So last week before I was struck down with the sickness, I mentioned I had a big meeting on the Monday night. I also mentioned it went rather well. It went so well in fact that I’m super excited to reveal to you guys for the first time ever the Garterbelts & Gasoline Nostalgia Festival will have an official blogger – and I am it!

You may remember hearing about my awesome antics at the festival earlier this year which I blogged about here. The Event Director, Paul Biagini saw my post and published it as a 7-page feature in issue #130 of Cruzin Magazine and then went on to send it overseas to the editor of Pinstriping & Kustom Graphics Magazine (an International magazine based in the UK) where it was published in issue #28.
Seeing some of the promotion for next year’s festival already coming through, I contacted Paul to see how I could be involved. Knowing how much work goes into a festival like this, I wasn’t sure exactly how I could help but wanted to find out more. After a productive meeting last Monday night it was decided that for the first time ever in the history of this festival that I would be the Official Blogger.

I will also be the Assistant Pin Up Coordinator in the lead up to and on the Saturday night of the festival, making sure all the entrants of the Pin Up Competition are organised, looked after and feeling glamorous and confident. Bringing in a veteran for this type of role is always helpful because my past experience means I can easily relate to how the girls will be feeling and I’m really looking forward to being there for them to make sure it is a fun, positive and empowering experience – as it should be!

Through the festival’s social media channels and this blog, I’ll be promoting the festival and will be sharing all the updates as they happen, including band line-ups, application cut-offs, ticket sales and all the practical info that knowing beforehand makes attending the festival easy and guarantees you a good time. What this means for you guys is that from time to time I’ll do a bit of an update post on here so you can keep up to date with all the happenings of the festival. It also means that when the festival comes around, you’ll get the official recap before it even hits the press!

Next year, the festival will run from the 4th – 7th of May and you can check out the website at http://www.garterbeltsandgasoline.com.au/

Good Bloggers Group Shot

Front Row (L-R)          Middle Row (L-R)        Back Row (L-R)Ben                                          Deb                                         Lisa
Amy                                         Kate                                       Talia
Dani                                         Olivia
Zoe                                          Danielle
Hayley                                      Lisa
Me                                           Amy
                                                Suger 

 After filming my vlog, I hopped on a bus into the Valley for the Hello Blogger Events blog meet. Thanks to some pre-Google Maps checking, I found the restaurant surprisingly easily. Garuva Hidden Tranquility Restaurant was amazing! A really intimate atmosphere, great food and drinks and a really unique dining set up. I’m ashamed to admit I was a little scared walking in the entrance by myself as there is this little bridge surrounded by waterfalls and rainforest that you have to cross to enter the restaurant.

Sounds lovely right? Well yeah, except it reminded me of this ride I went on at the Big Pineapple when I was little where this animatronic crocodile came out of some dark rainforest and opened its mouth really wide and made this scary noise right at the side of your boat. Well…this entrance kinda gave me flashbacks of that and it kinds creeped me out…I was actually half waiting for something to jump out at me. Loser.


But I digress…I found almost everyone already waiting in the cocktail bar so I grabbed a drink and we all headed to our private booth. This is where the other amazing part of the restaurant comes in. You sit on the floor with a short table covering your legs and your private room is screened off by sheer curtains. Combined with the low lighting, it was beautiful. I’m sure with a special someone it would be a really romantic night but it kinda made me feel sleepy. So I had to have a margarita, you know, to wake me up and that.

The food was great and the beauty of dining with a group means lots of different things to share. There were lots of yummy bits and pieces but my favourite was the chicken karaage (which I always like) and the tempura vegetables, oh my gosh they were good! They came with the yummiest dipping sauce and I swear I could eat a whole meal of them – which, coming from a girl who LOVES her meat, is really saying something!


After another cocktail and lots of fun chats and possibly slightly too loud laughter we vacated our booth for the next sitting and set off to find a place to hang out. We couldn’t really find anywhere that suited everyone and that wasn’t so loud we wouldn’t be able to talk so we ended up just chilling out at Gloria Jeans.

While we were at the restaurant and had my eye on one of their amazing dessert cocktails, a Cookies and Cream one, but we had to go before I could get one. I was a little sad face about this until we stopped at Gloria Jeans and consoled myself with a Cookies and Cream Chiller complete with whipped cream and sprinkles. It’s a drink, not dessert…so that’s ok right? RIGHT.

After a treacherous trip to the foul public toilets in Brunswick St Mall, we sanitised ourselves and settled in for some hilarious conversations at the round table of Gloria Jeans. For some reason, the topic strayed (and then stayed…for a while…and a good few days afterwards) to toilet paper. We discussed scrunching v. folding, the importance of proper storage and the optimum number of sheets among other matters of global importance. We were laughing so loud I half expected the people at Gloria Jeans to ask us to leave, but I guess being open so late in the valley we were the least of their worries!

Naughty Bloggers Group Shot


The hours flew by and before I knew it, it was time to go home. A very big thank you to Danielle of 5 Little Reasons for driving me home so that I didn’t have to catch the bus. These girls (and guys) are so awesome. It really restores my faith in humanity that a bunch of people who’ve never met can go out to dinner, have such a good time and be so kind as to be doing favours for people. That’s my kinda people. That’s the people I wanna give my time to. Thanks to everyone for making the night so much fun and a big thanks to Dani of Hello Owl for organising such an amazing meet. And thanks to Suger and Talia for letting me use (read steal) your images.

Well I’m back. After fighting the dreaded kidney infection I’m now on antibiotics and feeling much more human again. I’m a little bit disappointed that I ruined my winning streak of posting everyday but I suppose these things happen. I guess I left you hanging on a few things from last weekend, didn’t I? Sorry about that.

Right before the infection got really bad, I remember to take an outfit pic of what I wear to work like some of you had been asking for. I shall post it later this week, but for now I’ll get back into what I was going to be posting at the end of last week.

Let’s start with the baby shower. Cos who doesn’t love all that mushy stuff?

It was such a lovely day to honour my beautiful friend Karen who is pregnant with her first child (I reckon it’s a girl…just saying…) Karen is married to Paulie, double bass player of the Ten Fours (and about a million other bands) and they are the sweetest couple. I’m so happy for them and I can’t wait to see their little family grow with a beautiful little bubba.

Although the day was quite hot, the weather was beautiful and sunny with a slight breeze to cool things off. The baby shower was held at Franklin Villa which is basically a beautiful historic Queenslander converted into a guest house famous for its lovely high tea sittings. We enjoyed the afternoon sitting and it was such a lovely, fancy, girlie experience.


We were served the cutest little selection of hot and cold, sweet and savoury petites on stunning little 4-tiered stands and tea and coffee on beautiful old china. Being the rockabilly crew, all us ladies were also dressed in our vintage finest and the two older ladies who own the place were just enamoured with our party of fancy ladies.


After enjoying our afternoon tea we played a couple of games. We all had to write on a calendar when we think Karen will have the baby including what time, whether it will be a boy or a girl and what weight it will be. There was also a giant baby bottle full of gummi bears that we had to guess the weight of. I won over a kilo of gummi bears! Still don’t know what I’m going to do with them all!


Then of course it was time for Karen and Baby B to get spoiled with lots of beautiful gifts. I can tell this is going to be one spoiled and much loved baby! Sadly I believe this is when the infection first started taking hold as I had a terrible headache and wasn’t feeling the best so I didn’t stay for much longer.

But I absolutely can’t wait for beautiful Baby B to be born! It’s so very exciting!

This week's exercise is to notice the people around you, in your neighbourhood, someone you've never actually met before and create a story around them. Describe them, their surroundings and create a conflict for them whether it is resolved or not.

I actually wrote a version of this story/idea way back in my uni days for a creative writing course. I don't still have the original version so I rewrote it using the same idea and I'm quite sure that this piece is far better. Although I do remember my professor telling me after he read this piece that I write about people really well and I actually tend to agree. I enjoy writing about people and thinking up stories about their lives just from seeing how they look or what they do. Sometimes my boyfriend and I watch tv with the sound off and make up what the people are saying haha

For the second time that day he watched her cinnamon spice curls bounce along with the rhythm of the bus. He didn’t know why their bus schedules matched, she wasn’t in any of his classes, but over the course of the last semester he had been keeping his eye out for her on campus too. He took in her profile, her fine features and porcelain skin, in the reflection of the window, afraid if he looked any closer she might catch him staring.

He wished he had the courage to speak to her. She seemed friendly, giving him a little smile if their eyes ever met. Did she recognise him, realise they caught the same bus at the same time together every day? He knew he’d missed his chance the other day when they just so happened to catch the elevator together. He should have said something, even just a ‘hello’ or ‘how’s the weather’. Anything that could possibly have put him on her radar.

But he didn’t. He just stood there looking at the ground, stealing glances from the corner of his eye, trying to tell if she seemed at all interested. He’d been kicking himself ever since. One day…one day he’ll pluck up the courage to talk to her, maybe sit next to her, maybe carry her books. He sighed, watching her get out at her stop, those enchanting cinnamon spice curls bouncing into the distance down the footpath.

I first got the idea for this when I was catching the bus to uni. There was this guy who used to catch the same bus as me at the same times everyday even though he was never in any of my classes and I never really saw him around campus. I had no romantic interest in him and I doubt he did me either but one morning I was bored on the bus and had this sort of out of body experience and I began making up this kind of story in my head.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!

I had every intention of blogging today. I was going to tell you about the blog meet the other night or the baby shower I went to on Sunday. But as you may have gathered if you've been following on Twitter, someone very close to me who I care very much about lost someone very important to them mere hours ago.

I'm not going to go into the details because it is not my story to tell and while it is not my loved one lost, I've still had a few tears. It's a very sad time and it's difficult seeing someone I care so much about have to go through something so painful.

I will be back tomorrow and I will blog. It will be WoW as usual, and then I will tell you about the blog meet and baby shower. But for now, I'm not in the right mindframe. I don't want to make this blog a negative place and I don't want people to come here and read something and then feel down about it. Also, out of respect I wanted to leave today to the memory of a beautiful soul who is now without pain, at peace hopefully in the loving arms of her father, her little sister and Johnny Cash.

A big thank you to the beautiful people who have sent me heartfelt messages and were there for a chat on the weekend when I was floundering a little. You really restore my faith in humanity.

I will be back tomorrow, the same old Sheri Bomb.

Well I finally got around to recording my vlog Q & A which, conveniently for me, I did just before heading out to the blogger meet up this weekend, hence the hair, the outfit etc.

You'll definately be hearing lots about that later this week but for now I'm collecting everyone's photos and blog links so I can do it good and proper.

Without further ado, here it is...hope you enjoy!

Apologies for the poor editing, I don't have great video editing software and that weird noise at the end if you hear it, is just my phone receiving a text haha so professional.

A big thank you to the following people for sending in questions and for just generally being awesome and supporting my blog:

Melissa from Suger Coat It

Natalie from Stripped Bare

Mrs BC from Mrs BC's House of Chaos

Tony from ... however he found me! haha

Thanks for watching the first of my vlog features...I figure I'll do one a month for as long as your questions last so feel free to send any more questions through to sheribomb@live.com.au for next month's feature.

I have two very special things to announce.

One – it was Paul Hughes’ birthday yesterday! So a big belated happy birthday to Paul! I left him a message on his facebook page yesterday, feel free to head on over and wish him well.

The second of course is the WINNER of the Paul Hughes ‘Howdy Cowdy’ artwork giveaway!

I drew the winner out of a hat because I am old school like that. It is also a fact that it is truly impossible for a computer to be random as it runs on formulas and algorithms so I wanted to be 100% random – a hat would help me achieve this.


Congratulations Simone!  I hope the Howdy Cowdy looks good on your wall. I’ve emailed you to let you know you’ve one and once you send through your postal address, the artwork will be on its way to you.

A HUGE thank you must be said to Paul for not only giving his time to answer my questions and give an interesting and entertaining insight into his creative brilliance but also for the time, effort and pure talent he put in to creating such an amazing one-off kustom piece for me to giveaway.

Paul is absolutely lovely to deal with and is such a friendly person, if you’re interested in his other work or would like to commission your own one-off piece check out his facebook page or email him at pjehughes@aapt.net.au

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Darren ‘Lucky’ Lee Spears, lead vocalist and guitarist of Go Cat Go. Sadly, just as the band was hitting their peak Darren was tragically killed, cutting short the career of a band that was sure to really go places.

In memory of Darren and the fantastic music he and Go Cat Go created, I thought I would introduce you all to their fantastic sound.

After a chance meeting in a junk yard some two years earlier, Darren Spears and drummer Lance LeBeau exchanged numbers and finally began jamming in Lance’s basement in the summer of 1988. With Paul Turley on bass guitar and some high school friends to fill out the empty spots, a long afternoon of song experimentation ensued. Lance and Darren finally got the boys to agree to run through Gene Vincent’s ‘Baby Blue’ and the spark was tangible. 

After a year of fooling around, Lance, Darren and Paul regrouped with Darren’s neighbour Bill Hull adding another guitar to the mix. This time there was no denying these boys had something. Practicing in the front of their garage, neighbours began bringing chairs to watch the boys play. Knowing they had something, the guys needed a name. Deciding on Bill’s licence plate ‘GOCATGO’, they agreed on the nod to Carl Perkins.

After touring the local circuit in the summer of 1989, Go Cat Go were starting to earn a reputation for high energy and skilfully delivered performances. In January of 1990 Brian Freeman, at just 16 years old, used his passion for rockabilly and the licks to prove it to score his first gig with Go Cat Go. The boys never looked back.


The boys worked hard on some of Darren’s original songs and in March released a self-produced cassette tape called ‘Out of Control’. Featuring six of Darren’s songs ‘Who Was That Cat’, ‘Forever’s Much Too Long’, ‘Time to Rock’, ‘Please Mama Please’, ‘Till the Cool Cats Cry’ and ‘10 Ways to Rock’ next on the agenda was a vinyl record.

In mid-1991 Go Cat Go recorded six more originals for the Rock-A-Billy Records Company in Denver, Colorado. Their first 10-inch release was on purple vinyl and included ‘Little Baby Doll’, ‘I've Got My Eyes on You’, ‘Can't Tie Me Down’, ‘Big Train’, ‘Other Side of Town’ and ‘Lonesome Road’. The success of the record and overwhelming encouragement from fellow musicians saw the band tour in 1992 in a rented cargo van. With only two seats, the boys took turns in driving while the others suffered in the third and fourth ‘seats’: a turned over five-gallon bucket and a rolled out sleeping bag.

Just two days into the trip they decided they simply couldn’t pass through Memphis without visiting and recording at Sun Records. They were in luck with studio time available that evening and stranger still, a camera crew for national TV news show 48 Hours showed up and recorded their entire session. Once in Texas, they played shows throughout Austin and Dallas for the next week before returning home tired but triumphant.

They spent the next year working as often as they could and began planning a tour of California in July 1993. Touring cross-country in a more comfortable mini-van, they started out in Hollywood and performed their way back up the coast to San Francisco. The tour culminated in a huge, hot warehouse where they unveiled the dark and sultry ‘Kiss Me Baby’, their newest song. “Kiss Me Baby’ defined the Go Cat Go sound and marked their musical direction. Sadly, it was never recorded by the whole band.

Returning home in August, the boys were ready to quit their full-time jobs and turn their attention to recording and touring. Go Cat Go were poised to tour Europe in the summer of 1994 however sadly, on September 14 1993, just a month after returning from California, Darren was shot without warning by three teenagers trying to steal his hunting rifle.

On September 15, Darren died from his wounds.

The teenagers were caught the next day as they got on their buses to go to school. One got life + 99 years, the second got life in prison and the third, got five years.

Go Cat Go had been on the rise. The loss of Darren was and remains a devastation. The surviving members of Go Cat Go agreed that no one could take Darren's place and decided to go their separate ways.
Brian went on to finish school after taking a few years off, Bill quit rockabilly altogether, but continues to play guitar in another genre and Lance plays drums with the Flea Bops and the Twilite Ramblers.

This week’s Write on Wednesday is an interesting one, choose your favourite book, take the first paragraph and then write your own content into the paragraph, keeping the structure, tone, language etc.

When I read this exercise I was struck with horror – I was about to be found out! My deep, dark secret was to be revealed…I don’t have a ‘favourite’ book. Gasp!

I know, it seems highly improbable. I am a writer and I don’t have a favourite book. Judge me if you will but I enjoy books and reading so much that it is hard to pick a favourite. Even if I could pick one I know it would change because different books impact me differently depending on how I’m feeling and what’s going on in my life at the time.

So I didn’t choose a favourite, but in order to challenge myself I wanted to choose a bit of a ‘classic’. I looked at a couple but when I saw this one, my brain immediately started firing with the possibilities. So I chose, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.

Original

His two girls are curled together like animals whose habit it is to sleep underground, in the smallest space possible. Cosima knows she’s the older, even when she’s unconscious: one of her arms lies over Halimeda’s shoulder as if she intends to protect them both from their bad dreams. Dr. Homer Noline holds his breath, trying to see movement there in the darkness, the way he’s watched pregnant women close their eyes and listen inside themselves trying to feel life.

Rewrite

Their two girls are pressed together like runts of the litter whose habit it is to go unnoticed, taking up the smallest space possible. Lily marvels at her older sister’s protectiveness, even when she’s asleep:  her right arm draped across her back as if she intends to shield her from an explosion. Lily holds her breath, trying to be the perfect daughter asleep in the dark, the way she saw the puppy breathing lightly with its eyes closed and trying to look cute getting tummy rubs.

As soon as I read the paragraph I immediately thought of my older sister and the way she has always helped me and protected me so I knew I would have a lot of experience and inspiration to draw from.

I actually quite enjoyed this exercise and found it really interesting to try and get out of my own personal style and emulate the style of someone else. It certainly was a challenge and I feel perhaps my rewrite may be a little awkward, or perhaps it is just the foreign style that makes me feel this way?

You may remember my love affair with Melbourne after visiting for Blogopolis. Well I am SO excited to tell you that I’m going back down for a WHOLE WEEK in December as a Christmas present to myself. I can’t wait!!

As much as I enjoyed my time down there last time I was only there for the weekend, much of which was taken up with blog-related events. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I only got little glimpses of the wonder that is Melbourne. This time I want to be able to see and experience everything without having to rush and be able to really immerse myself in the place.

Ever since I had to leave I’ve been planning my return and after booking our flights last week, I can safely say it’s actually going to happen. I seriously cannot wipe the grin off my face! We’ll be down there from the 9th to the 17th of December and even though that’s still almost 3 months away it feels like it’s just around the corner.

I have it blanked out colourfully on my wall planner and calendar and I have lots on in between now and then so I know it will go quickly. The last 18 months or so have been a real roller coaster for me and what started out as some pretty crappy times have now morphed into an everyday happiness that makes me feel light and safe and free of stress and distractions so I can really be me.

It’s a great feeling, one worth celebrating. So it is a Christmas present to myself. A celebration. A reward. A thank you.

I am very flattered to announce that I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award! A very big thank you goes out to Dan of DanielMeyerBlog for nominating me!

I feel very grateful and also humbled by all the positive feedback and recognition my blog and writing have been getting lately.

To accept this award, the nominee must do the following things:

1. Thank the person who gave the nomination (check! see above!)
2. List 7 interesting facts about him or herself
3. Pass on the nomination to 15 newly discovered blogs

Seven Facts About Me

1. I absolutely ADORE pug dogs
2. I have an irrational fear of sharks and crocodiles
3. I’m not scared of snakes and spiders
4. My favourite foods are Steak, Mexican and Italian
5. I have a total of 14 tattoos (soon to be 18)
6. I have seen a ghost
7. I am extremely klutzy and accident prone

Nominating 15 Newly Discovered Blogs

1. Chronically Vintage
2. DanielMeyerBlog (not just because he nominated me, but because he is an excellent blogger)
3. Glenn’s Guide To Everything
4. Go Pug Yourself
5. Hi-Fallutin
6. In over Your Head
7. Living With Bob
8. Mannerfesto
9. Max’s Receptacle
10. Mrs BC’s House of Chaos
11. Natalie ~ Stripped Bare
12. Popabillykid
13. Suger Coat It
14. The Click Clack Lounge
15. Vintage Being

These are but a few of the fantastic blogs I’m reading at the moment and I’m not only grateful to receive this award but to share these blogs with you and hopefully discover some more in the process

The artwork of Paul Hughes has been catching my eye for a while now. I first noticed it when it began appearing on posters for bands, events and festivals and then as it started popping up on jewellery. I’ve been following his work closely ever since and love seeing what new design or oddity he comes up with.

Based in Melbourne’s sprawling Eastern suburbia, Paul Hughes creates Low Brow art with the support of his loving and extremely understanding wife and teenage daughter.

With an attraction to art practically from birth, Paul studied illustration and design in his twenties and has since developed his own unique brand of old school style from nothing but a paint brush, sweat and tears…and maybe a little acrylic paint.


Paul’s work features everything from hot rods and kustoms to tikis and wahines, rum-swilling monkey tattooists, shrunken heads and even the odd uncanny likeness of real people.

Paul has been involved in a number of shows both throughout Australia and overseas and has appeared in a number of magazine articles and features. His work can also be found on posters, CD covers, jewellery and clothing and is available from a number of fine establishments across the globe.

You can see Paul's art at Kustom Lane Gallery, Tiger Fish Gallery, Village Idiom, Sandra V Sassafras, Ballyhoo, The Katz Alley and Cruizin Surf Art.

I sat down with (ok, emailed) the man himself to gain an insight into his amazing talent, unique and distinctive style and his creative process.

Sheri Bomb: When did you become interested in art?

Paul Hughes: At a very early age, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t draw. I always loved comics when I was a kid, maybe a little too much!

SB: When did you discover your talent?

PH: I really don’t consider it a talent; it’s just something I’ve always done. I used to draw cartoons for kids in primary school so that’s probably when others noticed.

SB: Do you have any professional art training or education? If so, what?

PH: When I was 24 I went to The Melbourne Institute of Art and Design and studied illustration, I learnt a lot about materials and mixing mediums and stuff about colour that I still use to this day.  

SB: What was your first work of art?

PH: Probably the dive-bombers I used to draw in Sunday school, I can still remember having to sit outside until my Mum came to get me. The first piece that I sold was a Skeleton cow boy on a skeleton horse done in pen and ink, up until then I used to do everything for free.

SB: What inspires you or influences your work?

PH: I am inspired by other artists that have a good work ethic, the dudes that just don’t stop creating stuff. Also, the people that run galleries who aren’t afraid to show my kind of work. I’m definitely influenced by music, television and all the weirdness of 50’s 60’s and 70’s popular culture.


SB: What is your creative process?

PH: It usually starts with me doing a couple of thumb nail sketches (that’s just art talk for small drawings). I then select the appropriate music to drown out the hum of suburbia, then I draw the idea on the board or canvas that I’m going to work on usually erasing and redrawing bits that don’t quite work. Then comes the acrylic paint, I rarely use straight colours and tend to mix my own. This is an old school way of working and I know it’s slow but it’s the way I like to do it and it works for me.

SB: What’s integral to your work as an artist?

PH: I’d say the support of my wife and daughter; it’s not an easy way to make a living. Also the vibrancy of the whole Kustom Kulture/ Low Brow Art scene, without people digging this stuff my art wouldn’t exist. 

SB: Has your artwork changed over time?

PH: Most certainly, I am constantly doing things that I have never done before. I like doing commissions for that reason, trying to turn someone else’s idea into a piece of art with my style stamped on it makes me challenge myself and change the way I do things.

SB: What art do you most identify with?

PH: Probably Low Brow, that was a name given to the art style that came out of California in the 90’s but it’s really just cartoon stuff that has been around since the 50’s. I have always loved cartooning and comic book art, it is what it is. 

SB: What would you be doing if you weren’t an artist?

PH: Bouncing around a padded cell.

SB: What do you dislike about the art world?

PH: If we are talking about the mainstream art world then I dislike everything about it. I’ve been there and it’s not a pretty place! On the other hand the alternative Kustom Low Brow World is a different thing altogether, the only thing wrong with it is the scale of it. There aren’t enough courageous gallery owners out there prepared to give us a go.

SB: What is your dream project?

PH: Getting a bigger studio, and travelling to overseas shows rather than just sending my work over.

SB: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

PH: Do what your good at!

Some great advice there! Paul paints all of my favourite things and his talent is amazing. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive in contacting him to do the feature, a combination of feeling a little ‘star-struck’ and also knowing how valuable the time and skills of such an amazing artist would be. Luckily for me Paul was extremely friendly and allowed me to get a great insight into the workings of his artistic mind – he’s also been kind enough to give a little something to you guys!


 You can own your own little piece of Paul Hughes, with this Howdy Cowdy one-off kustom painting done especially for Sheri Bomb! Done with acrylic paint on an 8 x 10 “ box canvas, this special release was done specifically to give away to you guys and is complete with personalised Sheri Bomb belt buckle detail.

How To Win:

• To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. Please make sure that either your email address is visible through Blogger, or you leave an address in your comment.
• If, for whatever reason you can't leave a comment here, drop me an email through the Contact page.
• For more than one entry, share this post on facebook and twitter (making sure you tag me so I know you’ve got another entry)
• Entry is open to everyone, residents of all countries, but you must have a valid email address and be over 18 years of age.
• Enter as many times as you like
• Winner will be drawn on Thursday 15th September

You may remember on Tuesday I was wigging out a little bit over sending out press releases to media contacts – not because I was afraid no one would care, but because I was afraid they WOULD care. That they would actually want to do a story on me. Little ‘ole me. Eep!

But then I took a deep breath and asked myself WWJCD? No, not what would Jesus Christ do (as if HE would have time to blog and send out press releases!)

I thought and thought. Maybe he would write a song about it? So I blogged about it. Maybe he would take some drugs? So I tweeted about it (same thing right? C’mon who’s with me?) And then it struck me. I know EXACTLY what he would do!


So that’s what I did. Gave my computer screen a big one of those and hit send on my email. And you know what? It felt REALLY freakin good. If no one cares, I’ll give them another big one of these and move on. And if they do care, I’ll give a big one of these to all the haters and enjoy being able to be proud of what I’ve worked towards.

Who knows, maybe it will inspire someone else to do what they want to do, what they are passionate about. Just like those who came before inspired me.

THIS post that came through on Tuesday night also made me feel a million times better and braver. And just. Speechless and loved. And wow. I have no words really, but I am so so grateful.

This week's Write on Wednesday exercise is a super challenging one! Come up with one single line, a solitary sentence, to describe a part of your day. It can be 'real life' or fiction but you have you have to make every word count.

Sheesh! This is a tough one for me! You've all seen how long my posts can be - I'm not the most concise girl when I get into my creative writing. But, that's the point of a challenge I guess!

I've gone with a little from column A and a little from column B with the real live v. fiction aspect of the exercise. Getting the sentence the way that I wanted it took a little tweaking but as soon as I read the exercise this week, I knew exactly what my sentence would be about. Coming from a place I was at just a few days ago.

As I wake up next to you I watch the crease of your forehead as you grimace, hiding my tears from you as my heart breaks.

As you may or may not guess, this is about watching someone you love or care about go through pain. It could be anything from physical pain to mental pain, an illness, someone else who is causing them pain.

Whatever it may be, I was trying to capture the feeling of helplessness of not being able to ease their pain and feeling heartbroken as you watch them struggle but trying to stay strong for them.

This was a great challenge! Quite a tough one but such a worthwhile one, sometimes it's easy to lose the meaning of a sentence by over-complicating it and getting in the way of your reader's imagination.

There was so much I could have added to this, the way the sunlight fell through the cracks in the blinds, the salty taste of sweat on his neck as she kissed her way down his back...but one sentence it had to be, and so it was.

I realised something very strange about myself today. I think I am more afraid of succeeding than failing. What the?

I thought people were always afraid to try because they were scared they would fail, feel that horrible feeling of rejection.

But today, I was scared of sending out press releases. Not because they might not get picked up. Seriously, what’s the worst that can happen – no one replies to my emails? I know my ego and self-esteem can handle that.

I was armed with what I thought was a pretty great press release (if I do say so myself) and a list of print and tv media contacts. And I’m talking real deal contacts, not just the ‘info’ email addresses that release your email off into the ether, hoping that the right person will see it. These were direct email contacts of editors, producers and reporters.

Thanks to a friend who is a camera man for Channel 9 and the business card of a Channel 10 producer I picked up after I was interviewed for a sub-culture documentary a couple of years ago I had REAL people to talk to. Through a little digging of my own (who says my Journalism major doesn’t come in handy!?) I also had some great print media contacts.

So here I go, putting it out there to the people with the power…right?

But as I had compiled the email and press release, my mouse hovered over the send button and I thought to myself ‘Hmmm, should I send this? What if I’m not ready?’ Ready for what?

My mind started swirling with all the possibilities and to be honest it kinda freaked me out! Isn’t this what I’m trying for? Wouldn’t it be amazing if the release got picked up and the paper wanted to write about me or the tv show wanted to do a story on me? Yes, imagine all the traffic and exposure my blog would get!

But I was still scared. That something might happen. That it might work. And it could be the start of a whole new adventure. So I took a deep breath and pressed send. Now I just have to wait and see what happens.

In an uncharacteristically daft moment, I had the brilliant idea to go to Riverfire on Saturday. Usually having better things to do or far more content to watch it on tv in the comfort of my own home I thought it might be nice to go along this year and see it in all its splendour. I figured after the floods in the beginning of the year, this year’s show would be a spectacular and triumphant return for the river city and therefore worth the effort of actually being there. Idiot.

We heard on the radio around 2pm that Southbank was already starting to pack out so around 4pm we caught the bus in lugging all our supplies along with us. Expecting a sea of people, we got to Southbank about 4:30 to find there were still some good spots quite close to the river. I thought this was a good sign.
We were there in time to see the Superhornet F18’s fly over – they were pretty impressive. Then the Blackhawk helicopters that had been promising an ‘aerial spectacular the likes of which we’ve never seen before’ just kind of buzzed around. Oookaaay.

We set up our picnic rug and our awesome spread of crackers, dip, blue brie, camembert and chocolate and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves munching away. Until we had to go to the toilet. Finding one was pretty epic, but not quite as epic as lining up for them was. The line for the ladies as about a kilometre long – I kid you not. Even the line for the disabled toilet was about 500m long and not filled with disabled people. There were other toilet blocks but apparently they were ‘closed for repairs’. Very poor Southbank, very poor indeed.

Then there was the putting up with general society. I am not good at this, PARTICULARLY in crowd situations. We sat there watching in horror, generally appalled by bogans, screaming disobedient children and adults that just should not be parents. Seriously, making your 10 year old daughter strip naked in front of 1000s of people while she practically cries in mortification is not anyone’s idea of a nice family day out. Then there were the teenagers who thought being obnoxious dickheads was ‘cool’. Yeah, way to go f@*&face.

We hurriedly finished chomping down our swag so that we could stop sitting on the picnic blanket and use it for lifesaving warmth as the wind off the river was FREEZING! We thought we were going prepared by taking jackets but this wind would freeze the nips off an eskimo! We huddled in the blanket for an hour and a half until it was time for the fireworks. Glory be!

We watched the display with the occasional ooh and ahh but really, it was pretty lacking. Nothing particularly outstanding or spectacular. Just some fireworks. We sat in our spot, waiting as the crowds dispersed looking at each other going ‘surely that’s not it!?!?’ but the crowds were moving off and there was no sign of anything continuing.

Shaking our heads in disbelief that we had sat in the freezing cold for 3 hours putting up with douchebags for THAT we battled the crowds back to the bus station. I couldn’t remember the bus number we were supposed to catch, but luckily there were plenty of TransLink staff around to answer our questions. Except they were giving us the WRONG information. I couldn’t remember my bus number, but I KNEW it wasn’t that. I’ve NEVER caught that bus from or to my house. Seriously. Given the wrong information by 3 separate staff, who told us 3 different stories – all of which were wrong. Way to go TransLink. I shudder to think how many people caught the wrong bus. There was one family on our bus who got off at my stop after realising they were on the wrong bus. I could hear them saying ‘it’s going to take HOURS to get home!’ Poor people.

Luckily I don’t live too far from the city so it was only 8:30 by the time we got home. Phew, lets just get into our PJs, get into bed, watch some telly and drink some beer and put this whole ordeal behind us. So we switched on the telly and after a few minutes we could hear this odd noise. So we muted the tv only to hear fireworks going off in the distance. Apparently there is an early display for the kids and a later display for the adults. Are you for REAL!? No one told us this, this was in no way made clear at Southbank and there wasn’t a staff member, police officer or official in sight to help in anyway.

Wow.

Massive. Epic. FAIL. Southbank!

I hate you.

We looked at each other, laughing in maddened frustration and said ‘let’s NEVER do this again!’

Wednesday was my Dad’s birthday and given that this Sunday is Father’s Day I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you all just how much I love that man.

I was recently talking to someone about ‘Dad Jokes’, you know those cheesy one-liners and cringe-worthy punch lines that make you roll your eyes and exclaim ‘oh my gosh Dad!’ Well I admitted something – secretly I love those! Sure, I wouldn’t pull them out in a social situation as a way to demonstrate my sharp and witty sense of humour but as lame as they are, when I my Dad tells them I can’t help but giggle. I still roll my eyes, but I’ve now come to realise that when he delivers these pearlers or daggy-dances around the kitchen to a song of ‘his generation’ he is doing it to make me smile, because he loves me and wants to see me happy. What more could a girl want?

There are two memories that stand out to me when I think about my father, both from my childhood.

The first is the time that we went to Movie World. Aside from all the usual rides and junk food, my Dad took my sister and I on the Warner Bros studio tour. We thought it was pretty cool getting to see how all the ‘movie magic’ was done. And then it got cooler. The tour guide started asking for volunteers for the finale of the tour. Lots of other kid’s parents were putting their hands up and getting picked. ‘Quick Dad, put your hand up!’ my sister and I urged. A little hesitant at first, we nagged and nagged until he did and luckily, he was the last to get picked.

We filed in with the rest of the group to take our seats, giggling about what daddy might have to do. We couldn’t believe it when our Dad came out, blue lycra suit and all to fly through the air on the big screen dressed as Superman! If that’s not a lasting image for a girl of her daddy, I don’t know what is! My sister and I looked at each other wide-eyed gasping with delight – our daddy was Superman!  We may have also giggled a lot at him being in a tight lycra suit – he wasn’t exactly a small man. But we definitely had the best story about our school holidays than all the other kids at our school.

The second is Saturday mornings in the McWhirters building. Every Saturday morning without fail, my Dad would take my sister and I into the Valley to the McWhirters building where he would let us play the slot cars. After we’d had fun playing those for a while we’d sit down, him with an iced coffee my sister and I with iced chocolates. Topped off with cream, ice cream and a chocolate stick we thought we were princesses getting to have one of these (at all really) but particularly in the morning! It’s funny, we did this EVERY  Saturday morning for years (or so it seemed, it could have only been months) and yet every time, the novelty never wore off and we both still couldn’t believe that we got to play slot cars and drink these naughty drinks!

You may think playing slot cars is an unlikely outing for two little girls but that’s the awesome thing about my Dad. Oh sure, he let us be girls – we’d sit at his feet at night, one on each side while he brushed our hair for us over and over again. But he also taught us to be strong, informed and independent girls and exposed us to a lot of other things as well. Because of my Dad I will never be a damsel in distress, I will always have the basic knowledge to make sure my car is running reliably and the resourcefulness to be able to fix things and put furniture together. I get a kick out of using a screwdriver and I began to fully appreciate what he had done for me when I had to show one of my ex-boyfriend’s that in order to put oil in your car it did NOT go in the dipstick hole.

My parents were divorced when I was younger and although it was a hard time I feel very lucky to still have the family I have now. My Dad has always been a big part of my life despite not living with us. He’s always been there, always supporting me and always giving me great advice or just a shoulder to cry on or a sympathetic ear.

He is my Dad, and he may not be a great dancer or the world’s best comedian but I love him anyway.

More than words can express.

In fact, I love him THIS much