The Wonderful (or not so wonderful) life of Greg

Well today was the first day that I took the Yellow Perril out for a real ride. And my god, it’s amazing how much more enjoyable it was riding a bike that I didn’t feel like I was strangling the whole time!

Just went for a very leisurely ride taking my time and learning the bike, out through Warrandyte, Kangaroo Ground, Yarra Glen, Kinglake, Whittlesea, Doreen, Greensborough then back home again. About 140k round trip, but just was nice to learn what the bike feels like on an open road vs traffic riding.

Well, the week in a nutshell…. The folks have been away most of the week so things around the house have been fairly quiet. Lynsey came and stayed for a few nights and we cooked some nice meals

Work wise, not to busy this week, which was nice to have a little bit of peace for a change, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.

Fox Hunting on Friday night and it was a bit of a doozie. We had equipment failure that we only noticed about the 3rd leg of the night, which seriously disadvantaged us and we ended up coming 2nd last for the evening which was one hell of a change for us.

What’s ahead for this week, looks like it’s going to be a bit of a paperwork week this week. Have a bit of catching up to do with invoicing and have a PC here to build.

Made a ripper of a Curry for dinner tonight and that was nice, now just kicking back, have another load of washing in the machine and then will listen to the WIA broadcast and catch an early night, might watch a DVD.

G

Well, this weekend the new Whitlams album was released.

After listening to it about 3 times today, I must say, it is great!

A few songs with the rich old school sounds of the Whitlams from their pub band days, and of course, Timmy playing his piano as he does best and singing his lungs out as he does so well.

Time to throw a copy in the car and start to learn the lyrics

This week has been pretty good - Yesterday was the John Moyle Field Day, an amateur radio contest where you have to work as many stations directly in a 24 hour period, no more than once in a 3hr block. Given that I only was working 2 bands, I think I did pretty bloody well gaining 139 contacts, working 4 of the 3hr slots.

Friday, went to a St Patricks day dinner with Lynsey and her family down at the Blue Chair in Chelsea.
Was a nice evening, even tho I was feeling pretty rotten.

Just listening to the WIA national broadcast at the moment, and thinking that an early night is in order as I am feeling buggered!

Might pop on the tellie and do some good ol’ channel surfing.

G

Well, yes, book me into therapy, I am an Ebayaholic.

$85USD later, and 2 days waiting on Australia Post, I am the proud owner of The Whitlams, Little Cloud and The Apple’s Eye Preview CD! Nice and Rare and it’s ALL MINE!

And because I am such a great person, and a mad Whitlams Fan… I am going to share in with the world!

The Whitlams - Little Cloud & The Apple’s Eye

Year of the Rat (912k 64kbps)
This was written and recorded with Sydney jazz group Aronas. It’s about ambivalent feelings coming back to Sydney.

12 Hours (572k 64kbps)
Just piano and vocal. It’s dark, uneasy, visceral. I’m glad the producer J. Walker talked me into recording it without the band. I wanted to dress it up, but he said you don’t need to.

Light On (880k 64kbps)
This was co-written with J. It’s about a charming waistrel. A fellow who’s off the rails and we hope he’ll get his act together and not end up in Darwin. The music scene is littered with such time bombs, and I supposed I’ve been one myself in patches.

White Horses (788k 64kbps)
I dreamt these lyrics while I was in New York. They sum up the feeling of writing a song again when you think you may not. When I returned they seemed to apply to political opposition in Australia. “Now we move amongst them” sums up the collective alienation I noticed in November 2004.

I hope you enjoy the taste of the new album, available 19th March!

And, to top the release of the new album, The Whitlams have released a new website and their 2006 Tour Dates! WooooHoooo!

Man how good is it…. I cannot wait! I have listened to the preview about 10 times over and over and over and over! Wooo Hooo!

While picking up more Whitlams stuff that I won off ebay, I met a very interesting man, someone who you would never expect to meet. So anyhoo, to fill you in, I won a poster off ebay, went to go and pick it up, thinking that I was rocking up to just someone selling a poster, to find every room in the house, floor to ceiling stacked with posters! My god, it was just amazing!

So, go my poster, and met the author and amazing guy Nick Vukovic, and purchased his book on Postering of posters in Australia, “Plastered”.

Late-night runs in the band van with a bucket full of wallpaper paste, a roller and a bunch of posters for the next gig are a rite of rock’n’roll passage, as is avoiding being caught! Band posters are transitory by nature, but Plastered writer Murray Walding and avid poster collector Nick Vukovic have captured an impressive array of posters for both Australian and touring international acts, covering more than 50 years. The text by Murray Walding starts out well enough, but as it goes on it becomes clear that while he knows quite a bit about poster art, graphic design and the mechanics of the music industry, Walding doesn’t come across as actually being much of a music fan—the later chapters in particular jump from topic to topic and seem to skirt around a lot of the broader historical/cultural issues surrounding music in the ’90s and ‘noughties’. But having said that, this large-format, heavily illustrated book is mainly about the posters, and music fans, graphic designers and pop culture fiends should get a lot out of this survey of an art form that has been largely overlooked.
Review Source: Boomerang Books

Well, what a week its been so far.

Have sold manbag. So that is another good thing, one bike down. And Man Bag will get picked up tomorrow and free up some space in the garage.

What else…. Went out for dinner with Lyns’ friends last night, Kerry & Scott, who are dashing off to Canada tomorrow to live. We went to The Bridge and then into Crown and played M9 Laser Games which was fun.

Today, a reasonable day and now just listening to more Whitlams!

Well, I think that’s enough to keep people reading for the next 30mins

Enjoy.
G

After finally getting of my but, Here are some pictures of the new steed. So far, the only name that has come up is “The Yellow Peril”, which I though was quite appropriate…..

Perril (n) - serious or immediate danger……. That kinda sums up the bike!

So the week so far, the only thing that I can really complain about is these damn Commonwealth Games…. man the traffic has become absolute chaos!

I still find it funny how they think they will get the athleates from near the Zoo to the G in 9 minutes. They have all these Comm Games transit lanes, and the fines, not your standard $50, but, $175 and 1 point from what I have heard along the lines!

Well, they have to re-coup the 1.1 billion dollars they have waisted on the games some how, I guess traffic infringements is the way to do it! Traffic infrigements and Met Card inspectors!

On the work front, a busy week which has been good. Have a fair bit to keep me going for the next few weeks.

The long weekend - Hopefully, a nice quiet one. Catch up with Lyns on Saturday, Sunday who knows, Monday have a SRESU Meeting in the evening.

Tomorrow - Few clients, have to take the bike into the City at lunchtime, and then another client in the arvo.

Until next time……. ciao

G

Well, after a hectic week last week, the end of the week could not have come any quicker!

Away Lyns and I went for my 1st holiday in 2 1/2 years and man, it was good to get away and do a whole lot of sweet f*%#k all!

Drove up to Daylesford on Friday afternoon, after keeping it a secret from Lynsey for a month, and we stayed at this great little place, Breakneck Gorge Retreat which was just lovely, a little slice of paradise located in Hepburn Springs, on a 45 Acre block over looking the gorge.

Friday evening we went to a little cafe / restaurant called DB’s where they had a 2pc jazz band going for dinner. A nice meal and a great place to stay!

Saturday, we bummed around most of the day, caught up on sleep, relaxed in the spa, watched a few DVDs and went to Peppers for a nice massage to unwind and really relax…… aaahhhhhhh paradise!

Went to another nice restaurant on Saturday evening, Misto, Lyns had the Duck and I had the Rib Eye and once again, a great meal. Nice to get served by the owner and have a nice chat to him about his business.

Sunday, Had a good sleep in and then packed up and headded into town to drop the keys off before headding across to Blackwood for a SRESU site rekkie for Hoadley Hide .

Got back to Melbourne about 7ish, then dashed over to Ferntree Gully for a Fox Hunting meeting.

All in all, a great weekend, finally nice to unwind a bit!

The new bike has arrived, and is GREAT! I’ve been slack and haven’t got any photos as yet, but will in the next few days once I’ve cleared the current photos off the camera. Man, it’s awsome to have the power. Man bag is up for sale, asking $4500 with 12mths rego. If you’re interested, just ask.

Well, another busy week ahead. Sat in a Microsoft conference today which was a bit of a waste of time and money. The seminar was virtually 4 speakers who spoke at Tech.Ed last September.

Was good to hear Steve Reily again, although it was a talk I had heard before, was still good, he is a very inspirational guy, has some very interesting thoughts on security.

Anyway, I think that fills in the last week… really have to get off my arse during the week and blog rather than leaving it until once a week.

Cheers for now.

G