the times they are a...

Let's suppose that you work for a small family company, are well paid, have a lot of licence to do what you want (more or less), have to do very little work at all & have lots of time for important things like doing a blog & downloading music...you'd have to crazy to leave a cushy job like that, no? Yep, well that's basically what I've done (& I'm starting to have doubts now after writing that!) - I'm moving onto another company which is bigger, corporate (they have a Human Resources Officer!), where I'll have to do a lot of work & will have to prove my worth all over again....perks are slightly more money & um, that's about all...& it's even further to drive to as well!

But it IS a good thing I'm sure - firstly I get to work with a team & be vaguely sociable & secondly I'm stagnating here & feeling bored as hell. Change over is in 3 weeks, so its goodbye sleepy Alstonville, hello to the bustling metropolis of Ballina - home of the big prawn! I'm not sure what company policy is gonna be on personal web-use but it's gotta be tighter than here! dot...may have to be relegated to home usage now...& as my friend Greg put it "I hope yr new job has even more powerful computers to make downloading mp3's even easier!"... so do I.

Will have to try & get a few more pics of sleepy Alstonville to post on here before I blow this village...ah shit! I'm gonna miss the 'Biggest vegetable' exhibition later this year! May have to come up here & snap a pic of a truck sized pumpkin.

Other stuff - I can only give the new Drones CD "gala mill" a so-so review...it's good but not great...where is all the wailing & anguish that I loved? Sadly, it appears to have been tamed...there's a few damn fine tracks on here...just in a more subdued form than earlier efforts...BUT they lose big points & instant dismissal from lyric writer school for using the line "where the dead wood aches" in not 1, but 2 songs! Sorry folks but that is lame, no matter how nice a line it is...

Finally - saw 3 Grey-crowned babblers today - they are the skulking fiends of the bird world and are very cool - here's why :

"The Grey-crowned Babbler is the largest of the four Australian babblers, reaching to 30 cm long. Its distinctive bill is scimitar-shaped, long and heavy...This species has a loud and often repeated ‘ya-hoo’ call which is a duet between the male and female (the female says ‘ya’ and the male answers with ‘hoo’). It is used to maintain the bond between the pair and as a territorial call. The ‘ya-hoo’ duet sequence is repeated rapidly, up to thirty times in a row." (DEC)

...sadly there was no ya-hoo-ing going on today... se la vi...

Sometimes I feel like a dork...

Took some time off work & spent a few days on the lovely Coochiemudlo Island with J & The Kid. 'Coochie' as the locals know it is off Victoria Point near Stradbroke Island and appears to be in a 1970's timewarp...which is no bad thing...it's all very beach holiday shacks & sandy beaches & very charming. It also features a population of Bush stone curlews (see pic) which got me very excited...

Conversation between me & The Kid:

The Kid: Come on dad throw the frisbee (yep, another dorky admission - I love chucking a frisbee around)...
Me: (looking around) Hang on, I though I just heard a Curlew...
The Kid: hurry up Dad...
Me: (excitedly) - hey wow! It is a Curlew...look there it is...& there's another one....look right there!
The Kid: (annoyedly) Dad, it's just a boring bird...
Me: (silence...throws frisbee dejectedly to Kid while lamenting Kids lack of enthusiasm for our feathered brethren)

Anyhow, Curlews have gotta be the absolute nerds of the bird world, they even look gangly & stupid...kinda like a feathered Buddy Holly. The funniest thing about them is that they freeze stock still when they see you, then slowly sink to the ground & lie there & hope you don't see them. The Kid & I even walked over & picked one up...it just lay there placidly & tried very hard to look very dead.

Anyhow Coochie is cool & I recommend it (for the Curlews alone!)...altho skip the pizza at the corner shop...it elevated the word bland to a new meaning! Got back from the subtropical paradise of Coochie to take The Kid straight to a ten-pin bowling party in Lismore....sheesh, is there anything more lame than ten-pin bowling? I used to think it was kinda cool in an ironic way, but now I can boldly say that it really is the slobs sport & has no redeeming features whatsoever, & I challenge anyone to look vaguely interested & NOT check the clock after 2 mind-numbing games. Well, being a kids party, where all present had a concentration span of about 0.2 seconds, 2 games (with time out for eating of hot chips & sausage rolls) somehow took a hellish 3 hours! I couldn't get outta there quick enough...but The Kid seemed to think it was a winner (probably a hell of a lot better than curlew watching)...

Got home to find the new Drones CD in the mail (drool drool) & tried hard to show I was a cool Dad by blasting The Kid with The Mad's wonderful punk rock anthem 'I Hate Music', which you can listen to /download here. Needless to say she was unimpressed...I better lift my game! BTW...you can listen to a Bush stone curlew call here...

Warning! Warm & fuzzy content...

Yeah, well it was Fathers' Day yesterday & as a result I am now the proud owner of a hand made shrinky dink 'Dad' keyring, knocked up by The Kid at school - cool no?