I just had the 2 best days of work EVER  =)

I went down to this little snice-slice of paradise on the coast. Near the infamous Bells Beach….
 

I finished for the week on Monday, and had nothing but Sweet F'all on the cards, except for Lee coming around to jam on the drum kit with Will and I on Tues. So I called up Mr Lee to confirm the next days session.

First words Lee said to me were "So ya fell like drivin to Ocean Grove tonight"

"What the" I replied "don't think so mate, I'm stuffed and don't feel like driving down there. Are you coming back here tomrw…?"

yeah yeah  blah blah.

I hung up the phone….and pondered with Will for a good half hour to decide if we should pack up most of our gear and road trip down there to jam instead.

It was still to hot to sit in my car to drive for an hr & a half and Will had to go to his folks for dinner. We agreed that we'd rather wake up 800m's from the ocean…instead of our boring little suburb…with no beach.

Done.

When Willbur get back from his folks we'll leg it down there.

Lee was stoked with the news when I called him back; his original plan was to come back to Melbourne to rehearse, and then head back to the beach. Crazy plan!

So the Mountain heads to Mohammad. About 9.30pm

With the 'Mule' (truckcarvan) loaded; A little mixer, 3 guitars, PA speaker, mic stands, leads, Double Bass, full drum kit (including stool), 1 9ft"6 oldskool Mal surfboard, and 2 very talented and determined hippies! 

Next to no traffic in sight, the freshness of a cool-change breeze rushing to blow into the car windows, passing straight thru and out the open tail-gate. Tickling the 9inch surfboard fin that's overhanging over the whistling black road, still warm from the sweltering days heat.

The vibe in the car was high. With a trumpet blowing once we entered the Freeway, good music was the topic of little conversation.

We rolled into Ocean Grove about 11pm, met Lee at a local café that just so happened to have a open jam on Monday evenings. Lee had been entertaining himself and the locals with his own music with his trusty guitar.

By the time we'd arrived, the sheets had been through the wash and were ready to be hung out and dried. The uncollected collective sound of all the old-time local rockers gathered on the poky corner stage. Armed with their cherished instruments, which are no doubt kept hidden from the grandchildren during summertime holidays, we're out on their weekly trip to town. Swinging like monkeys across their 8 bar-blues progression. In what could be a never ending session?

They held their own though…. I'll be an old rocker one day. So I'm just getting a glimpse of my future really. After afew years in these traps, I've noticed that there isn't a lot of room for the Wrinkled-Riffer.  But still they come out of the woodwork-shed, and if they're lucky enough one of their children will be there front row…. flashing back to campfires and marshmallows.

But us three boys we're on a different adventure, and we're in a hurry to catch up to them as fast as we could….the more you live the faster it goes by.

It wasn't til the next day Lee told us how many beers bottles he'd polished that afternoon, and into the evening.

….Somehow he made a 4min drive back to the beachhouse last for a good 15mins, giving me directions WITH A MAP! Leading us down several dead end streets, and "yep, take this one right here's, its' right"

We were in no hurry, and it was a nice way to get to know the residential area too.

The house was really a modern shack; 1 bedroom, open living room with sofas, and a kitchen at one end, and a bathroom. We unloaded the gear we didn't wish to cook in the car with the morning heat, and headed to the ocean to offer our warm feet to the refreshing lapping waves.

Put a guitar in Wills hands and your going to end up with bluegrass/chicken-picking/folk/country, blues tunes in a matter of minutes…all in one song sometimes too.

So our soundtrack during the 5min meander to the sand was Lee on Hill-Billy free-styled lyrics about road kill, close family relations, pickup trucks and moonshine. With Will providing the backbone guitar parts, while I'd just throw in some harmonies, and mostly enjoy the randomness unfolding in around me.

Good times with just one guitar….and 3 fools.

With the height of summer pretty much over and schools being back in, holiday makers had made their mark for the time being. And we were free to enjoy the ocean adventure without encountering a single sand printing sole.

Woken the next morning by the early escape of Lee's footsteps into the day, I re-buried my head under darkening sheets and resumed my stay in Slumberland for another hrs or so. When the heat of the room had reached its unsleepable temperature I rose from my fold-out nest. Will was soon to follow, and we prepared ourselves a wake and bake.

Lee had strolled himself back to the café in town for a Cafe cooked breakfast, and before you could say 'Lets roll' we we're ordering "garlic mushrooms and scrambled eggs on toast, with a soy latte please"

'And for you sir' says the waitress turning to Will.

"Big Vegie Breaky, and an orange juice with ginger thankx"

Before we could move all the gear in the little shack, we had to take some things out; Television, double fold out couch and a coffee table. We all had a kind of cheeky/guilty feeling about us. Knowing Lee was offered this place as a getaway for afew days whilst on holidays from work by a friend, who would have no idea what we had planned this afternoon.

Imagine the phone call to Lee….

"Yeah, me and some mates are down here right now, love the place. We've just wheeled the TV into the bedroom for the moment, no biggy, so we could set up a drumkit on the floorboards (using a rug tho). We had no room for Will and his big-ass bass, so we had to put the couch on the front lawn. But that's perfect because we can sit on it during breaks and drink beer and smoke spliffs in the sun. We spoke to you neighbor earlier and she's fine with us playing music all day, and there's no one else near by in their holiday house's because there mostly rentals. Anyways, nice talking to you, thankx for letting us stay here….and so close to the beach too.  Bye"

….My Granddad's old beach retreat has been taken over by hippies.

And it was for only two days tho. And we returned it better than when we found it. You wouldn't even know that 3 musicians sweated it out all afternoon in shoe box working on toe-tapping music. We gave that room some good vibes, and a preview of the good things to come.