Chapter 24: A New House and a New Gig

Settling into Gresham Terrace

January 10 – 12, 1977

I felt slightly disoriented when I woke up; the room was strangely light. I realized that not only was I in the new house, but we hadn’t bothered to draw the curtains over the French doors before we went to sleep I slid out of bed, wrapped my dressing gown around myself, and went out on the balcony. I could hear the sound of the traffic from King Street, just a few blocks down to the left, and every few minutes another commuter train went past along the tracks on the other side of the buildings behind us. I was pleasantly surprised just how quiet it was inside the house, what with the noise and bustle of the inner city just outside.

I looked towards the small park across the street; there was a small grassy area with a few trees in it. I could hear the sounds of the birds chirping; no doubt looking for their morning meal. It was so calm and peaceful; I was amazed that such an area existed in this part of the city.

I had been standing there for maybe five minutes, when Lori came out to stand behind me. She wrapped her arms around me, and I could feel the warmth of her body through my thin gown.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” she said to me. “I didn’t realize we had that just over the road from us. Maybe we could have a picnic lunch over there one day?”

Megan came out on the balcony with us; she stood next to me, her arms around Lori and me. We stood there together, just taking in the view, until we heard sounds from inside the house. It was time to get to work finishing off unpacking things.

We met in the kitchen, and prepared breakfast as a team. Lori and Mary Beth made a huge pan of scrambled eggs; I started making toast; Megan and Jillian got coffees going. Wendy, Ros and Murph set the table, and between us all we had breakfast ready quickly. As we ate, we started going over the things that still needed to be done.

“We really need to hit the grocery store, not just for food, but other supplies, too,” Lori said. “Toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, cleaning stuff, things like that.”

“How about we make a list, then a few of us go to the big Woolworths down at the Marrickville Metro shopping centre?” Wendy said. “They should have everything we need.”

“I need to finish off some of the lighting in the studio,” Murph said. “I want to have everything done by lunchtime, because the others wanted to come around and see how things sound in there.”

There were a bunch of pictures and photos to be put up on the walls; I volunteered to do that, and Jillian said she would help me with it. After we had finished breakfast, Jillian and I did the dishes, while Ros, Wendy, Lori and Megan made out a list of things they needed to get.

“How should we arrange money for stuff like groceries?” Mary Beth asked.

“What if we all put in, say ten dollars a week,” Megan suggested. “Do we have an empty jar we can keep in the pantry? After a few weeks, we will know just how much we need for the day to day expenses, and modify the amount if required.”

With the morning’s work decided, I gave Lori my car keys to go to the shops with the other three; Mary Beth and Murph went out to the studio, and that left Jillian and me to hang pictures. I went out to the garage, to get some tools; a hammer, spirit level, tape measure, and a bag of picture hooks. We started in the living room; there was the large print of Megan and me from the school concert that Cathy had taken, plus various other photos. In the dining room we had several large framed prints that Ros had brought with her. Ros had left directions on what pictures and prints were to go where; and I deferred to her art knowledge.

There was a big Renoir print; ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’; that was going up over the sideboard. It seemed to be a very suitable picture for the dining room; a bunch of people sitting around a table drinking. She had several other nice framed prints; one by Degas ‘The Ballet Class’ and Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’. I made sure they were properly centred and level; when they were all done, it added a bit of class to the dining room.

There were still more; some rural scenes to go up in the kitchen, various small photos in the stairwells and upper landings, all to give some interest and colour to the place. When we had finished, Jillian asked me if I would help her rearrange the furniture in her room.

“I’m not happy with the arrangement I chose yesterday,” she said. “I’ve got the two dormer windows, and I want the bed placed so I can take advantage of the view.”

She stood in front of one of the windows, and looked out at the view. She had pulled the curtains open on both windows, and from behind the light framed her slender body. I moved close in behind her, put my arms around her, and held her tight against me. I moved my hands up to cup her breasts and she sighed as I caressed her nipples. As she pushed her backside against my prick, I started to get hard.

“Can you be the first person to make love to me in my new bedroom?” she said softly. “Damn, your prick feels so good there, I need you inside me.”

She turned around to face me, pulled me close in to her, and kissed me. Her lips were hot, moist, and her tongue pushed between my lips. I felt her hand on the back of my head, pressing my face hard to hers. I slowly moved us back, until I felt her bed at the back of my legs. I spun us around, and still kissing, laid us down on the bed. Jillian took one of my hands and placed it over a breast.

“You know just what I want,” she panted, as she spread her legs wide underneath me. “Suck my pussy; make me come, then make love to me.”

I stood up, and moved her on the bed, positioning her so her backside was right at the edge, with her legs hanging over the side. I knelt on the floor between her legs, and pushed them wider apart, exposing her lovely wet pussy. I moved in close, and I could see how already her lips were open, her juices flowing, and her large clit was pushed up through her hood. I rubbed two fingers along her slit, pushing her inner lips open and spreading her juices all over her pussy. She shivered as my fingers pressed against her clit, and when I pressed a fingertip to her pee hole, she moaned, and I could see her muscles tense.

“Careful if you are going to touch me there,” she said. “You might get a shower!”

As fun as I thought that might be to see, I didn’t want to get her bed or carpet soaked. I pushed my fingers inside her cunt; and wiggled them up against her g-spot. I moved my face closer and started licking and sucking on her clit. I bit down gently on her engorged clit, and she moaned loudly.

“Oh, God, yeah! Do that again, please!”

I continued to bite gently on her clit, while rubbing the tip of my tongue over the top of her bud. I slid a third finger inside her; she was tight, but so incredibly wet that my fingers easily slid in and out. As I was curling my fingers up to press harder against her g-spot, she groaned loudly, and her body shook as she came. A big flood of her juices gushed out; coating my face and hand liberally.

“Oh wow, that was so good!” she exclaimed. “Now I need you inside me!”

She stood up, and grabbed an old towel that she had underneath the bed. She wiped up some of the wetness from the edge of the bed and between her legs before spreading the towel along the bed, and lying on it. I lay on top of her, supporting my weight on my arms. She reached down to guide my erect prick into her, and wrapped her legs around my thighs.

“Now fuck me good and hard,” she said. “Fill me with your cream.”

“I love it when you talk like that to me,” I said. “It really turns me on.”

“Do you like me saying things like ‘I love your hard cock pounding my cunt’ or ‘I want your hot spunk deep in my hole’? I can try to be really explicit if you want.”

“Go on, that’s good,” I said, as I started pumping in and out.

She continued talking dirty to me; the more explicit her descriptions, the more she became turned on, and in a cycle her descriptions became even more explicit. I encouraged her, by adding comments like ‘you have such a sexy, tight cunt’ and ‘I love it when your juices gush all over my face’. My comments also seemed to turn her on more; particularly when I told her how sexy her pussy looks as her juices really start flowing. I kept pounding hard into her; I held her pressed down on the bed, my hands gripping her shoulders, and pushing down with all my weight. As she got closer to coming, she started squirming, as if she was trying to get out from under me, so I lowered my face to one breast, and started sucking hard. With all her struggling, I bit down on her erect nipple.

“Oh yeah, do that again, harder! Bite my tits, please!”

I bit harder, and Jillian moaned with pleasure. I squeezed her other breast hard, and she cried out, her body shaking.

“Oh yeah! That’s so fucking intense!”

She was jerking her body so much that, I had to release her breasts. I resumed my grip on her shoulders, and continued fucking her hard. I was close to coming myself, and increased my speed. Jillian’s contractions; her cunt squeezing around my prick brought me to the point of coming, and a few thrusts later I was spurting inside her. I could feel the warmth of her juices around my shaft and balls;

I lowered my body so that I was lying flat on her; we were both panting hard. She reached up to stroke my cheek.

“Are you feeling okay? I didn’t wear you out, did I” she asked.

I shook my head.

“That was so wild! I loved it when you bit down on my tits; the sudden pain of that made me come, it was so intense. Do you think that makes me a bit weird, liking it when you hurt me like that?”

“No, I don’t think it’s weird. I don’t like to call anything that a person might enjoy as ‘weird’; that means I’m putting my own opinions and values on what they enjoy. If you like it and it gives you pleasure, then what’s the problem?”

I rolled over to lie next to her on the bed; Jillian went to sit up, but started giggling as soon as she did.

“God, it’s all running out of my cunt!” she exclaimed. “Look, you’re all leaking out of me!”

I looked between her legs, and I could see a big stream of my come leaking out, coating her pussy lips and the inside of her thighs. There was already a large wet patch on the towel.

“Just as well you put that towel down first,” I said. “You know there’s one way we can stop that happening, having my come leaking from you after we make love.”

“What’s that?”

“You could always swallow it...”

“Please. Can we do that next time? I’ll suck you off, and you can come in my mouth.”

“Sounds like a deal. But now I think we should clean up, and move your bed, if you still want it moved.”

We ducked into the small bathroom next to Jillian’s bedroom, and with some wet washcloths cleaned ourselves up; at least we didn’t appear as if we had just been party to a major orgy. We then moved her bed around, so that it faced one of the dormer windows, and checked out the position; when we were lying in bed, we could look right out the window. We straightened up the sheets and bedspread, pushed the rather wet towel under the bed, and headed down to the kitchen.

“I’ll put that towel in the laundry later,” she said softly. “Thanks for the help with moving the bed, and ... thanks for that wild fuck; I have missed not having sex with you.”

Lori and Megan still hadn’t returned from the shops, and the others were still at work in the studio. Jillian and I took the opportunity to have a quick shower together, to remove all traces of our love-making; once we were dry, we took the wet towel from her bedroom down to the laundry.

A few minutes later Lori and Megan returned from shopping; as well as several bags of groceries, they had a number of large boxes with supplies in them.

“We found this great place for bulk shopping,” Lori said. “Down past the Metro Shopping Centre, on the other side of the railway line, is this big warehouse, called ‘Grocery Suppliers Wholesale’. Anyone can buy stuff from them; you just have to pay an annual membership fee of twenty dollars, and you have to buy a minimum of a hundred dollars of stuff at a time. We will still need to go to the regular stores for fresh food; meat, veggies, milk, bread and all that, but for everything else, we can save heaps buying there in bulk.”

Just then, the others arrived; having finished their work in the studio. Paul, Phil, Andrew and Brian arrived, with Paul’s girlfriend Sally, and Phil’s (current) girlfriend, Robyn. After Lori explained how the wholesale warehouse worked, everyone agreed it was a good way to buy stuff we needed. Sally and Robyn talked about their household joining in with ours, to take advantage of the discounts.

We started putting the groceries away; fortunately there was enough space in the pantry for all of the goodies Lori and Megan had bought. There were cans of soup by the box; a huge supply of paper towels and toilet paper, a giant sized box of steel wool, enough dishwashing detergent to last for a year, the same with bars of hand soap and laundry detergent.

“If we get a large freezer, we can also get meat in bulk,” Wendy said. “There’s room in the laundry for one, particularly if we get rid of that old junky fridge that we brought with us.”

With all of the groceries packed away, it was time to think about lunch, before we checked out the new studio for the afternoon’s rehearsal. Someone suggested soup – we certainly had plenty to go around – and we made a big pot of tomato soup, along with toast to go with it. There wasn’t room for all fourteen of us at one table, so we spread ourselves between the dining room and the kitchen.

Once we had finished lunch, it was off to see how Murph and the others had set up the new studio. He led the way, up the stairs from the garage, and pushed back the edge of the curtain separating the studio area from the study. The space was impressive; as well as the heavy curtain dividing the two areas, the same material had been hung around each of the walls, no doubt to soften the brickwork, and prevent the sound from echoing around the room.

“There’s fibreglass insulation batts on the walls, too,” Murph said, pulling back one of the curtains. “Not only will that keep things cooler in here, but it’s good for absorbing the sound.”

There were several large posters on the walls, too, each lit by a small sconce from above. Some were posters of our performances; Megan and me in Canberra, mine with Salamon at the Bondi Lifesaver; there was one of the new ones publicising the Crystal Ballroom. Somehow two old publicity posters for the old Sydney Stadium had been found; one was for ‘Col Joye and the Joye Boys’, the other for the Beatles.

“Let me show you the lighting controls,” he said. “The switch at the top of the stairs has two actual switches; one turns on the overhead lights in the study area, the other does the lights here. But there are also controls here on the panel; we can turn them down, or turn the main fluros off and turn on UV tubes. There are also dimmers for the sconces on each of the posters.”

He demonstrated the house lights; with the main lights off, and the UV ones on, the posters seemed to glow. He then bought up the stage lights, and we saw the backdrop that Ros must have created for us. It showed an outline of a cityscape; various buildings of differing heights, almost cartoonish in appearance. Off to one side was a representation of the Bridge and the Opera House, so it was obviously Sydney.

All of our equipment was set up on the stage; we inspected how things had been arranged. There were no power cords or microphone leads snaking across the floor, everything was neatly organized, and plugged into power outlets or audio sockets. The stage floor still needed to be stained, but it looked really smart.

“This is a scaled-down version of how the stage at Crystal is being set up,” Murph said. “All of the leads organized, so there’s little chance of anyone tripping over things. All of the mike leads are routed through a larger cable that runs along the side wall to the console desk. Let’s hear how things sound.”

We took our places up on the stage; I sat at the Rhodes, and pulled the microphone around so it was next to my mouth. I switched on the amp, adjusted the levels, looked out to where Murph and Mary Beth were sitting, and nodded. I started to play the opening chords of ‘Unforgettable’; the others quickly picked up the song. Megan and I sang it in our usual alternating duet style; I was impressed with just how well the foldback sounded. I could look out into the room; I could see Ros, Wendy, Sally and Robyn sitting there on the old lounges; it was more like an intimate night club than the upper level of a garage. They had all done a great job setting things up; the lighting was fantastic, the sound was spot on; everything about the rehearsal room was perfect.

We continued rehearsing; everyone agreed that the new studio space was pretty much ideal. We also discussed when we should give the potential new band members a tryout; Paul suggested Wednesday afternoon; which worked in well. Tomorrow morning I had my subject selection and enrolment at University; I was taking Mary Beth across with me as she would be doing much the same, but in the Commerce Department. Tomorrow afternoon we were scheduled to visit Crystal, and check on the progress there.

“I’m thinking, that unless these two are fairly hopeless, we offer them a one month tryout; starting when we open at Crystal. That gives us time to see if they fit in, not just musically, but if we can get along with them; and also they can see if they like playing with us,” Phil said.

We all agreed; that seemed the best way to go. Somehow I was volunteered to be the person to tell them what the arrangements would be; Megan and Bruce would contact each of them to get them in to audition and rehearse with us on Wednesday. We continued on with the rehearsal session; working through the various sets that we planned for Crystal. We felt they were now in pretty good shape, so by late afternoon, we called it a day. Phil and the others went back to their place, and we started work on dinner.

Over dinner we discussed how we should manage all the household tasks. We didn’t want to become too regimented and set up rosters of who should do what every day. In the end we decided that each person (or couple) would be responsible for their bedroom, and jointly responsible for the hallways, stairs and bathroom on their floor. We found the small blackboard that we had up next to the back door in our old place, and Lori suggested that we use that to make a note of who would be in or not each evening.

We felt that we were all responsible and mature enough to make sure we all pulled our weight with the housework and cooking, without the need for formal rosters. We decided to keep the ‘naked at night’ rule; at least when other people weren’t around, although Jillian asked what about during the day, did the rule also apply.

“The phrase ‘naked at night’ was used because it sounded good,” Lori said. “But what we really meant by it was that the house is a self-contained nudist colony; and at all times, we are naked. Assuming there are no other people around that wouldn’t be comfortable with that.”

“So why are we sitting here fully dressed?” she asked.

She was right; we all quickly went up to our rooms, and returned, naked. We spent the rest of the evening just chilling out; Megan and I practiced some songs in the studio; Lori was in the study editing my latest chapter for our next book, the others sat around in the studio listening to us, chatting, just relaxing. I made a mental note that we probably should get some small side tables for the old sofas in the audience area of the studio. Around ten; Lori felt she had just about done all she could do for the evening, so the three of us retired to our bed.

After breakfast, Mary Beth and I drove over to the University; she would be talking to course advisors in the Commerce Department, working out what credits she would get for her two years at UNE, what subjects she needed to do for her degree and finalizing her part-time timetable. We parked behind the Mechanical Engineering building; that would convenient to both the Electrical Engineering and Commerce buildings. We walked across to the main walkway, and I pointed out the building she would need, just up the road a bit; I told her I would be finished in an hour or two, and we could meet in the Green Room, opposite the Central Lecture Block.

In the room where the computer science enrolment was taking place, I saw Professor Allen, and walked over to talk with him. He congratulated me on my results from last year, and asked how Lori went in the yacht race. He was disappointed when I told him that they had to withdraw. He had been promoted; he was now Head of the School of Electrical Engineering; as well as Professor of Computer Science.

He told me that the course advisor for second year students would be Doctor Baker; I noticed him sitting at a desk on the other side of the room, so I excused myself to see him.

“Will, great to see you back again; you did pretty well last year,” he said. “Now, let’s look at the subjects for second year; it’s pretty full on with a stack of Maths and Physics subjects, it’s going to be pretty solid going. You’ve now moved closer in, haven’t you?”

I told him we had moved places just on the weekend, but I was still at Erskineville. He told me that would be far better than living up where I was at Mona Vale, the travel time would really wear me out.

“Second year is the one that really sorts people out,” he continued. “I think of the hundred and twenty that started Elec Eng this time last year, maybe ninety will be back this year. Some have some subjects to repeat, others have changed degrees, but a lot just dropped out; they really weren’t suited to University study. But I expect another thirty or thirty five won’t be back for third year; so be prepared to work your tail off. Okay, let’s look at the subject list and timetable.”

He wasn’t wrong, there was almost thirty hours of scheduled classes; either lectures, tutorials or lab sessions. I had a total of twelve subjects across the year, three Physics, three Maths and six Electrical Engineering. Plus two general studies subjects; I decided to pick ‘Political Conflict in Australia’ and ‘Civil War to Civil Rights’. The first looked like a rather interesting summary of political issues and developments since the beginning of European colonization; the second a study of key events in US history since the mid nineteenth century.

I filled out my timetable sheet, while he completed the subject enrolment forms; these would go to administration so I was formally entered into the class lists for each subject. He gave me the list of textbooks for each subject, and gave me a bit of background on each class.

“The guy who teaches the Linear Algebra, Doctor Nousair; he’s a pretty terrible lecturer; the others are all pretty reasonable, at least from my recollection,” he said.

I thanked him for all his help, and left the table so the next person could do their enrolment. I saw David and Claire; spoke briefly to them before they went to enrol. I wondered just who in our group were among the twenty-five percent that dropped out? I guess I would find out when classes started in early March.

With my folder filled with all the class details, I walked up the hill to the courtyard in front of the CLB, and found a place to wait for Mary Beth. As I was waiting, I read through the various class summaries. Physics looked to be challenging; Maxwell’s Equations, quantum mechanics, the laws of thermodynamics, relativity. The three maths subjects looked just as much ‘fun’; vector spaces, Laplace transforms, inner products, partial differentiation, Cauchy’s theorem (whoever he was!), Green’s and Stokes’ theorems, Bessel functions. By the time I had finished reading my head was swimming. No wonder Paul Baker told me this was the toughest year in the course.

The various Electrical Engineering subjects all looked interesting though; there were two computer science subjects; one on more advanced programming techniques, the other on digital systems and computer hardware. The remaining subjects were on electronic circuit theory, electrical power systems, solid state devices, and electrical engineering materials. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too much chemistry in that final one.

I had been waiting for maybe thirty minutes before Mary Beth arrived; she had a large bundle of papers in her arms. She sat down on the floor next to me, putting the papers next to us in a big pile.

“I didn’t think there would be so much information to get!” she exclaimed. “Can I bother you to put these in your backpack for me? I really should have bought a briefcase or something like that with me.”

“We can put them in here; I’m sure you’ll want to get all of the stuff organized when we get home,” I said. “You might as well get used to having a ton of paper handed out to you, I’m sure hundreds of acres of pulpwood have been sacrificed to the University for course notes, handouts and other reading material.”

She organized her papers, and I put them in my backpack.

“Now, do you want a quick tour of the campus? We could grab an early lunch if you want.”

“That would be good; we don’t have to be home until just before 1 p.m., so yeah. It seems really big; there are buildings everywhere. I’m sure I’ll get lost trying to find my classes.”

We stood up, and we started our grand tour. I pointed out the Central Lecture Block, and where the Arts faculty was, and then it was up some steps to the Library lawn.

“During Orientation Week, library staff usually runs tours of the library. It’s worth doing one of those; the library is huge and only going to get bigger when they open all the extensions right behind it. Lunchtimes, the lawn is the place to hang out; there are often speakers or entertainment. I guess if you are going to be here part-time, you won’t be here when that’s happening.”

We continued past the Chancellery, and the John Clancy Auditorium. I pointed out the Science Theatre block, and the main Science building. Then it was down the hill, past the various Engineering buildings, the Old Main Building, Chemistry and Applied Science. Finally we reached the Union area, and I pointed out the Roundhouse, Blockhouse and Squarehouse. We went up to the bar on the upper level of the Squarehouse to see if they were doing lunch. We were a bit early for the food, so we got some beers, and sat out on the deck in the sun.

“How long did it take you to know where everything is?” she asked.

“Well, for the places where I have classes, only a few days. There are still some places that I don’t know where they are, or some buildings that I have no idea what goes on in there. I mean, the only buildings that I had classes in last year were the Science building, Electrical Engineering, the old Main building, and Chemistry.

“You’ll be much the same, there’s probably only a handful of buildings that you really need to know; it won’t take long to find where they are. It might be different for staff offices, but they normally will tell you the building, the floor number and room. It’s not as if there aren’t any signs up around the place.”

“I guess you’re right. It’s just that it’s so much bigger than UNE; not that I’ll be on campus during the daytime, so I don’t know how busy it will be in the evenings. It’s all a bit intimidating for me at the moment.”

We finished our beers as we talked about what life was like at the various Universities; we talked about experiences with lecturers; good and bad, stupid assignment questions, and all the ‘fun’ of assignments and deadlines. By the time we had finished our drinks, they had just started grilling the sausages for lunch. We got a sausage sandwich each, and another beer. The day was getting warm, I was almost tempted to undo my shirt and lean back; but we really needed to get home, so we wouldn’t be late getting to the Crystal Ballroom.

We finished our lunch, and continued exploring the campus as we made our way back to the car; this time walking up past a cluster of old ‘temporary’ buildings, dating back from the first days of the Kensington campus. Then it was past some of the colleges, up the Basser stairs and out through the gate near the Arts building to High Street. Once we were back at home, we picked up some of the others – Murph, Ros and Wendy were already over there – and headed to Crystal.

There had been lots of progress in the past few weeks; Paddy and his sons had the new stage catwalks installed; and were using a block and tackle to get the lighting fixtures up and installed. Most of the work in the main part of the building was finished; there was just some minor touch-ups and trim work required. Bruce and Andrew had installed the console desk on the stage, and Glenn and Garry were installing the equipment rack for the sound and lighting controls. Murph was lying on the stage floor feeding audio cables underneath the timber platform.

“Hey, Will, can you give me a hand with this?” he asked.