A whole month has gone by!

A whole month? Oh my GOD! I just realised that is how long it has been since I last wrote anything on here. A month. Anything. One. So here I am, and so much has happened in the time since I last wrote on here.

Okay, here goes. Well, I went out to Boronia Primary School for a day, and had a super sensational time out there. We spent the day drawing and signing and laughing and playing and when I went to collect my orders, there was this amazing display of all the kids' work at the office. It looked so awesome I almost fell over. I was rapt. They had drawn some killer pictures. So that was great.

I also went out to Wandin North Primary School, to visit the kids there. No. Not Wandin Valley. It wasn't the school on A Country Practice for all those people as old as me. It was Wandin North, and it was a very cool little school. Only 140 kids, and the Grade 6ers weren't there, so it was even smaller. But we had an awesomely fun day ... I even thought I was Adam Sandler there for a little bit, which was extra fun. Disco Disco. But another fun day, and it was great to see the kids and all their monkey-like swinging tricks when I went back out a few days later. Only one slight injury too, so that was good.

What else? Ummmm, okay, well I watched Iron Man ... Good movie that! One of the better superhero films.

A portrait was painted of me by the artist, Katsuya. I was looking very regal and super. St James the Greater was who I was modelling, and I think I certainly was pretty great! I even grew a beard for the modelling! A goatee, which has now morphed, mwaawwhahahahaha, into a full beard. I almost look like an adult ... now I just have to think about starting to act like one ... maybe.

Well, I think that is enough for today. Footy starts this week ... WOO! Bring that on.

Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally.

Bushfire spirit

It's awful sometimes, how there has to be a tragedy for people to show their best side. It's also awful how the tragedy is usually caused by someone showing their worst side. This has been the case in Victoria, my home state, over the last couple of weeks. Saturday the 7th of February saw the worst bushfires this state has experienced. Over 200 people died, hundreds of homes were lost, and terror gripped the state as people wondered if their loved ones were safe or not. The fires got within 100 or so metres of my Mum's house, so we spent plenty of time on the phone trying to see whether she should run or stay. With roads being closed it made things even trickier. She was one of the lucky ones, with the wind change saving her house.

This horror was deliberately started by one of our fellow human beings.

The aftermath showed the generosity and spirit of humans, the good side. Millions and millions of dollars were raised, a figure even more amazing considering the financial crisis that is going around. But it wasn't only money. People offered their time and services as well, as towns began the long, slow process of first cleaning up and then rebuilding. Thousands of people have offered to volunteer, meaning that the wait is long for some people who still want to help. It's a fantastic side effect of something terrible.

With bad fire weather forecast again this weekend, let's all hope that the idiots around can restrain their idiocy and not light any more fires. It's more horror that we just don't need.

Bowling 'em over

Yep. I went ten pin bowling today. I looooove ten pin bowling. Some people, I won't mention names, try and tell me it isn't a sport. There's a ball involved, you knock stuff over, you have a run up, you can have a style with the flicky your foot out thing ... IT'S A SPORT!!!!!

I played pretty average today, just scraping over the hundred mark, but it was so much fun trying to remember how I usually aim and everything. I sort of got the hang of it again towards the end. One of my goals is to break 200 in a game of ten pin bowling. I have been close a few times. once I only need 6 off my last bowl. I hate the word, but i did choke, only getting 2 pins. Tragic it was. I was crushed like a bit of biscuit that has fallen on the floor then been stepped on by someone wearing workboots. Crushed. But I will get there again. I will make it happen.

So now, before I play my next game, I have work to do. No no no no no, not practicing bowling, I need to work on a celebration dance for when i get a strike. It has to be something that says, "I got a strike and I am going off, but it happens pretty often so i am being pretty cool about it as well." So I have work to do with that one.

In the meantime, I am waiting for my next book, Mac O'Beasty, to head off to the printer. There are a few final issues to sort out and then we will be good to go. Go Mac, GO!

Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Seeya

Wally

Kelly Clarkson

Hi everyone. As you can see from the title of this blog, Kelly Clarkson, this blog is about, well, Kelly Clarkson. Actually, it's about more than that, although I could quite easily fill this post talking about how much she ROCKS and how I saw her live and she was sensational and I love her songs and her new song is cool and Since You've Been Gone is one of my all-time favourite songs and how ... well, you get the picture. But as I said, this post is about more than that.
Kelly has just released her new song, My Life Would Suck Without You. It is a cool song, no doubt about that. There is more to it than that though. I read a review saying this song was the sound of a rock star with her tail between her legs. When Kelly released her last album - which I actually thought had some good songs, although it wasn't as consistent as I know she can be - she went out on her own. A lot of people thought this was a bad idea, that she should stick with the winning team, etc etc, blah blah blah. The album didn't do quite as well and now she is back working with known success writers. I hope I have that all correct, I am pretty surte i do, but that isn't the point anyway. The point is, we should never bag someone taking a risk. She was at the top of her game, she was killing it, and she said now I am going to try and do something that isn't sure-fire, but i will have responsibility and I will be the one out there to take the praise or criticism. It actually reminds me very much of when Michael Jordan stopped basketball and started playing baseball, because he wanted to try something he loved doing and he wanted the challenge. When he wasn't a "success", he copped a bagging. But that isn't the point! People stay stagnant. People go along, especially if they are good at something, and they do it day in day out and then it doesn't become a challenge anymore. The thrill goes. we have to look for thrills. We have to put our aasses on the line, and I don't mean donkeys, and we have to take the chance that we will fail. Because that is when we get to experience everything the world has to offer. We don't plod. We risk falling to have the chance to soar. if it happens that things aren't a massive success, we can go back and start over again at what we know. That is not crawling back with our tail between our legs. It is stabilising before we go off again to try something else new.
That was the longest paragraph I have ever written.
And that close to the shortest.
My point is, do not stay at what you know and are good at just because of that. It isn't wrong to try something when people question it, saying things like, "But you are doing so well at ..." or "But that isn't as secure as ..."
Take a risk. Learn to fall. learn to fly.
Go Kelly. You rock.

Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.

Seeya

Wally

Marysville and more

Hello again! I know, I know, I have been slack for ages again. It is getting to be a bit of a habit with me these days, the slackness and the DVD watching and the lying on the couch and the eating Doritos and the ... just kidding, that was all just yesterday afternoon! On other days I have been working, and teaching myself piano, and marketing, and last night I went and saw and AWESOME show called Starbound. Picture this. You get 60 kids, between 14 and 21, and in two, count 'em, two weeks they learn around twenty song and dance routines from broadway musicals around the world. And, not only learn them, but perform them at a standard that blows your mind. It was so cool. A few songs at the start of the second half in particular were amazing, and right after I finish writing here I am hitting iTunes to try and find them on there, although I would pay to buy the versions I heard last night, I kid you not.

So what else have I been up to? Well, I did take a bit of time off and go away for a week. That's right, I was away in the hills of Marysville, staying with Ashana and my mum, and for a few days Makka my niece, and for a couple of days Mels my cousin-in-law. It was really nice. Marysville, if you ever get the chance, is a very nice place to visit. Just past Healesville, over the Black Spur, up a hill our car struggled to even get over, and you're there. And when you are there, you must, I repeat MUST, go and see Bruno Torf's sculpture garden. I will not say anything more on the topic than that, I will let you find out for yourself and report back to me. And you will love it, I have no doubt. I am not a gallery person, I have to admit, which makes being married to an artist who volunteers in a gallery interesting, but I don't really like them. But this one blows me away every time. And I have been there many, many times.

So go there. That is an order.

Until next time, keep living the dream.

Seeya

Wally

HAAAAAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

Happy new Year's everyone!!! And because I missed last week, Merry Christmas as well. Sorry, I am in a bit of a rush. We have guests and are going out and I have to ype really fast so ;lkjfgkjbsdf djkbf sdfjsjfbsr hfklwe f!!!

Seeya in 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay gold.

Wally

Food, food and more food

Yep, that's why I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I have basically just been eating my way through December. Yum Cha at the Red Emperor (mmmm, yum cha), too many Vegemite or honey sandwiches to count, dinner and lunches at Condottis, dinner at Vue de Monde, possibly the fanciest pants restaurant I have been to, although the Sofitel one is up there, literally and figuratively speaking. Is that how you spell figuratively? I don't know, the spell check thingie isn't working for me. Sigh, it's a tough life huh?

So apart from eating what's been going on? Markets have been busy as anything, I have popped back out to a few schools, Brunswick South included which was great fun as per usual. Three visits there this year, my record along with three visits to St Pauls in Warragul. A few others have had the pleasure/luck/misfortune to see me twice!

Anyway, that is it for me today I think. I am a bit tired and I am about to cook dinner for lunch, as I am off to the Dingley Twilight Market this afternoon. Mmmm, dinner for lunch, and tuna pasta at that. Life tough? No way at all, I am having tuna pasta! All is good with me!!!

Have a great week and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally