Grey Nomads Heading North

Grey Nomads Heading North

From the cities in the south they come
And loaded to the gills everyone
Some cars and vans are new and flash
Most the others not
For grey nomads have to conserve their cash
Income they have not

But traveling on their savings and their super too
I've never met a nomad who couldn't make do
He'll cast a line to catch a fish
She'll bake a cake camp oven style
They'll pick a spot to unhitch and stay a while
Then it's, let's pack this lot and make a mile

The weather's gettin' warmer and road is gettin' long
And as caravans fill northern parks a poet sings his song
For there's nothin' much more bushy
Than a thousand stars at night
Seen through the smoke from a barbeque
It makes old bones feel right

So every winter from now on they'll join the endless line
Of nomads heading north to leave us all behind
The caravan will keep them safe
And big stories will be told
For nomads were stronger, faster, fitter back then
Before they started being old

When Terry's away, I have his laptop to play

G'day,

While old Terry's away at his writing group Wordsmiths of Melton, I thought I'd go through a few of his poems and see if I could find one to give me some inspiration and write one of mine. This is the one I found, he hasn't finished it yet, but I'll push him into it over the next couple of days. I'm sure he won't mind me putting it up. I'll try to do something along the same lines, but give it a modern twist to the theme of Heading Home.

Watch out for it in the next couple of days.

Heading Home

Every Saturday I’d see him as he struggled from his seat,

He’d grab his battered leather hat and thrust it on his head

His bright old eyes would dart around looking for his walking stick

“Where the bloody hell you been?” were his words to welcome you

But his grip still firm as iron as he would shake you by the hand

Independent over eighty years and now unsteady on his feet

But those Saturdays were great days you could tell it in his smile

Into that old red Falcon Ute he’d climb and pull his seat belt on

“Come on man what’s keeping you” he’d growl, trying not to grin

I’d slam the door shut on his side and run 'round to take the wheel

I’d turn the key and start the beast and slip her into gear, let out the clutch

And then off we’d go North up the road and made a merry mile

For not many now would know it but the old bloke liked to sing

And I swear that he’d lose thirty years as his memory wandered back

“They’ll never fix this ruddy road” you would hear him reminisce

With an arm out of the window the terrain he would point out

Of where the trains crashed one dark night just south of Walloway

Then through the gravel creek we’d lurch sending dust and stones about

“Where’d you learn to drive like that? Keep it up and your neck I’ll ring”

We would head up through the hills of Eurelia and on to Carrieton

And like sometimes he’d like to stop at the pub to yarn and have a beer

For the pub had brought him friendship and he’d seen them come and go

Keith Rasheed had the pub these days and treated the old man right

‘Cause both were born of busman blood and that code they understood

And back into the Ute he’d get and again behind the wheel I’d slide

Then on up the road to Yanyarrie to the land from nature he had won

He really would be lively now as we came upon the Old Yanyarrie gate

The dust would barely settle as with a rush the door he’d fling aside

“I’ll get the gate he’d laugh” at me and I know that he was now eighty four

Yet like a five year old he couldn’t wait to get there and take a look around

Down to the old station homestead once a home so strong and warm

And he lingers in the doorway “I remember this,” with misty eyes he tells me

“It’s just here at this old front door. for me that she would wait”

“But come along now” he’d call to me “we had better fetch that wood”

We would drive down past the wooden stockyards of rails made by hand

Peaches Pengilly is Millennium Girl

Okay, I have my head around who Peaches is now, her alter ego Millennium Girl. I have a choice to make this character exist for a short period at a time when she reverts back to Peaches or change her forever. that is my dillema.

Unlike the photo of Lake Wendouree I took last friday, it's raining again in Melbourne today and all the benches outside will be wet, so I won't be spending much time outside. Reckon I'll splash over to the library and try and figure my way out of this dilemma during my morning break.
Pop wants me to knuckle down and make sure my grades are high again this year, but now I know who Peaches is, I want to write her story. I wonder if I can develop something during our English period after lunch.

Have a good day Australia,

Toby

Rainy Day in Melbourne

Looking out the class room window
And what can I see
Nothing but grey skies moving in on me
Equations make no sense, the lesson is slow
Want to break out
But there's nowhere to go



I'm beggin the sun to break through
Everyone including Chalkie is feelin' blue
We'd sooner jump up, dance and sing
Only a grey day of sadness do you bring





English is the next on our list
Still what do I see
Nothing but grey skies moving in on me
Syntax is strainin' and the lesson's moving slow
C'mon sky break out a burst of blue
And then we 'll break out
To come and see you

Mothers' Day

You know I don't know how to think about Mother's day. You see, I never knew my Mum, she died just after I was born.

Anyway I know it's a special day for lots of Mum's around the world and I want to say a big love you and send out  heaps of hugs. Without you we wouldn't be here.







Lot's of love & respect,
Toby

Synopsis Peaches Pengilly - Milennium Girl

As the new millennium dawned, Peaches Pengilly was born with challenges.

A rare form of Muscular Dystrophy wracks her body making every movement a struggle. However, she has a secret weapon, family. Renowned medical researcher, Elise Pengilly is her mother, while her father Kahl Pengilly leads the field in human robotic engineering. They have a built Peaches a muscle building body suit. Until now she has been too young to try it, but on her fifteenth birthday she suits up for the first time.

Dr Nicholas Off, an albino wombat owning despot, sees the potential to create an army of cyborgs if he can obtain the suit and its plans. He has co-opted ISIS to enslave the oil rich empires of the Middle East, but he wants more, he needs to defeat Isis with troops of his own, Super human beings who will do whatever it takes to carry out his demands.

Peaches sees her parents and Aunt killed when the terrorists bomb the Australian of the Year award presentation in Canberra. The suit works, it protected her and she makes her getaway.

Although saddened by her loss she makes a vow on her mother’s body to find the killers and bring them to justice.

A fall or a push, somehow Peaches makes a circuit between the tram and the high voltage cables. Her muscles bulge and she grows stronger until the Kevlar begins to rip. Watching from a rooftop, Dr Off smiles, he thought as much. Now all he has to do is get the data to replicate Peaches’ parent’s work.

That night Peaches studies the volumes hidden in the underground vault. She has become Millennium Girl

What is the best age to join Facebook?

Pop and I have been having an ongoing argument / discussion about me getting onto Facebook, I don't know what the big deal is about, cripes, I'll be sixteen this year and all my friends are already busy on social media. I feel like a leper.

While he and Charlie are overseas, it would be great if they posted pictures to show me, Soph and our mates where they are. I want to know what they're seeing and the fun they're having. It took a fair amount of pushing and prompting to get them up to speed with Skype. So it's not a big leap  to get them to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. After all it would help us keep in touch. Although I wouldn't let Charlie do his Mrs Mangle impersonations and put them on Facebook.

Anyway while my battle is, am I too young? For the fossils, theirs is, are they too old?

I'll probably wage this war with Pop over the next couple of months until he's ready to leave for Europe and then he'll come on board. I'll appreciate any advice you have to toss my way.

See-ya,

Toby