I love. I take apart some metal Christmas decoration Orbs for Project X and everyone says it looks like I am building mini Daleks (I'm not). I restitch a Dagswain bedspread for a giveaway in a future disaster area. It is in great condition so someone will want it to keep warm and dry.Midnight has been with us for 6 months today and we love her. She looks like a Banshee clone but she does have her own personality rising to the surface. She loves us both equally. Such a good kitten. Still watching the final few episodes of " For All Mankind" what a wonderful show, delighted they are on Mars. We also watch Aussie movie "Seriously Red". This aussie gal loses her job and becomes a Dolly Parton impersonator. It's fun, not as good as Muriels Wedding or Priscilla but still enjoyable. Check out Rose Byrne as the Elvis impersonator. January 28thI sleep well last night. Finally my semi aching feet have settled and feel normal again. I was a bit concerned I had messed them up.I head off the mountain to buy fuel. I put the car radio on coming back, Radio East and drive around the Hills with Lonnie Lee singing his rockabilly "I found a new love". After that a radio commercial comes on and it's our neighbour Jodie, for Eastlands Community Projects. That makes me smile! I plant some Spring Onions and Water Cress and the afternoon, more hours on Project X. The wheels they are a turning. A bit shocked that it is February soon, well probably by the time you read this. I'm attempting to stuff as much into 2024 as possible. We hope life is good for all of you. Love Peter |