Just got tickets to see Beck and Robert Forster at Darling Harbour next month. 
Ha - I read the other day there is a female Singer Guitarist by the name of Melody Pool
living in your town or close by Pete
Sheâs done couple of albums which Iâve got -first one really good , second one a bit bleak
She had a bit of a breakdown in Sydney I think a number of years ago, she shot through to Victoria to survive n the country
Anyway third album on the way , I think doing gigs everywhere , I rated her , I think maybe originally from Newcastle
If she pops up close then you sheâs worth seeing I reckon 
Big fan of Robert Forster but new album doesnât do it for me at all
Thereâs a few musos around I havenât heard of her but Iâll ask around. Talking about local talent I went to our local theatre last Saturday night Iâm pretty sure thatâs were I got this bug.
I wasnât impressed at first but really like it now. Itâs a bit of a slow burner.
Thanks Iâll keep playing it
What a band go Go Betweenâs were
World class
They should have been bigger shame theyâre possibly the best band that never made it.
Yes a few QLD bands like that
Not really my taste but Stranglers were excellent too
Not to mention the Dingos from Melbourne and of course Stars
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Just be careful with Beck. I saw him in Brixton some years ago and I now (half) blame him for my hearing problems in my right ear. He was particularly loud that night, so if you are seeing him indoors you have been warned. Great night though!
Thinking of Holland
I see broad rivers
slowly chuntering
through endless lowlands,
rows of implausibly
airy poplars
standing like tall plumes
against the horizon;
and sunk in the
unbounded vastness of space,
homesteads and boweries
dotted across the land,
copses, villages,
couchant towers,
churches and elm-trees,
bound in one great unity.
There the sky hangs low,
and steadily the sun is smothered in a greyly
iridescent smirr,
and in every province
the voice of water
with its lapping disasters
is feared and hearkened.
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Hendrix Marsman
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Yup Marsman. I Dutch itâs my favourite. It very much describes the feelings thinking about my country.
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No problems itâs an acoustic show itâs just him no band. Also Iâm mainly going to see Robert Forster (ex Go Betweens).
My favourite
I Love a Sun Burnt Country by Dorothea Mackell
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror â
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die â
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold â
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
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Hear whisper of our wilderness
Splashes of our rugged lakes
Our reputation raises those
Raging rivers and wretched swamps
Our freedom are these forested hills!
To us are singing end of the gulfs
To us also spring brought fairies,
Thrush and capercaillie chime here.
Trip is hard - let it be!
Nature is mingy - we compete!
In the corner of the dark fatherland
Our cabin hidden in the plain sight!
Frisky persecutions, o hush!
Plasterers, robberers, vanish!
Sword is not needed - only hard work
On behalf of spirit/life, tribe and the country.
Raise to your chest earthly faith new,
Regress the magic and conservatives!
Farmer, remember where thee happines is,
Drying barn rich, self-contained!
Folks of Kainu, play your card
Where is your posture, honorable act?
We have to build our land from the scratch
Let cowards go behind the seas!
â-
This is a translation so not so poetic but perhaps the below video gives a further clue what this is about. Original text by Ilmari Kianto, 1911.
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The Fens - Rex Sly
Our fathers father worked this land and his fathers father too;
Weâre farmers drainers countrymen and Fenmen through and through;
Weâve fought the Romans and the Danes and the French men many times,
Weâve battled against the elements to quell Crowland abbeys chimes.
Weâve mastered wind and rain, weâve controlled the floods and tides,
Tempests storms and cyclones, and snow and ice besides;
Weâve moulded this flat land into to what it is today,
A jewel in the farming world to everyoneâs dismay.
However, for what we have achieved let us not forget,
The skies remain the same, but Mother Nature is our threat;
The skies above us cloud our minds, and the breaking of the dawn,
All help to pacify, that never ending call.
I know one day she will again return for mere and marsh,
To claim her prize she did once lose to the fenmen of the past,
We owe it to adventurers, to engineers and drainers,
To Bishops Deans and priests, who pray that God will save us.
âWater loves it,s own wayâ, Mother Nature fired that shot,
But embedded in a fenmans mind, his conscience tells him NOT;
Water once ran downhill until he changed itâs mind,
He taught it to obey him, with laws of his own kind.
God himself did give us the basics for this land,
But the creation of this kingdom has been the fenmenâs hand;
Compliancy must never rule, a threat is always there
This land that is so precious must remain in fenmans care.
Another threat to this flat land besides the floods and tides,
Are houses roads and living space that man himself requires;
His quest for conservation may well in time destroy,
The very land he drained to live in, and become his other toy.
They come in droves to live here fen buried beneath their homes,
New roads for them to speed along, a destruction of our loams;
Man requires more living space a fact we must uphold,
He makes his laws to suit himself at costs sometimes untold.
Rex Sly
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Spent most of the day replacing a couple of broken old window sashes in the bedrooms. It was the original joinery and sashes, painted over and no maintenance since the house was built in the early 70âs. Had to drill out some screws and the new sashes had different hole positions than the old ones. Struggled with alignment. But got there in the end. The one on Miss Mikes room had always stuck and I had to resort to some hard sanding as well. But itâs all done with just some paint touch ups to finish.
I actually made a âto do listâ despite my better judgement. It has 43 items on it, mostly deferred maintenance from last Autumn with the bad run of weather from Winter to this Autumn. I did put some leisure items in there too 
.
Weâve had a painter round doing warranty work on a window and a French door and Iâm going to get him to do the last high side of the house this week - scaffolding goes in tomorrow. It just seems sensible to spend a few K and get the hard part done properly, and he is very thorough. He reckoned Iâd saved $20K by doing most of the house myself.
That will be last of the big jobs, the rest Iâll potter with over the year.
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Impressive Mike. I canât bring myself to write a physical list, but in my mind there are a range of âjobsâ that need doing round the house. Occasionally I tackle one, it always results in me realising I donât have the right bits to do it properly. A visit to the local DIY store and some spending gets me halfway, but then some must see sport gets in the way. Before I know it the urge to get the job done has dissipated completely. Back to square 1.
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Lists are a great way to get things done. Iâve found the secret is to make sure theyâre not too long as itâs better to start another than feel overwhelmed by not completing the current list.
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My wife has never ending lists of âjobs that need to be doneâ. No matter how many you tick off, more somehow get added. The secret is to squeeze as much enjoyment and fun as you can in between all this stuff. 
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