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...                       

   

Hello month of May!! What's not to love about May?! Why am I all het up about May? because I am off to Punkfest and I will be Punkerella with a pumpkin on my head and I'll chop of a leg.... umm, no, that was Tim Brooke-Taylor from The Goodies... (damn, do you think I can find a photo of Tim dressed up as Punkerella on-line?)
Yep, this is where I'm going baby!!!! Sunday 6th of May!!!
oooooooooh weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
I can not wait to get my grubby little mitts on that there double CD re-issue of "Smell My Finger"  And of course to see the band play again and to hear the new songs from the EP "Shit Pants, Shit Pants"
yeah!

Chrystina, Strawberry Girl and etc

Easter has been and gone. The week before Easter, we went up to my parents farm in Gympie for the week end and my Mum gave me 30 strawberry runners. My parents grew strawberries semi-commercially during my entire childhood, and beyond. Dad was a hobby/small crop farmer as well as his full time job. Mum did the majority of the work tho. She picked and packed the strawberries daily while Dad was at work, he just ploughed the field, sprayed them, helped plant them, connected the sprinklers (once a season type things) and watered them, that was a week end thing, .... my sister and I also helped plant and pick them, but Mum did the most of it. Mum says I have "strawberry blonde" hair because she was pregnant with me whilst she was picking and packing strawberries. Anyway.... this is the first time that I have tried to grow my own strawberries. Obviously I love them but as a child I gorged myself on them....when picking them, it was a little bit like.... 10 in the basket, 1 in the mouth....lol....so I never felt the need to have any on hand, I would buy the occasional punnet but could live without them... but finally I feel ready to grow some of my own. So when I got home from Gympie, I weeded a heavily overgrown garden bed and planted my 30 strawberry runners. Two weeks later, 26 plants have survived and are looking good. Hopefully I can keep them alive and flourishing. I am not the best gardener in the world (understatement) I always assumed I would eventually get Mum's green thumb.... maybe I have to wait another couple of years, but hopefully I won't kill my beautiful strawberry plants!
So, Easter.... We had a BBQ and Mum was here and my sister and her 2 kids. I made a mountain of food. Onion and cheese flan, spinach and ricotta cheese pie, zucchini slice, potato salad, coleslaw, potato bake. Hmmm.... alot of cheese there you say...... oh, yes, did I say that come New Years this year I decided to give up sea food and cheese? No? well... this is the story.... I am a vegetarian, have been since New Years 1989. Actually, when I was 16, 3 years before,  myself and 2 girlfriends decided to become vegetarians because we read an interview that Morrissey did in some magazine about The Smiths song 'Meat Is Murder' I think he may have said in the interview "Meat is murder, I don't eat my cat" or something, we used to always chant this, lol. I didn't eat meat for about 6 months and then the friend I was living with twisted my arm a little and we started eating meat again... but I was never happy about it and on New Years 1989 I decided to stop again and that was the end of that. But when the husband and I started talking about making babies, he and my Mother badgered me into eating seafood at least... and I caved. Well, the days of baby making are well over and I thought it was high time I gave up seafood. When I was about 21, 2 years into being a vegetarian and a year  before the meat eating husband came on the scene, my Aunty informed me that she found out that cheese has an animal substance in it called rennet. I was horrified and decided to become vegan. This lasted about 6 months... *sigh*  I don't think I could handle soy milk in my coffee any more and tofu was getting on my last nerve. And don't even breath the word 'carob' to me!  So I went back to the eggs and dairy although at first I was very careful to only buy animal rennet free cheeses. Then eventually I got lazy and my brain turned itself off and I forgot about rennet altogether. Until late last year when good old Hungry Jacks reminded me about it... I went to buy my usual veggie burger that I get when the family goes there on rare occasions and on the menu list up on the boards it says *includes animal rennet* or some such thing and I freak out and I remember what it is, tho I have to get the manager to explain it for me.... oh bugger.... For me, the thought of eating meat is like eating cockroaches, it is just plain repulsive.
So I decided to stop eating cheese and seafood this past New Years Eve... still not eating sea food, but I was having a big sulk about not been able to eat pizza and cheese cake... tho I have been very good about it. Pizza is my biggest dieting down fall. I loved it so much. I was like the guy in the Pizza hut ad.... they order pizza to be delivered, the guy dances his girl around the room, all excited, the doorbell rings and he drops his girl like a hot potato to get to the door and the pizza delivery person... hee hee, that was me.... but now, no more :(  No more pizza for me... :(   Bloody animal rennet cheese!  but this Easter, I was very careful and bought non animal rennet cheeses and made all my own food for the BBQ. Tho I do still want to stop eating cheese in general, coz I'm scared that I might accidentally slip and go back to it, coz I know I will get lazy and forget to check the ingredients on the pack.  *sigh* I have a tub of ricotta left in the fridge, I plan to make myself a cheese cake with it and then I will eat it no more.... cross fingers....
Here is a photo of me and the kids on Easter Sunday...

I think the file name for this photo says 2011, what a der, it was actually this year, 2012, lol.... I don't think I was that doped up on chocolate!! I wore those bunny ears from the minute I got out of bed till the minute I got back into bed at the end of the day. We had a good day. And here is a photo of my niece and nephew with my kids later on that night, they all had a good time too, lots of fun! I think they might have been doped up on chocolate by this stage tho, lol!  :)

Goodbye Gym and Update Your Lycra

Well, there are a couple of  'goodbyes' for this week.
I'm sadly saying goodbye to my gym. Last night was my last visit.
I enjoyed the sauna, steam room and aromatherapy room, then went to my beloved Body Combat class. I tell you, this week, I really needed to be kicking and punching and yelling. I did Body Combat on Saturday and Monday night, my last night, and also did a step class straight afterwards....
I have ummed and ahhed about renewing my membership which runs out tomorrow, but I decided finally not to renew. I am never home, after work I would go to the gym and all week end long I would spend at the gym, my family were beginning to forget what I looked like, and I was exhausted all the time too, so I decided to call it a day. I have about 3 more kilos I would like to lose but hopefully my bike ride into the city and back 5 days a week will at least help me maintain my weight loss but I will start running out in the wild on the week ends and doing some aerobics via DVD at home and hopefully that will help. I am also saying goodbye to my local shopping centre, which really is an end to an era for me. I first started going to my local large shopping centre once a week when Amethyst started kindy back in 2004. It was my outlet and my "me" day. Then 2 years ago, I started walking there 3 times a week for exercise, then last year I started walking there every day to go to the gym. It was my haven but I have remembered something from my past that makes going there very difficult and it is better for me to stay away. Will only need to go there when we want to go to see a movie. I am working 5 days a week now, but only doing 2 and a half hours a day, so I am able to walk the girls to school and then get back in time to pick them up. Rob is back at work full time now. He is still in pain from his motorcycle accident back in March last year, but the doctor said it should be better in 6 months time. At least he is on full pay again now.
I am still loving my bike track so much, I actually get excited about hopping on the bike to ride to work. I love it like a lover.... I miss it when I am away from it and can't wait to get back on it again. lol... It was a blessed thing to go back to work after 3 weeks holiday over the Christmas break, simply to get on my bike and feel the breeze on my face and hear great music in my ears. For some time now, I have been wearing little shorts over my leggings....there is a reason for this....The bike track is alongside the highway on one side and bushland, mostly on the other side, so the grassy, tree filled scenery is quite calming. Every now and then 'tho you will get a bike rider ride past in their Lycra shorts that are a bit past their due date. Threadbare Lycra is a little like tinted glad wrap.... makes me think of  a Hard-Ons song..... "there's a Hard-Ons song...."
can't find a link to a video on youtube... bugger.... but it is from the song "Preservation of a Wild Cat" from their "Very Exciting" CD and Blackie sings... "Just don't make me watch no foreign films, I get a head ache when I see too much arse"  lol... so please.... Brisbane bike track riders.... update your lycra, otherwise you'll give me a head ache, hee hee! :p
Speaking of Blackie, on Thursday, my sister and I went to see him do a solo gig at The Zoo. He was supporting Scott Kelly (from Neurosis) and John Baizley (from Baroness) He has his 2nd CD coming out in a few months time, I'm really looking forward to that. Thursday night was such a wonderful night! :)

                                                 Blackie.    You couldn't meet  a nicer person.

The Damned

Well, a few things have happened since last I posted on my blog....
Firstly... the Johnny Cash "Man In Black" show with Tex Perkins and Rachel Tidd was so wonderful! Had a great time... didn't blub at all, ha! Just yelled and cheered and made a general nuisance of myself, lol. I asked my sister if I embarrassed her and she said "just a little bit" ..... should have screamed louder I guess....  :)
Then I turned 41.... got a coffee machine and coffee bean grinder, yummo.... I make coffees at work and I am in love with doing so.... so I needed to buy one for me to make at home.... amazing to believe that I went 18 months without drinking tea or coffee.... oh well, a girl needs some vices....
here I am in my purple Hard Ons t-shirt with my birthday loot (I had only recently got the t-shirt in the mail too, thanks Ray!)

Had our first Christmas with out cat Joey...

and my sister and I went to see The Damned.... whoo hoo! the Damned were the first band I ever went to see when I first moved away from home, from Hervey Bay to Brisbane when I was 16 years old...what an eye opener that was....I was very young and the crowd was pretty rough, I would have been trampled to death a few times if it wasn't for some guy picking me up off the ground.... but I was elated with that magical mosh pit music night and pleased with all my bruises.... what an experience, lol.... this time round it wasn't at all rough.... tho it was great to see all the old punks.... all grown up, old men, hee hee.... (that's ok, I'm an old woman too ;) )

My sister and I at The Damned and my sister and Captain Sensible after the show. He was such a lovely guy. Really open and happy to talk to the fans, very sweet and funny. We had such a great night.