last weekend

the weekend is over, dead and buried. want to hear about it? read on.
as usual i'm exhausted from hard work, it appears everyone else is on a go slow or work avoidance regime and because they are not accountable to anyone everything is left to me. so after a long, long saturday i drive home feeling like i need 12 weeks in a health spa and a new skinsuit. my face haggard and weary like an old sailor my bones like lead and my fat head just pounding and throbbing like they are demolishing a city somewhere inside. i make it to bed around 9pm and am about to fall asleep. my telephone has had a flat battery all day and it's on the charger near my bed. suddenly it rings.

it's my brother, he's upset i can tell by his voice, he says very slowly and seriously, 'i've got to tell you something.'

my first thought is 'mums dead.'

he says, 'my flats been ransacked. it's been broken into.'

how this is possible i don't really know, it's in a very wealthy established part of london and has security and double locks. it's almost an impossible place to break in to. but whomever did this were professionals. old 'two tier' comrade starmer has just let out a bunch of rapists, sex offenders, robbers and murderers from over crowded prisons in the uk to make room for people who tweet and write anti establishment things online. consequently crime is at an all time high.

anyways they took some stuff that my dad had left us. 

it's not the money or value i was annoyed about but the fact this was my dads passion and joy, something he left for us. i didn't even see it, it was locked away in my brothers apartment, in his attic.

anyways i deal with him, i mean it's just good no one was hurt and the goods they stole are just things, so i help my brother try to get perspective. the forensics arrive and we say goodbye.

i'm missing my dad a lot this week. it's been strange as normally i don't really miss him like this, i want to speak with him, to have a conversation but he's not here. that's hard for me. i just want him to listen. it's frustrating.

sunday i manage to get up at 5am after about 3 hours sleep and drive down to north sydney for a market where i sell some of my books. i make about $50 but meet some nice people. 

a young girl about 16 and her mum. the girl bought my tolkien copies and i gave her some other books as a bonus. we chat a bit about 'the dark materials,' she tells me she's about to leave to join the coast guard in their air division patrolling australia's coasts, i like this girl, she's really nerdy and mature, she's intelligent and has a interesting librarian type of voice. then an old couple come along, very dark skinned the man has weird alien like teeth as if two sets deformed within one another. he's soft spoken in a fractured english but has good language skills just accented, as we discuss good science books and i sell him two books on quantum physics. i discover he is from sri lanka, in the north so i tell him about my trips there, how much i loved it. he said he was a hindu who was exploring buddhism, whereas i said i was more buddhist exploring hinduism when i was there. later a man came along to look at some thrillers and i recommended 'three envelopes' which he bought. it was a beautiful day, i was set up underneath a tree and all these weird flowers fell down upon me and the books, covering the whole spread in a strange surreal layer of blossom. later a japanese lady came to have a look, she offered me a snow pea from a bag of them and i like raw snow peas so i started telling her about my fave xmas lunch which we had once after a night clubbing, a fresh snow pea from my friend james garden. she found it funny that i only had a snow pea for xmas dinner that year. as we spoke i discovered she was a stall holder who made and sold cakes, she was just wandering around having a look at other stalls. we had a chat about baking, i explained how i can't bake very well at all and that i have a fave cake called 'lumberjack cake' which no one has ever heard of but i attempt to bake it and it always comes out different. she looked at me and smiled and said she sells 'lumberjack cake' so i went over and had some off her cake. it was perfect. we discussed the science of baking and art of cooking, obviously i am no scientist, i never measure ingredients and think in ratios, whereas baking requires that mathematical approach unlike cooking which i am good at. i tell her i will choose a book for her and return to my stall. somewhere around me a fight breaks out, i intervene and assist a young japanese family from being attacked by a north shore lawyer type with barbarian tendencies, the family are very grateful and come and shake my hand. 

later the japanese cake lady brings me a cucumber. i offer her ursula le guin's two volume collection of short stories, 'keep them,' i say. and strangely enough she has read and loved le guin's 'left hand of darkness' so we have a chat about that. how weird.

later she brings me a box of lumberjack cake as a gift.

this weekend

the threat of a train strike hangs over me this weekend. i have taken two days leave from work as friday evening the the are playing the opera house and saturday 'the church' are at 'the enmore.'

i am in avoca visiting a friends bakery, he notices the anguish in my face, it's a real possibility i may have to miss both gigs. i've considered driving in, but parking is impossible, plus accommodation is super expensive as the demand is so high.

and then at the final moment i hear the good news.

the the is incredible, matt johnson and his band are a tight outfit, the sound is crisp and clear and they are filming the gig. matt is super talkative something new, last time i saw him he was very introverted. i'm very close to the front, the first half of the gig is the new album 'ensoulment' which is as close to lenord cohen as i;ll see, matt just seems to possess that same gravatas, in a new wave type of sound.

the second set is all the old faves, starting with infected, it's everything you wanna hear, infected, armageddon days, sinking feeling, love is stronger than death, august and september, slow emotion replay, this is the day, heartland, dogs of lust, sweet bird of truth and lonely planet concluding with 'uncertain smile' and 'giant.'

the opera house was packed and everyone was up, dancing and grooving.