Wednesday, November 17, 2010

3 months clean

i've been off the ciggies for three months. I still miss them like a child but its slowly getting easier. I've been sick almost constantly since, which I'm hoping is just part of the body's way of cleaning house. The latest novelty has been pleurisy which was damnably painful and inconvenient.

Being sick hasn't interrupted my work too much, I've sort of pottered away through it all. My tolerance levels are fairly low though and the town seems filled with hillbillies and casual racists. Any chance I get I'm taking a break from bar duties while my tolerance and optimism are restored.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

down all the days

there's a lot of sickness in my life and the lives of the people around me at the moment, so I haven't felt overly like blogging for a while. More deaths too. Its feeling like a russian winter. Unending and bleak. Anyway there's other stuff too. Better stuff.

Starting to play a few shows again. It feels good. My friend Hap has put out a new record with his band the Underminers, and its a seriously lovely record. Called Heart part of your mind it has a pink cover very like the Smith's Hatful of Hollow. The song are by turns gorgeous and uncomfortable. He has really put his relationship and himself under the microscope lyrically and if you know the couple it can make for awkward listening, but musically its very decent. There's some nice country and beat pop flourishes courtest of an old dude called Graeme Hodge and the production is very sweet and airy. They're gonna launch the record at my pub and apparently I'm gonna play the corresponding Melbourne gig. Good times a comin'!

The pub is trundling along. I'm resenting the paperwork side more and more, but have embraced the day to day minutae far more than I did last year. I'm enjoying pouring drinks more than ever. We seem to be having a better year than most of the small pubs around us so hopefully that bodes well for and good and profitable summer.

The dog is continuing to be a holy terror. He recently had an incident where he ate some magic mushrooms that had sprung up unbekownst to us at the side of the house and nearly died. Poor little fella was paralysed and convulsing and we nearly lost him. He pulled through though and since then has been a lot more unpredictable and creepy. There's a little bit Charles Manson about the little guy these days getting very aggressive if we inconvenience him in any regard.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

my iron lung

breathing is awesome. Sadly its also pretty difficult at the moment. There's a big old infection perched in my lungs and walking is a chore, any exertion more than that is nigh on impossible. Which is making my working life fucken interesting. Short days are in order.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

the wreck of the hesperus

this poor old blog is a rusting hulk slowly melting into the sand. Life goes on whether you write about it or not though. The pub still dominates my waking hours, though i am definitely spending less time there. I'm coping a bit better, and have a bunch of strategies in place that are keeping my head above water. The range from the puerile to the mildly illegal but seem to be largely harmless. Suffice to say as a longtime boozer, I'm getting better aquainted with the marvellous diverse uses of the hemp plant. Lize seems to enjoy my tranquil state as does the dog, on whose level i seem to be operating at least one or two nights a week.

There's been a couple of deaths in my circle of friends and aquaintances in the last couple of months, both larger than life characters, tougher, hardier men than myself. One went by his own hand, another through a bike accident. After the sadness, you feel vulnerable in a way. Mortality looms large. Anyway, vale Dan and Paddy.

Spent yesterday drinking in the sun with the staff. We closed for the Easter Monday public holiday and BBQed various meats and enjoyed jugs of watermelon daiquiri made from melons that sprung up of their own accord in the pub's back yard. A lovely day with very little unpleasantness and a lot of laughter. In the tradition of all staff parties there were a couple of incidents in the late evening, involving a divisional van and an errant young barman but no harm seemed to come of it all.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

update

here i am. I'm thirty eight now, no smarter and no thinner than i was a week ago. Christmas came and went in a manic flurry. The pub was busier maybe than its ever been and managed to generate and consume vast amounts of money simultaneously. We survived and since then have had a couple of nice parties at the house (one for mates and one for staff) and a week at the beach I could ill afford but may have saved my mind if not my life. I have another shindig tomorrow - a BBQ and gig at the pub for my birthday. The band are ill prepared as usual so it promises to be an enjoyable farce.