Nicky has a new haircut and it looks quite lovely.
I would put a photo here for y’all but she doesn’t like having photos of her around so you’ll just just have to take my word for it.
Lesson for the day - nice hair is a good thing indeed.
I read that the Commercial in Yarraville were having an open mic which sounded good. Good because it is close to home. Good because it is a cosy spot. Good because the Commercial has musical credibility and I have none.
So I went to see what it was about on the first night.
I was the only one there to play. There was no-one there to listen. The fellow running it was friendly but utterly unfamilar with the sound equipment. My vocals were mixed too low. The bass from my guitar was much too much and in danger of doing the place structural damage.
But in spite of all of this I played perhaps four songs to perhaps six people. They looked suitably interested, not too much, not too little.
One young woman, while leaving, said I was doing well but needed to do less self-deprication. “Then what would I do, fucking juggle?”
I meant it without malice.
Other than the bass issue my guitar sounded lovely through their PA. My vocals were ok a good ninety percent of the time. I was glad I went.
Lesson for the day - I like a quiet start to things.
One day the penny drops. What was once an issue is now firmly is possession of the definite article and is now the issue. Not just the issue in my life but the issue that both consumes and defines me.
The years of imaging that I could solve it or make it go away have been not only wasted. Worse, they have provided false hope and that hope and the subsequent failure have almost certainly done me more damage than anything else.
So it is time to change in that mysterious place between my ears, but change is much easier blogged about than done. This is not something to be solved by beating drums, running through the bush all naked, or finding trevor.
The time has come to work on living with this rather than fighting it. Again easier said than done. So probably time to toodle off and see who might be able to help me here and there. Not something I especially want to do but clearly something I need to do.
I know that talking around this rather than to it might frustrate some of you. That’s just too bad. I trust you will understand this is not a riddle to be solved. It’s either I talk about it like this or say nothing.
Lesson for the day - the only way to avoid falling is to do nothing at all. the real trick is to get better at hitting the ground.
I had thought that it might be six hours to or from Mallacoota but for us it is more like eight. Not that eight is the end of the world if you do it right.
Today we did it pretty right but are all properly tired now.
I didn’t miss emails or the web or newspapers at all. Not one bit. But I am back now and if you are interested here are some photos.
Lesson for the day - Mallacoota is just lovely but there’s no place like home.
I was called to a meeting with my publicist and lawyers yesterday which I didn’t like at all. I like to be the one to call such meetings.
Anyhow it seems that there is some clause in my contract that states that I have to stop blogging for seven continous days every October. Naturally I got all huffy and accusatory and asked the odd pointed question about what I pay lawyers for in the first place and the rash statements about how the Christmas annual picnic would not be inRio this year.
But eventually I did calm down and decided we could fight this even if we had signed a contract. Then it was bought to my attention that if I played along I might just get a dilpomatic position as a reward.
Some people cannot be bought with such things but you’d better believe I can be.
Lesson for the day - see y’all in a week and you can called me Ambassador Mark then.
I know all that politically correct stuff and, by and large, I think that I practice it. But the fact is that Nicky and I have been together for years and I know what she wants and how to deliver it.
So when she says no I know that it is just a mistake and she really means yes. I know that sound presumptious but the fact is that I know what her needs are and I am the man to fulfil them.
So I make her that next cup of tea anyway and she does actually want it afterall.
Lesson for the day - sometimes ruffians like me just won’t take no for an answer.
We were considering grommets from Foozley’s ears to drain the fluid but when we went to the specialist at the hospital his ears seemed clear and he certainly seemed to be hearing better. Not perfectly (he will always need aids for that) but better.
So we made an appointment with his hearing aid people to check that his ears really were clear. Unfortunately they moved the appointment back a month so it was five weeks until the appointment this morning. In that time he is snotty again and his ears are all full of fluid once more.
I always find even routine tests of this sort a bit sad because they make it so very obvious just how much he can’t hear. I am not sad for me but I am sad for the difficulties he will have later in life. Things could be much worse of course. But I would like him to have the best possible life and his deafness conflicts with that at times.
Lesson for the day - testing times can be a little testing at times.
Indiana was orginally a present from me to Nicky but Indiana seems to think I am the world’s gift to Indiana.
Wherever I go she does to and is happy to just be there.
Although less needy EmmyLou is much happier to be with Nicky and vice versa. They have a mutual adoration thing going which is nice work if you can get it.
Lesson for the day - you cannot fault a dog on devotion.
Yesterday we choofed off to the craft market looking for Christmas presents for various people. One that count we didn’t do so well but we did find;
- Christmas presents for other people’s dogs
- some tie-dyed clothes for Foozley
- a new tap for our water filter
- a present for Nicky’s Mum
so it was far from a wash out.
Lesson for the day - it is easy to be hopeful about markets and hard to be satisfied.
This vampire vs. warewolves flick was better than I expected. One of it’s best and worse features was that a great deal was left unexplained, especially in the first half of the movie.
But all it all it was one of the better films I have seen in the fantasy/shoot-em-up genre for a long time.
Lesson for the day - unlikely pleasures are among the best there are.
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