Neil Young and a gaggle of girls...

"He should change his name to Neil Old" proclaimed my godson as we watched the living legend take to the stage in all his wrinkled, saggy, grey haired and flannel shirted glory. The godfather of grunge then proceeded to rock the vineyard valley for the next few hours and the kids were suitably gob smacked. Plus it was so loud, nobody could hear them anyway. All they could do was dance.

It was a fantastic concert. There were murmurings among the crowd of 'he's not playing enough hits' or ' geez these songs go on forever', but I was blissfully absorbed in the beautiful cacophony of sound from all that vintage gear being played by old rockers having a blast.
And the bittersweet ache of remembering my brother-in-law's passion for Neil's music and therefore the pain of missing him (Brett passed away from leukaemia years ago) was ever present. But I am so grateful he was part if my life and he taught me such valuable skills as how to surf, how to play the guitar and how to appreciate great music.
And now I get to pass all this into my own children....

We also stopped at a pretty epic sculpture park on the way to the Hunter Valley. Perusing the catalogue we imagined which sculptures would look good at the freedom farm and how we might come up with a spare $36,000 to purchase one;)

We also discussed the different reasons people might buy a large sculpture and Gav, being a retailer, suggested the marketing implications of owning a 'big thing'. Like if you owned a scuba diving shop....

We camped at a great caravan park in Cessnock with some of the members of Gav's band and their families. Between them they have 5 girls under the age of 6 so we all enjoyed some girly interaction! I played hula hoops with them, Flex caught them when they jumped into the pool and they developed a Beatles-like obsession with Lucky and chased him around all day long! He commented "they are really fun to play tip with....they never, EVER give up!".
We cooked pizza in the woodfired pizza oven (skilfully managed by Flex), lazed by the pool, played lots of music and generally enjoyed the delicious experience of taking the time to slow down...and on the way home, extended the relaxation by having a picnic by the 'Wobbly Creek', where we played in quicksand (!), watched a leech swimming and had a boat race.
Aaaaaaaaahhhhh....