Blog dreaming

I want to learn to play the guitar. I'd actually like to play the cello, but cellos are more expensive and I’d have to take lessons because I haven't a clue. I’d also like to play piano, but who in a share flat in Sydney gets to have and play a piano? However I feel like there is enough “guitar for dummies” information out there and (only just) enough space in my room that I could possibly get a guitar and teach myself. I used to play the flute a lot, but flutes are now very uncool, and I haven’t actually played music in a long time. And I like it. When I was supposed to be studying for the HSC at home is when I’d pull out sheet music, write in the base clef in alphabet letters (because I couldn’t read it fast enough) and teach myself piano songs (I have a repertoire of about three).

In one of my many alternate lives I am a songwriter. I mean, listen to the lyrics of pop songs – how hard can it be? I’d say singer/songwriter but that might be too fantastical. However, one day when I worked for the Qld Parks and Wildlife Service I went to Redlands Bay with a semi-retired entomologist from CSIRO in search of a rare butterfly. We waded out into mangrove swamps up to our armpits in pursuit of this elusive creature. He’d told me to bring a spare pair of shoes, that’s all, but in his enthusiasm we went further and further out till I was holding my gear above my head and finished up, quite obviously, soaking wet. Wet shoes were the least of my worries. I also nearly climbed on top of this poor old chap as we were walking on dry land when two Doberman dogs flew out of the scrub at us and I thought they were going to bite my legs off, so out of pure fear and instinct I grabbed onto my companion and was going to let them bite his legs off instead. Then he completely let rip with the dog owner who appeared out of the scrub after his runaway dogs, which shouldn’t have been in a nature reserve in the first place, and I thought there was going to be a fist fight (meanwhile I was poised ready to go up the nearest tree because I still didn't like the dogs, but I might have come to his defence with a butterfly net). Next we went to visit a retired medical professor, who’d discovered something very important about cancer (can’t remember what) but also held Australia’s largest private collection of butterflies and had been involved with the research of the butterfly I was then writing the recovery plan for (the Bulloak Jewel Butterfly if you’d like to know). So I arrived at this fellow’s house, which could have been an antique museum, soaking wet, and was ushered into a purpose-built room in which the smell of naphthalene was enough to send a person unconscious, to look through drawers of pinned butterflies. Just another day. But in the course of that day the semi-retired entomologist says to me “have you ever considered being a singer? – I’ve known a lot of singers in my time and you have the speaking voice of one”. So, maybe.

This dream could come and go like many dreams. I did read this post though and reckon I could have fun at lyrics. Music, however, is quite another question. And because I learnt the flute without theory I don’t know a lot about chords, yet anyway, so it could all be a lot of hard work. We’ll see ...