11 January 2009, Sunday.
Well 11 days into 2009 and what is new ? Well we havent had a day under 35c this year. The aircon has been on non stop "all month". Divine inside - but hell when you walk outside.
Fortunately my plans for my 4 weeks off work involved a lot of indoor tasks.

Pal Jools came over and saw the new year in with me over a magnum of extremely nice champagne, takeaway and a cheese board, accompanied by hilarious singalong movies - old and new. The new being Mamma Mia (and we may never recover from the pain of Pierce Brosnan's singing - thankfully looking gorgeous makes up for that little fault), and the old being the Village People in You Cant Stop The Music. It was a good night of laughs.

The next day we veged and ate in the coolness of the aircon.

So - my new years resolutions:
  • Pay off TV & DVD recorder before interest free period ends.
  • Save for Ikea Expedit TV Cabinet (pictured right).
  • Save for a storage bed with headboard (similar to pic below).
  • Continue decluttering and sorting.
  • Continue ongoing garage sale.
  • Get financial advice on property retention etc.
  • All excess funds to credit card.

So far I have been achieving a lot of headway into the decluttering project.
Each day I have both DVD recorders copying from both video players a few
tapes a day. Its a slow process as its all done in real time but at least its
underway.

I have also been going through boxes and boxes of magazines
and tossing them. I had always intended to resell them on ebay
but with the ever increasing fee's and postage prices skyrocketing
I just cant be bothered anymore.

I have been sorting through 40 years worth of corrospondence !!
Fortunately a few years ago I did a big sort out and put them all
into years and senders etc. So I did the same with the past ten
years worth and the next plan is to scan it all for safekeeping and
throw it all out.

Its not that I have lost my sentimentalism - if I had I would be
tossing it without scanning it for posterity. I still enjoy re-reading
old letters - its like a window into my memory - prompting me to
remember events etc.

So scanning all that will be a pretty big job and I should probably do them all as PDFs not jpegs so I need to work out exactly how to scan a PDF. I think I need a program or something.

So you are probably wondering why I am saving for the Expedit cabinet when I am trying to minimise possessions etc.

When I got the new flat screen TV I set it up on the old buffet cabinet. Problem is - TV is so wide that there was no room for anything else on the cabinet - like my stereo or ornaments etc. In addition, the buffet was not build to hold the weight of the TV so the doors are starting to move out of line etc.  I also realised after week or two that I am just not a "sleek low line" type of person. I like things to go up the walls. I like height. And while I have eliminated tonnes of ornaments etc there are still a few favourites and treasured items that I like to have displayed.

When I originally looked at the Expedit cabinet in the Ikea catalogue - I thought it looked too small for my needs. But on new years eve a pal took me to Ikea and I checked it out properly and realised to my surprise it was just the perfect size for the 37inch TV. I measured the display cube shelves while I was there and when I got home I measured everything I owned ! To my delight I discovered that not only would all of my favourite ornaments fit in the cubes - but so would my stereo and cds ! So its perfect. There are also little drawers and purple plastic storage boxes that fit the cubes to put the stuff like instruction manuals etc away out of sight.

So I am currently putting some cash aside each fortnight to save up for it. Meanwhile I am plowing along with the ongoing garage sale because I will need the floor space back in order to build the Expedit! So I have advertised it on several free classifieds sites including easysell, craigslist and quokka.

Another week off and then its back to the real world. Sigh.
1 February 2009, Sunday
Can the first month of the year already be gone ? Seriously ?

So as you can see below I was quite motivated for the first 3 weeks of my 4 weeks break from work. That was ruined when my office rang to discuss the bully issue. Cannot fathom why they felt it was ok to bother me while I was on holidays. What they had to say could have easily waited until I returned to the office.
So I went from being motivated and excited about achieving all the goals I had set myself for the holiday period, to totally unmotivated and unable to achieve anything. So I stressed about the work issue all week and lay around watching DVDs and reading books and crossed absolutely nothing off my "To Do" list. I was seriously unimpressed with them and myself for allowing them to affect my holidays this way.

So I returned to work on the 19th to find utterly nothing had changed. Why would I expect it to ?

And I cant seem to get back into the motivated mood I was in pre xmas. So the ongoing decluttering chores that were meant to be continuing each weekend have come to a grinding halt. I am sure this will end soon and I can get back to normal.

I guess the most I have achieved recently has been decluttering my computer ! Moving a lot of stuff over to a portable hard drive and getting it off the desktop - maybe the puter will start running a bit faster !

Jools came over to watch the Australia Day fireworks. To my horror I discovered the "tree" in the carpark at grown enough since last year to almost kill our view ! I use the term tree loosely - its actually a taproot from a tree about 100 metres away. It needs to be chopped down before it wrecks the paving (and my view!). Anyway we had a gorgeous view of the fireworks displays on the city buildings and the huge lasers combing the skies. Piccies are in the phanfare albums now.

Feeling pretty foul today. Woken at 4am by the arrival of Main Roads Dept contractors. About 30 trucks, all with stereo's blaring and shouting over the top of the music, and those wretched vehicles with the "beep beep" when they are reversing. Did I mention this was 4am on a Sunday morning ? So after no sleep at all I crawl out to the petrol station to get the paper before the heat of the day sets in. One of the Main Roads workers had the stupidity to wish me a good morning. I think he regrets it now after I tore shreds off him for having no respect for a residential area at 4am on a Sunday morning.
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11 March 2009, Wednesday.
Yes I have been out of commission. The shit at work continues and I have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a General Anxiety Disorder as a result - oh bliss.

As a wonderful distraction a pal flew over from Queensland to keep me company at a series of 80s flashback gigs and we have been having a ball the past few days - as well as playing tourist round Perth - so the photo albums are currently being updated.

Also needed - a new right ear drum ! Note to self - do not watch concerts by leaning on the speakers !!!
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5 April 2009, Sunday.
You could say its been an accident prone week.
Last week I took a big tumble out of the show into my very small bathroom where there were a lot of options as to exactly which walls I would smash into ! So that resulted in a bruised knee, twisted toes, bruised face and overstretched shoulder.

Last night I went to a concert and came home with a toe completely split open !

The plan was:
The Who were playing at the stadium a couple of streets from my home and as my friend and I have been seeking cheap entertainment lately we had decided to take a picnic blanket and some fold up chairs and listen to the concert from outside the stadium.
But just before we got to the stadium two ladies came past us on the footpath and asked if we would like their tickets. We thought they were joking but they insisted they were leaving because the crowd were all standing as they were so short they couldnt see anything. Well no one turns down $320 worth of free concert tickets so we said thanks, stashed the fold up chairs behind a bin on a building site, and headed in during the 3rd song!
Turned out the tickets were for seats just 20 rows from the stage! And the ladies were right - everyone was standing. So we found a position by a barrier where we could comfortably see both the stage and the big screens and there we were !
Cant say I have ever been a big fan of The Who but there was no doubting they were legends. I recognised most of their biggest hits. The sound was big and lound and the video and lighting effects were great.

Unfortunately we were situated right in the path of the bouncers who were having a very busy job removing nasty drunks. Personally - I love alcohol and I love concerts - but in 30 years of concert going I have never felt the need to combine the two hobbies. And I have never understood why people can spend a small fortune of concert tickets and then write themselves off before the show even starts - when they wake the next day do they even remember they went to an expensive concert ??

So at one point we could see a couple of very huge drunk guys being evicted and they were coming towards us. After much push and shove between bouncers and drunken morons I copped the full brunt of a 150kg drunk full force on my left foot. I got in my fair share of punches to his kidneys before the bouncers got him away.

So standing there for the rest of the gig and I am wondering "is that wet grass seeping into my sandal, has someone spilt a drink on my foot, or could that actually be blood seeping through my sandal???" After the concert as we walked home, I stood under a streetlight and observed that it was indeed blood.

So we fetched our fold up chairs from their hidey place and wandered (or hobbled) back to my place where we met up with my friends who had actually paid to see the show!

Further investigations following a clean up with seriously stinging Dettol confirmed the toe was damaged. Huge split underneat and the toenail is split all the way thru. Its all a delightful shade of pale grey now - can only assume black is the next shade!

So that was our extremely cheap weekend of entertainment. Am going to ensure we hang out outside that stadium more often - who knows who else we can see for free !
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17 April 2009, Friday
Its hard to believe that 20 years ago this week I stood behind a bar in Uxbridge, London watching the Hillsborough stadium disaster unfold live on the screens around the bar. Watching 96 people being crushed to death right in front of our eyes. I still have all the next days newpapers stored away. I cant actually bring myself to look at them even all these years later. The photos that covered the front pages showing people crushed up against the fencing were so graphic - and it was days later that we were told the people in those photos were dead.
A few weeks later I found myself at the front of the largest crowd I have ever been in. Something like 105,000 filled Wembley Stadium for Cliff Richards 30th anniversary concert. There was no crowding - there were gaps between every person - no one pushed. In the backs of everyones minds was Hillsborough. Onto the stage came Gerry & the Pacemakers to sing the song that became the anthem of the disaster "You'll Never Walk Alone". There was not a dry eye in that entire stadium.
Such powerful memories. And I struggle to accept that it can possibly be 20 years already.
The big toe continues its healing process.
The split underneath is doing well - held together with superglue. I also used superglue across the nail halfways down where it had been split across.
So far the colour changes have been yellowy red tones - no blue or black bruising. I am hoping this means I get to keep my nail!

Not much else to go on about. Work continues to be shite. Next week it is a year since the person closest to me decided to choose a cult over their relationship with me. Its been a hard year but I grew to accept there was utterly nothing I could do to bring about a change.

Today must be something special - in the distance I can hear a church bell that has been tolling for hours.
17 May 2009, Sunday
On Friday we farewelled Charles 'Bud' Tingwell. A true great in the acting world. He was the actor's actor and the gentleman's gentleman. A talented man in so many fields, from stage and screen, to writing and directing. He of course passed away with a script by his side - still working hard at the age of 86.
As you know I run websites for actors Tom Burlinson and John Waters and purely by proxy have become a big fan of Bud's work due to the sheer volume of work he has done with my favorite actors since the 70s. In addition I couldnt help but admire a man of his calibre providing his talents to the comedy of the Working Dog crew in The Late Show and The Castle.
I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live on stage in The Man From Snowy River arena spectacular, never faltering despite being surrounded by charging horses, his distinctive voice resonating above the roar of hooves.
His website details his entire career in his own words.
Take a look - you will be so surprised at how many
TV shows and films you have actually seen him in.

VALE BUD. YOU WILL BE VERY MUCH MISSED,
NOT JUST BY THE ACTING COMMUNITY BUT
BY THOSE OF US WHO LIVE TO BE THE AUDIENCE.
What else has been happening ?
Well the smashed toenail is close to its last legs (pun intended). As Keith so well described - its flipping like a car bonnet!
Winter is seriously late - its mid May and we have broken a record from the mid 80s re amount of winter days without rain. I am reasonabley sure we also broke a record for amount of days without winter temperatures. For the past few weeks the TV weather man has been bored out of his skull "today, well another fine day overnight 10 with a high of 25. Tomorrow, well another fine day low of 10 high of 25". Really he could have pre-recorded his spiel a few weeks ago and gone on holidays! For me its quite perfect. Chilly at night but still pleasant during the day, not too hot. Rain is badly needed tho.

Yesterday West Aussies voted (yet again) to NOT have daylight saving. Its the 4th vote since the 1970's and the second time I have had the pleasure of voting on the winning side since I have been old enough to vote.  The Yes campaigners will simply never understand that aside from DLS just not being needed in WA, they cannot win referendums using ridiculous scare mongering and bully tactics. At the end of the day this latest $10 million dollar waste of time was a distractionary tactic by two loser politicians trying revive their extremely dead careers. Wave to them both as they now disappear into fading obscurity. Pathetic little boys with no more toys to play with.

What else. Still looking for jobs anywhere but here. My workplace continues to slide into oblivion, morphing slowly into a call centre. I am too hell bent on fixing too many issues but its becoming clearer that the Commissioner and his execs have utterly no interest in ensuring his department is staffed by talented knowledgable people. Instead they appear happy to employ non english speaking illiterates who are happy to read from a script all day and not utilise their brains. More and more I feel like I am working in a sheltered workshop. I beg people to use their own initiative, but if its not there in black and white type in front of them they simply cannot budge, they cannot be forced to develop an opinion. I dont want to become like them, I point blank refuse to switch my brain off for the rest of my life.

So the decluttering and ongoing garage sale continues. Everything must go. I want to and need to be free of the junk. I want moving house to become a simple and easy thing to do. Buy now and I will include steak knives !
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13 June 2009, Saturday - chilly
Its been one of those weeks.

On Monday night my damaged toe nail (see mention of being crushed at The Who Concert on 4th of April) finally came off. It revealed a nasty already dead new nail about 5mm long. It looks like a goats horn. So glad it is winter and I can cover it with shoes and socks.
On Tuesday morning I woke with a nasty earache. As I am not generally an earache kinda person and there were no other symptoms and it worsened through the day, I gave in and went to the doctors that evening and was diagnosed with an ear and throat infection - funny tho - the throat was not annoying me at all.
On Wednesday I woke and was getting ready for work. Bent down to get cereal out of the lower cupboard and heard a dreadful TWANG followed by a SNAP in my lower back - both very loud noises. I couldnt stand upright so I stood hunched over in the kitchen having a bit of a cry at the shock of the sound and pain. I stupidly went to work despite barely being able to walk upright and the usual 10 minute stroll took 30. I took a mass of codiene to get me through the day and was horrified to discover at 6pm when my phone shift was over that I could actually walk at all. After a bit of manouvering etc I was able to stand and hobble to the other end of the building where I found a friend still at work who could drive me home. Tho her preference was to drive me to a hospital - but honestly the idea of spending the entire night sitting in our 3rd world ER put me off.
So I struggled up my stairs and had a steaming hot shower then put the TENs machine on my lower back for 2 hours, then took a mass of drugs and curled into foetal position to sleep.
When I woke the back was much looser than the previous day - thank goodness. I was worried I had done something permenant. Its still sore - and walking up straight is hard, as is bending and twisting - but compared to what it was on Wednesday I am very relieved it has reduced.

In other news of the week - I harvested my first crop of mushrooms on Thursday - woohoo ! Very exciting for me to have kept something alive for 4 weeks ! And today there are already a new batch ready for harvesting.
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27 June 2009, Saturday
RIP
Farrah
&
Michael


Waking up yesterday morning to the newsflashes of the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson was part shock and part relief.
Relief for Farrah, who had been so sick for so long and deserved to be at peace.
Shock for Michael because it just came from nowhere.

As a child of the 70s and a teen of the 80s I just cannot remember a time in my life where I didnt know who these two icons were.
My lifelong crush on Ryan O'neal ensured I followed Farrahs career. And my love of music ensured there was always a radio nearby and would always guarantee a Jackson 5 or MJ solo song was playing somewhere.

I dont suppose I was ever what you would call an MJ fan. I dont own any of his records or CDs, I never went to his concerts. Even when he came to Perth in 1985 for a non singing guest appearance on Telethon and "appeared" outside the Entertainment Centre - ie no singing - just stood there and waved - I gave it a miss and didnt fancy joining the tens of thousands of kids who showed up!
But that doesnt stop me knowing the words to pretty much every song he ever sang, or appreciating his talented dancing, or loving his music videos. And it doesnt stop me appreciating the influence he has had on pop music in general over the past 40 years.

I just shared this story on facebook so I will put it here too.
The main memory that has been pouring through my head all day - back when I lived outside Dubbo in 84 I use to pass by a cemetary on the school bus & could see a grave that had a little blue cot on it. For some reason the song Ben came to my mind each day as we passed. Then one day a girl was staying with my neighbours & she caught the bus to school with me the next day. I pointed out the cot as we passed by & said "seeing that makes me sad" & she replied "its my baby brother Ben, we played Michael Jacksons song Ben at his funeral".
Its never left my mind. Whenever I hear the song it takes me straight back to sitting on that schoolbus and seeings that sweet little grave.
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28 June 2009, Sunday, cold and rainy!
Another goal achieved for 2009. If you scroll down the the botton where I wrote in January what I needed to buy this year you will see that I was pricing and sussing out different kinds of storage beds.
Jools was in need of a new laptop and Domayne (finally in the west) is next door to Harvey Normans in City West - basically the only place open on a Sunday - because of course we are in WA !
So you can only imagine what it was like there - utterly manic. We drove around the car park for more than 30 min until finally we stalked someone who was leaving and waiting for them to leave before pouncing on their bay! Then we had exactly 2 hours to achieve all our goals before the nasty wheel clamping man did his thing.
As you would all know - shopping anywhere other than online is my idea of hell - Sunday shopping during massive end of financial year sales with thousands of people pushing prams is even worse than hell !
I had done all my research and already new exactly which bed I wanted to look at and had my tape measure ready along with the dimensions of all the things I needed to be able to store etc. So my side of the shopping experience was easy.
Unfortunately not so for Jools - when I returned to her part of the store she was still waiting to attract the attention of salespeople, and when eventually one said they would be with her in an hour or so she decided to spend her dollars elsewhere!

So the bed gets delivered in about 8 weeks, ample time for me to get rid of the garage sale pile of stuff so there is room to build it etc !

Quite exciting really - I was thinking back to when I last had a bed with a bedhead. I realised it must have been in my teens ! And the storage side of it is all with a view to potentially downsizing "someday" in the future.

I really wish the politicians would take a wander thru Harveys on a Sunday. They would soon realise exactly how many people shop on a Sunday and why deregulating our ridiculous trading laws would mean we dont all have to cram ourselves into the only store open !
5 July 2009, Sunday, sunny and chilly.
Over the years I have had the great pleasure of meeting the people who entertained me and hung on my walls as a star struck child and a love struck teen. Today I met the one I seriously never thought I would encounter !

Dirk Benedict first made it to my bedroom wall in 1978 when I saw Battlestar Galactica - released first in Australia as a movie before the TV series. While all my friends fell for Richard Hatch playing the dark brooding Apollo, for me it was the cheeky cigar smoking womanising Starbuck who appealed immediately to me. The crush grew even bigger in the mid 80s when more posters joined the wall - the time The A Team. His sexy womanising (no typecasting!) Templeton "Faceman" Peck had me glued to the TV every Wednesday night at 7.30.

I honestly never thought this was an actor I would have a chance to meet unless I went to a sci fi convention in the US.

Instead - he came to me ! And while its felt for all the world like a sci fi convention - it was apparently a "pop culture" convention. Suffice to say there were Darth Vaders and Daleks walking around !

I have never been to any kind of convention in my life so it was quite a bizarre experience. My oldest dearest friend Laurel came with me to boost my confidence. We strolled into the big hall and towards the signing tables. Dirk was the only one at his post and there was only 1 person in the queue (they had closed the queues so he could move to his seminar next).

For the past two nights I had rehearsed my little "Thank you for coming to Perth" line that I thought would be the only thing I would have a chance to say to him. Little did I know.

So I finally walk up and say hi and my line and present my 21 year old copy of his autobiography about his battle with cancer in the 70s, Confessions Of A Kamikaze Cowboy for an autograph. Little did I know the hard cover version was rare and from the first printing. (I bought it when I lived in Lake Tahoe USA in 1988). He was amazed to see it and went thru it from cover to cover telling me all the bits that were different to the paperback version.
He talked for about 15 minutes and my poor brain was going "argh I only prepared one line to say!" !!!!
I then said "I dont need this one signed but just wanted to say its one of my true faves" and pulled out my Ruckus dvd which he grabbed and oohed and ahhed over the cover and asked if I had listed to the commentary and then gave my unknowing friend a rundown of the script and said it was also his fave movie.

I was kinda pleased that I didnt take a Battlestar or A Team poster to be signed - it was nice that the book generated so my conversation.

Then his minder said they had to walk to the seminar and Dirk asked us if we were coming along, I said I wasnt sure where it was and his minder said "come on walk with us". So there we are, my friend and I on a lengthy stroll with him across the Claremont Showgrounds and still my poor brain is trying to match his lovely conversation skills!

So we sat thru his seminar which was very amusing and covered many topics. The guy that plays Leonard "Bones" McCoy - in the new Star Trek (Karl Urban) was sitting in the audience with George (Dirks gorgeous son who has inherited the looks and the hair!) and he kept being silly and calling out hilarious questions.

Then we left to walk back to the main place to queue for photo sessions and low and behold on the walk back Dirk appeared beside us and started chatting away again so I finally put my mouth in gear and asked him about his time in the UK Big Brother house - which put him on a hilarious roll of stories because no one had asked him about it in the seminar. So we laughed the whole way back and then I said I was joining the photo queue so I would see him in that soon and that I was kinda feeling like a stalker !.

About an hour of standing in the queue and finally I get called in. We had the lovely photo and he gave me a kiss on the cheek and said "well its farewell from the kamikaze cowboy, thanks for hanging onto my book for so long." and I said "well I guess technically its farewell from the kamikaze cowgirl as that is my name on your internet forum !" and he laughed and said "wow you must have joined up really early in the peace to have got that one before anyone else!".

He asked me about where he could see one of our famous sunsets over the ocean so I gave him a few suggestions and also a couple of scenic lookouts of the city like Kings Park if he had time.

Then I went home on a really big high !

SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
11 September 2009, Friday
Hard to believe its been 2 months since I updated my blog. This must be life when I havent holidayed anywhere, or been to see any concerts or musicals in AGES.

Hard to also believe that its now 8 years since "9/11" happened live in front of our eyes.
I am remembering it this year with the photo of the Falling Man and would like to share this article with you about this photo.
On that day (or evening here) what struck me most was the people now known as the "jumpers". With my dreadful stair phobia I know damn well you would not have persuaded me down a 100 flights of stairs. So I have always known that if I was in a similar position as those people on that day, that I too would have "flown" out a window instead.

So what have I been doing the past two months. Seems to be just working and home. Its been consistenty raining that entire time so I have felt a little house bound at times.  While we have apparently had our cloudiest sun free winter in decades, and our wettest winter in terms of basically rain all day every day - we havent actually had enough rain to reach our winter average. Its been persistent but not torrential.

And this week has been wet and cyclonic. Very strong winds. I was actually blown into oncoming traffic on Thursday night when a big gust took hold of me and my brolly.
At work its been lots and lots of overtime (a very rare thing in our department so I have been saying yes at every opportunity) and all the cash is going towards the big TV which ensures it will be paid off before the interest kicks in in November (suck it GE !).
And some new experiences to add to the resume. For the past few weeks I have been on a selection panel interviewing job applicants and reviewing written applications and ringing referees etc for both WA and NSW. Its been interesting in many ways. In WA the applicants were so overqualified for the low temp positions we were advertising. It has made me realise the private industry is really struggling. In the NSW applicants the sheer lack of literacy has astounded me - particularly in the young university grads and the mature aged women. Its disgraceful. I have always felt my complete lack of education was barrier - yet I have been unemployed for 6 months in the past 25 years and my resume and written applications look top class next to some of those I have had the displeasure of reading in the past few weeks.

Schools need to go back to the basics of the three R's. Its clearly a lost art.

So - some things to look forward to - tho still no holidays :(.  I have Chris Isaak concerts next week, followed by John Farnham in early October. Early next year I have the big Cliff and the Shadows 50th anniversary concert (makes me feel old to think I went to the 30th anniversary gig in London !) then the fantastic musical Chicago comes to Perth.
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15 September 2009, Wednesday
RIP Patrick Swayze.
I first laid eyes on you in The Outsiders. While all my friends were mooning over the young cute lads in the cast, I was watching the hunky older guy in the background. The came the post apocalyptic Red Dawn and of course the mini series North and South. By the end of the 80s we had discovered he could also dance and sing and Dirty Dancing became second only as my most watched movie of all time (only slightly below Rocky Horror!). It only got better as Roadhouse, Ghost and Point Break came along, then he put on a dress in To Wong Fu and bedazzled us with his grace.

I had the pleasure of meeting him at a party in LA in 1988. He and his gorgeous wife were two of the nicest and most genuine people I met in the time I lived there. And if it wasnt for his wifes persistence I would never have met Harrison Ford that same night !

May he rest in peace and may we remember him with his fantastic body of work that he has left for us.
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19 September 2009, Saturday. Chris Isaak Week :)
Ahhhhhhhh my favourite boy has been back in my town. Life is good.

This time around he played at Challenge Stadium - a sports complex where 3000 concert goers have to compete for parking with parents dropping kids off for gymnastics and athletics training - seriously! Once again Perth is shown up badly for its complete lack of decent venues, and Isaak's promotor Andrew McManus is shown up for his money making preferences over his giving a damn for the paying concert going public. Rather than put quality performers in a venue that suits their personality and their acoustic quality he just shoves them in a basketball hall and gives the audiences rows of seats borrowed from the local scout hall (ie built for 10 year olds bums not adult sized bums). So as rows and rows of grown adults of all shapes and sizes find themselves turning to sit at 45 degree angles in order to fit and practically becoming related to the people on either side of them, thoughts are not of the incoming night of music but of where the nearest chiropractors office is located.

So - night number one was Wednesday. Jools and I got there at about 7.30ish and made our way to our 4th row seats, but still had a while to wait for the support act - some young lass with a kinda folksy sound, then an interval, but arriving any later would have meant basically no parking to be found. McManus came out to auction an autographed and charicatured guitar for the cancer charity the gigs were in aid of - I was astounded when the final price was $12,000 after some impressive bidding by 2 very keen men in the crowd. The lucky buyer was then taken backstage to have the guitar personalised to him by Mr Isaak.

Finally Isaak and Silvertone bounded on stage, Isaak suited up in black with blue trim while the boys were in black with white trims. Very swish. two hours of music followed. All the big crowd favourites, along with some of my favourites (lesser known ones from older albums) and a great selection from the latest album which was great to finally hear live. He asked the crowd to get up and dance - which they did until security sent them all back to their seats. He smiled direct into peoples camera lenses - while security busily ran around telling people to put their camera's away. Honestly Perth - its OK to let paraletically drunken morons into gigs but god forbid someone pulls out a weaponlike camera for a happy snap!

Despite all that - the Man and his band were, as usual, brilliant entertainers. And it was lovely that they gave bass guitarist Roly a chance to sing one of his own songs, the recently Grammy awarded Killing The Blues. So nice to see him in the spotlight. All too soon those two hours were over and the mirrored suited encore had made its way off the stage.

Night two was Thursday: This time it was a much earlier arrival for Sharls and I. We had VIP tickets and had to be there by 6pm. Fortunately not only did that mean there was ample parking spots, it also meant the security guards were not yet out collecting parking fee's!
We went to the meeting place and were given our VIP passes then led into the venue where we joined a queue of about 50 people to be "greeted" by Chris and Kenney and have photos taken with them. We were then treated to a couple of songs as they stood among us and a few gags. Then they were off to get ready for the show. I did ask Chris where Roly and Hershel were and he said it was just him and Kenney for this bit. Such a shame as I had brought alone Roly's CD to be signed and to tell him how much I had been enjoying his solo music. I did manage to tell Chris that the previous nights show rocked and that I loved how many of the new songs were in the set list.

I took aside the head security guy and asked him what the go was with camera's. I reminded him that neither the tickets, nor any external signage stated cameras were not allowed and therefore his staff had no legal right to prevent photos being taken. He stated that he had told last nights staff to only approach those with "large or professional cameras". I asked what qualifications his staff had to tell one camera from the other - given that tiny matchbox sized cameras could be 10megapixels and 10optical zoom and produce far more professional photos than an older "large" camera. And why should I be penalised just because I preferred a camera that actually looked and felt like a real camera and not a mobile phone or cigarette packet. I stated there was utterly no equality in his instructions, especially since directly in front of me last night was a woman with a $10,000 nikon with a zoom lens longer than my arm - but she managed to hide it from security by staying behind her friend. Yet I got told off.  He agreed there was inequality and that he would instruct staff only to approach people using a flash. I suggested then that if the artist asked people to get up and dance - it was rude to have them forced back to seats.

The "VIPs" were then basically "let go". I think the majority of us expected that the promised "private function" would be in an actual room - not the space in front of the stage. And the majority also assumed the promised "merchandise and signings" as mentioned in the original booking details were going to happen ! Sadly not. Instead we were paraded out of the stadium and advised the doors reopened in an hour and the signage to the "bar" was pointed out.  We followed the signs (still assuming we were going somewhere impressive to drink and chat with the band) only to find ourselves in an empty cavernous gymnasium that smelt like - well as one guy said - decades of putrid feet. There in the middle of the room were staff at a table with alcohol FOR SALE!  It wasnt even included in our VIP ticket!

So there are 50 of us in a room that could have held a thousand, holding our breath so as not to pass out from the stench, when one woman couldnt hold back as she yelled "WOW just cant beat the atmosphere!".  We all laughed and realised we had over 2 hours to kill before the actual concert. In a big stinky room - what else was there to do but sit and get to know each other.  Well for me it was educating the Isaak Virgins. Yes he isnt married, yes he really is 53, yes he really does have plenty of songs other than Wicked Game, no the ring on his left ring finger is not a wedding ring, yes I have met him, lots, yes he is a nice guy. Blah Blah Blah. Discussions finally turned to comparisons between Perths many crappy venues!

Finally the hours have dragged by and we make our way to our front row seats. Once again we are positioning ourselves for the "not so squeezy" car commercial routine. Out came McManus to auction off another guitar. The global economic crisis must have hit overnight because this time they only got $10,000.

Then just as the lights went down, nearby security advised us that the two end seats were empty so everyone wiggled along a bit and put a couple of inches between each other with a sigh of relief!!!

Out came the boys and to my surprise they started with a whole new set list just to keep me on my game !!  Highly unusual.  Tonight's suits are slightly different - Isaak in black with pink trim (as only he can pull off) and Silvertone replendant in black with flame coloured trims.

I immediately noticed that security were definitely only approaching those using flashes so I was content to set about practicing my concert photography on my favourite side profile in the music business. When Isaak asked us to get up and dance - Sharls and I went right up to the stage to dance away and I was able to take a good series of photos from different angles. After a few songs security moved people back to their seats but surprisingly they later signalled to us that it was ok to get up again - so off we went back to our possie below Isaaks feet for the rest of the show.

While he mostly did the same songs as the previous night - I did notice a lot of changes, some removed and some added and different orders. He started and ended with totally different songs on each night. Gone are the days where he ended every gig with Forever Blue - it didnt even feature on either night. I once told him years ago it was singlehandly the biggest downer of a song to end a gig on ! He must have listened because this time he chose big loud numbers to end on a high !!

We left the stadium and chatted with all the Isaak Virgins who by now were confirmed fans. We headed to the burger van as we were famished and discovered this was no tacky greasy van - this was top quality Harvey Fresh beef and steak burgers - they even toasted the buns! While there we met the lucky man who had the winning bid on the guitar so we asked him all about his experience and he was seriously chuffed and already planning how he would display the guitar in his home because Isaak had drawn on both sides so it couldnt just be hung on a wall! (I spent the rest of the night wondering where I knew him from and I think I worked out he was in the top 20 of Idol back in 2001 !!). I am glad it went to a fan. He was adamant it was going nowhere near ebay. His wife was on a high because when Isaak asked her name - he immediately sung her a song with her name in it. The boy is soooo smooth !

Anyway - I sit here tonight wishing my concert week wasnt over. Once of these years I will have to do the whole "round oz tour" again so the music doesnt end so soon. 

I also sit here wondering who coughed germs all over me as my throat has started to feel like sandpaper in recent hours and my nose has started running. DAMMIT.

Anyway - enjoy the little sample of my gig photos below, and click on them to go to my phanfare albums to see more along with some great videos from both nights and the VIP private show.
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4 October 2009, Sunday
So, interesting to wake up today feeling 91 instead of 41. Why? you ask ??

Yesterday was lovely and sunny and so I opened all the windows and aired the apartment and did a heap of housework.

Housework in dangerous for your health - as I am sure many of you will testify !!

I was using the little dustbuster to suck up the dust along the gap between the carpet and the wall in the spare room. I have utterly no idea what happened next but I found myself falling into a badly tangled mess with the clothes rack and the wall - with a dozen heavy wooden hangers hitting my head!

So I lay there for about 5 minutes saying a tearful mantra of "make the pain stop make the pain stop make the pain stop". Before attempting to get up and assess the damage.

Established that the metal clothes rack had left its mark on both knees, the right hip, and the right shoulder. The shins were ouchy. The wrists were ouchy. And the right big toe was seriously ouchie. The rib cage was big ouchie.

So this morning it was time to assess the true damage - what was seriously hurt and what was bruised.

The damage list: well the right big toe is broken and multiple shades of red and black. The right ribs are not cracked but a few are bruised. So breathing is ok by touching is hurtie. The knees both have spectacular metal pole shaped bruises that goe about three quarters of the way round each. The shins have a couple of nice sized bruises. The right hip is bruised.

Happy birthday to me ! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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12 October 2009, Monday
I am having another one of those "bloody hell I am old and how can THAT be 20 years ago already" moments.

Today 20 years ago, it was a Thursday at noon and I was sitting in a London registry office getting married.

How can I possibly be old enough to have been married 20 years ago.

WHAT KINDA FOOL WAS I ?????????????? 

A 21 year old fool for sure!  I work with 21 year olds now and I think of them as kids. Certainly not old enough to be working on the other side of the world and marrying morons.

Never ever NEVER again !

Maybe I should get off my butt and get a bloody divorce someday ?

How does one divorce a bigamist ??? Hmmm sounds too complicated and expensive !!
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9 October 2009, Friday
Went to see John Farnham in concert tonight. Very different gig. Always seen him in big entertainment centre stadium style gigs over the past 25 years. Tonights was in the Burswood Theatre in front of 2000 lucky folks and we had 4th row fab seats.
The band was perfection as always and Farnsey was spectacular as ever. The voice is still finely tuned, the gags are still hilariously corny.  He is older, wiser, tubbier and balder, but hey - so were most of the audience.

Photos and videos have been added to the phanfare albums.
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22 November 2009, Sunday.
This week I seemed to be getting messages from the universe.  I woke to the radio one morning when the star sign predictions for the day said I should cut down on the emotional spending.  Later in the week one of the morning shows astrologists said a similar thing.

Then all the things I had ordered online started arriving and I realised they were right.

Despite a year of decluttering and doing really well with it - in the past couple of weeks I have found myself buying things online. It doesnt help that the Aussie dollar is making things in the US seem soooo cheap.

So I got a friend in the US to buy me a new camera and transferred the funds to them via Paypal. Even with postage and insurance I came out $300 in front on Aussie prices for the same camera. Its a Canon SX20is. The newest generation of my 2006 S2is. It has all the features I already loved, plus dozens of major improvements and extras like 20 optical zoom, HD video, massively increased ISO and much more.

Hmmmmm I need a holiday to test it all out!

Also ordered some stunning silicone purple kitchen utensils from the US and threw out all the yucky 20 year old egg flips and spatula's etc. The utensils drawer looks so lovely and co-ordinated. !!!!

And arriving next week is a huge canvas print. I have been going to art sales a lot looking for something large and purple that appeals - but everything was either too flowery or too geometric and hard/harsh. Then a friend on a photo forum put up a stunning photo he had taken of a purple water droplet and ripples. It really appealed to me - simple and soothing. I asked if I could buy it and instead he generously sent me the full resolution version to do with what I wanted. So I have ordered a really good quality canvas print featuring the photo via geniusprint.com.au - an online company many of my friends have used - much better quality stuff than places like Harvey Norman.

So me thinks that is more than enough spending this month ! I think it is an after effect of not having been on any holidays this year and needing some kind of distraction.

Meanwhile the storage bed that I ordered back in the June end of financial year sales finally arrived. It still has to be built and I also want to wrap the wooden base in black velvet as the bases only came in "non Karina colours". So I orded the bedhead in black and the base in a real dark brown. I have tonnes of black velvet from a few years ago when I bought too much for a curtain project.
So I got a friend to take me to Bunnings the other week to buy a furniture staplegun. Remember the days when Bunnings was staffed by useful experienced staff - well no more - now they are staffed by people who have been in the country for 5 minutes and have never actually seen tools, let alone furniture !  So I had to entrust my purchase to their supposed experience and believed them when they said "all staples fit all staplers".
Then after spending all of last weekend feeling like a moron because I couldnt work out how to load the staples I realised it was because they were very definitely a tiny millimetre too wide.
So I rang Bunnings and was put through to a far more experienced man who confirmed yes there were several widths. So once again I had to find someone to give me a lift there yesterday where a much nicer and much more informative sales man was able to get me the proper staples and organise a refund etc of the others.

But today I simply dont have the energy to start the task of dragging the heavy wooden lengths around and covering them in the velvet. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh its all too hard !
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19 December 2009, Saturday.
As I sit here writing my end of year message webpage and making the paper cards for those people in my life that are still not computery folk, I realise this has been a very quiet blog this year. It is surely true that all work and no play has made Karina a dul dull girl.
Today I start 3 weeks holidays, only they are not holidays where I board a plane and venture somewhere exciting. Instead its another "stay at home and achieve some big chores" kinda vacation !
The biggest goal is to call a charity or refuge and get them to come and collect the last of the garage sale so I can have my living room floor back.
The rest of the time should be spent transferring video's to DVD, building the new bed (a bad back has delayed it to date), making shelves for the book cases, and catching up with friends.

The past few weeks at work have been mental. With 7 new starters in my team I have had a brain stuck in Ground Hog Day. Repeat repeat repeat! And some bright spark nominated me for a position as an "expert". This has meant that I have spent 4 to 5 hours a day reading online manuals to learn the new $800 mil computer program that will be launched in Feb/March. The goal being that I and 7 others will be "expert" enough to train everyone else next year.  Problem is - this is not remotely my strong point ! I cant read manuals and instantly know how something works. My idea of learning a new program is to just madly click on things till I eventually work it out.  So I have been sitting at work till after 7pm every night trying to make head or tail out of all the gobble-dee-gook when the office is quiet and empty.

Doing the back in again during that period didnt help. It was the identical pain as when it happened back in June - only worse. I was off work for several days and unable to stand or walk until a pal came over and did some remedial massage on either side of the spine. The following day there was a series of very loud cracking sounds and I was able to move a bit. It still took a full week for all mobility to return. My pal thinks it may be a bulging disc so I will have to try and squeeze a doctors appointment in during my break.

So what else - I have several TV series saved to my DVD recorder hard drive so I will be watching them each night instead of being tortured by non ratings rubbish and bad xmas movies.

Today was a putrid muggy 37 degrees due to a cyclone in the north. I went outside to photograph the rather spectacular sunset only to be shocked by the sudden 20 minute hot downpour that came from nowhere !
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31 December 2009. Thursday.
The end of the year and I really dont feel like I achieved much at all in 2009, and tomorrow we enter "the future". At least it feel like the future when you write 2010.

I have 3 weeks off work. The whole week before xmas and then I dont return to work until Jan 11. Need the break because the big computer program changeover happens on Australia Day and I am going to be sooo busy after that.

Just scrolled down to find my new year resolutions for 2009 - did I achieve any ?

So - my 2009 new years resolutions:
  • Pay off TV & DVD recorder before interest free period ends.  DONE !!!
  • Save for Ikea Expedit TV Cabinet (pictured right).   ALMOST DONE
  • Save for a storage bed with headboard (similar to pic below).  DONE !
  • Continue decluttering and sorting.  DONE
  • Continue ongoing garage sale.  DONE
  • Get financial advice on property retention etc.  NOT DONE
  • All excess funds to credit card.  NOT DONE

Ok I guess that doesnt sound toooo bad. Until I explain that I bought the storage bed in June, it got delivered in October, and today it remains stacked against the wall and spread across the floor ! Why - because it didnt come in a colour I wanted so I decided i would cover it in black velvet. Its half done now and I am wishing I chose to paint it instead. I had no idea how much force a staple gun could have. I can only manage 5 staples then my RSI arm packs it in. Slowly and steadily it will get done.
The Ikea cabinet for the telly etc. Well I saved up enough money and went into Ikea only to find the white one had been replaced with brown (this is becoming a pattern). So I decided to set aside further funds and get a posher unit from Freedom. Saved all year only to discover that Freedom advertises things they have never had in stock and are never likely to have it stock - yes I have sent a "false advertising" complaint in.
The decluttering pile took up half my living room for 14 months and while I sold quite a lot of things and gave a lot away to the Vic bushfires appeals, I decided it was time everything went - once and for all. I started ringing around all the charities and most of their responses left me knowing that I will never ever donate to the Red Cross, the Salvo's, Good Sammys etc ever again. I cannot fathom how fussy and rude they are. "Oh at this time of the year we only want toys". Oh excuse me - so poor people would prefer a stuffed toy over brand new linen and cooking implements and crockery. FINE !
Finally I tried a small womens refuge and they advised they would greatfully accept anything as it all went into a little shop that was open to the public to raise funds, but when battered women need to set up a home they can chose whatever they need for free. Unfortunately their man with the delivery van was on holidays so the goal was not to be achieved in 2009.

Christmas. Well generally the plan is to do nothing, as usual. Watch dvds and avoid all the crappy xmas mush on telly. But this year Keith was visiting from Sydney so we decided we would do a proper meal and yes Karina cooked. So after a last minute shopping expedition to my new Coles I located the last remaining turkey roll and bunged that in the oven with lots of yummy veg. Meanwhile I made triple layered alco jellys (ie orange with coitreau, green with midori, yellow with vodka), an antipasto platter full of goodies, and Keith arrived with the Smirnoffs !!!

It was a stinking hot day so the aircon was switched to frigid. We lazed around and ate and drank and then Jools dropped by for a catch up (we all met when we worked together back in 1993 !!). Then we watched Australia with lovely Hugh and Nicole, pausing to pop out and photograph the stunning sunset. (See photos in the phanfare albums).

Boxing day consisted of a yummy bacony and tomato sauce sanger breaky !!!!!!

In the week between Xmas and NYE I really didnt do much other than scanning photos. I was very unmotivated.
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BLOG ARCHIVES: 11 Jan 2009 - 31 Dec 2009