Well, this is the first time I've been able to do anything on LJ for quite a few days... I tried to post a fairly long & detailed entry a couple of days ago & the internet has eaten it.

Ah well... all's well & nothing wildly interesting or important has happened. We did go to a birthday party for an old friend & erstwhile bandmate & I now have ten LP records of my early band's work. Being old school, holding a big twelve inch... record feels more 'proper' than just a CD.

Sounds good too... although my inner critic can't help but feel that there are a few tracks on there where I'm desperately flailing around trying to sound like I know how to play guitar & patently don't. On the other hand, one track features a nice little guitar riff that I'd be happy to have come up with today, twenty five years later. So either I haven't improved much since then, or I at least showed a little promise after only picking up a guitar a year before the recordings...

Rhetorical...

Ask & ye shall receive...

I mentioned in yesterday's post that going out to dinner with friends may give me something exciting to write about & it did... before I'd even left home. OBluV8's battery shut down, clammed up & plain refused to do anything when I turned the key in the ignition. So, a walk to the main road (about twenty minutes up hill & down dale) & a bus to the Crows Nest Pub, which was only meant to be a meeting point, but wound up being the provider of food & entertainment for the night.

My L-SP & I get rather competitive when it comes to Pub Trivia competitions. Despite being warned about this, our dining companion was up for the challenge of the three of us vs. the rest of the Pub. Our team name for the evening was coined by L-SP in a stroke of genius ~ we were 'Trivia Newton John'.

And we finished second... Grrr!! If I'd just naturally defaulted to 'red wine' as the answer to what colour wine 'Gammae' grapes produce & if we'd agreed that Speedy Gonzalez's hat was yellow, we'd have won. Now... older LJ readers... I have distinct memories of the 'classic' Warner Bros cartoons of the 40s & 50s & remember Speedy's hat as being white... same as all the other Mexican mice, but bigger, bouffier & in better condition. Most Google images of him show a yellow hat, but they look like the horrible homogenised modern WB cartoon version to me. I still dispute the 'yellow' verdict. And I can't find anything about those grapes on Google either... Maybe I misheard the name.

Anyway, second place won us $50 & made us determined to go back in a fortnight & WIN.

Tonight will be our second attempt at seeing Paul at the local Megaplex, with dinner plans to be confirmed. OBluV8 has a brand new battery, so hopefully there'll be no unexpected contingencies...

Knock on wood.

We had some people around for dinner last night ~ a kind of low-key quasi-housewarming party for our newly, nearly combined residential status. We were expecting to feed five, including us, bought enough food & drink for probably a few more people than that, then ended up with just four of us.

Four people managed to get through:~

A generous helping of tuna, salmon & kingfish sashimi.
A rather nice goat's milk cheese, pesto dip & crackers
Honey & lemon grilled chicken wings.
Two Tandoori ling fillets in slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces.
A rather large amount of Patatas Bravas
Four scotch fillet steaks & a motherlode of pork chipolatas
Accompanying salads... yes, plural... & four corn cobs.
An exceptional apple crumble baked & brought by our guests, served with ice cream.

With very little in the way of leftovers ~ about one small container's worth, which we made them take home. After which we lay around like walruses for a while, trying not to contemplate the precarious mountain of dishes, glasses & cutlery awaiting washing in the kitchen.

It's now nearly two in the afternoon the following day & I'm still not hungry...

'Aqua Bikes' ~ you know, those 3-wheel pedal things you take on rivers... are a lot more work to propel than you might at first think.

And 6 metres doesn't sound very deep, but try converting that to an Imperial measurement of around 20 feet, then question the wisdom of pedalling downstream on an unknown river in a craft you've never used before, fully clothed with no lifejacket but wearing expensive leather boots.

Such are the places my whimsy takes me... us.

The following things may, or may not, have happened to me over the last few days. You pick 'em...

A. I was asked for proof-of-age to enter a licensed venue & marked with a big blue cross to indicate I was underage.
B. I was flung 70m into the air at a force of 3g, spun 360 degrees, then dropped 60m. Voluntarily.
C. I joined a crowd singalong of Bohemian Rhapsody when the power failed at a Nine Inch Nails gig... what is it about Queen songs that even moshing Goths know all the words & can sing the guitar solos too?!

And so ends the musical week. Leonard Cohen at the Centennial Vineyard last night was, again, sublime... the outdoor amphitheatre was quite a sight & the Triffids (& Friends) played first support. The 'friends' included Steve Kilbey on a few songs & Mick Harvey joining his Bad Seed bandmate Martyn Casey throughout the set. No appearance from Nick Cave though. Paul & Dan Kelly were inoffensive, pleasant enough but not really memorable ~ kind of how I feel about Paul Kelly in general. Leonard played much the same set as Thursday, with the addition of 'Democracy', which got a cheer from the audience for its obvious reference to the recent regime change in the U.S. He also recalled the Triffids had done one of his songs ('Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On') on the tribute album 'I'm Your Fan' in 1991 "... when I was kind of dying", so he remembers his friends... & fans.

Downside was trying to get out of the parking area following the show. Seeing how there were three or four snaking lines of cars all trying to get out one gate, I locked OBluV8's doors, pulled down the visor to block headlight glare & nodded off for about forty five minutes while everyone else did the 'move five feet, wait five minutes' shuffle. At half past twelve, I drove straight out & burned rubber up the Hume homeward.

For something completely different, I saw David Byrne at the Opera House tonight. The concert was billed as 'Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno' & apart from one ('Burning Down The House'), they all were ~ either Eno-produced/co-written Talking Heads songs, or songs from DB & BE's new album. I'd hoped for some tracks from 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' & he played one. A good one, but only one. That's my only quibble, because the rest of the show was brilliantly done with band, backing singers & dancers all choreographed to illustrate & highlight the songs infectious grooves & melodies... & there were lots of them!!

Back to work tomorrow... today for a week or so of sweeping instead of selling. Praying for a cool change... might help if I believed in gods...

So... Quantum Of Solace at La Premiere Hoyts in Fox Studios this evening.

After the day I had, watching a pissed-off British guy killing people for ninety minutes was almost therapeutic. I may have cheered a little too loudly at some points, but I'm sure the explosions covered it.

Dinner at the Bavarian Bier Café was pretty good too ~ the giant pork schnitzel 'challenge' was a doddle... easiest apple schnapps I've ever won.

Burp.

... to keep the petroleum industry ticking over. I've driven about 200 kms today, never leaving the confines of this town. It's a big city.

( I've been ev'rywhere man... )

Back to work tomorrow for a rest.

It's a big, strange world out there. Just when you think you've seen the strangest things, along comes...



Thanks, or maybe no thanks to a dinner guest yesterday for showing me the Noughties version of RiverDance.

Dinner was a mixed result: Entree ~ success at first ever attempt. Main course ~ could have been better, but I was distracted by conversations & 'Jumpstyle', so the mind wasn't exactly on the job...

Now... what to do with the day?

Mmmfff... fnnarrgle... veryveryverylatenight... homeat7thismorning... showerchangeclothesgotowork... gottagettacoffee................. zzzzzzzzzzz