Things were winding up in several ways.

I seemed to have had my run with the Minds art…well, at least Jim’s attention with it. Such a mercurial man. I think I quickly bored him. Maybe I got a little too heavily invested? I’m sure I am very guilty of that. It was the most amazing ride though. And how special it made me feel. It will leave an indelible mark on my first trip back to Oz in 8 years. I mourned it gradually and naturally winding itself down. I missed those highs. It all started out of my love for them. The music. Jim’s amazing song-writing. It was my way of showing my love and devotion. Expressing just what these songs mean to me. I did have the goal of making one for every single song in the Minds canon, and I got about one third of the way there…maybe I’ll take the challenge back up in the New Year? We shall see.

I wanted to cram in some other special experiences before I left as well. I didn’t want to leave mum too much in those final 3 weeks, so my two very special things were…taking in a ballet at the Opera House! That was real “bucket list” material! And one final gig at The Metro – my favourite concert venue in Sydney, seeing The Stranglers, no less! And going with my best mate, Steven. It was wonderful having the time with him that I had this time round. And meeting his two beautiful daughters, Kristen and Jessica. We’d been mates for 25 years. Amazing! We’d had our ups and downs, but our friendship survived and is stronger than ever.

The ballet was AMAZING! I love ballet but have only ever seen it on TV. This was my first ever live ballet…and what a venue! The SYDNEY BLOODY OPERA HOUSE!!! I’d seen a couple of plays in there…but not anything musical…no pop concert, no opera or ballet. I saw Swan Lake and it was wonderful! I was fighting off a cold when I went, but still had the most wonderful time.

And The Stranglers!!!! What a gig that was!!! You can read my review of it if you use the search bar on the blog and look for The Stranglers. Suffice it to say here, they were FUCKING AMAZING!! Steven really only just came along for company…but we both had a whale! He loved it as much as I did. It was a fab night out to end on.

I had just a few days left to go and I didn’t want to leave mum. I didn’t want to come back home yet…but I thought I needed to. I thought I was going to be needed for something here. As it turned out, I wasn’t, and could have extended my stay out in Oz like I had wanted to. I was going to extend my stay until at least June. Hindsight, eh? It’s a bugger! The shitty thing is, I knew it was going to happen…but I couldn’t chance it. Oh, well.

My goodbye with mum was painful. As much as we drove each other nuts, she didn’t want me to go…and I really didn’t want to leave! She had a lovely lady caring for her, coming to see her 3/4 times a week, and so I consoled myself and convinced myself she’d be ok (not so).

By April 25th I was back home and worrying about her while being back to being 12,000 miles away. I felt helpless enough BEING WITH HER, let alone being back on the other side of the world.

The end of April felt like it had all the goodness sucked out of it, but I took comfort in it being (apart from the odd slip – a BIG one, losing Bowie) one of the most amazing starts to a year I had ever experienced.

Song of the month? Skin Deep!