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March 30th, 2008

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April 17th, 2007

01:13 pm - Brisbane ROCKS Me, today. Just walked outside to meet babylon93 for lunch and who should walk past me? The chief from Battlestar Galactica, who is in town for Supernova. Was very excited and went to have lunch. Then walking back to work past the beer garden next door (yes, I work next too, and across the road from a couple of pubs) and there he was having lunch. Babylon93 made me assure her that I wouldn't stalk him or steal his used cutlery or anything like that! But maybe I'll go down for a post lunch beer with the chief and talk about unionism within the cylon fleet (those centurions should strike until they get better working conditions!). Current Mood: excited

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March 18th, 2007

09:43 pm - Mr Baseball Last night was my last function as president of my baseball club. What a humbing evening it was. Firstly, I was made the club's first life member for the service I have given the club over the past four years. Secondly, they have named a perpetual award in my honour. Thirdly, they have had a bat made and inscribed for me which is on its way from the US. I then won my teams batting award (beware...baseball stats following: I ended up with a season average of 0.553 and an on-base average of 0.638 with 17 stolen bases), was awarded a Silver Slugger award (since I had 21 hits for 38 at bats) and also won my team's best and fairest award count. Then at the end of the function I was given a standing ovation from all who were present(ie. about 40 members and partners). I'm going to miss this club and the guys who make up the members but it's nice to know that my services to the club will not be forgotten. Current Mood: touched

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February 24th, 2007

12:11 pm - I come from Brisbane and I'm quite plain That legendary Brisbane author Nick Earls once signed a book for me saying, “Brisbane misses you and we’re counting the days until you return”. Now the count is even less as I am on the brink of accepting a Snr Ecologist position with GHD (some multinational corporation that I’m signing my soul over to for a few years). Hence babalon_93, baby_babalon, Percy_dog and I are giving up the sandgroper existence and moving back east and setting up digs in Brisneyland. It’s been a long tour around Australia for little P_E but now is the time to head back to the red and white streets of Brisbane. We should be packed up an out of here by early April. Exciting times ahead... Current Mood: excited

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September 22nd, 2006

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June 19th, 2006

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May 8th, 2006

09:20 am - Grant McLennan So sad... http://www.go-betweens.net/ "Grant McLennan On Saturday 6th May, legendary Australian singer songwriter Grant W McLennan died in his sleep at his home in Brisbane. McLennan was one of Australia’s greatest songwriters who created an outstanding musical legacy as a founder member of The Go-Betweens and as a solo artist. He was enjoying enormous acclaim for the band’s most recent album Oceans Apart, which has received five star reviews around the world and won a prestigious ARIA award. McLennan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 12th February 1958. While attending university in Brisbane he met fellow student Robert Forster and together they formed The Go-Betweens. After releasing a string of singles the band recorded their debut album, Send Me A Lullaby, in 1981. The Go-Betweens recorded a series of exceptional albums that achieved widespread critical acclaim and were fundamental in bringing Australian music to a global audience. He was an unparalleled lyricist and a prolific and meticulous composer. His auto-biographical masterpiece ‘Cattle and Cane’ was recently voted by the Australian Performing Rights Association as one of the ten greatest Australian songs of all time. In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a ten year sabbatical and McLennan recorded four powerful solo albums including the vivacious debut Watershed and the epic Horsebreaker Star as well as forming satellite groups like Jack Frost with Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Far Out Corporation with Ian Haug of Powderfinger. When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, the band was greeted with adulation by a new generation of musicians like Belle and Sebastian, for whom their songs had been an inspirational teenage soundtrack. The three albums the band subsequently released were universally acknowledged as containing some of McLennan’s greatest compositions. McLennan was a passionate supporter of the arts, extremely well-read and maintained a keen interest in all contemporary music, cinema and visual art. He was an exceptionally charming and polite man who endeared himself to everyone who met him and was one of the rare individuals worthy of the epithet ‘larger than life’. His singular contribution to music and his commitment to his craft simply cannot be overstated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, sister, brother, girlfriend Emma, bandmates Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson and lifetime musical colleague and friend Robert Forster. Bernard MacMahon, Lo-Max Records, 6th May 2006" Grant McLennan was a modest yet profound musician who will be sorely missed. I first saw the Go-Betweens perform at the first ever Livid Festival in 1988 on a stormy Brisbane afternoon at the Uni of Queensland grounds. Where Robbie Forster was the extravagant and outrageously ostentatious front man lapping up the applause, Grant tended to be the quiet achiever, maybe even looking quite embarrassed or uncomfortable with the accolade. I saw them again a few months later, playing at the student bar at Griffith Uni on their 16 Lovers Lane tour. Again, a drunken night filled with the awesome sounds of the Go-Bs. I was sold as a fan and subsequently devastated when Grant and Robert dissolved the band. During the next 10 years or so, I managed to see both perform as solo artists and in various incarnations. One of the memorable Grant gigs was a few days after Morrissey cruised through town. The stage was decorated with flowers and Grant quipped that Morrissey fans must have been in attendance and then proceeded into a most memorable night playing sounds off his Watershed album. Both Grant and Robert moved back to Brisbane in the years post-Bjelke-Petersen when Brisbane bloomed in the bright sunshine after the years of stormy ultra-conservatism. I remembered bumping into Robert at a primary school fete and ended up looking through second hand records with him. Then the day came when Grant and Robert finally had a show together. It wasn't billed as a Go-Bs show but instead was headlined as Robert Forster and Grant McLennan (of The Go-Betweens). It was a very cool evening at the Tivoli Theathre. Robert was resplendent in a canary yellow suit. Grant was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and by now trademark cap covering his thinning hair. The audience was stacked with Go-Between fans hoping and praying for a glimpse of their former glory. And the boys didn't disappoint. And again, after every song Robert strode forward to receive the rapturous applause in his extravagant way, with Grant stepping backwards and enjoyed watching Robert lapping up the glory. I remember reading in some long forgotten magazine that Grant was integral in naming their albums and quipped that the reason a double-ell appeared in the majority of the titles was a suspicion that because Thriller was such a huge album for Michael Jackson, that they hoped for the same sort of fame (and if you're not familiar with the Go-B's early albums, here they are: Send me a Lullaby, Libery Belle and the Black Diamond Express, Tallulah, Spring Hill Fair). The dynamism between Forster and McLennan was reflected in their compositions; Grant's songs tended toward introspection and self-discovery (Dusty in Here, Cattle and Cane, Bye Bye Pride) while Robert's were extravagant and borderline whimsical (ie. Lee Remick, Draining the Pool for You). The last time I saw the Go-Bs was at the Perth Festival in early 2003. I was horribly lonely and homesick for Queensland and went along and watched the Go-B's by myself. Sitting there drinking a beer listening to the reformed Go-B's was a melancholic affair and I teared up when they played Cattle and Cane, a song which is quintessentially North Queensland and one which you can't fully appreciate until you lived surround by "fields of cattle and fields of cane". It was one of my favorite traveling tunes when I did field work during my time residing in NQ and although I knew the song well before leaving Brisbane, it was driving the roads of NQ where it really struck home (so far from home). Every so often a pairing of musicians results in a truly unique song writing duo. Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Morrissey and Marr, and Forster and McLennan. The music world and the Brisbane scene has lost one of it's favorite and at some times underrated sons. RIP Grant, my rock and roll friend... Current Mood: sad Current Music: Anything by the Go-Betweens

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April 19th, 2006

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April 18th, 2006

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April 17th, 2006

12:36 pm - Lost No, this isn't an entry about one of the best series on commericial TV. This is about me never being lost again. That's right! I scored on Ebay this weekend! I managed to win a Garmin GPS for the insane price of $56.00! Some of you may be wondering why this is so exciting. Well, the fact of the matter is that being an ecologist/botanist, I am regularly in the field collecting specimens or mapping distributions. My work unit doesn't have their own GPS so I am pretty excited to get my own. This means that when ever babalon_93, baby_babalon and I are out in the wilds in sw WA and I want to collect some purty plant or record some purty birdie, I can whip out my GPS and record the location with just a few button presses. That all said, I just hope Aust Post don't lose it or anything... which would be funny because the GPS would know where it was but nobody else... Current Location: Love HQ WA Current Mood: excited Current Music: Theme from a Summer Place

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April 8th, 2006

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March 22nd, 2006

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March 18th, 2006

04:58 pm - My week in oscillation It was a week ago when babalon_93's waters broke and labour started. I now seem to have a few minutes to reflect on the week that has been. I truly was a prisoner of oscillation this week, with such incredible highs coupled with quite a few lows mainly related to the post-birth recovery of my beloved babalon. We had planned for a home birth and things seemed to be going reasonably well. Babalon_93 was an inspiration, having regular contractions about 3 minutes apart for 24 hours (that's about 480 contractions even before we travelled to King Eddies). She almost threw the towel in but wanted to give the home birth a real go. At about 4pm last Sunday afternoon, babalon had dilated to 8cm. Around 5 hours later she still had only dilated to 8cm and the baby's head wasn't in an optimal position. So it was decided that some medical intervention would be required via an epidural and a boost of hormones. From my perspective, it was a night of contrast. You see, most of Sunday I was helping babalon with pain relief by massaging, keeping the birth pool a constant temperature and generally giving reassurance. Once in the hospital, with half a dozen medicos surrounding babalon, I was generally in the way and the only place for me was to stand in the corner and observe everything. However, by about 4am Monday morning, things had taken a step forward and I found I had a real role to play. Babalon had two midwives in attendence and me to hold her hand, reassure her and stroke her hair. The head of the baby crowned about 5:30 and within a few minutes a little blue baby was lying on babalon's chest (5:38) and a pair of scissors in my hand to cut the chord. No words can adequatley describe this moment so I will not attempt it. And then there was a little one in my arms, small and perfect. For the months prior to this moment, I was doubting my abilities as a support person and as a father. I didn't know how I would handle seeing babalon in pain. I often thought that I would end up holding a new born and thinking to myself, "Okay... now what do I do?". People had said to me, "Don't worry. You'll be great!". But as soon as that wriggling young life was in my arms, it felt like something inside of me had also awaken. I instinctively knew what to do. Lying down bare chest so the new born would have skin-to-skin contact and be comforted by the sound of my adrelalin stimulated heart pounding away. But the joy was short lived as babalon took a turn for the worse. She lost a load of blood post-partum during the stiching phase. She ended up passing out a few hours later and losing all colour. The midwife kept a close eye on her all day and we were eventually moved up to the ward. King Eddies doesn't allow partners to stay overnight so I had to wrench myself away and head home. Babalon later called informing me that she was having a blood transfusion. Her haemoglobin levels had dropped from 96 on admission to 61 that evening. Babalon was severely aenemic and ended up having 4 units of blood over the next 24 hours. So babalon was there, a cathurta inserted into her bladder, a tube running into her arm, still attempting to nurse our new born Eleanor and still I wasn't allowed to stay to help out with moving the baby into place or anything. A midwife actually had the nerve to have a go at babalon after being called to help moving Ellie from crib to breast, saying, "I can't come everytime you want to put her moved". Nice. Thursday evening was another highlight, being able to bring everyone home with me and get into being a family. And we're getting there. Babalon still doesn't have a lot of energy and we have been appreciating the frozen meals that Callistra has supplied to us. I have had to learn which foods are high in iron to keep babalon's levels rising. I tend to actively avoid lambs fry but last night I made a mighty tasty meal of lambs fry for the both of us. I would even consider it again very soon. I remember being young and having regular battles with my mum about eating liver to the point that I would shovel it all in my mouth, excuse myself and go and spit it out in the loo. Ahh... mum would be proud of me! Anyway, thanks go out to everyone who has continually supported babalon and I throughout our relationship and pregnancy. It has been appreciated by all and sundry. Thanks to callistra for the macaroni and cheese dinners ("Mmmmm....cheese Grommit"), thanks to baby_elvis and _bigjobbies_ for being great company and support last Sunday and for helping us get Babalon and little ellie home. Thanks to fogod42 for the bear. I'm sure Ellie will love it! Thanks for all you messages of well wishes and admiring how adorable little Ellie is. Current Mood: contemplative

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March 17th, 2006

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10:38 am - Ellies big first night at the Hilton home... Well, after big jobbies kindly dropped babalon_93 and baby_babalon home, it was time to get down to business of settling in. We gave baby_babalon a quick tour of the house and facilities just to let her get to know the layout and the ins and outs. Eventually the three of us made it into bed for some well deserved sleep. At about 3 in the morning, after countless squeals from baby_babalon, I said, "Jeez... she's having a restless night" to which babalon_93 replied, "No, she's having a great night". Hmmm... obviously I had missed the part about broken sleep. So, how did Ellie's first night at home pan out? Ellie and babalon sharing the big bed and the entropic one sleeping in utter chaos on the couch. But then again... I wouldn't want it any other way! Current Mood: tired

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