![]() "Pine cones & PG make for a snuggly fire". |
June 23rdI am trying to avoid watching the News, so don't want to see that idiot Trump waffling on. So far succeeded which is rather good.Today was meant to be Winter crap weather but they got it wrong, Winter sun instead, no real warmth but you can still get things done outside. I attack the last few crappy tree stumps for fire wood. One is freaky, thick red trees "blood" drips out and it's a lot. After all this time it is still liquid and not turned to glaze. I force myself to continue chopping, I just want all of this done. Apart from a few big tree limbs the wood pile is finished so this is what we have to use till early September. Plus tree drop. We've never had to buy wood, but it means picking up pine cones from the oval. We manage though and the Ailsa Craig fires are excellent. Midnight especially is loving being near the fire placed. It's the closed in one in the lounge room so she won't ignite. I box up the master video tape of the footage I filmed of Nick Seymour at Shirley Grove. So that will go out own Wednesday for the Crowded House documentary. A wild and windy night up here. I move the new car out of the yard as I worry some tree limbs may come down on it. June 24thUp early for the charity and decide to have my coffee at the Garden cafe. Brutal weather again, hail is hitting the windows of the cafe. I snuggle deep inside my warm coat.Some excellent vinyl is donated at the charity and it's gobbled up fast by customers. The Book Cave is looking rather perfect today, one of the volunteers even vacuumed the floor. Everything is stocked, well except the vinyl, that's all gone again. Split Enz are all chatting tonight about the "you know what". Yes men joining the band in Bass. OK that part is lie, that was a weird dream I had. June 25thSnow today on the mountain, just a tiny bit. The world's smallest snowman was made.Markys Youtube Video today is Split Enz with the rare "Another Great Divide". It's audio only with some cool Live Photos added. It's recorded at the second Split Enz show at The Palais Theatre. October 7th 1977. "Another Great Divide" penned by Tim Finn, Phil Judd and Eddie Rayner. It was a single but a total flop, it sold 405 units. I remember way back in 1977 that it was so hard to find, I ended up ordering one in via the Wollongong Record store. Anyway this is such a cool live recording and you can enjoy it here. I manage to get to my hairdresser today and a bit cut off but a really good dye job, I changed the colour a tiny bit, added more red too. It blended well and the world's best scalp massage. PG purring like a pussy cat. June 26thI call into the petrol station on the way to the charity. Just every 2 weeks now and it costs me $48.00. So around $25 a week max. I keep tapping the fuel gauge as it never seems to drop. I've convinced myself it's broken but it's not.My Mum is still in hospital and I got through the phone today but she was sleeping so I didn't want to wake her. I buy a few Nightmare before Christmas Halloween decorations from the charity today. $5.00 for both, great price. Plus this cool paper mache animal skeleton head , as I am going to create a character called "Nature". So even though Halloween is ages away I am ready, or at least getting ready. June 27thI had one off those oddball Peter Green mornings. Several locals came up and said "we hear you are on the next season of Alone". No matter what I said they kept saying " we know you are sworn to secrecy ". It was so strange. I kind of gave up. They continued to give me helpful survival hints. So I chuffed my coffee and decided to head to Burkes Lookout , which was covered in fog. I chatted to a ranger in the car park and she thanked me for my twice a week attempt to keep the Lookout clean and get rid of the micro plastic.A bunch of Kookaburras are the only thing I see on the hike. The fog is really thick, I expected zero people and certainly no tourists. I do spot one lone guy, a hiker enjoying the view. He's a nice bloke, thanks me for picking up the beer cans and plastic lids. I hang over the edge retrieving more plastic. "If I fall I can live on bugs and weeds" I joke to him. "Like on Alone" he says and laughs. "Ha-yes ALONE". He keeps laughing. I ask him what's so funny and he tells me he is Krzysztof's brother, the winner of season two. His name is Roland. I mean come on how strange is that. We laugh and talk for awhile, a really nice bloke. He has a fascinating past too. Maybe this is Zultans "new person that enters my life" prediction on the Z card.. We chat more and I have to zoom off. Anyway a very cool oddball encounter. It kind of made me smile, the Universe having some fun with me. I walk down to Karwarra Australian native plant nursery at the back of Kalorama oval and buy some Grevillea, Cadda Mambrina and Pyc-Globosus for the ferny plant garden. So some of my afternoon is working the soil and putting these in. It's looking good. Now if I can just convince Midnight not to use it for her own private cat toilet! June 28thMonbulk College will be naming their music room after Paul Hester. Their choir covers a version of "Weather with You" and Pauls kids were in the audience, so that's kind of nice.Hungary's government banned a Pride rally but it works against PM Orban the old homophobic grub. More and more people kept turning up, the crowd was gigantic, around 100,000 people. Not just to support pride but to mock Orban. A national election will be held in 2026 soles hope he gets the boot. Good one Hungary! June 29thCold, ice grey skies, you just want too snuggle deeper into the bed covers. I sleep in till 9.30- that's rare for me these days.Mark scans up a lot of things from the Skyhooks scrapbooks to use on the Skyhooks Facebook page. The page just keeps getting better, almost 18,000 followers which is pretty cool. Just enough for me to handle comments etc. A big east coast storm is predicted this week, heavy rain, floods and gale force winds and other crazy stuff. The weather seems so out of control these days. 35,000 with no power during the first hour. June 30thHappy 50th Anniversary to Skyhooks and their amazing second album "Ego Is Not A Dirty Word". Half a century later and it is still brilliant.July 1stIt can't be July already, no way. As we all get older I start wondering if I am doing enough with my life. Leave that one with me, I do try to squash as much into each day as I can.Trump will cut $930 billion of spending on Medicaid health program and food aid for low income Americans. Good one Chump, make the poor suffer even more-what a complete arsehole he is. Early morning coffee at the Kilsyth Garden Cafe. A free one from the staff-thanks ladies. Supermarket shopping and after that into the charity which is nearby. My current boss finishes in a week which is sad because we all really like her. The new boss I know, she has a rock and roll heart so we'll get along fine. I talk to Mum, she is still in hospital but thankfully moved to a private one. She took some more steps today, she's a fighter, I am really proud of her. I hear from Neil (Finn) tonight which was really nice. Always a good thing. I avoid asking him about the Split Enz "stuff" as I'm guessing it's all meant to be a secret. I bet Eddie blabs first. LOL. July 2ndWe have some nice days coming up, closer to Spring than Winter. This morning is not one of them, ice on the car and the roads are void of those pesky humans. I don't spot a single car on my way to Olinda. Apocalyptic.I call into the bakery for a coffee and warm my hands on the pie oven. Polly is on duty she makes me laugh. The Free Food Program in the morning, and once again we pull a miracle out of the hat and fill dozens and dozens of boxes with rescued fruit, vegetables etc. It adds a bit of happiness to the lives of those struggling up here. Home to put up Markys Youtube Wednesday video and it's a favourite of ours. Neil Finn with his solo band performing "Anytime". This song we always love so so much more live, not a fan of the of studio version, live it is just awesome. I filmed this at Shepherds Bush in the UK in 2001. I rushed to the side stage from my backstage work area with my little video camera in hand. A road crew person walked in front so the first 20 seconds we have his feet, so Mark removed that section and added a nice written intro from Neil around the song. The sound is superb and it is possibly the best version ever. So this one you have to have a look at, enjoy and you can find it here. While I'm in Crowdies land- Happy Birthday to the wonderful Mark Hart. 73 today. What a talent , what a lovely bloke. There isn't a day that goes by where someone doesn't say to me "Boy I miss Mark Hart in Crowded House". We agree. July 3rdIt's a new habit for me, a few days a week I head into the Garden Cafe for coffee before work. Today free coffee, so that's two freebee coffees from 2 different establishments this week. How nice is that? I walk with one of my supermarket friends into Woolies and do some grocery shopping before heading across to the charity.The guys are installing the new heating and cooling system, it's a huge task and will take weeks, dust is everywhere. It's not healthy as the building is a little bit old. So coughing I depart in the afternoon. I'm told next Tuesday they are closed so basically I have the entire week for myself. The fun part of today was putting together a Christmas in July table with my co-worker Deb - endless decorations, we had fun. The table looks great. A huge tree in the middle. I see our HESSIE (A Tribute To Paul Hester) is just 250 views short of 40,000. That's so exciting. I finish a little art project called "STARS". It's an ancient small brown suitcase, painted red with art stars sprayed onto it and Miranda the dolls head. Now Miranda kindly left her body parts to me. Her eyes were used in the Tim Finn puppet for the "Murder" video. I think the Noel puppet scored her feet, Eddie her hands. Just left us the head which is now glitter bound onto the suitcase. So for any of you Trainspotters, it goes up at the charity in the Book Cave (Salvos Kilsyth) for a gigantic $10. The money goes to the Salvos. I've signed and named the back ("Stars") so it's a signed piece. Great for all your fan badges, passes, concert tickets and photos. While it's on display I'm popping in some small kids books so it becomes a practical display item. I contact Deb at work and she is finding some new eyes for Miranda. My friend Alesia T on FB suggested some "dragon eyes" now they would look cool. Trainspotters might want the case as it's a bit of history and hey the cheapest art piece you will ever get. A PG original. LOL. July 4thSuns out and I strip to a T-shirt and soak in that Vitamin D. It feels really nice. I don't want to move. I almost tell people to go away when they come up and chat as they are blocking my rays. This is so nice, and great to break up that mental grey.Cool Rugby pash with Jack Willis and Blair Kinghorn. It's gone a bit viral. Hmm hang on that sounds like I pashed them, not what I meant. Two men kissing, so funny it causes such a stir. Maybe because they were big tough sports men. HA! Been there done that. Oops one should not "kiss" and tell. I wash the car , all the cars on the mountain are covered in dust at the moment, now mine is sparkly clean.Miss Midnight sits and watches me. July 5thI give Rock the three legged greyhound a cuddle today. He has been three legged since he was a few months old so he is use to it, he's a happy dog.I head with Mark to the oval to collect pine cones , we fill a huge container. Our mate Carol who lives nearby carries some out to us from her place. Our neighbours keeping us warm and snug. We love our community. Nice to be speaking to Mum two times a day now, she has been transferred to private and slowly getting better. Just timing it to see when I need to head on up. Mark spoils me with a blu-ray of DUSTER, Josh Holloways new show. Rachel Hilson is awesome in it too. JJ Abrams excellent new TV show. Everyone say it : "Baddddd Robot"! July 6thI'm using cash, only for the next few days , saving my $$ for the bills on Tuesday. I'm being a good boy. Cash is king.We watch "Sasquatch Sunset" tonight and we love the movie. You either love it or hate it. It makes me laugh but it leaves this absolute sadness in my heart, I don't think I trust humans to look after this planet or the animals on it anymore. I don't think we are doomed but I do think some people are fucked. I wonder what will be left for my niece and her generation. I'm sidetracking; cool movie. It cost million to make and made a million. So I am a tiny bit late with diary (sorry Deb). I seem to be sidetracked by people this fortnight- adding to my work load. Be kind to a stranger this week, it's a good thing to do. Love to you all. PG |
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