Monday, March 5 .....

I’ve mentioned before that Jeff is a bush poet and he likes nothing better than entertaining people with his verse. When he is in a caravan park for more than a day or two, he puts up posters advertising a Happy Hour at his ‘van where people can share their poems.

One of his ambitions has been to put out a CD with him reading a selection of his poems. ‘That’s easy, said Jamie. I can do that for you. So, Jamie set up the studio in his shed, the poems were selected and the recording made. Of course, one reading is never enough. You can be sure that a car or a helicopter will go past at just the wrong time, or there will be a stumble in the words. However, the first cut was made and we all gathered around for a listen. Several changes were suggested and a second test CD made. Sounds good, but Jeff felt the last poem was too rushed. Back to the studio and a third draft was made.

This was the one so Jamie set about producing it to get the best effect. We hadn’t agreed on a title: Freddy the Firefly and Other Poems (too trite!), Freddy Firefly’s Fantastic Ferses (stupid!), Poems by Jeff (Jeff who?). While we were thinking, we were watching the cricket. How many poems, someone asked. Eleven, said Jeff. Well, what about The First Eleven? And so, history was made. Jeff’s first album will be called The First Eleven Poems and maybe the next one will be Jeff’s Baker’s Dozen.

It really is a nice piece of work. Of course, Audio Engineering is Jamie’s profession and passion. Jeff intends to have the CD on display in the ‘van and, perhaps, when people come visiting, they’ll be tempted to buy one. He’s taken twenty to start with but we expect a phone call at any time asking for another fifty.

Last night, we went to the local pub for pizza. We had planned to eat it there but they came in boxes so we just brought them home where we could drink our own wine. The weather has been so nice that we’ve been sitting outside. This evening we chose a sheltered spot near where the birds come to eat. What a flurry there was when they saw us sitting in their spot. The galahs sent out a couple of scouts to check us out and, eventually, the gang came back and got on with their feeding, without any further reference to us.