Jon Auer @ The Troubadour

One word... WOW!

It was completely amazing to see someone sing the songs that made up the soundtrack of many moments in your life including my final year of high school and most of the time I lived in Cambodia. Each occasion was via a different band and to have one person up there playing the music from the two bands that had a huge impact on me was mind blowing.

I got to hear a few of my fav Posie tracks that made my Year Twelve so much better. Bigstar blew my mind in 2004 when I was discovering a new side to me. While it was only one Bigstar song it was indeed a goodie - Thirteen. It was also great to hear the new solo album songs - yep that is one heck of a perky album huh?

One gig that has made it into my Top Ten of all time.

PS: Michelle - asked Jon to pass onto you a big hello from me! I guess he gets a lot of girls coming up to him going - "Hi Jon - can you say hi to your wife for me?" :o)

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This weekend...

Vegie garden update: So the rain didn't really stop all week and my poor little baby seedlings suffered considerably. I'm not too sure how many will survive. I think I will do a little work over the weekend to see if there is anything I can do to save the ones that look the strongest.

Tonight I have Jon Auer at the Troubadour. Everyone cross your fingers that I may get to hear at least one Big Star song tonight. I am thinking of requesting What's Going Ahn? or Thirteen, but don't know what my chances would be.

Tomorrow I start the day with a Nia class and then a trip to the flower markerts. From there I am off shopping for last minute items for Josie's kitchen tea I am hosting on Sunday. The rest of the day and some of Saturday night will be spent cooking up yummy treats for everyone to share at the kitchen tea and cleaning the house.

Sunday will be spent preparing for, hosting and then cleaning up from the kitchen tea.

Phew... In between times I think I am going to breath. Oh... and I have to write a 40 min key note speech for a conference the following weekend at some point as well.

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Vegetable garden update.

I need to take a photo, but haven't had a clear, sun-shiny day since planting - which is a great thing! We needed the rain!

It rained on Saturday night so I got up bright and early on Sunday to plant while the moisture levels were up a bit. I spent the morning planting out my 4 square-metres of vegetable garden. We now have growing some lettuce, celery, capsicum, a green chilli bush, tomatos, eggplant and watermelon. I think we have lost the watermelon as the bed they are in has extremely high nitrogen levels due to a blood and bone mishap while preparing the soil.

Then it rained on Sunday evening and has been pretty much constantly rainy since! After a long, long while without good rain it was certainly welcomed. I couldn't have planned it better if I was a fortune teller.

The right hand bed had - accidently - 20kg of blood and bone fertilizer placed into the soil mix. Which is about ohhh.... 100 times the level of blood and bone we were meant to add - 200g. Needless to say nothing is going to grow in there anytime soon as the nitrogen levels through the roof. We are planning - as soon as the rain ceases - to dig it all up and start again. At least everything we dig up will make a very rich top dressing when the beds need a little pick me up.

On the up side... The left bed is looking really good. It is basically a layer of mulch, then newspapers, a layer of soils/sand/manure mix, a layer of newspapers and then another layer, about 100mm (roughly 4 inches), of mulch on top to prevent moisture loss and weed growth.

As soon as I fix the right bed we will be planting a different type of tomato, beans or snow peas, garlic, chives, parsley, spring onions and a few other bits and pieces.

I will take some photos soon - as soon as the sun is shiny - to share with you my horticultural joy.

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People - now I am generalising pretty badly here - have lost a sense of community, politeness and giving. I do a lot of work with a couple of different community groups, mainly looking at women’s issues - this sort of thing is starting to drive me crazy.

Warning - I sound like a grumpy old woman in the following post.

Case One: People don't offer to billet anymore. When you are travelling to a small town or a place you are not sure of for a conference or whatever people used to billet you. I am going to a small town to deliver a key note address at a conference and I had to ask on of the organisers to sort out a billet for me rather than stay at a hotel. The main reason I did this was to save the event organisers - a small community group - money as they were paying all my costs to attend. I also do it to meet new people and I get to stay in wonderful homes as opposed to sterile hotel rooms. I am now staying with a lovely lady who said in an email to me - I have 2 spare bedrooms, of course you can use one. Hello - I just saved your organisation $200 in accommodation and, because I took it upon myself to call another speaker to car pool, another $200 in travel and fuel.

Case Two: People don't RSVP. It is POLITE to say the least. But it also allows you to better manage an event in terms of who is coming, mixture of people, catering etc.

Case Three: People don’t give up seats on public transport to elderly or pregnant women or mothers etc etc etc... Grrrrrr…..

Case Four: If you have excess – give to others, not just the poor or needy, but in general. I am excited because I am finally planting out my vegetable garden this weekend. I was talking at work to a group of women at morning tea and said – “it will be great, if I have extra I’ll bring them into work”. One of the women actually asked “why would you do that?” What??? Did I hear right??? What else am I going to do with the excess? Throw it out?

Case Five: I enjoy cooking, especially for others. People at work are constantly shocked when I bring in a batch of muffins, a cake or something to share for morning tea. I enjoy cooking people – eat, enjoy and stop giving me grief. Stop thinking there is an ulterior motive in it. I simply enjoy it.

Vent is now complete…

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