Back to work soon

But not quite yet…

When we were in Tassie, we met a great little girl

Her name was Shianne

You may have seen her on the Tasmania vlog

At about the 2:36 mark

Her Mum, Chantelle,  had sent a letter asking if Shianne could meet Dad

She’s only 11, but knows all the words to Dad’s songs

And loves him

You have to be 18 to see the show

So she came backstage before the Burnie concert to say hi and get some pics taken

Shianne has Alopecia

It’s a disease where your hair falls out

Sometimes in patches, sometimes all over

Shianne has Alopecia totalis

Which has made her totally bald

Eyebrows, eyelashes – all of it

Shianne first started loosing her hair when she was 7

As a Mum with a daughter who will be 7 this year

I try to imagine how she would cope losing her beautiful, long hair at this age

Being her Mum, I’m not sure I would handle it too well

Chantelle’s letter told of the hard time that Shianne gets at school

She gets teased constantly

Because we all know what motherfuckers how cruel kids can be sometimes

(And how much I hate bullying BUT how standing up to them can help)

So having something as obvious as ‘no hair’ would be such a magnet for the arsehole kids

So they give her a hard time

All the time

According to Chantelle, the school where Shianne goes, does fuck all about it is not too great at handling the situation

Shianne was told to, ‘deal with it’

As she would look like it for the rest of her life

So it’s in her ‘best interest’ to get used to the stares and smart arsed comments

When I spoke to Chantelle about it, I was gobsmacked

I’m not sure if changing schools is an option

But it’s something I would look into

After I told them to all go fuck themselves!

Asking an 11 year old girl to just deal with name-calling and constant teasing?

If that’s not absolute bullshit, I don’t know what is

Then I spoke to Shianne

And seriously, she is the cutest, sweetest, giggly little girl in the world

It seems so unfair

What she has to go through every day

Her friends and family are currently raising money

So that Shianne can go and meet some other kids who have Alopecia

She’s the only one in Tasmania

And has never met anyone else who suffers from it

She’s very excited

She wanted to have one of my albums, but we’d sold out on the night

Plus I was a little hesitant

OK, I was A LOT hesitant

About handing over an album of my ‘fuck’ songs to an 11 year old kid

Her Mum assured me it was OK

So I ended up sending her a signed copy

Along with a kick boxing dvd

To help her deal with the fuckers at school

And maybe kick some arse

I figure if I’m going to be a bad influence

I might as well give it my best shot

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Update – they raised the money, so Shianne is planning her trip to go & meet some new friends!!

OK, so here I sit

Left my house in Chicago nearly 30 hours ago

Some of my tweets along the way

Welcome to American Airlines. Your check in agent today will be Joanne. Or as we like to call her, Atilla the (premenstrual) HUN

Seated between 2 teenage boys on this flight. Trying 2 eat my banana in the least sexual way possible.

Forgot sleeping tablets. This flight just got a lot longer.

Flew to LA

At LA airport waiting to board. Lindsay Lohan just tried to steal my passport.

Brisbane

You know how if you put a tuppaware container in the microwave too long & it goes all funky? I just saw Olivia Newton John at the airport & that’s EXACTLY what her face looks like!!

And now I’m at Adelaide airport

Found a comfy spot to kick back for a few hours

While I wait for the rest of the motley crew to arrive

Then we drive (for about 5 hours) to Mount Gambier

Where the first show of the tour is tomorrow night

Lots of traveling

But it’s all good

Got some sleep

And shitloads of people watching done

Really looking forward to starting this tour in South Australia

It’s been a couple of years since we’ve played here

Then off to Tasmania

Then Western Australia

Like Dad’s always said,

When you sing like we do

You’ve gotta keep fuckin’ movin’

And that’s what we’re doing

With lots of fun and red wine thrown in

Let the games begin!

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UPDATE:

we made it to Mount Gambier!

Oh yes we did.

I know I talk a lot about the snow

I love it

I think I’m always going to love it

No matter how long I’m in Chicago

I don’t know how to not sound cheesy when I say this

But it’s just beautiful

It makes everything that would otherwise look dead and lifeless

Look stunning

But enough about the snow

.

Look where I’m headed next week suckers!

So, while I love the snow blah, blah, blah-dy, blah

I’m more than happy for a bit of a change up

And the QUEENSLAND TOUR is going to provide the polar opposite weather to what we’re having here right now

But I think I can handle it

Even though home is where the heart is

I’ll be where it’s warm

While the kids are back here

Probably making snow angels if this weather continues

And I’ll miss them like I always do

And I might even miss Diamond a bit too

My own ‘special’ snow angel

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(Diamond’s ACTUAL butt not used in this post – but I think they just might be his boots)