Close to a first

Girl O' Sea and myself have never really had a barney. There have been disagreements but never anything that didn't blow over very soon. Tonight we almost changed that with regards to wedding plans. Stupid stuff like where to put the table and what chips and dips to have. For fuck's sake! What a ridiculous thing to get worked up about. I am tired. Trying to do too much. Not getting enough sleep. This results in me being a grade A pain in the coit and leads to disagreements like this. The positive thing is that it didn't turn into a fight. We saw it coming and stopped. On this I hope to keep a clean sheet.

Twilight

Melbourne has just been treated to the most fantastic twilight. Certainly magic hour. The world became a pastel palette - all mauves and blues. The greens of the plants seemed to be all the more vivid. Myself and Girl O' Sand stood in the street in awe for a while.

A tangine is bubbling away on the stove and Billy Bragg's new album is having its first spin on the stereo. I want to live with it for a few days and then I'll test my journalistic bias and try and give a critical review. The Bragg album that is.

A spot of Xmas shopping today. Our focus is so much on the wedding that we have done each other the courtesy of drawing up a wish list for presents. No time to be creative. I did have cause to pause and think about our Xmas today. I noticed a group having a party at the tennis courts in the park. I felt a distinct pang of jealousy that those involved had a group of friends to enjoy the company of. I do miss those we have left behind. It is certainly one of the aspects of the wedding that I am most excited about. I will get to see my friends.

The saga of the wedding rings continues. I don't know what weight to place on the importance of them. We seem to have left them to the last minute and it seems like it will be difficult to get a 'funky' pair made in time. Money is also a consideration. Neither of us seems to be willing to make them a top priority. I am beginning to feel that perhaps we should be keeping it simple. Something solid. Does that then become a commentary on our relationship? Boring? Which it certainly is not but will others think that? Does anybody else even care? OK simple it is. Quality but simple. A blog does seem like an unusual forum to discuss these issues with your fiance.

Is he or isn't he?

We just watched most of a doco on Dominick Dunne. I do not think I had heard of him until a few weeks ago but he seems to have appeared in almost every paper recently and on the radio and then tonight on Aunty. Perhaps all of the publicity was just leading up to tonight's screening.

It was an interesting insight into a man who had lived what seemed many lives. Soldier, film producer, journalist and plenty of other things in between.

My main point of interest was in his role as journalist, as I think that term causes a degree of angst when it is applied to those that are perceived to have not had a standard career in the industry. Dunne's only journalistic endeavours regard the reportage of famous court cases. He has never trained as a journalist. The purists would suggest that he cannot hold the that title. I find it difficult to pin down my own opinion.

There is so much about Dunne that makes me think of Capote, especially his role in the writer v journalist argument. In Cold Blood is a fantastic examination of a crime and the subsequent trials but does it answer the code of ethics questions that need to be asked? Was it fair and balanced? Did Capote cross numerous ethical lines in order to tell a story and was it the real story or just one that suited his own needs? Dunne is often accused of bias in favour of the victims of crime due to the murder of his own daughter. Does he think he needs to apply the fair and balanced questions to his own work? I wonder whether there is a certain closed shop mentality that happens within the journalistic community. A belief in paying your dues. Perhaps it is jealousy that Dunne seemed to appear from nowhere to become a headliner at Vanity Fair?

I can see both points of view. I often wonder when some of Helen Garner's work is referred to as journalism. Is she bound by a journalistic code of ethics?

Ultimately we need to assume that each individual is bound by their own code of ethics. We must assess each piece for its own journalistic merits despite the training or professional association of the writer and accept good writing to be just that.

I love a Sunday arvo session

We went to see our wedding band, The Band Who Knew Too Much, at the Pinnacle in North Fitzroy this arvo. Girl O' Sea had never seen them live before but she has now given them the bridal tick of approval. We think that they will be great. Dan Warner and Pete Lawler were checking out Girl O' Sand. You cannot blame them. She is gorgeous.

Never meet your heroes

I have a long history of not being cool when I meet people I admire. Rob Sitch came into the shop today. I wasn't cool. Some things never change.

Are there more wankers in Melbourne than Sydney?

Ok I admit the title of this post may be a tad provocative. The subtitle should have been "Are rich people bigger wankers in Melbourne than in Sydney?" I love my job. I get to chat about beer and wine all day to people who, for the most part, are interested in learning more about what's in the bottle. A lot of the time they know a lot more about it than me and I gain from the interaction. It is quite possibly the best job I have ever had. Unfortunately it is in Prahran and Prahran is wall to wall wankers.

Prior to moving to Melbourne I lived in Bondi. Sydney's eastern suburbs have more than their fair share of wankers. Malcolm Turnbull is the local member. Do you need any more convincing? That said, other than in one very small section of Double Bay, I have never seen as many ostentatious tools as I do every time I walk along Chapel Street. I am working on a theory which says that it is the geographical features of Sydney which give it a more egalitarian nature. Bare with me on this one folks. I feel that life in Sydney is structured around its physical attributes especially the harbour and the beaches. These tend to be shared spaces. I have had the misfortune of seeing Turnbull in his budgie smugglers and in the same view I might have seen a bunch of boy racers in from Lakemba, a Hollywood starlet and a drunk Irish backpacker with a hurling stick. Everybody is welcome. Don't give me talk about Cronulla. The Shire is another world.

Melbourne seems to have its moneyed enclaves based around South Yarra and Prahran and probably lots of other suburbs that I have not yet found. I think Melbournians would like to think that footy is the great leveler here and in the past I am sure it was. From what I have seen of the suburban grounds there doesn't seem to have been much space for poshness but times have changed and now everybody plays at the G or Docklands. Definitely spaces of segregation. What does it say that the "Establishment" team, Melbourne, has always had the best ground. Current circumstances probably blunt that argument.

Anyway, as I said, it is just a theory that I will continue to develop along with the assistance of the Maverick "Twins" 2006 Barossa Valley shiraz. Very impressed with this little number. Certainly not the blousy all alcohol no structure reds that typify the Barossa. Nice structure and balance. Very yummy and only about $25. I think I might get some more.

Bob from Brisbane

As much as I enjoy listening to music I find it rather tedious reading about it. The street press is cover to cover interviews or reviews and websites and blogs, as we all know, are notoriously run by no talent wannabe rock stars who were either to lazy or, probably more accurately, untalented to do anything with their own lives (It is my blog and I will be self-loathing if I wish.).

Where do I find witty and incisive musings on music? Is there an alternative out there? Elder and Zuel were ok in The SMH. Blackman is ok in The Age (He at least is a muso). But I need more. Do I need to turn to Clinton Walker? Where does he write these days? Does the answer lie within the pages of The Monthly? I have purchased one issue which has been sitting here unread for 4 months. I don't know what is holding me back from reading it. Perhaps I am worried that Forster's writing isn't as good as I am told it is. That is one house of talent that I couldn't handle falling. Perhaps tomorrow I will open the pages and see if it is possible.

Officially a Mexican

Due to the wedding we are doing an orphans' Xmas this year. Just myself and Girl O' Sand and enough good wine and food to help us forget our isolation. The cooking has begun tonight with the aroma of baking Xmas cake wafting through the house. I know I should have done it a few weeks ago but I have faith it will turn out ok.

Girl O' Sea got the news yesterday that our as yet unborn nephew/niece has a hole in the heart. That will mean that all three of her little sister's children have the condition. We won't know until the baby gets older how serious the condition is but the eldest child required surgery and was very sick. This news came to us on the same day that Girl O' Sea's grandmother sent us a family history outlining how her own older sister had died of the same condition. It hasn't sent me into a deep state of despondency for the health of any future children that we may have but it has made me consider how I would deal with a similar situation. I hope I can face it as well as those around me seem to.

According to the bureaucracy I crossed the last barrier to becoming a Victorian today with the granting of a driver's licence. As anybody around me will tell you, the reality of me ever willingly accepting that title is nil. It is maroon that pumps through my veins. I can only hope though that I can set a good example for my fellow Melbournian motorists who seem to have missed a few lessons on road sense. Perhaps by driving within the lines which have conveniently been drawn on the road and understanding that a red light means all traffic should stop, not that the next 4 cars should proceed at high speed. One can only do ones best.

And so it goes

I came home tonight to find an empty nest. I immediately feared the worse. That ginger cat is always lurking about but Girl O' Sea tells me that she saw a chick perched precariously on the edge of the nest this morning. Its sibling had already made the leap into the void. I hope that they both made the transition to flight successfully and that I will soon see them hunting worms in around my freshly turned garden beds. After the disappointments of the cabbage experiment I have decided to give beetroots and onions a go. Fingers crossed on both counts.

Girl O' Sea came home tonight with the latest twig in our own nest. A Le Creuset casserole dish the colour of the sun setting over the Indian Ocean in high summer. 5 shades of glorious orange. Girl O' Sea is already imagining it being passed on through the generations of our future family. I am imagining Saturday night and the promised first serving of osso bucco.

I watched the last of The Howard Years series last night. It left me with some very strong emotions. Firstly, I felt a great sense that I personally had not done enough to try and counter what was going on during that dark period, especially with regards to asylum seekers. Seeing the pictures of those kids behind razor wire in the middle of the dessert made me want to cry but what had I done at the time other than to cast a vote every 3 years or so? Thankfully others showed the commitment needed and politicians like Petro Georgiou, Bruce Baird, Judi Moylan and others stood up for their convictions. Hopefully now will be the time for liberals, in the small 'l' sense, to have their time on that side of politics.

Secondly, I was overwhelmed by what an absolute girl's blouse Peter Costello is. I had some sympathy for the man prior to watching the doco but now I can see that he brought it all on himself by not taking the opportunities presented to him. His interviews for the doco could have been replaced by him just sitting there and screaming "Its just not fair" because that is what he wanted to tell the nation. Such a grab for sympathy. Sorry Pete but you were always going to be the side-kick.

My third point should just be titled "The Handshake". Can any Labor supporter watch the footage of Latham and Howard outside of that radio studio without cringing? Why didn't the then Member for Werriwa just remove his other member from his pants and be done with it? I still do hold onto my signed copy of "Civilising Capital" though. Although it is unreadable it does remind me of the day that I almost told Latham that I was going to work for him when he finally became PM. That would have been a good career move.

I will try to refrain from using the C-bomb in this blog normally, so turn away now if you are easily offended, but I thought it at the time and the doco only reinforced my opinion that Peter Reith was one of the biggest cunts to ever shame Australian politics.

Our feathered friends

It must be such hard work being a blackbird parent.

I am sitting here pondering how 20 years of music obsession can be distilled into the 2 songs which will play prominent roles on the big day. I thought the decision had been made years ago but then I actually met somebody to marry and realised that it wasn't just about me. Girl O' Sea had her own great suggestion and now a very old favourite has released a new song that we both love.

I mention the blackbirds because my pondering involves me staring out into our garden. The birds have a nest in the passionfruit vine and the four beautiful blue speckled eggs have magically become two very healthy looking chicks. I don't know what became of the others. The blackbird family have become mascots of our own relationship. Our wedding invitations, designed by the very talented Girl O' Sea, feature an avian theme, including beautiful blue speckled eggs, and when these were replicated on the front fence our hearts melted a bit.

The chicks are growing very quickly and the parents seem to be constantly coming and going with moths and worms. Unfortunately they have worked out that my compost has lots of worms in it so the garden beds are always being dug up. A small price to pay to help them out. It sort of feels right in the circumstances.

The first

It is Sunday night and for most the weekend is ending but for me it is sort of beginning. I have Monday and Wednesday off each week. Not the best scenario but it sort of feels like I get 2 Friday nights. Of course I also claim Friday night as a Friday night.

We went to see Dan Warner play at The Lomond this evening. Bit of a follow on from the RRR BBQ. Quite like Dan and he gets a big sympathy vote. Anybody who listens to the JVG radio show on Sundays would understand. JVG was at the pub. He is marrying us in 6 weeks but didn't recognise us. Understandable though as I dare say he had a big arvo.

Less than 6 weeks to go. People have received the invitations. It is starting to feel very real now. I am so excited but I can feel the pressure beggining to grow. For no other reason than we are putting all this time into planning one day and we want it to go off as well as possible. I realise it wont be perfect but we really want everybody to have fun. Fingers crossed.