Wednesday 28 July 2010

Can't Wait For The Weekend!

As I said in my previous post, I am overdosing on Hard Ons music. I've decided I do like Blackie's singing and I am damned that I am going to miss seeing them again, so I am biting the bullet and dragging my husband to see them this Saturday in the Valley! Yippee!!
I feel so miserable that I didn't really get into them back in the day. As I said before, I had heard alot of the earlier stuff from a friend but for whatever reason, I didn't investigate them for myself. I think it might have been because it was thought of that the Hard Ons were a 'boys band' and not for little girlies. Yeah, how suckie is it that I went along with that ridiculous notion. I am so cross with myself and sad that I missed seeing them play live when Keish was the singer. I think what also makes me enjoy them so much now is that for the past 18 years I have been bombarded with my husband's heavy metal. I wasn't able to listen to my music, and for the first 11 years of us being together I didn't listen to a bar of my music. Not because I didn't want to and not only because Rob wouldn't let me play my music when he was around but because I was so busy raising 4 babies and absent mindedly getting into the head space that everyone else came before me that I just put my interests aside and did what seemed to be the only way to go. I don't regret putting everything of me aside to be the best Mother I could be, my children are my life, nothing is more important than their happiness and security, but I now realise that my happiness is important too. I was unable to listen to my music as the needle of the record player went missing in the moves from Brisbane to Melbourne/Melbourne back to Brisbane and the stereo that I bought before I met Rob stopped working. I did get Rob to buy me a Sony CD walkman, but I barely used it as the songs would jump and skip when I walked the babies in the pram. Rob had a good stereo in his garage but I couldn't sit in there with a baby on my lap, it was smoky and dangerous for the children, so I just went without. Almost a year after our youngest child was born in 2003 we got our first computer and my sister sent me a CD of music that we used to listen to when we were young, as Rob bought good speakers for the computer and I could finally listen to my music when he was at work. I started collecting CDs of the records I used to have. I still had a little baby to think of and was still not used to putting music on, but slowly I started enjoying my music again and it felt like I was slowly waking up from a very deep sleep. Well... years of listening to Rob's heavy metal, Kiss, Accept, Black Sabbath and the like, I have got used to heavy guitars, maybe that is why it was so easy for me to fall in love with the Hard Ons, lol! On Friday I am going into the city and hopefully I can get a number of their EPs and albums as I am burning up all my downloads watching YouTube, lol! So I am sticking it to the man and dragging him kicking and screaming to a Hard Ons concert! LOL, what a way to introduce him to my kind of music!! Although, really it isn't the first time. When we were first going out, Nick Cave came to Brisbane at the Livid Festival back in 1992. It was also the last time I drank alcohol as well! I was really nervous about running into an old flame at the festival while I was with Rob that I totally over did the alcohol intake and made myself completely sick. Rob was so lovely, patting my back while I threw my guts up. Charming, I know. I remember dancing down the front to Def FX and then falling asleep in one of the porta-loos. By this stage, Rob had had enough of the music that he didn't understand and enough of trying to smash the portable toilet door open to get me out, so when I finally did emerge from the toilet, he insisted that we go home. So I missed out on seeing Nick Cave sing as he was last to play that night. I had seen Nick play live a few years before but still, it was a disappointment to miss what I paid for, although it was totally my own fault. It was the first time and the last time that Rob saw me drink. Until more recently, but now days I can't drink more than 2 glasses. As a teen I now realise that I had a binge drinking problem. So many things happened that I just can't remember. I should have some wonderful memories of my time as a young girl but alot of them are obliterated by alcohol consumption. I suppose I could adapt that old saying "If you can remember the 60's, you weren't there." Well, it's true of my youth too. My sister and I often talk for hours on the phone, helping each other remember all those fun times we had. Yes, I truly am having a mid-life crisis, lol! I am turning 40 in October after all! I'm allowed to!

Wednesday 21 July 2010

16 Year Anniversary

On Friday, DH and I have been married for 16 years!
I remember years ago, before we were married, we'd gone into the city to go to a 50s 3D SciFi movie marathon and as we walked through the mall to get to South Bank, I stopped to listen to a girl busker singing 'Another Piece of My Heart' by Janis Joplin. I stopped because I love that song and she was doing a great job of it and as I looked at her, I realised she was a girl I had known in primary school in my home town. We were thrilled to see each other and I introduced her to my future husband and she asked how long we'd been going out. I said 6 months and back then, it seemed a long time.... Well, 16 years is a long time. There has been ups and downs but there is still much love and that means the world to me. We will be going to see 'Eclipse' together. Poor Rob, I think he will be relieved when all these movies are done, lol! Speaking of which, after I finished reading 'The Complete Goodies', I read the recent Sookie Stackhouse novel 'Dead In The Family' and then I read the Twilight/Eclipse novella 'The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner' I am presently reading some short stories, which are virtually Mills and Boons with a vampire in them... ho hum, well, it keeps me busy, lol. The next book that I am intending to read is 'Little Dorritt' by Charles Dickens. The BBC production of it was recently on the ABC and my god, I loved it!! I have read quite a bit of Charles Dickens but not this one, so I shall remedy that as soon as possible, wonderful story. The lead actor 'Matthew Macfadyen' played 'Mr Darcy' in the Hollywood production of 'Pride and Prejudice' . I own the DVD of it, so I had to watch it. Bawled my head off the entire way through. *sigh*
I recently had to swap my mobile phone sim card with my DHs old mobile phone. Six and a half years ago, Rob and I got matching LG mobile phones. He upgraded his in September last year but I said I couldn't be bothered, mine still works. Plus we got our eldest son a mobile phone and put him on our plan, so we really couldn't afford to upgrade my phone as well. Anyway, my phone decided to drop dead a few weeks ago and as Rob's old phone was still working, he just switched my sim card over. Which meant that I lost all my phone numbers and my ringtones as I had only saved them to my handset and not my sim card. I had bought a Violent Femmes song 'Blister In The Sun' ringtone when I originally got my mobile phone. They had a retro category to choose from, but now they don't have that category, so I can't even buy that ringtone again, or anything that I would vaguely liked. So I got a bee in my bonnet about making my own ringtone. I found a place online where you can make one, although I haven't worked out how to get the volume as loud as I'd like, even with my handset turned up as loud as it goes. It's not as loud as the 'Blister In The Sun' ringtone, so I need to keep playing with it. The song that I used for my new ringtone is 'Don't Go Now' by RatCat. I decided that it was my all time favourite song. Although, this week I am on a 'Hard Ons' kick and can't stop listening to this song... 'Where Did She Come From' I just can't get enough of this song, I adore it! And I have been listening to the few things I have of theirs... 'Girl In The Sweater' and some other older songs and especially 'Wait Around' . I am going into the city for lunch with my cousin Barb soon, so I will be popping into 'Rocking Horse Records' and buying anything pre 1993 by The Hard Ons that I can get my grubby hands on. Sorry, I am not a fan of Blackie's voice and style of singing. I love Keish's voice. If that makes me a big girl, so be it. I don't like the thrashy stuff. Crikey, I hope they have 'Yummy' in store, it's one of my favourite albums. So if I can figure out the ringtone thing, I might put 'Where Did She Come From' on my phone, might have to rotate it with 'Don't Go Now'. If I could afford it, this is the phone I would love to get... a purple Blackberry. Yummy! But the next thing I do want to buy is a purple Cannon Power Shot.... Yum! I'm tired of crappy photos, so I am looking forward to getting a decent camera and this camera does it for me, yeah, tax time! :)
I haven't been scrapping too much lately. But here is one that I did of my son on a fair ground ride, we both went on it. We are the only ones in our family (so far) that like the fast rides, lol. It was at the Union Picnic that we went to back in May. Mostly by Flergs. Credits: You Spin Me Right Round
That's it for now, I have to read some more of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' to my kids ... gotta get it read before the movie comes out. I've read each and every one of the books to the kids. The eldest son is over it and doesn't come to listen anymore and the other son has to have his arm twisted, but it has been a nice tradition over the years to sit together and read it.
Goodnight.