‘Cause the two I have, could NOT be more opposite in every way
From what they eat, what they wear, how they respond to different situations – e.g.;
child a) Mummy, sing the ABBA song louder, let’s dance! or child b) Ugh, I can’t believe you’re singing ABBA in public and OMG, are you dancing in the cereal aisle!?!?

Magoo is frighteningly open. Will tell you EVERYTHING about anything. She is a huge fan of too much information. Poo, boobs, horses, farts, puppies, what she had for breakfast. She’ll talk about all that and more within minutes of meeting you
And if it makes you uncomfortable, she’ll consider that a win
Her sister Macaroni, is as private as Magoo is ‘out there’

This week has been a huge lesson in that for us
Without going into details, ’cause she would KILL me….Macaroni has been unwell and home from school all week
She is so much better than she was, and will be 100% soon

Both girls know about this website
Not surprisingly, Magoo can’t WAIT to be old enough to read what I write here
Or even better? Come to one of my shows 
Macaroni isn’t too sure
She doesn’t like getting her photo taken and is not a fan of me talking about her here, which I try to respect

This past week, Macaroni was busy working on a project for her enrichment class at school
I know, enrichment? Like she needs any more of that in her life. Surely having Diamond and I as her parents, makes for a pretty fucking enriching existence….AMIRIGHT??

Her project was to build a castle
She went straight to Diamond to help her with it
Smart move
‘Cause it would have looked something like this, had I been involved

Whatever….I happen to think this castle is a pretty speccy architectural achievement in cardboard
But, not up to Macaroni’s standards
So she went to her Dad
And together they’ve been working
Working
WORKING
On what THEY think a castle would look like

Imagine my surprise when she said to me, Mum, can you take a photo of my castle?
And THEN…..I think you should put this picture on your website
I really want everyone to see what Dad and I made

So, in the interest of doing what I’m told before she changes her mind
I give you, Macaroni & Diamond’s castle

They built it together
Painted it together

Put in the Kings, Queens and lots of other details 
AND…they let me take photos
HUZZAH!

The finished product shows that she probably made the right call going to her Dad for help with it

But man, if she ever has to make something out of wine bottles
Or write a poem about farting

I AM ON IT.

.

.

A shit tonn of entries, but only one can win

So, without any further ado (whatever THAT means)

The winner of the F.O.C.U.S. Crew sweatshirt and signed F.O.C.U.S. CD is….

GRAHAM SHAW!!!

Go Graham!

Please message me, either through Facebook or jenny@jennytalia.com with your address and I’ll get your goodies of to you ASAP.
(If I don’t hear form you within 48 hours, I’ll do a redraw)

UPDATE: I didn’t hear from Graham, and the 48 hours came and went – so redraw it was!
The new winner is TOM EDDY from Perth.
Tom has already contacted me, and the hoodie is in the mail.

Thanks again to all of you who took the time to enter x

(winner chosen using RandomPicker)

No it wasn’t last week.
Who would leave a suitcase in a closet for 6 months without unpacking it??
*ahem*

Anyhoo…
When I WAS unpacking it, whenever that may have been
I found a F.O.C.U.S. CREW sweatshirt

It wasn’t mine, ’cause I was WEARING mine
This was a brand new, still in the bag (size large) one

I was like, well…I gave all the tour crew THEIRS
Mum and Dad have one, Diamond has one

I only ordered enough to cover that many people

The only conclusion I could come up with, besides the fact that I obviously can’t count
Is that…..I have an EXTRA one!

And Imma give YOU GUYS a chance to win it!
(and I’ll throw in a signed copy of the F.O.C.U.S. cd too)

All you have to do, is SHARE the video for F.O.C.U.S.
On YouTube, Facebook, Twitter….wherever you’re at
Just share the link, or post it on your page

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE
OR
Here’s the link for you to just copy and paste
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O0G00pdoYk

Be sure to TAG me in your post, so I know you’ve shared the video!

I’ll pick a random winner next MONDAY, 20th MAY

Every time you SHARE the video, it will count as ONE entry
You can enter AS MANY TIMES as you LIKE!!

GO!!

Mum & I got our Mother’s Day on a couple of weeks ago

And my UK buds took care of business back in MARCH!

Nah, just fucking with ya

I realise that Mother’s Day is celebrated at different times all over the world. Which is perfect if you forgot to send your Mum a card this year. Just tell her you were waiting to celebrate Czechoslovakia’s Mother’s Day. (they have mothers there, yeah?)

If you’re like me, and don’t live anywhere near your Mum, we just mark the occasion on whatever day we are together

So while we were in Sydney, we decided our day off would be Mothers Day, and we’d catch the ferry into the city, have a long lunch
Then do some drunk shopping

On the ferry ride there, Mum said, so this river we’re on the is Parramatta River, and the local football team is called the Parramatta Eels, so that’s because there’s actual EELS in this water?
Yep.
Wow, that’s pretty cool.
Not as cool as the rivers in Newcastle. THEIR footy team is the Newcastle Knights.
Knights? So there’s actual Knights in that area?
Yep, with horses and swords and all that stuff
Wow. How cool would it be to see that?

Oh, Betty.

She’s so gullible sometimes, I almost don’t have the heart to tell her I was fucking with her. Again.

Maybe that can be my Mother’s Day present to her…

Next year.

I’m so lucky to have a Mum that I love spending time with, and who never fails to make me laugh. Even if she doesn’t know why.
I’m pretty sure she inherited that trait from her Mum, my Nanna
She’s the other unintentionally hilarious woman in the family
I’m so proud to be related to both of them

Whether your Mum is here on earth
Or one of the brightest stars in the sky
Wishing you all, a day full of belly laughs and big smiles
Happy Mothers Day

What if he crashes?

He drove like a mofo for 28 laps – he got up to 160 miles/ 257 km per hour
He was supposed to do just 18 laps, but their car dash camera didn’t work, and he didn’t want a t-shirt of the experience, he wanted the video.
So they GAVE him another 10 laps, and re-recorded that.
We have now watched that video forty-hundred times. Yeh.

The whole time he was whizzing around the track, Magoo kept saying, I don’t want to be an orphan. Orphan’s have to share a room with hundreds of other orphans and wear really ugly dresses
??
I’m like, you can only be an orphan if BOTH your parents are dead

Oh…

And she’s like, well I still hope he doesn’t crash
I don’t want to be a black widow either

What the…??

Pierre LE POIDEVIN was born in 1801 (approx.) in France.
He was transported to Sydney on 28 September 1835 from England.  (he dropped the ‘Le’ and just went by Pierre Poidevin)
He was convicted at the Royal Court in Guernsey on the 13th December, 1834 for base coin forgery and sentenced for seven years transportation to the colony of NSW. (for those that don’t know, Australia started out as a penal colony and all the riff-raff started out here) Pierre was a single man, a cabinet maker and he could read and write. He was also a Roman Catholic. His physical description was described as – 5 foot 4 inches tall, very dark complexion, dark brown hair, greenish eyes. Once he had served his time, he became licensee of the Old Collector Inn, in Collector NSW, until he died in his sixties

He was married to a lady named Rebecca, and they had 7 children, 5 sons and 2 daughters

One of their sons was Francis Poidevin
He married Catherine Turner and they went on to have 12 children, 7 girls and 5 boys

One of their daughters’ name was Beatrice May Poidevin
Beatrice married Henry Bryant, and they produced 4 children, 3 daughters and 1 son

Their only son, Cecil Bryant, married a lady named Hazel
They went on to have 7 children – 5 boys, 2 girls

One of THEIR sons went to the town of Collector today
(You might recognise him)

And visited this quaint place, full of landmarks named for the Poidevin family

The pub’s still there

The general store’s still there

Today, we got to visit a place where part of our family started
Dad’s Great-great Grandfather, Pierre Le Poidevin, started out as a criminal
And seems like he turned out just fine
I’m grateful for that!

There’s SO much more to the story, with new stuff we’re learning all the time
We always wondered just where us ‘Bloody Wilsons’ came from
Now we know
We’re from FRENCH ancestry, ooh la fucking la!

For today, it was pretty incredible to stand in that town, visit our ancestors graves

And be proud of where we came from

Wonder if they’d be proud of us?
Don’t answer that.

Lucky it has too, because it makes it easier to get through the shit stuff
And by shit stuff, I’m referring to the death of two of my favorite singers
Now, I have a LOT of favorites, and add more each year
But for most of my music listening life, these two have been in my top five

Fristly, CHRISSY AMPHLETT
In my opinion, the first (and still the best) true ROCK chick and front woman, to ever come out of Australia

She was the lead singer of the DIVINYLS, who most of the world would know, for their biggest hit,
I TOUCH MYSELF
While that is a great song, their music catalogue is so rich with fucking phenomenal tunes (so many of which were massive on the charts in Oz) that I would have trouble picking just one favourite.
My first paid gig as a muso was in a duo with my brother Travis, where we sang the shit out of as many Divinyls songs as we could get away with

(yes I have a Tweety Bird vest on)

It was ‘never-fail’ music that would get any crowd on their feet and singing along

We were probably only ever about 2 songs away from being called a Divinyls cover band

(…and a matching tutu…yep)

A great description found on youtbe:
“…Few Aussie Rock Bands defined the era better than the Divinyls , fewer still did it with a lead singer who was a woman, and a very assertive and menacing one at that, who had such stage presence that she demanded your attention. With a reputation for being sultry and unpredictable on stage, but never less than intriguing … There is no denying the Divinyls’ place in Australia’s Rock and Roll history …  They were controversial , they had catchy songs, and Chrissy Amphlett is still the most unique and as it has turned out the most versatile female vocalist this country has produced”

And the….THEN!

GEORGE JONES died yesterday

Now, I get, that he was 81…but that doesn’t make me any less teary when I type those words….George Jones died.

A bit of background:
My parents, and particularly my Dad, have always been huge, I’m talking H-U-G-E country music fans. Our house where I grew up, in Kalgoorlie, was never quiet. There was ALWAYS music coming from the stereo. And that music was always country

And if you like your country REAL country,  George Jones is your man
Then George Jones married Tammy Wynette and country music had it’s first ever King & Queen

Most of you / some of you / none of you, may know that my given name is actually
TAMMY-JO….yep….yehaw and all that
Not a lot of people actually know that the ‘TAMMY’ is after Tammy Wynette
And the ‘JO’ is after George Jones. (Dad wanted it to be TAMMY-JONES, but Mum won that one, thankyoubabyjesus)

With the occasional exception, I sing at least one George Jones song every night to warm up before going on stage

I will be eternally grateful that I got to see George live in concert three times
The last time was with Mum & Dad in Chicago. And I have no shame telling you that the 3 of us sat there with tears rolling down our faces, listening to his voice, the truest, purest country voice of all time, sing the songs that were the soundtrack to my childhood, and so many brilliant memories for our family

He was peerless, fearless, with the most distinctive, goosebump inducing tone to his voice, that I don’t believe anyone will ever match
RIP to the THE POSSUM

Just a little heads up, someone might want to go and wrap Cyndi Lauper in cotton wool and make sure NOTHING happens to her.
Or your going to need to put me on suicide watch

She’s been my number one since neck bandanas were cool.

OK, make me feel better about being such a sook
Who was the soundtrack to your childhood?
What music heroes of yours would you be devastated to lose / or have already said goodbye to?

They’re an interesting part of our family history, and I was pretty stoked to find them

While this year will be the first time my family won’t be taking Pop to the ANZAC DAY march

We all WILL be thinking of him, and missing him just that little bit more this ANZAC Day, our first without him
I know that I think of him, every time I look at my bracelet and see my slouch hat charm

This ANZAC Day, there are so many people who’ll be thinking of, and missing someone they love

And so many thousands more people, all over this country, will be honoring those who have sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, so that we can have the lives we are so lucky to have

ANZAC DAY is a huge event here in Australia and of course New Zealand
It envelopes the country with a sense of pride and brings out a an overwhelming show of respect to our military, past and present
As it should

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them

LEST WE FORGET

UPDATED:

After getting home from last night’s show at 3am, Mum and I had just enough time to get changed and head to the Dawn Service.
It was an emotional one, but I’m so glad we got there

The ones I’ve sung Bastard to

Picked on

Laughed at

And generally used as my play things when I’m doing a show

It is with (some, but not a lot of) sadness, that I regret (a bit) to inform you

That you’ve been replaced

Yep, I’ve upgraded

Please try to understand

Don’t be upset

Don’t do anything rash

Unless being rash involves sending me flowers, or food
In that case, rash away!

It’s just, well…

I call him Slinky, but his given name is Turtle (don’t ask)

Maybe it’s his cute attempt at a Pirate’s of the Caribbean beard

And the fact it looks more like four sad, stray braided pubes

Or the fact that all the shit I threw at him last night

Stuck to him like that can of Jim Beam to his palm

And he was such a top sport about it

So, for now, he is the new ‘chosen one’

Until tonight’s show, anyway