Going slow really fast

Its been two weeks since I've posted anything on here and feel I've gone back to "Slow Blogging".  Except for the fact I'm unemployed, I've been flat out (I won't say 'busy', apparently its not the word to use at the moment). Mostly applying for jobs, the odd temporary admin assignment and doing Mr Moneymaker's data entry.

Also I spent a glorious four days away at the Broadbeach Blues Music Festival with my sisters and cousin.  A veritable buffet of excellent live music, mosh pit dancing, wine, cheese, park dancing, champagne, seafood, beach strolling, margaritas, balcony dancing and a stint of slide guitar by yours truly on stage with a semi famous band.  Yes, four very mature women can still act like teenagers when enough good music and liquor is involved (I may post about it all another time).

But enough about me, how are you?

Then again ... in other news, I recently had my eyes checked and even though I've been wearing contact lenses for about a billionty years, I now also need reading glasses to wear OVER my contact lenses!  Aging sucks.  I guess its better than the alternative, aging I mean.  It will just mean its another thing I'll be searching through the house for because I was sure I left it right here!  Anyway, a couple of hours after my eye test, The Project presented a story on eyes aging and advertised this web site (coincidence much?).

So yeah, that's about me again but hey, its my blog eh?

While on me, this is stuff I've been doing lately:

• Listening to:  Every possible performer at the Broadbeach Blues Music Festival (did not appear in this clip but there is a secret video held of me on stage with Mason Rack...).
• Watching: Fargo (though I'm two episodes behind so don't anyone tell me what's going on yet!). This is the best TV show I've seen since Breaking Bad - you must check out SBS on Thursday night.
• Watching: The Voice - I've become strangely addicted this season, probably because of lack of Delta.
• Reading: Bird by Bird - Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamont - a 'real' book about writing where the author 'speaks my speak'; and My Booky Wook, a Memoir of Sex, Drugs and Stand Up by Russell Brand - he's a very naughty but incredibly funny boy.
• Reading: Renegade Collective magazine (time has got away, haven't had time to read the two issues I have on my coffee table but I really need to) - must have only subscription for inspiration.
• Seeing: recent movies - The Chef - it made me want to go out and buy a taco truck and cook around the country; The Grand Budapest Hotel - a fun and silly movie by Wes Anderson.
• Surfing: Seek.com.au; LinkedIn.com; EthicalJobs.com.au; Teachers.on.net and any other job sites where I can find that perfect job (if such a thing exists).
• Working on: Cigno.com.au database (one thing I've discovered, there are A LOT of soccer club websites in Australia, thousands, in fact, and not all have contact details - so frustrating!).
• Planning: a secret business idea that needs input from you, the reader - more to come later.

So once again, I've been doing nothing and everything, just trying to find my 'thang'.  What's yours?

*Joining Essentially Jess for #IBOT*

My weekend at the Broadbeach Blues Festival (or the BBBBBBBB)

Last weekend I got to carry on a tradition that is only three years old. Its what my sisters, cousin and I call the Bird Broads BroadBeach Blues Boogie & Booze Bash.  Its our chance to go away together without any partners or children, take a few extra days off from work and let ourselves blow off some steam. The four of us love blues music (well almost any kind of live music) and we could easily spend three days in a haze of oysters, bubbly and bopping on a balcony (I think I squeezed all the alliterations out of that paragraph).

related much?

We stayed at the Phoenician which overlooked the two main stages at either end of the main street.  The balcony had this view ...

So when we didn't feel like fighting the crowd down there (this was the last gig, Vanessa Amorosi - who was sooo good!), we danced up here ...

Some of the great acts we caught were:

Shaun Kirk the one-man-band

photo opp of course

Kevin Borich...

 and his floppy fingered base player

Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows (aka Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons)...

(this was taken through a tiny holy in the side fence - he was very popular)

 And of course the very hot Jon Stevens....

(my sister and I spent a long time gazing up at this)

Then there was a what I think was the highlight of the weekend - a duo that we just caught the end of at the bar in Jupiters and then made sure we caught them the next day in the mall.  They were called George and Noriko. 

They are Japanese, not a couple (they are both married to Aussies) and play the blues like you've never seen or heard before. George sings and plays harmonica and guitar (including playing steel slide guitar with a beer bottle) and Noriko (who is nine months pregnant) plays the Japanese Shamisen and drums.  I didn't realise they had appeared on Australia's Got Talent last year, right to the finals. Brian McFadden described Noriko's instrument as "a banjo with a paint scraper".

The way they performed in the nightclub and in a shopping mall (!), they're sure to have great success.  Noriko, dressed in a 'maternity' kimono, jumped all over the stage, gave the drums what-for and kept up with George's banter so well you could tell they had been working together for years.  George was lots of fun and got the audience involved.  But instead of me rabbiting on about it, here's a short bit of what they did at Broadbeach (or for better quality video, look them up on YouTube):

**Joining up With Some Grace for FYBF**