I haven't been around JU much lately, as I explained sometime back, because I've been particularly busy in the real world. I realised today all I've posted in the last couple of months have been poems. I thought I'd redress this. So, for those interested, here is a quick update.
I'm just about done packing to go away to Queensland for a week. This means going north to warmer weather (YES!) and to where my wife has been for the past few days. She left last Tuesday (a week ago) to go to Adelaide (which is south) to catch up with her best friend. Then she flew north to Brisbane and we will meet there tomorrow. I've been missing her heaps.
It is nice to have a break away from each other once in a while. For me, it defines all the little things I love about having Toni in my life. Sure, we miss each other but missing someone is good for the soul, I think. It reinvigorates a relationship.
I will be celebrating my 44th birthday while I'm away. Toni got hold of a double day pass to Dreamworld (Australia's answer to Disney World, I guess). I'm going to spend the day eating and drinking things that are bad for me and going on as many roller coasters as I can. See, I really am a big kid at heart. I am so looking forward to it. We're also catching up with some relatives I haven't seen for many years, as well as some friends we've not seen in a while either. All in all, it should be a fun-filled trip.
I'm also going to scout some venues up there in preparation for the band's first tour. We're hoping to do this in early December but it will depend on how many gigs I can get between Sydney and Brisbane (it is about 930 kilometers between the two). We want to take a week to get there, so I want to make sure we've got at least 3 or 4 gigs between the two cities.
Speaking of the band, we've been picking up more and more live shows. We did our fourth last weekend and again, we rocked the house (even if I do say so myself). When other bands are handing out business cards and asking if they can do further shows with us, we know we're on to a good thing. Our latest member, Emily, has proved to be an awesome talent who absolutely shines on stage. Everyone, both in the band and in our wider circle of friends, thinks she is absolutely perfect for the band. We're working on a couple of video clips for two of our earlier songs and we're also getting a bunch of new songs together for the next recording session. We've also got 3 shows coming up in the next month, one being our first road trip down to Australia's capital city, Canberra. I'm hoping to catch up with Toblerone while I'm down there.
Sydney has had lots of rain and really big storms over the last few weeks. I never thought I'd say this, given how we've been in such a desperate drought, but I do miss the sun. It would be nice to see it come out for a day, just long enough to dry some clothes and warm the place up a bit. It has been cold, windy and wet and I am just about done with it. Of course, most of the rain has been falling on the coast and running out to sea, although some has made its way inland and our dam levels have risen a little. Apparently, we need a month of this over all the major catchment areas before dam levels will be back to acceptable levels.
I hope this finds all my friends here well and happy and enjoying your summer (or for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere like me, your winter). I will continue to make the occasional poetic run here and I'm still stopping by when I can to read and try to respond to some articles, although often times I am days late and my responses go unnoticed anyway. Oh well, it is the way it goes, I guess.
Well, this is it, I think. I'm just about done...