(*) Easter Salutations

Merry happy Easter Greetings to all!

Wishing Paige and all my bloggie readers a merry happy Easter Break - enjoy yourselves with your loved-ones - wherever you are, irrespective of your worldview! Do not overdose on rabbit poop... sorry, I mean Easter chocolate (if that's even possible, naturally!)

I'm going thru one of my periods of feeling lonely again. About 75% of the time I'm feeling quite comfortable and happy being single, but every now and again I really start to miss just having someone to share myself with again. Just having someone around, I guess, to appreciate and have someone to talk to and to listen - just listen. It comes and goes... I'm a very selfish individual who now appreciates his own time and space (since the divorce), so it'd be really 'interesting' if anyone came along at the moment, in that regards. But - I'm not even looking. The whole 'dating' thing is blech - I'd rather just have a good friend than having to do the whole 'dating' thing! I think that's what I miss most - having a best-friend/companion always there to talk to, be with and listen to. 10 years in that kind-of relationship is rather habit-forming, you know! lol. But I'm not rushing out seeking that again at the moment. If someone comes along, I'll be playing things very slowly - well, as slowly as a lonely bloke can survive, that is! lol. Oh gawd, I crap on...

Whilst mum's kidneys are kaput, she's doing almost well enough now for the doctors to consider evaluating her for palliative care at her own home! Gosh! ('Palliative care' simply means just keeping her comfortable until things take their final course.) We're all quite amazed that this could be even happening, as we all expected her to be dead by now - I know that sounds callous, but it's reality. Secretly, I think the hospital doesn't want her taking up their valuable bed space... I mean, it took them three days to find her a bed in the first place! Sheesh! Me? A cynic? Never!

I finally managed to arrange a time to meet with a counsellor for M and I re. a mediation get-together - but M can't make it for next Tuesday... and the counsellor-person is only available Tuesdays! Oh well... I think I'm more upset and stressed about it than I realise. That's life - but it just drains you. I feel so blah sometimes. My head is sore from banging on the wall for so long.

But at least my big toe-nail is still whole - I'm thankful for little things!

I'll be seeing the boys on Sunday - at last! It's been about three bloody weeks - three weeks TOO long for me, I'm telling you. They're enjoying themselves out on their new place... they went out on a 'paddock basher' (ie. an old bommie unregistered car) and checked out all the fences this morning. How cool is that? I check our fences here - sweeping the occasional cobweb away with a straw broom! And I sure don't need a paddock basher to do that... perhaps just a pair of ol' rubber thongs (ie. 'flip-flops' to the USA-ians! We are not so weird to wear 'rubber thongs' down here you know... well, not that I know of at least... it's getting too cold now anyhow).

Drats. I didn't mean to sound so bloody down in this post! I guess that's just how I'm feeling. I'm not really down, just a little flat. I just miss having someone to talk things thru with. Thoon is good value, but his conversational language skills are fairly limited at this stage...

---

On This 25th Day of March...

Born: Elton John 1947; Aretha Franklin 1942.
Died: King Faisal (Saudi Arabia, 1975).
Events: Greek Independence 1821; Good Friday - Easter.
Useless Trivia:  Finster's Law: "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
My Soundtrack: Hoodoo Gurus "Ampology" CD.
Footwear: naked - or nude...? Art - or smut...?
Weather: gloriously sunny, light breeze, cloudless, low 20's.

On a large flat TV screen
The war from Iraq could be seen
The coalition of the willing
Found it so thrilling
But the rest of us found it obscene.

---

Cyalayta
Mal (ie. Mallard d'Quackers)   :o)
Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net

"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---

Just quickly

Just a quick one... silly ISP has not processed my cheque payment yet, so hopefully by Saturday I'll be back online again! Grrr ISP's!
Mum's responding extremely well to her treatment - so much so the doctors can't believe she's still alive! lol
Hope your Easter weekend is more than just another weekend - it seems that way for me, bugger it.

---

Cyalayta
Mal (ie. Mallard d'Quackers)   :o)
Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net

---

Its

They're back - again! Ack!

---

How Many........
1. ...computer-related gadgets do you own? Ummm... PC, printer, modem, scanner, digital camera.
2. ...pictures on your living room walls? Three... there's a few in the hallway too, even in the loo! (Well, not 'in' the loo...)
3. ...magnets on your refrigerator? About 10, from all different places, times...
4. ...reference books in your bookshelves? About 25+
5. ...boxes of cereal in your cupboards? Three in mine, rice bubbles, wheat biscuits, chocolate puffs! (blush!)
6. ...lamps in your house? 2 - 1 next to the table, and 1 on my desk.
7. ...times a week do you shop for groceries? Just once a week.
8. ...magazines do you subscribe to? None.
9. ...tv programs do you watch on a regular basis? The Simpsons every night @ 6pm... then the National News.
10. ...items on your bathroom counter that don't really need to be there? Hmmm... does a few stray gray hairs count...?

---

Week 111
I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Stink:: Devro
   
2. Renewal:: Licence
   
3. I remember...:: Jeep
   
4. Loneliness:: I want to be alone with someone
   
5. Ooooh:: aahhh, Glen McGrath!
   
6. For real:: the pain in my chest from seperation
   
7. Titanium:: hips
   
8. Get down:: and boogie
   
9. Rupture:: a bad experience with the Rapture?!?
   
10. Dramatic:: Shakespeare
    

---

I: 'Could be worse...'
F: 'How...?'
I: 'It could be raining...'

A: 'I met a man with a wooden leg named Smith.'
B: 'What was the name of his other leg?'

(*) Update on my mum

I had to come home - I've managed to pick up a nasty head-cold... I'm sure that's the last thing mum needs right now! I came home Sunday arvo, after staying in Penrith/Springwood since Thursday. Basically, mum is in hospital to stay. Her kidneys and heart are not working properly - they aren't getting rid of her own fluids effectively - and there's nothing they can do to fix it. She's comfortable, which is good, and she's responded well to the treatment. She was stuck in Emergency for 3 days - a bed wasn't available for her! (And the Govt says there's nothing wrong with our health system!!!) Luckily an ambulance forced her hand to get her stubborn butt into hospital on Wednesday, otherwise she would have died alone at home - drowning in her own fluids - not a pleasant prospect, as you could imagine! She's fully alert and aware of what's happening to her - she asked me to co-sign her 'do not resuscitate' form, which was pretty heavy, but that's what she wants - we all agreed. She just doesn't want to drag on and on and on like this, so we have to just wait and see how things keep progressing. I spoke with her this arvo, and although she's obviously pretty damn sick, she's going quite well, considering.

I'm emotionally very well. Being with my brother keeps things steady for me - we can all laugh aside the nerves pretty easily, which eases things for all of us.

I spoke with JD yesterday - he sounded as happy as I'd ever heard him! Their move to their new place went well, and they're still excited exploring all the ins and outs of 30 acres! The school bus picks them up right at their front gate at 7.50am - that's an early start, but JD's usually up at 5.30 to see his stepdad before he goes off to the farm to work for the day. Sheesh - you won't see me awake and functioning at 5.30 in the morning these days! lol.

That's all for now - fuzzy head and fuzzy brain needs some sleepies. Oh yeah - that big toenail is still there! lol.

---

On This 22nd Day of March...
Born: Confucius 571 BC; Keith Relf (Yardbird, 1943); Harry Vanda (Easybeat, 194?); Andrew Lloyd Webber (songster, 1948); Chico Marx (Marx Bros, 1887).
Events: The Beatles release their 'Please Please Me' LP in 1963.
Useless Trivia: 'Condor' station in Bolivia is the world's highest railway station at 4,786 m (15,705 ft).
My Soundtrack: Elton John "Songs From the West Coast"
Weather: light rain, mid to high teens, light breeze.

There was a strange creature named Marks
Whose idea of diversions and larks
Was stirring up tramps
Disturbing boys' camps
And defacing nude statues in parks.

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

(*) Mum's in hospital

I got a call from my sister-in-law this arvo... mum was so breathless that the ambos (ambulance officers) had to convince her to go to hospital today - stubborn old thing that she is! Once she finally got some oxygen happening properly, she settled down a bit, but she's none too good. She's at Nepean Hospital, Sydney. I rang her last night, and i think I said she was breathless just getting to the phone. My brother called her last night as well, and she did the same thing to him - too breathless to talk much at all. When her home carer came in this morning, she was sitting in her arm-chair wheezing away, so she called the ambos. Apparently mum doesn't even sleep in her bed anymore, but sits up in her armchair napping. As a result, the fluid build-up in her lungs is pretty horrific. But she's a lot better right now tho, but still in hospital.

Needless to say, I'm not just feeling a bit 'down', but damn rightly depressed! I hate feeling like this! I've been trying things all arvo to try and snap myself out of it, but nowt seems to work, dammit! I mean - even a good dose of The Beatles didn't do the trick! Ack! lol

Got an appointment with my Job Network provider first thing in the morning. I have no motivation whatsoever with that carp at the moment, and afterwards I'll drive the 2+ hours down to the hospital. To top it all off, I have no idea when I'll be able to see the boys again in the near future... they have been made to be kept 'busy'. Blah blah blah.

At least my toenail on my left big toe hasn't come off yet... owch! lol.

Cyalayta
Mallard d'Quackers
(Real Name: Cyril Austin Walters) :p

(*) Beware the ides of March

One night a few evenings' ago, my housemate comes home from work, carrying a large white cardboard carton in her arms. As she walked past me into the kitchen, she quickly said one word, putting the box on the kitchen bench. As she was rushing straight back out again, she turned and walked straight into her room to get changed. I didn't quite hear what she said when she'd first walked in - but I'm sure I must have misheard what I thought she couldn't have said... inside the box was NOT what I thought she said was 'porn'... but 'corn'!!! About 10 cobs of farm-fresh corn! I laffed and laffed for hours at that one! Well, now we have a box of the world's only R-rated corn... ok ok, you had to be there...

---

I was greeted at my front door yesterday evening by a very cute and small black rabbit - about the size of your foot, it was. Very fluffy, cute, twitchy nose - the works. I was standing admiring its' cuteness, when one of the small cowardly local cats - resplendent with jingle-jangle bells around its' neck - sprung from behind a shrubbery and chased the poor little black fluff-ball away at great speed up the driveway! Boo hoo! Ahh, the wonders of country urbanity, ehhh...?

---

Mum was so breathless tonight, that she couldn't even talk for very long on the phone. Hmmm... I must have interrupted her 826th push-up or something, maybe...? Gees, you've gotta laff... what else can you do in the face of impending death?

---

Out of a scale of 10, I'm running at about a 5.5 - 6 at the moment. How do you rate yourself at the moment out of 10? It's a foolishly-simple self-diagnostic test.

---

At last! The ultimate online definition collection you've been searching for over all these wasted and fruitless years! The one, the only, the fantasmagorical, the why-would-you-bother - Diconary !!!

---

(Thanx Trishy for the image!)

---

On This 15th Day of March...
Born: Mike Love (singer, 1941); Ry Cooder (muso, 1947); Phil Lesh (muso, 1940); Lightnin' Hopkins (blues muso, 1912); Sly Stone (muso, 1944).
Died: Julius Caesar 44BC - 'Beware the Ides of March'.
Events: 'Lady Madonna' single (Beatles), 1968.
Useless Trivia: It's impossible to fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times. Try it!
My Soundtrack: 1503 2BS; the bubbles in Thoon's tank...
Weather: yet another glorious Autumn day, with copious sunshine and slight bread.

An elephant born in Tibet
One day in its cage wouldn't get.
So its keeper stood near,
Stuck a hose in its ear
And invented the first Jumbo jet.

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---

(*) Today - it works! Go figure!

Yesterday - no go. Today - it's working - not at 100%, but it's working! Go figure! Grrr... Windows! lol Anyway, here's a few photos I took yesterday arvo around here. Click on a link to view them in all their panoramic glory! Enjoy.

---

Here's some views of the boys' new place, about 30kms from here. Beautiful rolling hills and lots of trees. Even this mob of sheep... don't you love the farmer slowly droving them on his ATV - complete with the brown cattle-fog on the seat behind him? Great Aussie scene - and not far from home!

---

Thoon stopped dancing long enough to get himself together and pose for the camera... but I'm not too sure about his sour pout tho... hmmm... lol. Love all those bubbles caught in time-and-space too...

---

Here's the last of our roses in my backyard - yup, that's country Australian skies there, you realise! This poor ol' rose bush survives, despite two left-hanaded grey-thumbed gardeners tending to it occasionally.

---

Here's my large photo on the wall right beside my bedroom door... it's of Santarini in Greece... not quite Hydra, but it's getting there! people say, 'there's no way the colours can be so blue and white like that... no way!' But, from many people I've talked to who have been there - it's true - dazzling blues and whites!

---

My two practise guitars got a nice re-string the other day... at last! It's nice to sit and watch TV while I 'doodle' on a guitar... it's keeping my hand in playing, otherwise I wouldn't play much at all. This guitar is an oldie of mine, an absolute war-horse. It arrived in my possession in c.1984, and was well-loved as my 'party-guitar' - complete with deep scratches across the top from coins used as picks at many-a beach party... ahhh, the lost wonders of drunken youth! hahahaa. It's still a good little guitar to have about to just doodle on.

---

OK, I bought this little plant when I was first seperated and living in a caravan in Tweed Heads - over 3 years' ago now. It was tiny then... only a few CM's high. Now it's as big as your outstretched hand! Whoo hoo! I'd hate to image the root system tho... hahahaa. This thing just keeps on going! It lives happily nowdays on the kitchen windowsill - overlooking the elephant, across from the fridge.

---

Fill in the blanks.... completely random!!

1. I wish I had more friends who I saw personally every day.
2. I usually think about changing my blog layout when I see a whole lot better looking one!
3. If more people would be truthful, the world would be a better place.
4. I really should exercise more often.
5. The weather we're having right now is gloriously warm and sunny.
6. When it's time to plant a garden, I'd like to plant multi-colourful flowers everywhere.
7. When I'm running late, I sometimes forget to look up, appreciate the endless sky, and be thankful.
8. When I can't think of anything to blog about, I usually reminicse.


I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Shape up:: touch your toes and race up 75 stairs
   
2. New Orleans:: bourbob
   
3. In the bedroom:: snoring
   
4. All the time:: breathing
   
5. Philosophy:: describing the undescribable
   
6. Tyler:: Roof
   
7. Disturbed:: looking over your shoulder
   
8. French kiss:: (no comment) lol
   
9. Solidify:: bread & dripping
   
10. Furtive:: sneakers for sneaking
    
    

    ---

    Cyalayta
    Mallard d'Quackers

(*) Problems online

I've got some pretty wierd problems happening either with my ISP or my puter at the moment - so I won't be posting for a little bit until I can get it all sorted out and right again. Bloody technology! lol I know it aint viral or scumware problams or infections, so it's either isp gone potty or software gone potty... so much choice, isn't there? lol So, if you don't see me around much for a little while - that's why, alright? Cool.

Cyalayta
Mal :o)

(*) Wildness Australia

I finally got paid for doing that 1-days' work the other week... I admit I rushed out and bought myself - some new guitar strings! You can only enjoy practising with 5 strings for so long, you know! D'oh! I saw a car accident a block from home on my way back home... some stoopid doofus decided backing-out into oncoming traffic without looking would be just fine - oh wrong! The newish Commodore didn't look so good at the rear afterwards, but the old 1960's Holden Premier only looked slightly crumpled at the front! Ahhh... I guess they don't make cars like they used to... back in the old days... you know, before colour TV...?!? pmsl

Random thought - do you remember where you were and what you were watching - the very first time you saw colour TV? Or, perhaps - you've always had colour?! For me, it was outside the large Retravision store at Warringah Mall at Brookvale (Sydney) in c.1975 - the golf was on the display TV in the window, and there was a small crowd gathered watching in amazement at the green grass! I distinctly remember growing up watching our old big cabinet-like box of the AWA black-and-white TV which sat in the corner of mum and dad's front room - oh wow, that was a random thought!

I loved going for that drive yesterday - it still blows me away that I'm living in rural Australia - miles and miles of open rolling hills and treed ridges and endless blue skies with soft billowing clouds suspended in the azure air... much better than an endless horizon of red tiles... sure, I grew-up living in a city of 4,000,000+ - and I didn't know any different or better. Now, I relish living out here in the wideness Australia can still offer.
There's still something so refreshing and symolises that embodiment of freedom in something as simple as an old fence post... yup, it's wonderful living out this way. Sure, it's got it's positives and negatives, just like living anywhere (even Hydra! lol). But, to have the knowledge that only a simple 5-minute drive away, you can really be out in the middle of nowhere - with room to breathe. (No no... I'm not employed by the local real estate places saying all that either! ) I guess, in a tiny way, I'm a little jealous of the boys being able to grow-up and live on a property 30kms out-of-town! They are so lucky - and I'm so happy that they have the opportunity to experience that sort-of life.

---

On This 10th Day of March (ummm... yesterday!)...
Born: Sharon Stone (actress, 1958); Dean Torrence (Jan & Dean, 1940).
Died: Zelda Fitzgerald (writer's wife, 1948); Andy Gibb (singer, 1988); Lloyd Bridges (actor, 1998).
Events: Apollonius of Tyana.
Useless Trivia: Oliver's Law of Location: "No matter where you go, there you are"
My Soundtrack: John Farnham ~ "Whispering Jack"
Weather: another glorious late summer/early autumn day, almost cloudless, mid 20's.

The Stones have a singer named Jagger
Around the stage he does swagger
He still sings pop
But perhaps he should stop
Before it turns into a stagger

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---

(*) Joyfully swimming

I went for a drive to check out the boys' new place this arvo. They'll be moving in about 2 weeks, M told me last night. They'll be living 30km's out of town from here, right in the bush! I think JD said it's like 30 acres, and there's plenty of bush out that way... it's not that far from Rockley, so it's really a long way out - at least it's tarred road all the way. I know there'll be heaps of room for the boys to play about on there, so that'll be truly wonderful. The school bus stops right outside their gate, which is brilliant.

My main concern is for M. When we used to live at Ilford, she absolutely hated being out-of-town and feeling so isolated (she's a small fish in a big pond - loves being a 'townie', really) - and that was about the same distance from the nearest town too. So, home alone, new baby, new marriage, new home, 30kms out of town... in all seriousness, I hope she doesn't start going koo-koo out there on her own! (I'm not trying to be nasty here, awlrite? lol) How this change with the move will affect me being able to see and spend quality time with the boys (which I just don't get much of lately) is a big unknown for now. We're finally going down the 'mediation' track together - at last. M asked me to wait another 3 weeks until the move is over, and then we can meet with a neutral person - but someone who knows the family and the boys - and work thru some issues together she's been unwilling to address. It's been months... there's always seems to be something happening for them, you know...

---

New CD's are always fun... well, second-hand CD's I mean! As good as new - and a fraction of the $$$ too. After listening to and really enjoying Elton John's 2001 'Songs From the West Coast' I'd borrowed from the library, I found a copy for just a tanner (sorry, I mean $10), so I grabbed it. The 2nd CD I found for just $20 was the Hoodoo Gurus "Ampology" collection - 2 CDs full of all their great Aussie tribal rock and roll! Gotta love some of their stuff. By the way - this would be the most contemporary CD I own, being only released in 2003! hahahaa!
Then I found a copy - for just a fiver - of Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder's brilliant 1974 comedy satire "Young Frankenstein". If you haven't seen this film - do it! You'll PYSL!

---

I'm a bit worried about some old friends of mine in Canada - I haven't been able to contact them since around Xmas-time. Hmmm... I sure hope everything is alright with them. They had a new daughter, Rachel, mid last year, so maybe just being parents with a young-one is keeping their hands full. Let's hope so. They're good people, you know... I've known them since 1985, and they've walked with me thru some of the bumpy and smooth journeys of my life over that time.

---

Thoon is keeping well - still growing and joyfully swimming (a good sign... lol) He's about 8cm long now, and if I'm not careful, he'll start developing a pot-belly, a bit like his dad...

---

Hug your teddy!

---

On This Wednesday 9 March...
Born: Glenda Jackson (actress, 1936).
Events: 1967 Brian Jones enters hospital for 'respiratory problems'
Useless Trivia: For your library...? Noebel, D.A. 1965, Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles, Christian Crusade, Tulsa, Okla.
My Soundtrack: "Ampology" Hoodoo Gurus
Weather: gloriously sunny yet again, even tho Autumn's arrived of an evening... as low as 4c / 39f ... brrr... now, where did I put that doona...?

There once was a man from the sticks
Who liked to write limericks.
But he failed at the sport
Because he wrote them too short.

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---

(*) Dad's scrapbooks

When my brother drove out the other day, he bought with him a big pile of dad's old scrapbooks - and a few old photos. Here's two of dad's old sailing boats, 'Wyreema' - from 1970 and 1980 - in this second pic, I'm the one wearing the yellow!

---

First thing each morning, as soon as you step outside here - PHEW! The stink all over town is pretty darn RIPE! Apparently, a local sausage-casing factory on the south-side of town has had its waste plant conk out, and the back-up has even affected the local 'poo farm' (as my kids used to call the sewerage works!). So, before there's a breeze to blow the smell away - phew! Ahh, there's nothing quite like the stench of fresh sewerage everywhere you go! Thankfully now they've got a handle on it, and it's no more! But, for a few days' there, the whole town was hanging for the first hint of a breeze to blow it all away! Whew! Ahh, the joys of technology!

---

I've had to re-do all the Polls for this thing... the norty thing deleted them all without even asking me first - how rude!

---

Weebl & bob have updated - check it out!

---

1. What's on your refrigerator? About 5,936 tiny stickers from apples; drawings from my boys; pictures from the newspaper of my boys; pizza vouchers... hahahaa.
2. What colour is your refrigerator? It's a nice white shiny one.
3. Is the freezer on the top, bottom or side? Freezer's on the top - right-hand-opening.
4. How old is your fridge? Does it match your stove? Fridge is about 4 years' old, and is the same colour as Mr Stove, but not an exact match tho. They are complimentary.
5. How regularly do you clean the inside of your fridge? Every full moon on the 33rd day of Nisi.

---

Week 109
I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Usher:: The Fall of the House of
2. Cherish:: the Moment - Seize the Teeth
3. Mistreat:: your sewerage
4. Forum:: Message Board
5. Systematic:: Nazi persecution of the Jews and Slavs :(
6. Warning:: Danger, Will Robinson!
7. Wash:: Washing board
8. I wish:: upon a star to make my dreams come true
9. Candles:: blowing thru thought of things past
10. Metallic:: Clashing of Ideologies

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---

What the bad kids get from Santa...

Come Christmas time, Santa knows who's been naughty or nice...

(Thanx Distressed for the pic!)

(*) Every picture tells a story...

I rediscovered these and a few other photos in a pile of stuff M passed onto me when she was cleaning things up to move house the other day. Talk about some memories... I found my favourite pic of my very first girlfriend in there too, but I won't post that here... we still keep in regular touch too! PS. I wrote this post the other day - I only got about to posting it now tho! D'oh! lol

This was taken c.1988, when I was working 'out the back' of the Service Dept at Hanimex in Brookvale, Sydney. The snap was taken by one of the camera technicians, and the girl with the startled look just happened to be walking past the open doorway when the flash went off! It must have been cold that winter in that big open draughty warehouse building - jeans, jumper, overcoat. I note (with some worry - lol) that I had a 'mullet' (hairstyle) back in those days - ack! pmsl! I was playing bass in 'Montage' back in those distant days... that's how I can remember what period things are from - by which band I was with at the time! lol

This was my very first car - the glorious Datsun 120Y! I went everywhere in this little thing, which survived literally on the smell of an oily rag. It started to get far too small for me when I started to regularly play gigs where I needed to carry guitars and amps etc - there wasn't enough room in this little thing! I think the fastest I ever got it to was down a long hill (near here, actually!) to about 115 km/h - and you should have heard the poor thing screaming! hahahaa. I think I've never driven fast ever since because having the speed limitation in that thing - cruising the highways at 85 km/h!!! It was my nan's old car, and she gave it to me (yes - gave it to me - it's a spin to think of it that way!) the very day I first got my drivers licence (which, by the way, I got on the very first go - brag brag! lol). 1867 I think it was... this pic was taken by me atop North Head in Sydney, not too far from where I grew up.

Now... this is embarrassing! This is a self-portrait of me c.1984 - the longest I'd ever been allowed my hair to get, and I think I was going to get a haircut and a shave later that day! This was like a keepsake to remind me that I once had long hair! As a kid, I was permanently given no choice of short-back-and-sides... I laff now that, 20 years' later, my hair is longer than that, I once again have a beard, and now I wear glasses 24/7! (I only wore eye-glasses very rarely back then). I've still got those blue sunnies right here too! And - that shirt covered in redback spiders... ewww! What was I thinking...?!? Gotta love the token paisley shirt tho, eh? lol


This was taken towards the end of a friend's 21st party at Collaroy (Sydney) in July 1990 (I only know that because of the date stamp on the original pic!) It was one of those all-night-long dance-and-have-fun type things, and yes - I am as shagged out as I look here! lol.

This is great - dad (right) receiving his OAM (Order of Australia Medal) from the NSW Governor. Yup, dad had been involved in Scouting forever, I think. That's what he got this award for. I was so proud of him - and I told him too!

I didn't take this one, but it's the area I grew up in taken from the air. There's a big old lake about 2 blocks behind our old house, which was cool to play around. Manly is off to the left. Yes, there was plenty of trees in the northern beaches part of Sydney - not an endless terrain of red tiles like the rest of it, thankfully. The mess of buildings in the foreground is Brookvale and Warringah Mall... growing up, 'The Mall' was just a small shopping centre... now it's practically a small suburb in itself! Gees!

This one's a whole lot more recent - taken this arvo! It's the main Western Highway thru our town/city, looking east across to the hills of Yetholme. The darker strip of bitchumen on the left was laid afresh just last Sunday-week - a lot of interstate trucks travel thru here on their way to/from Sydney, supplying the whole region for 1,000 km west of here by road. You can just make the back of a white semi at the extreme left, obscured by the trees. We still have wooden telegraph poles out here, you realise. Middle-right is a classic red-painted tin roof... amazing they still have places like this out here, as it gets stinking hot in summer and practically snows mid-winter - urk under a hot tin roof! That patch of green above the treeline is about a 20 km unbroken stretch of the rolling open paddocks of the Bathurst Plains - that's the view from my place! Not bad, eh? Much better than a city of endless red roofs and TV aerials - for sure! At the bottom of this gentle slope, down to the left (and out-of-sight here), the town ends at the Macquarie River, a glorified stream in reality, but capable of great bloody-big floods about once every 10 to 20 years. It's about a 7-minute walk into the centre of town from here - which is off to the right. And yes, those blue skies really do stretch on forever out here...

---

This week it's all about T-I-M-E!! =)

1. What time is it right now? 9.53pm, Monday evening (when I wrote this!)
2. What are you usually doing at this time on any given day? Writing or online with a CD or the radio on in the background, or reading, or watching TV.
3. Is there a day of the week that time seems to fly by faster than the other days? Whatever day it is when I'm with my boys!
4. If you could make ONE hour of each day twice as long, which hour of the day would you choose? 7am - I am NOT a morning person!
5. If you could make one DAY of the week twice as long, which day would you choose? Saturday - definitely.
6. If you could make one hour and/or one day HALF as long, which time of the day, and which day of the week would you choose? About 4pm on a Friday arvo.
7. Do you agree with the following statement? "The older you get, the faster time goes by." Absolutely, yes.
8. What do you usually do during your "down time?" Read, write, sleep.
9. What one thing do you spend more time doing each day than anything else? Eating? Sleeping? No, it'd be thinking - my brain is always 'on', and it drives me nuts somedays!

---

Week 108
I say ... and you think ... ?

1. You’ve got a friend:: Greg Arnold & Dave Pye singing on-stage at BBHS 1981.
2. Immigration:: Australia's shame.
3. Waitress:: "There's a hair in my soup"... "But it's rabbit soup, sir!"
4. Snickers:: Underpants with a small snip missing...?
5. Recognize:: appreciation
6. Concept:: a man, a plan, a canal - Panama.
7. Birthday:: White Album
8. Told you so:: Iron Chef
9. Unlikely:: 100% pure undiluted happiness
10. Extension:: just a second more...

---

On This 1st Day of March...
Born: Robert Lowell (poet, 1917); David Niven (actor, 1910); Roger Daltrey (The Who, 1944); Ron Howard (director, 1954); Chopin 1809; Harry Belafonte (singer, 1927).
Events: Cahill Expressway opens in Sydney.
Useless Trivia: a book for your collection (maybe...?): Johnston, Stowers 1964, Gay Bulgaria, Robert Hall, London.
My Soundtrack: "Gimme Shelter" Rolling Stones (1969 *****)
Weather: another gloriously sunny day 30c & practically cloudless.

There once was a man from Peru,
Whose limericks always ended on line two.

---

Cyalayta

Email: mal [@] maljam [.] cjb [.] net
Message Board: http://malboard.cjb.net
"Excuse me, which way is the stage?" (Audience member, lost at Altamont, 1969.)

---