Living the dream

Well, today has been a good day.  No, a great day.  I am now the proud owner of a Maton EM225C Dreadnought Guitar.  And the sound is so sweet.  I spent the rest of the afternoon taking photographs of the houses I lived in at Mayfield (Stedman St and Sunderland St) and Waratah (Tighe Street), and then I cruised Maitland Road into Hunter Street and up to the beach.

I parked at the Horseshoe Beach carpark, and used the 'loo at Nobbys Pavillion.  I couldn't resist.  I went back to the car, got the Maton, my chair and busking bag, and out I went sitting under the arches at the Nobbys Beach Pavillion and looking out to the lighthouse.  Just pause a minute to take in that view above.

I did half an hour of Beatles songs, and a massive storm blew up and everyone left, including me.  But the sound of that guitar, and the view... I was in heaven.  Oh, yeah, here's what the Maton looks like:

I can immediately see that that guitar and I are going to get on very well indeed.

Wyong Shire Wowser

I just thought I'd check Wyong Shire Council's busking policy, given that I'm moving north soon and might want to busk there...  Here's what their website says:

Busking


Council does not issue permits or licenses for busking purposes, therefore it is not allowed on Council land.

You may obtain permission to busk in private locations, such as Shopping Centres, by contacting Centre Management.

To busk in The Entrance contact:

The Entrance Town Centre Management
Shop 3/96 The Entrance Rd, The Entrance NSW 2261
Phone: 02 4333 5377

So I rang that number thinking at least there might be a few square metres of land in Wyong Shire where busking was permitted.  They said, Oh Dear, we'll have to get council to change that, our Deed of Agreement states no buskers are allowed except in the Country Music Festival.  She took my number and promised to clarify the issue as she'd been having a lot of enquiries.

But all in all, busking in Wyong Shire on council land is not permitted.  What a bunch of wowsers.  No music in your lives, guys.  Have you all forgotten how to have fun?

PICC gone

I suppose I need to explain the title of the post.  A PICC is a "peripherally inserted central catheter".  Now I suppose I need to explain those four words making up the acronym.

"Peripherally inserted" means put in from the outside.  In medical terms, this usually means the arm or the leg - in my case the arm.  And a "central catheter" is simply a tube going toward the heart chamber ("central" refers to the heart chamber, and a "catheter" is simply a tube.  The common use of the word catheter usually refers to a urinary catheter, but the term simply means tube).  I'll include a picture, as it WILL be worth a thousand words.  Click on it to enlarge - it will be useful.  Click THIS LINK for even more info.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is the PICC I'd had for five months (installed 24 August 2012) was removed on Tuesday morning!!  I no longer have to visit the hopsital every day and get an infusion which took around two hours.  It might not seem like much, but I had to go EVERY day.  Even when I was having radiation therapy I got the weekends off, but for my infusions, it was seven days a week, and I have been one of the longest-term APAC patients they've ever had.

I'm going to miss the nurses at APAC.  They're a fine bunch of staff - all senior nurses who just CARE for their patients.  Really care.  It was a bit of a dreamy feeling getting that PICC out, as I've gotten used to getting in to hospital each day, finding a parking spot (my mobility parking permit is fantastic for that), and lately, getting an hour or so of practice on the guitar - which the guys at APAC used to love.  I used to learn new songs there, so they weren't being performed to the best of my ability, so apologies, guys, for the mistakes.

But this starts yet another new phase in my life.  Next stage is to move house.  I want to live somewhere I have a good view of Lake Budgewoi.  So Toukley, Gorokan, Charmy, San Remo, Buff Point, Budgie or Noraville would all be possibilities.  I suppose Lake Haven needs to be on that list, but it wasn't actually a suburb when I used to live there.  I'm really looking forward to the move and will be visiting Real Estate agents all this week, I reckon.  I'll let you all know how this goes!!

Busking - The things you get

There's always an interesting array of STUFF you get in the guitar case.  The first time it happened to me was on my second-ever session.  I was up at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the taxi rank.  It must have been about half past eleven, and I could see someone putting something down next to the guitar case.  It turned out to be 24 Chocolate liqueurs, exactly as pictured!

On the same night, and probably left by the same guy was the most interesting thing I'vehad to date, and it will probably hold the record for a while. Kama Sutra Oil of Love.  Whatever that is...  I can only speculate as to why *I* got these things, and not the probable original intendee.  I'm assuming he brought them with him to give to a potential new mate, and the night didn't go so well, he was stuck with them and I got them instead.  Well, I've eaten the chocolate liqueurs, but I've put the Kama Sutra Oil in my glory box.

Sometimes you get UNWANTED things.  About a week ago when I was scraping up the money from the guitar case, it was immediately obvious that all the coins were wet!!!  It seemed to be only water, and upon further rummaging I noticed a few small fragments of ice.  Some joker had put a few ice-cubes in while passing.  I heard them go in, too - there was a funny chinking noise, but when I looked down at the guitar case I couldn't see anything wrong.  Fortunately I mopped it up with my towel (I always take two) and was able to carry the guitar home in the case and open it up to dry it out later.

I've had an assortment of foreign currency.  I first got some new New Zealand coins (20 NZc passed off as a ten cent coin), then some from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Malaysia.  There seemed to be a definite trend among the Asia-Pacific region from south-east to north-west, until I got a coin from Switzerland (I suppose that is still north-west, just a lot further).  I even got a one US dollar bill a few nights ago.  The thing is only worth 95c.  I wonder how much a bank would charge to convert it, and whether they would actually want me to pay them MORE than the $US1 bill...

Proffessional in every way?

I just scrolled down the blog and there was an ad:

Mini Bus Service
www.corporatecoaches.com.au
Mini Bus Services
Proffessional In every way
(02) 9703 5250

... except spelling.  The capital I is a bit of a worry, too.

Busking - Beatles Night

Wow, that was great. Didn't get out till 7:40pm, went to 10:20pm (2hrs 40 - so a comparatively short session tonight).  But bang on my overall average $ per hour.

The Beatles songs were INCREDIBLY popular and very well received. I did about half of them twice (the other half once) and got up to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which is the first "M" entry.

Most of the songs are absolutely brilliant done on the street with solo guitar and vocals.

Some highlights (nowhere near all the ones I played) - All My Loving, Another Day, Back in the USSR, Ballad of John & Yoko, Blackbird, Can't Buy Me Love, Come Together, Dear Prudence, Eight Days a a Week, Goodbye, Hello/Goodbye, Help!, Here There & Everywhere, Hey Jude, I Saw Her Standing There, I'm a Loser, I'm Only Sleeping, In My Life, I've Just Seen a Face, Lady Madonna, Lucy in the Sky with Diamond and Maxwell himself (which I actually did 3 times).

I think achieving the average hourly rate on a WEDNESDAY night indicates these Beatles Songs are pure gold. I've been out Wednesdays twice before and the average for a Wednesday less. Do the Beatles add $10 an hour to the take? I'm going to see what happens Friday playing probably 75% Beatles (need to practice the Red Book songs a bit - not necessarily daily, but you can't leave them a week otherwise you tend to be a bit vague when you play them again - except for certain songs I can always play - usually the ones I actually KNOW and don't need to follow the music for).

Overall, a great return for a short practice session opposite the beach. Also saw a young Tenor Sax player on the Esplanade, he packed up about 8:30 pm: not sure how long he had been out. Spoke to him when passing and noted I usually did better when there were two of us out rather than on my own. People seem to get a heightened awareness of us as Buskers, and like to vote with their coins. If it were just me, they might just keep walking, but with a second guy out, I reckon I definitely do draw in more. Assuming the other guy gets the same or more, too, it means competition is a good thing.

Busking - Week 4

Yes, well, I planned my week last week to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Then I forgot about New Year's Eve on Monday, so yeah, I went out Monday AS WELL.


I knew New Year's Eve was going to be good, and hell, dare I mention it? I came back with a tad over (amount deleted for privacy reasons) on New Year's Eve alone. I did play from 6:30 to a little after 12:30, and I was pretty blooming wrecked after doing 6 hours, but my goodness it was well and truly worth it. (Knock off the 20 minutes I took to move up from the Esplanade to the Crowne Plaza, and the ten minute break just before midnight when there was no-one around). Had I gone home at 10pm, however like I usually do, I would have had LESS than $100.  The 2 and a bit hours at the Crowne Plaza netted me a substantial improvement in the overall take.

Now, to Johnno - YES :-) (Mind you I'm pretty sure I had some practice reading that email quite a while back :-) )

To Mark - overdoing it? Well, not really. I didn't know my limits until I tested them. Okay, I won't go out five nights in a row again, but I can do four no worries.

Now today I'm going out, devoid of 21 songs. Yep, I reckon I can't really do the Christmas songs any more. I'm going to pull out the Lennon song "Happy Christmas" and put it into general repertoire, as it's ALWAYS a money song. And has some good messages (War is over, if you want it, etc). But the rest are sadly going to have to go on to the backburner. And I loved doing Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Anyway, there'll be other times.

I've had an incredible boost from playing the Christmas songs, as I'd been listening heavily to good ol' Bing Crosby; and I've been channelling his vocal style. Listening to pitch-perfect singers like Bing, James Taylor and Karen Carpenter is one of the biggest helps in singing. (The other thing is to sing INTERVALS. Singing scales is a complete waste of time. Not many songs have melodies that only leap by one tone at a time. You need to practice jumping 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 9ths, 11ths (3rd+octave), etc, etc, etc. Both up and down. But if you've had a singing teacher getting you to sing scales, you've been ripped off, and probably wasted a lot of time).

So I'm now adding BEATLES songs. I've got a VERY old copy of The Beatles Complete (which is NOT true to label, there are some BIG hits missing, as well as some more obscure songs - I started making a list of missing songs in High School inside the book). So I've been sitting here practicing them. I've gotten up to "Any Time at All" (they're in alpha order) and figured I'm crazy practicing them here, I might as well go out and sit opposite Terrigal beach and get $$ for practicing. Yep, Mark, I often hone my repertoire ON THE STREET. That's the beauty of busking - you DON'T necessarily have to play everything 100% correct.

Problem with The Beatles Complete is that it's sometimes hard to see the S's, the crossed spots, the fines and the "to Coda"s. So I'm taking a pen and a highlighter with me. Up to that point I'd played every song in the book, so there's enough material there to keep me going for probably 8-9 hours. (And no, Mark, 6 hours is definitely my absolute limit, so I might get halfway through the book tonight after 3, maybe 4 hours).

I reckon a Beatles night is just what the doctor ordered. I love em all. Kevin Johnson: "Had all the Beatles records, sounded just like Paul"...

To Sharon: Yep, things are going really well for me at the moment - I wonder when it'll all come crashing back to the ground?

PS - bought another guitar from the Pawn Shop in Gosford today. It's got heaps better harmonics, and a MUCH lower action than the Aldi $99 one. And it was only $129, plus he threw in a hard case (MUCH lighter than the other one I've got) which was marked at $59 for $31 and charged $160 all up. New Year's Eve paid for all that and more. I'm tearing up again.... Bye