Happy New Year!!

Well, 2012 is drawing to a close....it went by in a blur of tediousness spotted every now and then with gems of loveliness. Since my last post ... here are a few of them....
Halloween... always a ghoulishly good time... hear me squeal....for the first time in 3 years we got trick or treaters knocking at the door asking sweetly for treats... and happily I gave them lots.... it brings me joy....thank you bewildered but happy urchins!

Then my sister and I went to see The Dark Horses. They were brilliant, I enjoyed them so much. It was at The Zoo, very good sound there and the band were awesome. All but the drummer, happily stuck behind his drum set, the other band members swapped instruments almost with every new song. My sister said... "is this musical instruments?"  uh huh.... lol.. Not being musically talented in any way, this impressed me to no end, can't sing their praises any louder.....they are all very talented....obviously. We had a great night!

Then my eldest son and his lovely girlfriend had their year 12 graduation.

Then they went up the Sunshine coast to my parents farm with 2 of Kale's mates for their "schoolies"  How lucky can a Mother be.... I was worried he would want to run amok down on the Gold Coast... but thankfully he and his friends are level headed kids and being isolated on a farm armed with their Xboxes and games galore, they were quite content. However he did do one outlandish thing ... he brought home 3 ducklings! Little rotter rings me from Mum's place and tells me he has good news and bad news. hmmm.... my mind is racing... he says... we now have a new pet.. oh God, I think, he's bought a puppy! then he says... well, actually 3 new pets.... and I am ready to kill him.... I'm not putting up with 3 puppies! then he says... he and his friends went to the markets and bought 6 ducklings. 2 for his girl, 2 for his mate and 2 for him... but his friend's Mum said "no way!" so Miss Hayley has 3 of them and Kale has 3 of them..... Lordy freaking Dordy... oh well, it's better than 3 puppies, quack, quack.... they really are now my ducks, of course....he does most of it, but I am still doing a lot of watering and feeding and cleaning, isn't I????  *sigh*  Thankfully they are permanently outside now, for the first few weeks they were inside....that was awful but they are all alive and well and growing....was worried that Joey our cat would try and have duck for Christmas but he is terrified of them, when they come waddling and quacking in unison in his direction, he bolts back in the house, lol. 
I have been (on 2 different occasions) to my local cinema and seen The Doors live and Jimi Hendrix live at Woodstock.... both very good events, wonderful to see history up on the big screen.

I forgot to say... in October my Mum was visiting for my birthday...the night before we were watching channel 10's special on Julian Assange "Underground" and "Bye Bye Girl" by the Hard-Ons came on and I squealed so loud that my poor Mother got such a fright and jumped so high she almost fell off the couch! LOL!  it looked so funny, and hearing the song was a nice surprise!! The next day I got my son to take this photo...

It's not the best photo of either of us but I had to share it, it makes me smile.
At the end of November I was lucky enough to buy a 28 day promotional  gym membership at a gym closer to me than where I used to go. So for 28 days I over did the exercise, as you do when you only have 28 days grace. God I love it! If I could live in the joint I would. So between my extra hours at work due to the Christmas timetable and the gym, I have been kept very busy, exhausted really. Luckily Christmas is over and things will return to normal. If there is ever a "normal" in my life...
but before Christmas my eldest daughter graduated from primary school and then the next night my sister and I went to see The Saints, The Stranglers and Blondie at Brisbane Riverstage in the city. Only got 2 photos of Blondie... didn't get any of the Saints or the Stranglers...they searched our bags for cameras, I had managed to hide mine in a side pocket in my bag...didn't read the terms and conditions etc when I got Rob to print out the tickets....was scared that they would confiscate my pretty purple camera... so didn't dare take photos ... it was broad daylight when the Saints were on...but by the time Blondie were on, lots of people were taking photos, so I just had to take at least one photo to record an icon that I was able to witness.... Miss Debbie Harry is still rockin.... and many fond memories of when I was a 14 year old girl listening to Blondie... *sigh*

This photo was taken during "The Tide Is High" The Stranglers came out in drag, swaying in unison like hula girls,... near the end of it, Debbie asks the ladies in the audience if we were the kind of girl to give up just like that.... I screamed very loudly "Oh No-o!!!!"  so fun.... and  the last encore they played was "Heart Of Glass" and for almost a full 6 minutes the audience were screaming out "ooh-oo oowah" near the end... what a wonderful night!!! And more gems of happiness are coming my way in terms of live music for next year.... I was able to buy tickets to see Iggy Pop and The Stooges and Beasts of Bourbon at BluesFest in Byron Bay in May and also Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Brisbane Riverstage in early May!! SO EXCITED!!!
Rob was not a happy man (under statement) when he found out about the Byron Bay thing. At first I didn't think he would allow me to leave the state without him and I considered going with him but he would not be able to contain his disdain for all I appreciate and admire and he would be bound to say something to piss me off and ruin my day... I made that mistake once before and I will never make that mistake ever again, besides, my sister would appreciate the icons she would be seeing (Stooges) and she also loves Beasts Of Bourbon.... holy cow....I so hope they play "Ten Wheels For Jesus" and "Evil Ruby" I am SOOOO excited about this!!! whoo hoo!!!!!! Sadly Miss Wanda Jackson is also playing at Bluesfest but on a different day to the day I will be going (I could only afford to pay for one day... it is a 5 day festival) I love Wanda but thankfully she is playing in Brisbane... I still need to get around to finding out where to buy those tickets... 2 of my most favourite songs by Miss Wanda are... "Fujiyama Mama" and my all time fav is "Kansas City"
Christmas was lovely...

a lot of work but a nice day spent with family, laughing, having fun and eating too much... now my time at the gym is over I will have to reacquaint myself with my beloved running track... I have missed it... it probably feels I dropped it like a hot potato for the flash new gym and it may turn it's nose up and want nothing to do with me...lol... I will be going for a run there tomorrow....
Happy Days.....
Anyway.... hope everyone had a good Christmas and has a wonderful New Years Eve and New Years Day.
I will try and let go of the past and look to the future this coming year, it is my New Year's resolution....
good luck with all of yours  xxxxx  Goodbye 2012!

September/October news.

well... since my last blog post... my sister and I went to see The Johnnies. They were great, as were 6Ft Hick.

Had a really fun night. Afterwards, Hoody was out the front, I really would have liked to get a photo with him but I was too shy, but I am so glad I went, they were brilliant! My eldest daughter went to Canberra with her school on a four day excursion. Rob had to get her to the airport by 5.30am in the morning. The first day they saw the sites in Sydney... Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Botanic Gardens, Opera House, Captain Cook cruise on the Harbour and the Sydney Tower Eye then they travelled to Canberra where they did a lot of things over the next 3 days. Lucky little lady.

Then I held a High Tea on the 1st of October in honor of the Queens 60th anniversary of her coronation. I really wanted an enlarged framed photo of Tim Brooke-Taylor on the table dressed as the Queen but I left it to the last minute and the only Goodies book I was able to loan from the library did not have photos of that description. But I did have some other photos enlarged and printed up and blue tac-ed to the wall behind us.

You can't get anything more British than the Goodies. Love 'em.  :)
Then it was my 42nd birthday. I chose to have a BBQ.... mainly so I didn't have to cook. I made myself a cake tho and a few salads and vegetarian kebabs which Rob cooked first for me, naturally.

And my new job at the bookstore is going great. So very happy about that. I love books, it just makes so much sense for me to work in a book store. When I first started looking to get back into the workforce, the first place I left my resume at was a book store. I didn't get anywhere to begin with and of course I then got the job at the cafe, but one day I was buying 4 penguin classics for $12 on sale at my local bookstore and I saw on the front counter a sign advertising a position vacant. When I pointed it out to the girl serving me, she was very encouraging and suggested I drop off my resume, which I did and they rang almost immediately to ask me in for an interview. I think I waited an anxious week when they rang and said I was successful! It is only a casual position, I only have 3 days work a week but I get paid the same amount as I was getting for 5 days part time/casual work in the cafe, so I am doing well. Tho I am also getting extra work out at the warehouse/head office of our book store every time they open a new store somewhere in Australia. This week I am working 4 days out at the warehouse. To begin with the husband was driving me out there, but he has started back at work after a hell of a lot of time off work due to his stupid motorbike accident. (don't get me started on that! The great lummox has now bought a Harley Davidson and $10 000 worth of dental treatments, behind my back...again, fume, fume, fume!!) So as of tomorrow, I will be riding my bike out there. Thankfully there is a bike track almost all the way there, as there is no bus that will take me directly there. It  takes 50 minutes, which will be a lovely ride, and I do miss my long bike trip into the city everyday, so it is not daunting to me at all. The only daunting thing was when I tried to do my first dry run out there to see if I could find the joint OK. I thought I got myself lost... I am notoriously inept at reading a map and I was convinced that I was heading in the wrong direction... as all the road signs over the highway along side the bike track said "Wacol" which is where the jail is.... I freaked out and turned around and came home. But it turned out that I was almost there after all and the second time I did the dry run I made it all the way there. So tomorrow I will be out at the warehouse, packing, pricing and re-packing books to be sent to the new store opening in Penrith, New South Wales. For some reason, I thought that there was an old jail in Penrith but Google tells me otherwise... but the theme of the last 2 weeks has been "jail" so I will end this post with Roger Daltrey's apt and brilliant song... Free Me!

Book Shop Girl

Two week ends ago, I went into my local book store to buy 4 classic novels for the low price of $12. One being "The Great Gatsby" I wanted it for two reasons. Firstly, it is one of the books on my 'One Hundred Great Books' list. I have been collecting these books since I was a teenager. As the list itself is quite ancient in itself, some of these classic books are hard to come by or at least in my travels. I have not hunted them ferociously, but simply bought them as I have come across them. Secondly, I wanted this book as it has been made into a movie and I would like to read it before I go to the cinemas to see it. At the counter of this book store was an advertisement that a casual senior position had become available and to submit any willing resumes for consideration. The girl who served me encouraged me to do so. So at my earliest convenience, I did. They called me the following day to arrange an interview and told me the job would be opening in early September. A good amount of notice for my current employers, I thought. I made the interview for Thursday night, so as to not affect my current work hours but I became ill with my daughters stomach virus and had to take the day off work anyway. I slept most of the day hoping that I would be feeling better by the time of the interview but I was still nauseous. None the less, I managed to have a lovely interview and after waiting three anxious days, they called me to tell me I was successful. Whoo hoo! However, they asked me if I would start work in three days! I told my employers with a heavy heart that I had to leave. They were sad for me to go but happy for me also. Last week was my first week of work. It was good and I know I will be happy there. I love books and I look forward to working with books everyday. Another thing that I look forward to and that shall make me very happy is that The Johnny's and Six Ft Hick are playing on September 15th at Punkfest: Prince Of Wales Hotel!! It is so nice to have things to look forward to! Instead of being Tim Brooke-Taylor's "Punkerella",  I will be Gunslinger Sally... (whoever she is, lol) It's too bad I no longer have my Father's bullet belt... hee hee! I have been listening to Six Ft Hick's CD "On The Rocks" non stop and am going for a beautiful bike ride into the city tomorrow to pick up their CD "Cane Trash"  that I had on order at Rocking Horse Records. That is the new... the old is the fact that I am an old Johnny's fan from way back. I have a treasured letter from the band that they sent to a 16 year old me in response to my fan mail to them, somewhere in the house, possibly packed next to my old Indian head belt buckle.... hmmm.... must look for that....I need a good belt to wear with my new black Lee jeans. About a month and a half ago I finally worked up the courage to buy online a pair of Lee jeans for less than half the retail price. Lee jeans are not cheap, let me tell you,  I have always wanted a pair but could never justify the cost. Frankly, my arse was never worth the price. However, I am very proud of my weight loss achievements over the last two years and I have quite literally worked my arse off, so I thought that I deserved to reward my backside the best way I saw fit. I do think I still need to lose a bit more weight but for now... if the jeans fit, wear them. And wear them I shall, lol! I wore them to see Blackie's solo gig recently.

Which was lovely, even tho I did feel at times that I wanted to impersonate my Mother when she went to see Elvis in "Love Me Tender" and she felt the need to tell the audience to shut up coz she was trying to hear Elvis speak/sing and they were being rowdy, .... I refrained, of course. Good old Mum, she didn't, lol!
So off to Punkfest my sister and I go once more next month. I am excited to hear the Johnnys live once more after all these years. My sister and I saw them at East Leagues club in 1987. They played with Japanese punk band "Star Club"  I currently have a few Johnnys songs on my MP3 player that I listen to whilst out running or cycling. On my MP3 player I have 3 large folders of songs (plus other individual CD favourites in separate folders) that I use solely for excising. "Ramones"  "Hard-Ons" and "Other Stuff"  which is an amalgamation of favourite up beat songs that gets my legs pumping. Obviously some songs inspire me to run faster. "Move It" and "Dead Men From Boothill" by The Johnnys are two of those songs. When my sister and I went to see The Hard-Ons at the Prince of Wales Hotel in May, I was happily enjoying the gig when one of those songs that helps me run harder came on. I think it was "In The End We All Die Alone"  The whole crowd were enjoying it and moving back and forth like waves on the beach. I looked down at my legs and notice that I have absent mindedly started running on the spot! How embarressment, but then I thought... "oh, just go with it... they are just doing what they are programmed to do"  Lol! So I wonder if the same will happen at The Johhnys gig.... I will tell my sister to grab me by the hair if I start running towards the door, lol....

A Joggers Journey

Let me take you, if I may, on a journey... a joggers journey.
I took my camera with me on my run last week and took photos of my running track. I just love it to pieces... I will be running forever.... quite often on either my run, or my bike ride home, I see this old guy out fast walking, he'd be 90 if he's a day, and I always smile and nod at him and think.... "you go babe, you go"  That will be me.... I'll be jogging until my ankles give out... and then I will get titanium ones put in. I will be out there jogging at 90, with my purple bike shorts and a purple rinse through my grey permed hair going... "get out of my way you young whipper snappers, this purple machine is coming through!"  I'll be like Mom from Futurama.... "pass me my thigh blaster, *squeak, squeak, squeak*" LOL....

          This is at the start of my run, just around the corner from our house. Purple flowers line the way.

                                              Running across a bridge over the Brisbane river.

         Such peaceful and lovely scenery, it fills my heart with joy, I am so lucky to live on this side of town.

                                                  The plaque explains the photo before it.

                                   This is headed away from the river but along side a man made lake.

                                               I am almost half way done my run by this stage.

                                                      Half way done, heading back now.

                                                 Running past the man made lake again.

                                                    Back along side the Brisbane river.

There is a few bits of exercise equipment dotted along the side of the track. I am in love with this ab crunch bench. It is nice to stop running for a bit and have a breather..... doing 4 sets of 30 sit ups on this.

                                        This is the view I have to my right whilst doing my sit ups.

 Then a little way up the track I do 25 push ups off the medium bar, then move to the lower bar and do 25 tricep dips then move to the higher bar and do 25 rows (something like chin ups but with my feet still on the ground) then I go and do another set of 25 of each of them before running home.

You can see the trees that were savaged in the Brisbane floods back in 2011. They are no longer covered in mud and silt but they are bent over and dead and ghostly looking.

                                            Just about back to the bridge that takes me home.

Going over to the left of the river is a skaters park and DFO (Direct Factory Outlet shopping center)

I don't go here too often, only when I need something but only a girl could combine running and shopping, lol. I do feel silly running home with a shopping bag when I buy something, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, hee hee....

                                                              back over the bridge.

                                  along side of the highway,  it is well fenced off  from it tho.

Just  a little bit up from here I almost stomped on a baby brown snake sunning itself on the path. Very nearly home now and time for a beautifully delicious and well earned shower.

That's Not How You Treat A National Treasure

Like many, many, many Australians and people world wide, I was shocked and saddened to hear that Blackie, lead singer/guitarist of legendary punk rock Aussie band Hard-Ons was bashed whilst driving his taxi on Thursday night by 2 teenagers.... evil little turds.
When I was a teenager, I listened to a friend's 'Surfin' On My Face' 7" EP, Busted/Suck And Swallow 7", my sister's Girl In the Sweater 7" and I bought the cassette of Where The Wild Things Are a split EP release with The Celebrate Rifles. I missed a whole heap between and afterwards but about 2 years ago I stumbled upon their MySpace page and decided to catch up with what they were up to after reading their Bio (click on "more" under General Info) I thought it was damn impressive. Then I found their forum online and read this "about" section and was suitably impressed even more...
especially these lines...

Naturally, the fact that the band took deliberate steps not to take the conventional music industry highway didn't help in their lack of mass appeal. They recorded themselves for themselves, promoted themselves and generally held the reins for the entire Hard-Ons machine through right down to cover art, choosing supports acts and pioneering the concept of all ages shows. It was an unswerving creed that virtually ensured their ostracism from the outset.
Nonetheless the Hard-Ons achieved all they possibly could and more within those self imposed confines.

I think, no matter what kind of music you like, you have to respect that. 

And clearly a good many people do, as benefit gigs and fund raising events are popping up all over the country to assist Blackie while he heals and recuperates. 

So, if you have ever enjoyed a Hard-Ons song, please try to donate some money, or get along to one of the benefit gigs (I would kill to be able to get to the Sydney gigs next week end at the Annandale Hotel on Friday the 1st of June and Newcastle's Great Northern Hotel on Saturday the 2nd) every little bit will help and it is a nice gesture of appreciation for a very lovely and talented man.

Happy Mothers Day

Mothers Day tomorrow. Happy Mothers Day to all the Mum's out there.
I shan't be getting chocolate... I'll be getting jewellery, no calories there ;) Some large Amethyst round earrings and a matching necklace, yeah, nothing better for Mothers Day than jewels...
The eldest son has to work in the morning, so after I get home from my run and he is done his shift, we are all going on a picnic together. And the weather is and has been for the past week, beautiful. Very nice.
Last Sunday, of course, was Punkfest, fabulous night. My sis and I got there early (she was told not to be late on pain of death!) I was wearing my lovely purple Hard-Ons t-shirt. I had to take it in as it was too big for me and the sleeves also needed altering but I was happy with how it fit me. All done 15 minutes before I left the house, of course... Was thrilled to get my copy of the re-issue of "Smell My Finger" There were 4 bands playing before the Hard-Ons came on. The first band, called Main Street Brats played a song called "Indooroopilly Girl"  or something like that, which  thought was great, lol. 
The second last band were  6Ft Hick. I had never heard of them before, so had no idea what to expect. Before they came on, many people moved down the front (where we already were) so I gathered they had a pretty big following. They started playing and one of the singers started pulling his hair. I thought, "oh dear, he has tourette's"  Then a bit later he throws himself on the floor, I thought "oops, he's a worry" Then I realised, that was his stage thing, lol. But we were quite impressed with what we heard, so on Thursday I trotted into Rocking Horse Records and ordered one of their CDs. It's good to get turned onto new music. The crowd clearly loved them too. I noticed the guys in particular seemed to be getting their freak on to the music. A whole sea of gyrating men, I didn't know whether to be scared or turned on, lol.
And of course the Hard-Ons were wonderful. I didn't get many photos because the crowd was pretty rough, how unusual, lol... Funnily enough, I saw an old flame while 6Ft Hick were playing, tall slim giraffe, was hard to miss him really. I wasn't sure if it was him at first. I hadn't seen him since he broke my heart 22 years ago. Time heals all wounds and cropping your wild and woolly, thick wavy brown shoulder length hair off works too. So you have grey hair now, nothing wrong with that, just means you are a man now, not a boy....
anyway... unsurprising seeing him there really, he used to run about wearing a Hard-Ons t-shirt back in the day. Besides my sister going to Sydney for a holiday to meet a pen pal and coming home with "Girl In The Sweater" 7",  he was the reason I got into the Hard-Ons in the first place. Although another friend, who was also a Hard-Ons fan, discouraged me from going to see them live. He said... "you can't go to a Hard-Ons gig, you're a girl, you'll get killed!"  By that stage, I had been to a fair few rough gigs, at The Damned I had been knocked to the ground twice and probably would have been trampled to death if some random guy hadn't picked me up, I remember the Painters and Dockers gig was pretty scary too. I thought that if the Hard-Ons were rougher than those gigs, then maybe I might get killed, so I chicken out from going.... I am still kicking myself from listening to him. Anyway... here are some photos from the night....

Goodnight.

I am, You Are, We are...Multiculturalism

Here is my beautiful little multicultural pin up girl...she is half Aussie, half Yugoslav/Hungarian, with a little bit Pom, little bit Scottish, largish bit German(on both her Father's side and mine), dressed up in a Chinese dress. She was off to her friend's oriental themed birthday party. They decorated Chinese lanterns, ate rice and played pass the parcel, in which she won a pretty little purse made of oriental fabric. Mummy (me) was up to 2am sewing that dress of hers. And up again this morning finishing it off. Just like me to leave things to the last minute *sigh* Couldn't go for my run in the morning coz I was sewing... then we had to go grocery shopping before we dropped Ailani off at the party. So I got to go for my run after that.... by the time I was half way done my run, it was dark.... I won't be doing that again... not wise...down by the river...where the wild roses grow...but my name is Elisa Day.... oh... just singing a Nick Cave/Kylie Minogue song, lol.... actually, I was listening to the Hard-Ons song "Strangers" while I was running. (can't find it on youtube :( ) where one of the lines  goes... "shadows of the night"  Luckily tho I only had my own shadow to contend with... disapproving b!$@* she is too.... saying... "run faster" in my head.... so I did.... take that shadow girl ... lol... I aught to be a skinny arsed bitch by now, but sadly I have been comfort eating where I aught to be starving myself... well... I need to watch what I eat, I have lost all my weight by working out like a mofo but now I only want to drop 6 kilos at most but it ain't happening... so now I have to try and watch what I eat.  The bread has to stop, thank god the cheese has stopped, glad Valentine's Day, Easter and my 2nd son's 15th birthday is over, so I can stop the chocolate... Chocolate, you are a bad friend, it's over between us! 

 Now I just have to stop the sugar intake...              

 

.....pffft..... like that's ever gonna happen...