G'day from Freiburg, on the edge of the famous black forest, another pretty little German town which sadly will be remembered as the location of the great tour car calamity. On two fronts in fact. The first, a speeding fine, potentially not too expensive on account of me doing about 45 in a 30 zone, still frustrating nonetheless given the 30 zone was between the hours of 10pm and 6am, this to prevent excess noise in the area, because as we all know a car travelling 50km/h makes a god awful racket when compared to a car doing 30km/h. Say nothing of the fact that the car travelling 30km/h takes nearly twice as long to get past the houses that are apparently being protected from the noise, nor of the fact that the average visiting motorist who, upon seeing the unmistakable flash of a 'Blitzer' at 1 o'clock in the morning, perhaps an hour or so after finishing another nice concert on the other side of the world, decides to scream the loudest obscenity possible out of his drivers side window, thus waking up the entire neighbourhood. (Ok so I didn't do that, but some part of me would have felt some justice had been served, however petty that may seem....).
Continuing on, there is a second part to the great car calamity. A far more bitter pill to swallow in many respects, but one of those things that just happens when you are driving thousands of kilometres with an old car. Namely, the funny noise you need to have checked out (the one which is always far less noticeable at 50km/h than it is at 30), just in case it's serious, just to make sure you can finish the tour, whereby the local mechanic rubs his hands in delight at the sight of two unsuspecting victims rolling into his garage on a Monday morning, takes the car to check it out for an hour or so, then calls you to explain the repair bill will be one thousand Euro. Say it again, one thousand Euro. But as with all things vehicular, there's nothing that can be done. And in fairness to the local mechanic, he seemed like a nice enough sort of chap, not the type to rob us blind. And it's wonderful when you have driven old cars all your life, because you can arrive at a place of complete peace and acceptance with such unspeakable tragedies on the road. And if we're being honest, maybe it wouldn't have happened with a newer, more expensice car, but maybe there would have been two funny lights on the dashboard instead, the kind that seem like meaningless trivialities until the guy at the workshop tells you the computer needs to be replaced. And then a thousand Euro would seem like a drop in the ocean. Ah well, C'est la vie as they say. C'est la vie. And at a time like this, perhaps it's appropriate to post a little song I recorded at the breakfast table yesterday morning - one of Bobbie D's old classics - Don't think twice it's alright. A very rough version it must be said, but a title that is entirely befitting of the current state of affairs.
Click here if you'd like to listen to the song, you can hear Lena packing in the background and you'll have to turn the speakers up very loud but you'll get the idea. Nothing fancy. Just a guy playing a half size guitar at a breakfast table. Cool.
On a final note, perhaps a much clearer note than most of the ones I was hitting in the aforementioned recording, I should mention my excursion to the local football match yesterday, to watch Freiburg vs Hamburg in the Bundesliga. My first trip to watch top tier European football (believe it or not I have still never been to see the Premier League), and a memorable one at that. Made even moreso by the fact that the guy standing next to us, upon hearing that I was a touring musician from Australia, decided he simply had to buy me a local beer. Which I have to say went down quite nicely whilst watching a few blokes chasing a little white ball round a field in front of 25,000 or so of their nearest and dearest, a crowd filled with the type of passion the average Waratahs supporter could only dream of. And if you thought the whole car thing was bad luck, spare a thought for the poor goal keeper from Freiburg, who had to endure his own calamitous chain of events, namely three horrendous goal keeping blunders that led to the home side's 0-3 defeat. And not one of his team mates offered the slightest gesture of consolation the whole time. And maybe that's why I don't feel so bad today. The poor bloke. I feel for ya. I realise you'll probably never read this blog, or even understand it for that matter, but I still felt the need to address you in the second person. Keep your chin up mate. C'est la vie.
Thanks to our host Chris for a great couple of days here. And the Vaubar for a cool gig on Saturday night. That'll do me for now, I'm off to Switzerland. I hope. We still haven't picked the car up... Fingers crossed..... x
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