I nearly died this afternoon, crushed to death by a fallen tree. OK, maybe that’s being a little dramatic, but as you can see from the accompanying photograph, this tree on Crown Street, Surry Hills came awfully close to hitting the bus shelter in which I was seated.
Just seconds earlier, I’d crossed the street exactly where the tree had fallen. Seated in the bus shelter, listening to my mp3 player, drinking a soft drink, and watching the world go by, I watched the tree, which was old and shallow-rooted, come falling down right before my eyes, bringing some power lines with it.
Yes, power lines! But that didn’t stop idiots, like the people in this car, from driving through, cutting a swathe over the fallen tree, right over the top of the fallen power lines: a practice the fire brigade and police very quickly put a stop to.
After calling the police and the City of Sydney Council, and after taking a few photographs, I then headed off to The Rocks to meet up with some mates for a few drinks, with a mighty fine anecdote to tell. I didn’t bother waiting for the bus, though, catching a cab instead.
‘My leg has fallen off,’ I told a colleague yesterday when she asked about my activities in the foyer at work. I was seated “reattaching” my prosthetic leg which had come loose.
The connection between my actual leg and my prosthetic relies on a latex sleeve and a bolt. Somehow, the bolt had come loose. Initially puzzled by the difficulty I had in fitting my leg into the prosthetic, it only became clear after I detached my leg and reattached the bolt. Should I call it minor surgery?
Yesterday marked a significant day in my rehabilitation as I embarked on my first ‘training session’ for participating in this year’s ‘Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras’ with the ABC float. While I’ve marched several times previously, this will be my first year with a prosthetic limb.
Is the distance too daunting? How will I tackle the hills? Is it too soon after the amputation to undertake such a physically demanding endeavor? These concerns surfaced when discussing it with my physiotherapist, who, encouragingly, deemed it a realistic goal with some extra gym work to enhance strength and a couple of trial runs.
Waking up yesterday, I wasn’t confident about our initial test run from Hyde Park to the Captain Cook Hotel. The route spans 1.7 km, featuring hills and uneven sections of roadside and footpath. Doubts crept in, but I decided to stick to the plan we had devised. There’s nothing to lose, I concluded.
To my surprise, I completed the parade route in about 30 minutes, maintaining a pace sufficient to keep up with the group and feeling remarkably un-fatigued. It was only when we returned to Taylor Square to catch the bus home that I started to slow down a bit.
Practice march (and waving) for Mardi Gras.
We have a few more test runs scheduled before Mardi Gras, but at the moment, I’m feeling confident in my ability to meet the challenge. The only lingering concern for the night revolves around the possibility of it being too hot and humid on the night.
The owners of a nearby cafe are clearlv expecting a change in the weather today. Though I’ve lost count of the number of days of rain we’ve had, they were obviously feeling optimistic when they put their furniture out this morning.
Crown Street, Surry Hills
The rain has caused a lot of devastation over the last few days. This tweet by a friend was very upsetting, to see the owners of a house being washed down the river, on the day they were to be married.
Whenever there’s flooding in Sydney, I get worried phone calls from my family. I have to remind them I live in Surry HILLS now, not South Lismore. As much as I’m a proud “Southie” my retirement plans don’t include living there.
One family home viewed from another, during the 2017 flood in Lismore.
Despite the rain, I went into town this morning to do some grocery shopping. Since the closure of our local supermarket, I haven’t quite settled into a new routine about where to shop. I still prefer to shop early in the morning, or later in the evening, as the supermarkets are generally a lot quieter. This morning I travelled by light trail to the Woolworths on George Street.
Light rail on George Street
There weren’t many people on the tram. And without wishing to generalise about people based on their appearance, I’d say many of those on the light rail were people who would ordinarily “sleep rough”. And why wouldn’t they, in this weather?
Light rail trip on George Street.
There’s been a signficant decrease in the visible number of people sleeping rough in Sydney in the last year. One of the positive things about the pandemic has been a response by the authorities to find accommodation for people. Hopefully this will become the “new normal’, and people won’t be thrown out once the pandemic “ends”.
For me, the anniversary passed this week of working from home. There’s still no word of a “return to work” in the short-term at least. There was another case in Sydney this week of someone diagnosed with COVID-19. A security guard at one of the isolation hospitals. And this morning on the radio there was talk of a “third wave” in Europe.
So I had my eye test on the weekend, and today I went looking for frames.
The test, by the way, revealed my left eye is marginally better than my right, and that I definitely need reading glasses, but could also benefit from something for longer-distances.
And so at the recommendation of the optometrist today, I’ve decided to go with a multi-focal. “We don’t call them bifocals anymore”, he joked.
“I’ve been wearing glasses for about twelve months, and it’s so much better not to have to keep putting them on and taking them off”, he told me.
A colleague also mentioned to me today that, although he’s been wearing reading glasses for about twelve months, he hasn’t quite mastered them yet, and struggles knowing when to wear them and when not to wear them.
I figure go with the easy approach and see what happens.
Anyway, I trusted the optometrist because Colin has been going to him for years. I also trust Colin’s judgement when it comes to items like glasses, since he’s also been wearing them for many, many years, and it was great to have him there to provide some feedback.
In keeping with the thinking behind the fiscal stimulus package, I’ve gone with frames by Wayne Cooper, the Australian designer.
I didn’t think a complete frame would suit me, but surprisingly they did.
They’re a really nice shade of blue in colour. They’re conservative, but also a little bit funky. A bit like me, I guess :) :)
As part of the deal, I’ve also got a second pair strictly for reading.
My health insurance has covered most of the cost, which is great.
They’ll arrive later this week or early next week.
The disco ball on the top floor of the former Albury Hotel caught my eye, as I caught a bus along Oxford Street the other day.
Immediately my mind flashed back to the late 1990s when the Albury was (probably) Sydney’s most popular gay bar. Even on weeknights, it seemed like the bar was always full of people. There were people drinking and dancing in the front bar, and in the back bar, there were cabaret performances. In both, there were legendary drag performers.
Across the road, there was the Beauchamp Hotel which was similarly very busy, mostly on the weekends. Because it was across the road from The Albury, the Beauchamp was commonly known as “The Wodonga”.
For Sydney’s gay scene, long before dating apps, and lockdowns, these were very busy times indeed.
But this is not a post about the so-called “glory days”. Every generation has its “golden age”.
No, this is a post about finding your tribe.
Oddly enough, one of my strongest memories of going to the Albury was the night I “discovered” Kylie Minogue. Of course, I “knew” Kylie, but I never quite understood her “gay following”, until I saw EVERYONE singing along to “Better The Devil You Know”. Amusingly, the audience was singing along to the song using the phrase “She’s better than Dani Minogue”.
Though, of course, I have had lots of gay friends throughout my life, that night at The Albury was one of my earliest memories of kinda finding my “gay tribe”.
Disco ball at the former Albury Hotel
Over the years I’ve found great friendships in bars like The Oxford and The Midnight Shift. Hey, I even met my former partner at The Midnight Shift on Mardi Gras night in 1998.
More recently, I’ve tried a couple of groups to meet new people, to expand my friendship circle. I tried “Fruits In Suits” for a couple of years, a business/social group. And then in the last couple of years, I’ve also tried “Sydney Bears”. I kept getting into conversations about real estate at Fruits, and conversations about I don’t know what at Bears.
I’m sure it’s just me. I’m probably a bit “on the spectrum”. I don’t think it’s arrogance, I just don’t think I have the skill or interest in small talk. I don’t make friends easily, though when I do, they tend to be lifelong.
Maybe that’s why, aged 57, I still haven’t found my gay tribe.
“Do you have any advice, any tips for people here in Lismore for when the reporters and camera operators come knocking on doors at the end of February”, I asked Melissa Doyle, the former “Sunrise” co-host who was in Lismore on a tour promoting her new book, “Fifteen Seconds Of Brave”.
I was really interested to know her thoughts (from an ‘insider’s perspective”) on how local people should handle what is inevitably going to involve TV camera “door knocks” when the 12-month anniversary of the catastrophic flood comes around.
In setting up the question, I mentioned how my family had become quite adept at speaking to the media over the last twelve months. I’ve been able to help along the way, I mentioned, but on a couple of occasions, television crews have just turned up, unexpectedly. “Some of them have disappeared pretty quickly once they got their story”, I told her, “but others have taken a more long-term interest in telling the story of what happened here”.
Sophie McNeil is one such reporter. She’s a former ABC reporter, now working for an organisation called “Human Rights Watch”. A few months ago, she saw a few of my flood stories on this site and contacted me, not knowing of our common ABC connection. She was keen to do a story about how “disadvantaged people” had gotten on during the floods.
Her story was published earlier today, focussing on older people and people with disability.
The article concludes :
Australian authorities failed to take effective steps to protect those most at risk from foreseeable harm of the catastrophic flooding in the New South Wales (NSW) town of Lismore in February 2022, Human Rights Watch said today.
Such extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent as a result of climate change.
Human Rights Watch found that NSW and local authorities did not provide adequate flood warnings, evacuation, or rescue support, leaving older people, people with disabilities, and those who were pregnant facing life-threatening circumstances with little government assistance.
The article mentions a few of the people she spoke to, including Pat and Jack
On the evening of February 27, Pat Bobbin, 74, her husband, Jack Bobbin, 82, and their 17-year-old grandson, Sam, were at home in South Lismore. At about 8:30 p.m., a member of emergency services came to their door and told them to evacuate but offered no assistance.
It was already dark and some roads were already cut off by rising flood waters.
Pat had moved her car to higher ground during the day. She has mobility issues and relies on a walking stick to get around: A chap come around, door knocking and said, “Evacuate.” But at that time, if we had evacuated, we wouldn’t have got through on the town side. It was bloody dark. And the town side had water … My grandson was going from front door to the back door, sort of thing, and he’s saying to Pop, “It’s coming up the stairs quick! And I thought, “Oh jeez,” because I’ve got crooked legs. Then the next thing the water was coming through the floorboards. I got a chair and I got up onto the kitchen cupboard. And the water, you could see it coming up, up and up. And then when it got up around the legs, you could feel it creeping up your legs. By the early morning, flood waters inside their elevated house on stilts were quickly rising. Emergency services eventually rescued the Bobbins’ just as the water reached over Pat’s shoulders. She says she and Jack would have drowned if it wasn’t for her grandson who had a mobile phone and did not stop trying to reach emergency services, despite many failed attempts to get through: He was better on the phone than anyone. I only used my mobile for emergencies. My daughter upgraded me, and I hadn’t quite learned how to use it, I just used to only have it to make a call and receive a call. But lucky we had Sam there. We wouldn’t have made it out, I don’t think, if he hadn’t been there.
People in Lismore know these stories far too well. Sometimes, it feels like the rest of the country has lost interest. But because the story has been picked up internationally by Human Rights Watch, I’m hoping it will keep the story alive, and bring it to the international audience. “If Australia can’t do it, what does that mean for the rest of the world in places like Bangladesh”, Sophie said to me in a conversation this week.
When I asked Melissa Doyle the question about keeping the story “alive” I got a little bit teary.
“Hands up who knows someone who has been brave in the last nine months”, the person doing the Q&A with her asked. Of course, EVERYONE in the room raised their hands.
“There was nowhere more special to begin the tour”, Melissa said in the book about eight people she has met in her career who have endured very difficult life experiences and came out the other side.
“The stuff in inspirational calendars doesn’t cut it”, she said, referring to those “keep positive” affirmations you often see.
However, she said the common theme amongst those she interviewed for the book was the need to “maintain perspective”. “They all said it was important for them to recognise what they have, not what they’ve lost”, she said.
“Some people delayed their interviews for the book”, she said, saying some found they couldn’t speak about their experiences.
And that’s why I asked my question about the inevitable reporter doorknocks. Her advice was how important it was to have people in the community to do that role.
And that’s when the Q&A convenor mentioned a family in South Lismore who had been very public about doing that.
Eli, chatting with local vlogger, Scotty Brizzle.
And that’s when the host, herself, got emotional. Eli and his family lived through two floods this year, and then this week, having moved into new rental accommodation, their house caught fire. Yes, seriously. The community is rallying around them, which is so good to see.
Melissa Doyle speaks at Lismore Library about her book.
“If I’m to be totally honest, If I’d been through something traumatic, the last thing I’d want to do is talk to someone on television”, she admitted.
I slept in until about ten o’clock this morning, partly because of the daylight saving change, which always takes my body a few days to adjust to, and partly because I had a late night. Well, not that late—I was in bed by about 12:30 and asleep half an hour later—after I enjoyed a night of Bingay with some of my ABBA fan friends from Sydney.
Bingay, like bingo, involves crossing off numbers on a sheet of paper, but with a twist: the music was all ABBA, and the host was a drag queen. Supported by the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), there were lots of members of the LGBTQIA+ community attending, including five out of the seven in our group.
Charisma BelleCharisma Belle
The event was part of Sydney Fringe, and was held in a pop-up venue at Darling Harbour. Although I’d contacted the festival and they said they would make the event staff aware of my needs as a wheelchair user, the staff last night said they weren’t aware. Nonetheless, they acted quickly to make a space for me and my friends in the front row.
“It’s actually not that bad”, a friend and I agreed about the alcohol-free beers we drank.
Being in the front row meant lots of audience participation, and we even won a few prizes. The prize I won was for a movie preview of the new documentary film, “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.” “This is for you, because you’ve been gorgeous all night,” the drag queen, Charisma told me. Along with partner, Naomi, they put on a terrific show, full of humour and lots of humanity.
“I felt a little teary”, I told my friend who came to my house, and escorted me throughout the night. “It means I CAN get out and about again.
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Wow. You laugh in the face of danger, don’t you? Especially when it’s in vegetable form.
Wow. You laugh in the face of danger, don’t you? Especially when it’s in vegetable form.