Old Tamala is over the moon, i stand here before you
braying out a fanfare of unmitigated joy, from the
flatual pit of my arms, blurting out an ode to
announce we Just got confirmation that we’ve landed
seats for Paul’s second Anaheim show on Saturday the
12th of November ..

Tah dah!!

So not only will i now be going to see Paul on the
Friday, but now on the Saturday night i
will be able to take Adam to see his first ever rock
(rawk) concert .. i’m excited about this, but a little
concerned, i think the wildest concert Adam has been
to was a street theatre recital of ‘The cat in the
hat’ performed by a troop of desperate backpacking
‘sock puppeteers’ ..

How will he cope with my ‘Ringo Klaus-ian’ moments,
which will basically last for an hour before the
concert, all during it, and probably for the next year
after!?

Heres another platter from Tammys k-tell record selector .. have i shown you my sock puppet records yet?

Ahhhhhh, my second favorite season after autumn is spring, this is where the buds bloom, and everything smells sweet. How can people rush past a pretty flower? i know i cant and love to grab pics when i can. Smell the flowers.

‘We can be hero’s’ currently screening on the ABC on Wednesday nights is the current ‘must watch situation’ down here in Aussie. Its a mockumentary about five Australians all vying for the title of ‘Australian of the year’ i wont go into details, go to http://www.abc.net.au/tv/heroes/ to get the full rundown, however the character that has caught my eye, and how apt as she has a chronic stigmatism, is ‘Pat Mullins’. I will say no more, other thn the fact that Pat was born with aforementioned stigmatism, and one leg massively shorter than the other.

To work around her disability Pat taught herself at a very young age to roll everywhere, at incredible speeds. I love how Pat has adjusted her fashion to work with her disability, my favorite Pat pret a’ porter moment is to come this week, when she dons a pair of ‘pewter’ heels .. one greatley extended (see below pic). I will leave you with this quote from Pat ‘I may be disabled .. but i can roll’

This past weekend i’ve had Phillip from Melbourne visiting us, he stayed a few days which was fantastic, but it was a tough call for him to end up staying in Wollongong mere days after finishing a three month world trip. We had an absolute laugh trekking around and visiting a few old haunts, To give you a ‘slight’ insight into the man simply known as ‘Phillip’ on Sunday morning i woke up early-ish and was creeping around doing the washing up, the phone in the lounge rang and i raced to answer it before it woke Phillip up, i picked up the phone to find it was Phillip calling me from the next room, he informed me that he was awake, sitting up in bed, ready for breakfast and prepared to recieve visitors.
When i stay at Phillips place he makes me sleeep on a hissing, blurting, deflating air goiter. The pics below are an ‘art’ shot of Phillip i took in the side mirror of the car, the other pic is of Phillip, Adam and myself having breakfast at north Wollongong beach this past weekend.

A friend just sent me this amazing photo of the space shuttle breaking throught the sound barrier, awesome.

Some would call it a quirk, some would call it strange, others i’m sure have different names for it, but old Tamala dosnt like change .. well, not when it comes to her personal cleansing products. In the last few months two of my lathersome staples have been pulled from the shelves and ‘discontinued’ .. oh how i shudder at the finality of that word. First it was my Colgate pump pack tooth paste that got the rissole, then last week when shopping for my favorite ‘Sunflower and honey’ scented soap i saw the dreaded slip of paper on the shelve ‘Discontinued’.

With racing heart i scooped up the remaining few bars and hoofed it to the check out chick, who seeing the panic in my eyes made no attempt at idle chatter. When i got home i called the customer service number on the back wrapper of the soap, they clued me up to where i could score the last few remaining cakes in Wollongong.
I didnt dare wait till next day opening, i swished into town with my pathetic calico ‘greeny’ bags and swooped down upon the store that had the booty, i ran into a girlfriend from work who was also shopping, i was relieved to find out that she wasnt there to challenge me for the covetted cakes, but rather to pick up some eye liner. Knowing me as long as she has, she just gave me a gentle smile when she copped sight of my bags of lather goods.

I’m sad to say that the last of my toothpaste has now gone, i have moved on, but it will never be the same as the golden days of the pump pack, as some sort of solice the soap is stretching out quite nicely, i predict i should make it till at least December, before i have to make that all important decision as to what new soap i’ll be moving on to.

Currently being spun on Tammys electrolla ‘Three in one’ is this fab platter of aural delights.

In preparation for our visit to New York, i have started to trial a few outfits and moves for my time there, below is a pic of me on our Balcony in Wollongong, practicing swishing out onto our Park Avenue balcony in New York, i would like to thank Tyson for the loan of his dog, and Beryl for the hire of her wig ‘Dahhhh-link i luv ya, but gimme Park Aven-oo’.

While i’m on a roll .. nothing much to be said about this next pic really.

As our trip to the U.S draws ever nearer, friends are starting to show signs of concern about my probable behaviour at the two Paul McCartney concerts i am going to whilst over there. Its no secret that i am a BIG fan, and i become ‘quite’ emotional whenever i’ve been to one of his concerts, or had the opportunity to meet him, most famously after meeting Paul and shaking his hand for the first time, my friends turned to see that i had accomodated most of my entire right hand into my mouth, i feat i have never been able to replicate since.

So it is with a growing sense of joy and enthusiasm that i prepare for my next Paul encounter, my first in twelve years. In the movie ‘I want to hold your hand’ (about a group of mostly screaming teenage female fans trying to meet The Beatles) is a male character called ‘Ringo Klaus’, he is every bit as insane as the screaming girls, some friends have taken to refering to me by this name .. i hope i dont let them down. Below i’ve attached a couple of screen captures of Ringo Klaus in full flight at a concert, i’m currently in training practicing his moves.

Everyone is asking me ‘What are you most looking forward to seeing and doing on your trip to America?’ thats a REALLY hard question, but i’m slowly whittling down my priorities. Definatley in my top five things to see over there are the parading plastic surgery disasters, i want to spend a good few hours just sitting around Rodeo drive watching the passing throng of the ‘stretched people’.

I have a somewhat disturbing facination for people, who commit heinous acts upon their faces and bodys with scalpels, chemicals and just plain old fashion elastic bands all in the name of youth and beauty. One of my favorite ‘stretchy’ people to watch at the moment is Burt Reynolds, his face looks as if he’s in one of those ‘G’ force simulators.

Sniffing around ebay on the weekend, i came across a set of dvd’s of the childrens tv series from the early 1970’s ‘Here come the double deckers’, this totally blew me away!, i hadnt seen or really thought of this show since i first watched it in about 1973 (you do the math) memories came flooding back, i’m not sure if its just me, but i have a pretty good memory and recall, and when something triggers it, it can be pretty vivid. I remember sounds, smells, feelings etc. As soon as i saw these couple of images of the Double deckers, i was transported WAAAAY back.

When i was but a mere nipper, television was a total escape for me, i would become immersed in some parallel reality, the Double deckers was custom made for this escapism. The story revolved around a group of kids Tiger, Brains, Scooper, Sticks, Doughnut, Billie, Spring who had a secret hideaway, it was a big red double decker London bus, this served as the kids club house, and hideaway, from here they got into all sorts of adventures, my favorite character was ‘Sticks’ he was the drummer of the gang, boy how i wanted to hang out with those guys, they really had the ultimate cubby house.

I have a strong memory of being depressed, not sad, i mean REALLY depressed when the series came to an end, they only made seventeen episodes as well. I dont know of anyone else amongst my friends who remembers this show, i seem to have watched a few tv shows that very few others recall, other big shows for me, but that no one else seems to recall are ‘The rupert the bear show’ this wasnt a cartoon, but they used puppets. A couple of other shows i really liked were ‘Hotdog’ (with Jonathan Winters), ‘The Hector projector show’, ‘Comedy capers’, ‘Mack and Myer for hire’ (this last one i dont think anyone else but me watched, or ever saw)

I’m just going to clear my throat and give you a rendition of the Double deckers theme song .. ahem ..

Get on board! Get on board!
Come and join the Double Deckers.
Take a ticket for a journey,
On our double decker London bus.
Ring the bell (ding! ding!),
Toot the horn (honk! honk!),
When you ride with the Double Deckers.
Fun and laughter is what we’re after,
On our double double double decker bus.

You’re aboard! You’re aboard!
You’re aboard with the Double Deckers.
Fun and laughter is what we’re after,
On our double double double decker bus.
La la la! La la la!
La la la la la la la la.
La la la la la la la la,
On our double decker London bus.

Yesterday i had to take my mum and aunty up to Bondi to see a medical specialist, i was sitting in the waiting room and the professor walked out with my mum, he came over, said hello and shook my hand. My aunty then said to me ‘Professor helped deliver you’ .. it was just one of those weird moments in life, shaking the hand of the man who brought me into this world.

Last night was Chilli night in the Tingle household, across the top of my invented recipe i have written the following guide for my ‘Tingle Chilli’ and that is, ‘Maximum flavour, to create maximum offence’. My chilli never fails on either front.

On my last visit to Melbourne in April, i left one of my jackets behind by mistake, silly me entrusted its safe return to Phillip and Jake. Months later when i wore it out, i was walking through Sydney with a group of friends, i felt something in the pocket, upon reaching in, i pulled out a box of Jakes ‘Stomach cleansing tablets’ ie, high octane laxitives. This was dificult enough to explain away, then last night i wore the jacket again, someone pointed to the top right of the jacket, and sure enough, there was a message from Jake Dymo’d to the lapel .. what other hidden secrets could this item of clothing possibly hold!?

Here’s a seating chart of where i’ll be at Paul’s concert, its in the red area at the side and is marked by a small yellow dot .. ‘Are we there yet?, are we there yet?’

The big news since i last dropped a blog, is that Adam and i are heading off to Los Angeles!. I am so totally revved up for this, in the past the furthest i’ve travelled overseas is New Zealand, and call me old fashioned but i just dont think that counts. We’ll be staying in L.A for seven days, the amazing thing is i only found out afterwards that Paul McCartney is doing two concerts in Anaheim the second and third night we are there, not only that but the stadium is only a ten minute walk from where we are staying. Thanks to the generous help of some US Macca fans i’ve got myself a ticket for the first concert, it’s a really good seat as well. Before we go (November the 10th) i’ll make sure to have a ticket for the second show. This is just soooooo exciting.

At the moment i’m on a holiday in Melbourne, i arrived yesterday afternoon. Recently on holidays in Queensland i concoured my fear of wild and extreme theme park rides, but not even that could prepare me for yesterdays landing in Melbourne.I’m a pretty good flier, but yesterday just before we touched down i looked up from my book, and thought ‘Hmm, the plane seems to be going a little fast’, before i could squeal ‘Brace! Brace! Brace!’ the rear wheels hit the ground REALLY hard, i then had the sensation of being pulled sideways, the wheels then left the ground, and i was swung back in the opposite direction. Finally the wheels touched down again and the rear of the plane was swaying left to right. It was really weird, i wasnt scared, but i had the definite feeling that things were definately close to being out of control, in fact someone even called out ‘He’s losing it!’, tho i wasnt scared my legs did go to jelly. When we pulled up, i thought ‘Did that really happen?’ but figured it must’nt have been that bad as surely everyone would have been freaking out, but they werent .. in fact no one was talking at all, Hmmmmm. When we got off, the guy in front of me walked up to one of the space waitresses and just sort of stared her down, i think she knew what the score was and said ‘I had a much worse landing in Canberra once’ nice.

A quantum change occured in my life last night, whilst visiting my friend Dave we ordered in pizza. No big deal i hear you say .. however, for the first time in living memory i could not finish it, in fact i only got through HALF of this pizza, and it was one of the best pizza’s i’ve ever had the pleasure of masticating over. It was a ‘perfect’ veggie pizza, and i buckled, i choked, i flat out couldnt even contemplate mowing through any more than half of it. Is THIS the first sign of me getting old?

Venturing out last night to the ‘Greyhound’ in St Kilda, i was cock o’ hoop to find myself in a gay club that that screamed out ‘Greg, you are amongst your own’. I loved this club/pub, the crowd was so mixed, glamour boys, older guys, younger guys and guys wearing suits, but accsesorised with high heels and ‘Patsy’ blonde wigs. Besides the best retro music, the best part of the night was the drag shows, in particular the performer ‘Vivian St James’, Viv’s face has been totally worked over in the best ‘Jocelyn’ style, there really wasn’t much facial movement from the lips up at all!, just awesome .. it’s just dawned on me that Vivian really looks as if she’s been made over to look like a clone of Ivanka Trump. A return trip to the Greyhound is a must.

Oh dear .. Tamala is not used to ‘hanging one on’ .. alcohol is bad, except when abused in the company of good friends, trashy music, and even trashier drag shows. Mental note, ‘Do not make this a habit’ (unless in the company of good friends, trashy music and even trashier drag)