Performing official duties

It’s not often you get paid to sit in the dark at 9am and watch a live gig.

It was so surreal to see Casey Donovan perform yesterday at the announcement of the full line-up for Great Southern Nights.

It was my very first official outing as a ministerial corporate communications flack and it was pretty amazing.

I’ve never been a fan of John Farnham’s “You’re the voice” but when Casey sang it I got chills. She is INCREDIBLE.

Great Southern Nights is a live music initiative running throughout NSW from 18 March to 10 April. The launch was held at the Metro, which gave me flashbacks to the last wild night I spent there, dancing like a loon to Hot Dub Time Machine.

Yesterday was a much more sophisticated affair.

Ball Park Music, Confidence Man, Illy, Kate Ceberano, Marcia Hines, Montaigne Sheppard and The Jungle Giants are among the headline performers that have been added to the line-up for the three-week Great Southern Nights program, which is being delivered by Destination NSW and Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

Seeing Confidence Man’s name up in lights also gave me flashbacks – they were the support for New Order at the Hordern Pacilion in March 2020, just days before the world as we know it was snuffed out by the pandemic. They were so out there and my date for the night – the eldest – loved them.

They’re joining other big names including Amy Shark, Baker Boy, Jimmy Barnes, Courtney Barnett, Jessica Mauboy, Peking Duk and The Veronicas. (To see the full line-up and book tickets, visit the gig guide at www.greatsouthernnights.com.au.)

I was paid to be there just in case Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, Minister for Tourism and Sport, and Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres needed anything, but I didn’t actually have anything to do with him. I simply loitered.

I also took lots of photos and ate the free mini quiches and panicked when the youngest sent a text message saying she’d accidentally bought raisin and walnut bread instead of olive bread and almost killed herself at breakfast, as she’s anaphylactic to walnuts.

Eeeeek!

Speaking of eeeeek, I got the quote to fix my roof: $7500.

Yay.

I also got the moodle’s manky DIY haircut fixed, which only cost $80 and included delightful extras such as an ear plunk and anal gland squeeze.

You should have seen the look on the youngest’s face when I told her about THAT just as she was about to eat her afternoon tea.

I had a fairly nerve-wracking walk to the groomer because the lawn mowing man, who I ghosted about two years ago, was working in the garden two doors down.

I’m not proud of ghosting him, but he said he didn’t trim hedges, so I found someone who could give me the full service … and who looks like this …

Actually, Dino’s looks had nothing to do with it, it was all about his hedge trimming. I swear.

I initially put off the lawn mowing man by telling him to stay away while I was getting my deck built, then I never got back to him because I felt so guilty.

And there he was yesterday, inexplicably trimming the neighbour’s camellia bush … he must have realised he needed to upskill.

I briefly considered crawling commando style past the front fence, but decided to run instead. I think he might have seen me sprinting … awkward …

Then I had to walk the long way home from the groomer to avoid him.

It’s a reminder that it is better to just tell the truth in the first place, but I never seem to learn that lesson.

Anyways, so the dog’s anal glands have been squeezed and my wallet is about to be …

Such is life.

Song of the day: Casey Donovan “You’re the voice”