the queen is a bore and so is her birthday holiday

What do you consider some perks of being your gender? Unwarranted power and respect. Would you ever get a tattoo with someone's name on it?No Would you ever get your nipples pierced? No What is your LEAST favorite type of alcohol? Champagne, cinzano - all the 'ch' alcohols. Did you ever have tea parties when you were younger? Uncertain. Do you know anyone personally who is terminally ill?i don't think so... What is your favorite line from a movie? 'Fellas... I don't recognize the right of this committee to ask me these kind of questions. And furthermore, you can all go fuck yourselves.' Would you rather be the opposite sex? (shrug) Do you like spending time with your parents? It's fine What would you do if you saw a guy hit a girl? Not tolerate it. Have you ever gambled? Yes and I usually win What would you NEVER name one of your children?John, David.What is the coolest restaurant you've ever been to?There is an ethiopian one in San Francisco I liked.What do you do with clothes you've outgrown or don't want anymore?Brotherhood bin, or equivalent. Do you use tobacco products? Never. What magazine do you read or look through most often? Overland, The New Yorker, Australian Planner, Mojo, Yeti, Harpers, Meanjin. Do you support local music/artists?Yes. What style of house would you like to live in? I am in it. 1972 3 br brick large yard. Would you ever go a week without showering? Doesn't sound like me. If your nails are painted, what color are they?They're not. Do you put posters on your bedroom walls? No. Do you use iTunes or do you use music player?itunes. Do you flip the channel when commercials come on?i rarely watch tv.Would you ever date someone with a different skin color than you? Of course not! I would not date anyone. What would you do if your parents caught you drinking? Wonder what they were doing in the same place and get ready for stress. Have you seen any of the Saw movies? No Do you watch any cartoons? Simpsons What was your favorite book as a kid? Animal Farm Have you ever lost a house or car key that you never found? Probably If you had to lose one of your body parts what would it be? My eyebrow

rod

Well I was in Brotherhood Bazaar and I saw the Rod Hull and Emu Gift Book and flicking through it I saw a comic strip in which Rod climbs up a drainpipe to break into his own house rather than wake Emu to let him in after he accidentally got locked out and I thought how rippingly funny since Rod Hull notoriously died in 1999 from horrific head and chest injuries after falling off the roof of his own house trying to adjust his tv aerial, and so naturally I took an out-of-focus picture of it with my phone and put it here just to show I am an insensitive, nerdy prat. See you later!

charlie goes to diamond creek

Charlie was right into the idea of a trip to Diamond Creek. 'I hope to see a horse,' she said. First however we dropped into the excellent op shop opposite the station where I scored three (the only three 'real' ones from the 1960s) Walker Brothers albums in immaculate condition and - get this - mono. Also a belt.





We loved this park, with its tennis courts, toilet block, kindergarten, play equipment - everything except a park, really. It did have these extraneous steps. 'Reminds me of that extraneous gate', said Charlie (actually she said nothing of the sort. She wanted to use them! They're extraneous).



The above is not an uncommon kind of housing in Diamond Creek, large 50s weatherboard. Often they have verandahs as well. They're very nice, I don't know what they're like inside. They look great from the outside. Many of them quite run down, which is wrong. Hopefully a renovation (rather than a demolition/consolidation) program will burst forth. The below is a bit of an anomaly, but we liked it.



These magpies...


chased these galahs onto these wires. Seconds before these pictures were taken. Though I have to concede the pictures prove nothing.


We headed away from the main shops/houses - I guess south-east? Charlie took advantage of generous drinking water provision by a homeowner in a garden. Thanks.


Phipps Crescent undergoes an unusual change in personality at a certain point and becomes less a paved suburban road, more a rustic townish lane. Or crescent.

Suddenly, we were in the country.

'It's not time to make a change, just relax, take it easy...' so might one of these vans have been singing to the other.

Charlie suffered to have her photo taken yet again at what she assumed was a random point in the journey.

Suddenly she noticed we were not alone.

She was still barking five minutes later.

charlie goes to gladstone park

So Charlie and I spent a few hours in Gladstone Park on Sunday just walking along being normal. We came in from the Moonee Ponds Creek side where many Gladstoneparkers back on to the reserve. This individual had an extensive and valid pipe system which, post-water tank, distributed rainwater onto their little out-the-back garden.


They kind of blotted their sustainability copybook with the new aircon unit the size of a car though. Didn't see the size of their car.


Still, it's nice to see improvisation is alive and kicking in GP with a terrific set of bird scarers (or catchers, not sure) - of which this is but one.


Everyone there under 60 wears tracky dacks with two stripes, but they pull it off, so to speak. Additionally there are a lot of old people around being active. I didn't photograph any. But I did see this amazingly fine house, the front of which stretches the entire property. The front yard is brown rocks. All in all it says something.


We met a woman (her name we did not glean) and her beagle, Bobby. She was shocked to find that we had walked from Jacana (a full 15 mins away). You might recall a few years ago the man in the GP Video Ezy claimed to have never heard of Jacana. Charlie and Bobby got on OK, on a Charlie gauge. We were also pleased to see a small dog being washed by these nice people in the street.


They love their dogs in GP. This young lady was using hers as a husky.


Charlie was amazed by this gate-no-fence scenario. We have no fence at our house, which she appreciates, but it would bug her seriously to have to wait for someone to open a gate.




Caulder House but no answer.


We were mainly walking along Carrick Road, which is one of the main roads of the suburb although as you can see from the map above that is a kind of a random design idea; the roads sweep curvily through and like the best 70s suburbia, it's dead easy to get lost. Once you cross the western ring road, you end up in a whole new world, of semi-industriality en route to Airport West, though if you move north it's similar to GP and for all I know technically still is GP, or perhaps it's Tullamarine.


We saw a spectacular pomegranate tree which made me want a pomegranate tree.


Charlie saw something she wanted too but it was similarly unavailable.


We were both impressed by the patriotic nationalism of the craftspeople in this home, which also had about six cars parked in the garden.


And the colour co-ordination of this wonderful home struck us as delightful. (Not sarcastic. True.)


'All in all', said Charlie, 'I'm buggered now and want to go home.'

i do know how i feel about the old dragon

Almost - let's say often - the most brilliant group on earth in the 1970s. I love all 70s incarnations from first to last. I felt so privileged (not proud) to be asked to write the sleevenotes to the reissue of Universal Radio (see this) and the second one, Scented Gardens for the Blind, both smashingly fine albums. You will love them when you hear them, Dan. I mean just look at that group pic (look at Marc's eyes - he's looking at you). In my sleevenotes I quote Ray Goodwin saying that the early seventies were a time when ‘you were pretty free to make up your own show. It was refreshing, the energy – very post-acid. The whole lifestyle we had then was a combination of all those Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller books mixed up into a bad brew’ and that ‘it was like Life a user’s manual, every room had a lifestyle world period going on, and it was incredible mixture of people.’ They lived on stewed lemons and, I guess, drugs, most of them anyway. Auckland 1973-4. I wonder if it'll be as exciting when I'm there next month?

i don't know how i feel about the new dragon

I notice they are making a new album of all-new songs (I couldn't even bear to think about the last one, of Aust classics kicking off with 'Most people I know'). I also notice that men can only buy Dragon t-shirts in large, extra large and fuckin' unbelievable wear it or wrap it round your house size.

(Mind you, this doesn't seem so large. And has this man got it on backwards?)

i was horrified...

...to hear presenters on RRR yesterday saying they were proud of the Australian flag and proud to be Australian. If I wanted to hear that kind of sentiment so antithetical to my own I would listen to some friggin' right wing talkback show. Pride is a bono emotion anyway but pride in one's country is like pride in having fingers, or pride that you haven't murdered someone lately. Go to hell with your patriotism shit.