Thistle Do! February Week 2, 2024
Rockin' out on the Rocking Horse! #1 on the Top 10! Vote 1 Spuddy! Happy Snaps!
Rock-ing Horse
I spent a great deal of my childhood burning up energy yet going nowhere, and fast, on this old rocking horse.
Now that I think about it, it was great preparation for adult life…
Nearly everyday I’d be out on the verandah of our home in Innisfail, admiring the view of the street, and Mount Bartle Frere in the distance (when it wasn’t raining), rocking backward and forward and singing my little heart out.
Usually a diverse selection of nursery rhyme favourites or any of the Top 10 hits of the day.
By the way, can you name any songs on the Top 10 at the moment? Actually, I couldn’t even tell you what the #1 song is right now, but my guess is it will be something truly crapular (now a word).
Hang on, this might justify another heading…
What’s #1 On the Top Ten?
Apparently it’s, Stick Season by Noah Kahan (ACharts and ARIA Top 50).
Never heard of him? Me either. Let’s check it out:
Not bad! Folkie, with extra banjo, catchy. I actually like it.
Check out my grumpy, old, face now.
While I was perusing the charts I noticed #7 is Murder on the Dance Floor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and #24, Riptide by Vance Joy.
These songs are so old they’re covered in dust… Murder first charted in 2001 and Riptide appeared in 2013.
WTF?
It seems they’re still trending not because of album sales, but because the charts now count the number of times these songs are played on social media.
Whatever. I don’t know.
But if this is the new normal, then I would strongly suggest all you fellow (and fellow-ette) Status Quo fans start streaming NOW to get them trending again!
Well, the handful of us left who are young enough to use our phones without the aid of a nurse or social worker.
I’ll get you started:
Back on the Horse…
Anyway, I’d spend so long rocking on that fibreglass horse and yodeling my little lungs out that our neighbours must have been cursing the day they bought homes in our cursed street.
It may be a coincidence, but real estate values in our neighborhood rocketed up the day we left town.
And now, having survived the attentions of my three daughters, Ol’ Ned is still the steed of choice for my grandchildren.
He’s taken a few hits though, but with some TLC, a few fibreglass patches and a lick of weld from my mate Ken Smith, Ned’s rocking the burbs, and going nowhere fast for a few more years.
You can’t get another rocking horse like this nowadays as the thing is basically a Health and Safety disaster area, aka: death trap.
Which, makes it the ideal toy, and great preparation for life… if you survive the ride.
Vote 1 Spuddy!
Recently, I wrote an article about why you shouldn’t run for office in the upcoming council elections. Clearly one of my daughters didn’t read it, because this week, Jess has nominated to run in next months’ Queensland local council elections.
She’s keen. Got energy to burn. You never know what she’s going to do next and believes honesty is the best policy, (but has worked hard to tone it down a bit, e.g.: instead of blurting out ‘Wow! Your breath really stinks!’ she is more likely to ask, ‘Would you like a mint to take the edge off your breath?’)
I’ve been given the role of Special Advisor to the Potential Councillor. I think there’s eight of us. BUT, having worked in council for a few years as a Cemetery Supervisor, I’m the only one who truly does know where all the bodies are buried…
I’ll keep you posted on her progress. Elected or not, it’ll be a great education for her, and like everything she does, she’ll have a blast having a crack at it.
Readin’ n Writin’
This week I finished a book loaned to me in Tamworth (actually handed to me, not borrowed from the bookcase while nobody was looking. Plus, it’s going to be a long, hot walk getting back to you Ally).
It’s not bad, and just as I finished it, I see it’s now a Netflix series.
Great. Hurt my eyeballs for nothing.
I started watching the series, and already it’s different from the book (as usual). But, it’s been nice reliving life in the 1980’s and revisiting Darra and Bracken Ridge in Brisbane (the setting for the story). Add to this the clothes and old cars (Datto 200B, Monaro and Celica) and feel the years fall away…
I won’t do a review, but one of the quotes that hit home was from a Vietnamese drug dealer:
‘Australian childhoods are so idyllic and joyous, so filled with beach visits and backyard games of cricket, that Australian adulthoods can’t possibly meet our childhood expectations. Our perfect early lives in this vast island paradise doom us to melancholy because we know, in the hard honest bones beneath our dubious bronze skin, that we will never again be happier than we were once before. She said we live in the greatest country on earth but we’re actually all miserable deep down inside and the junk (heroin) cures the misery and the junk industry will never die because Australian misery will never die.’
Other notable quotes:
‘Don’t fuckin’ swear!’
“Everybody running from something, especially ideas.”
It’s a good yarn, a bit weird in places, I’d recommend it. In fact I’ve got a copy to hand on if you’re keen!
Happy Snaps
When we get rain, the old town ‘n surrounds really pops. These were taken on a recent run out to the Faery Pools (sadly, we haven’t had enough rain to give the waterholes a real good flush for swimming… yet):
Big tides this week too:
How it looks at low tide:
Spotted this car and was trying to think where I’d seen this colour on a vehicle before and remembered I’d owned something similar in the 1970’s:
Hours of fun, but it didn’t feel the same smashing something up that was designed to be broken…
And on that happy note, catch you next week!
Cheers,
Greg