High on an 800 metre hill overlooking Coffs Harbour–only one kilometre from the CBD, surrounded by native forest and plants with a clear view of the ocean but 500 metres from the nearest neighbour, this 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath has two 6 kw solar systems and two Tesla batteries and is a high tech dream […]
Old Timer–New Times
This staff t-shirt in vintage condition with STAGE on the back fromThe Kool Pacific Music Fair in 1978 just fell on my head in my bedroom closet as I was clearing out ‘older stuff’ like the Miami Vice baseball hat I’d also found. It’s about a fortnight before I click one more notch on the […]
A Helluva 12 Month Ride Since July 2021–But I’m Back
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” Hunter Thompson Phil on the balcony with his carved […]
The .6 Million Dollar Man
People keep saying “Your colour has really returned!” as I was appearing grey and corpselike as I fought two near-death incidents in the last two months. Just like they say “Gee you’ve lost weight!” when they see you after a while and never mean it. They figure that’s what you want to hear […]
DAY OF THE DEAD v5
This is Antoinette Rigoni who caught me as I fell down a stairwell at my home only two weeks after major open heart surgery and hauled my sorry near unconscious butt to hospital for the latest chapter Dio De Muertos (Day of The Dead). I had hired her six weeks ago to take care of […]
Livestreaming From A Dying Heart
Following the diagnosis of mitral valve failure in the left side of my heart, the need for open heart surgery to replace it and a triple bypass procedure while they are in there, I am now lined up to enter St Vincent’s Private Hospital to go under the knife in early May with my […]
Another Shock To The System…
Don’t feel sorry for me or be overly alarmed. I am posting this in my regular blog and on my recently restored Facebook page to keep my friends informed. At 70 now, I am facing one of the biggest challenges of my life–suddenly put onto me for drastic, fast action. I took a routine heart […]
2021-Bring It On!
Greets from Coffs Harbour, Australia where COVID has been non existent for the past six months, the sun is shining in deep summer and we’ve had over a foot of rain already in January due to El Nino conditions. Everything is growing like topsy and the fields or forests are a verdant emerald. Wildlife is […]
Life v 3.0 in the COVID Age at 70
Getting back into the blog with monthly updates started three weeks ago but took this long to complete. I’m happy to report that I feel at a peak of health relative to my turning 70 and also mentally pretty acute rather than doddering or drooling. And emotionally I have reached a zenith of calm, being […]
Still Alive at 69 But Dead To Facebook and All Other Social Media
I turned 69 years young mid November, am fully retired now that I left SXSW as their Pacific Senior Regional Development Manager of 17 years in July. I wintered in Hawaii for a couple of months, planted new crops in the spring (chilli, okra, collards, eggplant and others) and am shutting down my Facebook Page […]
THIS IS MY TIKI LIFE!
Blog June 2019 A couple of y’all got in touch worried I had died because there’s been no action on social media from me. My Bad… The start of winter sunrises again. In pursuit of finishing my book, “What A Long, Strange Tripp It’s Been”, I went off Facebook and all social media about three months […]
Book Excerpt: The Basement Tapes
Another excerpt of the almost finished tome. The Basement Tapes is a darker chapter of the book that occurs after a burglary that my ex-girlfriend committed while I was away on the road. I was an extremely vengeful person back in those days post-breakup and rip-off and this chapter shows the extremes that my mind […]
Book Excerpt: Up For The Down Stroke
From a year ago… Well, I’m hurtling through the pages with thousands of words pouring out of me every day starting at 7am when I hit the keyboard with my parrot behind me chirping away and the stereo tuned to a new act each day. This week it was Drive By Truckers one day, […]
Fifth Week of Book Excerpts… and a Brisket!
From a year ago… Five weeks in from my start writing this book I’m about a third of the way through it and the stories are pouring out of me at a rate of 2000 words a day. It’s a real joy writing and because of my lurid past in the business of importing fine […]
Book Excerpt: REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED VERY COLD!
REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED VERY COLD Thank Goddess I have reformed and got rid of my vengeful streak, replacing getting back with paying forward in random acts of kindness. Maybe it was the stroke I had that melted that part of my mind tuned into revenge, or the subsequent cardiac arrest that killed […]
Book Excerpt: Opening Chapter… The First Murder
THE FIRST MURDER begins the book which ends with the second murder that I was framed for, but did not commit nine years later. In between was a raucous diversion. My brand new Lincoln Continental Town Car was parked in a small clearing in the empty desert clearing awaiting the loading of a shipment […]
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK: Where the Music Began…
It’s been almost three weeks since I started writing this book with a goal of about 2000 words a day pretty much fulfilled. Dropping out of Facebook was a superb move as the distractions fell away, much like quitting smoking and not having to light up out of boredom or habit. Every morning begins at […]
1000 DAYS IN MY SECOND LIFE!
I wake up every morning around 4am, answer a few emails from SXSW and friends and then zip out of the house by 4:30 to start my hour-long dawn Nordic Walk along the Harbour Jetty, North Wall Breakwater and beach. It’s only a five minute concert ride at high volume to the water where I […]
CRITTERS ON THE HILL!
The house and acreage in Coffs Harbour that I’m lucky to live on at Robert’s Hill, overlooking the Pacific horizon is a wondrous place since I planted it in native flowers and vegetation since I moved here in 2010. As a result, I have prolific birdlife, native animals, reptiles and amphibians in addition to […]
Back Home Again
There’s something to be said about returning to sleep in your own bed again. I recently spent seven weeks travelling the US–Hawaii and New England with a little Montreal thrown in–during the depth of the Australian winter. Coming back to a fluffy goose down doona and a down pillow-fort high on The […]