"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

My Mate Warren

The rouges gallery of photographic evidence.

This one is very recent, "The Birthday"

Since 1990 Warren has been doing a Christmas card for his friends,
this was the 1991 card, they are all humorous and often have a
medical theme as Warren works in the medical world.


Like all posers he "hates" to have his picture taken.

Very early days, Warren and Julie at Bald Rock National Park NSW.

My Mate Warren.

Most of us are either blessed or cursed with a friend who is… to put
it mildly, often described as “a little strange” or worse.

I have one of these… his name is Warren; we have been friends for
about 35 years now, so I’m nearly used to his antics.

We first met back in the days when Julie and I ran a Service Station
in the Brisbane suburb of Holland Park, Warren was a customer who
had a beat up old Holden that we somehow kept on the road for him.

It didn’t take long for a friendship to develop, Warren was, and still
is, a very keen photographer and movie maker.

His offer of showing us slides of a recent holiday he had at a
beautiful spot called Canarvon Gorge was accepted and became the
stepping stone for the friendship that has lasted all these years.

There followed many years of visits, always filled with fun and
laughter, which usually ended with just Warren and I talking,
mainly crap I suspect, until the wee small hours, Julie normally
having given up on us several hours earlier.

When my marriage collapsed and I moved back to Queensland to
live Warren was one of a number of good friends who kept me
sane?? while I grieved my loss.

This meant that I saw quite a bit more of Warren than I had when
we had only our annual visits from Victoria, while I had always
known of his “oddball” side it has become more so over the last
10 years.

We have done a couple of trips together, and I’ve found he is one
of the few people I can sit in a car with for 3 weeks, while we
covered about half of this huge land, and still enjoy the experience.

We’ve been fishing together, I can’t recall ever catching anything
big enough to eat, we’ve been to music events, photographic
events, enjoyed family events (both his and my family, my kids
love him)

Shared the loss of a parent, Warrens Mum, My Dad, and the joy
of his daughters children arriving, and visits with my kids and
their families.

OK, that’s what I would write if Warren had died and I wanted to
say all the nice things about him as a memorial, but, as I hinted
at the start there is another side to Warren, and it’s probably the
one that has kept us friends all these years, he’s as mad as a
bloody meat-axe, as silly as a cut snake and as crazy as a loon.

It is almost impossible to make a telephone call to anyone else
if he is in close proximity, his side chatter, in a very loud voice,
drowns out the other persons conversation totally.

Even conversations that may start out as serious, always seem
to degenerate into laugh-fests by the time they finish.

Warren is “loud”, I often say I would hate to be his next door
neighbor, his music is played with the same gusto that he lives
his life, he keeps late hours, and worst of all he has a friend who
accentuates all of his worst habits when he comes to visit!!!!

We make an odd combination, I’m fairly introverted (in anyone
else’s company) while Warren is an extrovert, but when we get
together we laugh, joke, swear, fart and do all the things that
men tend to do when they are “having fun.”

We seem to enjoy the same movies, books, jokes, late hours,
computing etc. that keep us compatible, and by the way just in
case anyone is wondering neither of us has seen, or probably
wants to see, Brokeback Mountain, but, come to think of it he
is a very good cook!!


Now if any one doubted the Brokeback remark take a look at this
and tell me you still have doubts!


If you click the photos they will enlarge, this last one has a small
painting on the left hand side, this is by Warren's sister
Denise Green, some of you may recognize the name? Denise is
very well known in the art world and has lived and worked in
New York for many years.

Warren sometimes reads this blog, so if he see's this post you
can expect to hear some rebuttals, but who ya gonna believe,
an honest blogger you know well or some unknown weird-o??


15 comments:

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ Well that is a nice post- the story of Warren. I hope he likes it.
I only met him New Years Eve 2000, but I
liked him a lot< always ready with a joke etc. He has sent me quite a few jokes etc. Hi Warren.
Take care, Merle.

Anonymous said...

Very nice post.

JunieRose2005 said...

Peter,
Enjoyed that close up look of your friend Warren that we have heard of now and then , from you and Merle!

He sounds like a fun guy! :)

June

Raggedy said...

Thanks for sharing Warren with us. Hiya Warren!
It sounds like you both have a blast hanging together.
You should get him to blog. Do you think you get him to do a guest post for you? He could always type in all CAPS to express his loud...
Have a wonderful day!
*^_^
(=':'=) meow hugs
(")_ (")Š from da Raggedy one
*

Anonymous said...

What a great tribute to a good friend! (I'd be worried I was dying if somebody said all those nice things about me - LOL)

Thank you for sharing your experiences and stories!

LZ Blogger said...

Peter ~ Warren seems like the pefect Mate for you. I mean that in the "Aussie" MATE way, not the Brokeback way! ~ jb///

Jacqui said...

Hi Peter, couple of things, no I haven't been to Urulu, and don't have any inkling to do so, so guess I am that lost cause.
Walter managed to make Murchison without hitting anything.
You may remember how my mother, who never swore any other time, would exclaim s**t if she was startled or something like that, it's one of those words, lot's of people would be lost without.
hope the Lions win..jacqui

kenju said...

It's very nice to have a good, old friend like Warren. I have a message for him: get someone to trim your eyebrows!

Hale McKay said...

We can't have enough "Warrens" in this world. I'm glad you have one, Peter.

I think it would be a great idea if he were to blog. Sounds like he would bring a lot to the blog table, like yourself.

Jamie Dawn said...

I'm thinking the "weirdo" may have a few good tales to tell about YOU too! I would assume that you are nutty as a fruitcake as well, in addition, also. :)

Warren seems like a funloving, good-natured fellow.
I'm sure there's never a dull moment when he is around.

Jeanette said...

HI peter
Good photo of two good mates .Another long friendship keep laughing ,joking, swearing,
and above all Have Fun ....
Take Care,Jan

bornfool said...

I'd love to hang out with you and Warren sometime.

The Heir said...

Greenie is a legend, no denying it.. but i have a photo of him kissing you that says different about the brokeback comment.. the best bit was how you both went looking for the other ones favorite treats and offered them round to everybody in the house!!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

I bet you and Warren are a hoot to hang out with.
I thorothly enjoyed reading this post about your good friend Warren.

He has devilish eyebrows.

suz_e_que6 said...

Hi Peter! The weirdo (aka Wazza) sent me a copy of your comments. After 10yrs of working with this Weirdo you'd think the therapy may have helpd... alas no! I'm constantly reminded of Christmas Card photo's, stories of your visit and i must ask that you let poor waz get his beauty sleep during such visits(the photo's don't lie), its affecting his workmates (ME!!!) coz i'm tired of waking him up at his desk to hear the crying pleas of...."its Peter's fault, he kept me awake until 2am...let me sleep". Then finally "Click" (i'm sure you remember the 'click' stories).

Keep up the good blog Peter, it was lovely to read about a good friendship between mates!