They need more fat and salt! “Do these chips taste like anything?”, I asked my friends at the pub tonight. The general consensus was the brand of chips I got out of the vending machine had almost completely no taste at whatsoever. “They need some more fat and salt” was the general consesus to explain their lack of flavour.
I mean, you don’t eat chips for their nutritional value, do you? They might be low fat and low salt and healthy, but what’s the point of chips if they don’t taste like chips? Twisties are great, of course, but they do sit a little oddly with beer, you must admit.
So it was our usual Wednesday night at the pub sitting around telling silly stories, remembering funny anecdotes, and flirting with the bar staff who, apparently refer to us – lovingly – as “The Mothers Club”.
On a Wednesday night, however, we’re the only regulars at the pub.
And when it came time for badge draw, we realised pretty quickly we had about a one-in-six chance of winning. Graeme is now $100 richer, which I’m sure will go towards his travel plans for later this year.
After catching up with a mate last night at my “local” pub, I caught the bus to Darlinghurst for what I thought might have been the return of Harbour City Bears. The regular Friday night gathering doesn’t appear to have returned yet. Instead, there was a mixed crowd of people, and boy was it packed. After gaining entry I looked around, and quickly decided there were too many people for my liking, and so I left immediately.
I then went for a walk around the Oxford Street area to investigate further. The queue outside Universal was maybe fifty metres long.
And the queues I saw last night didn’t appear to be “fake queues” either. By that, I mean queues “manufactured” to make a bar look busy, and therefore interesting, when in reality there were very few people inside. No, the bars and clubs looked pretty busy.
The laws change on Monday, and it looks like pretty much “all restrictions” will be dropped.
There were very people walking around last night wearing face-masks. “COVID? What COVID?” seems to be the attitude.
A few months ago the NSW Premier quite emphatically said cases would “skyrocket” (or something like that) when restrictions were dropped.
PS: Five minutes after posting, I received an email to confirm Harbour City Bears returns to Kinselas next Friday night, November 12. I can’t make it, as I will be away.
First, a disclaimer. “Now Hear This” is a project I am directly involved in, so this is probably not an objective review. That said, I really enjoyed going to the “Now Hear This” story-telling night at Sydney’s Art House Hotel.
“Now Hear This” is a project which originated at 666 ABC Canberra. Inspired by the popularity of story-telling nights in other parts of the world, Melanie Tait and the team at 666 ABC Canberra launched their own story-telling nights. In essence, people get up on stage and tell, hopefully, compelling stories from their own lives. They don’t have to be funny or serious, they can be either, they can be both. It was pretty successful when it ran in Canberra.
Now living in Sydney, Melanie was keen to do something similar here, and perhaps draw upon the larger gene pool of story-tellers. And so that’s what happened tonight.
There were eight stories told tonight in front a live audience. Actually, nine if you count the special guest story-teller, Richard Glover. Although the idea of competitive story-telling is somewhat odd, tonight’s story-telling night was in the form of a “slam” where three groups were asked to judge the best story of the night.
There were two stories tonight that were absolutely fantastic. The first, which gave me goose bumps, was told by a woman who had a relationship, became pregnant, and then had a termination. Her partner, who was the survivor of child sexual assault, had made a decision not to have children, left he repeat the sins of the past. The second concerned a woman who grew up in a Spanish speaking family, but who never learned how to speak Spanish well enough to converse with her dying grandfather. Her conclusion? If you come from a family where there’s “another language”, it’s important to learn it. Both stories were compelling and well told.
The Spanish story will get a run tomorrow morning on 702 ABC Sydney, so remember to listen in. Many of the stories will also get a run over summer on ABC Local Radio and Radio National.
If you’re in Sydney and able to pop along, these story-telling nights are held on the last Wednesday of each month in the Attic Bar of the Art House Hotel.
I have a story I might tell at some point.
In the meantime, everyone was asked to complete the sentence that was the theme of the night. The opening line was “My desire…” which I completed with the phrase “…sometimes overwhelms me”.
When you go to the theatre on a Friday night, at the end of a busy week, you can sometimes struggle to keep your eyes from closing and your mind wandering. You’re tired, the play isn’t maybe all that interesting, and there’s something about the environment of a theatre which can make you a little sleepy.
I certainly didn’t feel that way when I went to see “Explicit Material” at The Ensemble Theatre in Sydney last night. Au contraire, I was on the edge of my seat, actively involved, and never once found my mind wandering.
The central character for the play is an ageing, and not very successful artist, played beautifully by William Zappa. He’s a Brett Whitely wannabe whose only real claim to fame was a series of works in the 60s called “My Big Cock”. Even then, it was the controversy surrounding the exhibition’s subject matter, more than the quality of the work which gained him some notoriety.
The play explores the ideas surrounding the notions of progressive art (is there anything more that can be done), and in the separation between the artist and their art (Roman Polanski and Donald Friend are two artists cited who made great art, but who also engaged in under-age sex). Can you separate the artist from their art? And do we “forgive” individuals for their crimes because they’re artists? The play really makes you think.
But there’s also wonderful emotion and humour in the play, as the artist traverses and explores the complicated, difficult relationship he has with his daughter and grand-daughter.
I thought it was one of the best plays I’ve seen in the last few years. The script by Geoffrey Atherdon – Mother & Son, Grass Roots – is tight, pacy, and complex. The performances by the actors, especially William Zappa, are amazing.
Our day in Hangzhou, one of China’s renowned tea capitals, began after breakfast with a special visit to a Tea House at Meijiawu Tea Village. This village, nestled in the hinterland of West Lake Park, is a prime location for Longjing Tea production. I was particularly looking forward to this, as it was a place my friend, Sue, and I had visited on our 2014 tour, and I had wonderful memories of wandering freely through the fields.
However, the weather had other plans. The rain continued, making the terraced fields too slippery and treacherous for me to navigate this time. The risk of falling over was just too great. I had a moment of real sadness, to be honest—a sharp pang of disappointment at this new limitation, a stark contrast to the freedom I’d had before my lower-limb amputation.
But while the fields were off-limits, the experience was not. We gathered in the Tea House, where we were immersed in the local tea culture. We learned how the famous Longjing Tea is picked and prepared, and were served some beautiful green tea. I learned more about the nuances of tea in that single session than I had in my entire life.
This led to a truly remarkable discovery. I had woken with unusually high blood sugar levels (13.3), a common but worrying occurrence for those of us with diabetes. I was taking things slowly, but I was concerned.
After drinking several cups of the green tea during the demonstration, I tested my levels again out of curiosity. They had gone down quite significantly. It wasn’t just me; another woman on the trip who also monitors her blood sugar reported the same effect. I resolved then and there to make green tea a bigger part of my life back home in Australia, perhaps in preference to coffee.
After that, we went for a short boat ride on West Lake. This is no ordinary lake; it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, so famous for its beauty that it’s featured on the one-yuan banknote. For centuries, its serene landscape has inspired countless poets and artists, becoming a symbol of the idealised fusion of nature and human creation.
Some of our tour group from Australia & New Zealand, on West Lake.
While these kinds of cruises can sometimes be a bit predictable, this experience was a delightful exception. I made a point of being the first person to board, which allowed me to find a perfect little spot for myself outside. A number of others from the tour group joined me there, and it was a beautiful spot to watch the scenery unfold.
From our vantage point on the water, you could truly appreciate the landscape that has been so celebrated in Chinese art. We glided serenely across the water, past the famous Su and Bai Causeways, which are lined with an elegant arrangement of willow and peach trees. We saw charming, pagoda-topped islands, the most iconic being the three small stone pagodas of ‘Three Pools Mirroring the Moon’ that rise from the water. In the distance, the silhouette of the Leifeng Pagoda on the shore completed the picturesque scene.
Having that great spot made all the difference, turning a simple boat ride into a genuinely beautiful and memorable part of the day.
From there, we headed towards Shanghai, with an optional activity: the chance to watch “ERA: The Intersection of Time,” a Chinese acrobatic show. It was, however, about a 60-minute drive from the centre of Shanghai, which we discovered was a fairly recurrent situation on this tour. Staying in accommodation a fair distance from the main tourist hubs, I guess, is a key part of what makes such a trip so affordable. In preparation for the next day, I chose to stay at the hotel and rest up.
Since I’ve been working from home, preparing meals has become a much more important part of my life. When I was full-time from the office, I’d mostly pick up some takeaway for lunch. But since I’ve been at home, I’m much more inclined to make something, from a simple salad (my favourite is a simple calad of tomato, cheese and cucumber) to something more complex.
My favourite fast lunch
I made a terrific Thai Chicken Curry last week, and in previous years I would have eaten the meal and then frozen the rest. My freezer used to be full of frozen meals. Frozen, but then hardly-ever unfrozen! And so since working from home, I’ve been more inclined to just keep eating the meals until they were finished. I think I set a personal record the other week with that curry – I had it for lunch, dinner, lunch, dinner, and then lunch the next day.
The other thing I’ve done recently is go back to basics wirth bedding.
The first time I had one they were called “continental quilts”. I don’t remember exactly when it was, thoughI suspect it wasn’t until about 1987. Photographs from my day at university, and living in Tarragindi reveal I was still using blankets. It wasn’t until I moved into the house at Taringa that I had a continental quilt, later called a doona.
As part of “growing up”, I think I thought it was time to walk away from blankets, as a thing of “childhood”, and to embrace something a little more”grown up”. And they’ve been with me for the rest of my life.
The one thing I could never do was put on the cover “properly”. It was always a bit of a drama, and once the task was completed, they never really looked “tidy”. Thus, the “organisation” of my childhood gave way to an “unmade bed” look of adulthood.
I was thinking about this the other day when I saw some statistics – I don’t remember where I saw them – about the low percentage of people who make their beds every day. I’m not one of them.
Co-oincidentally, as winter returns, I’ve been thinking of going back to blankets. I’ve been thinking about the environmentalism of the doona. Even though they can appear to be very “natural”, I’ve been wondering about the likely synthetic nature of most doonas. Yes, I use that word now.
The other day I decided it was time to buy a couple of old-style blankets for my bed. I have a couple of lovely “throws” which I use. But I thought maybe a couple of old-style blankets would be something I could use in preference.
And you know what? They’re terrific. They feel warm, they feel good. All I need is for my mum to come into the room to tuck the blankets with an almost-suffocating tightness. Love it!
And in conversations, too, it’s time for back to basics!
I was thinking the other day about the adrenalin rush some people find from having an argument. I was watching a very weird discussion on Facebook about how someone I know who had seen an older man (he was described as being in his 60s) ask a young woman (she was described as being in her 20s) to pick up her newspapers on a crowded train so he could sit down.
By the account of my friend, it was a tense discussion. “Not without a facemask”, she said, to his reply, “I have one, but I don’t need one”. He put the mask on, and that was the end of it. None of the people were there went into overdrive on the Facebook post saying things like “She must have felt threatened”, “He must have been menacing”, and it was about “Women’s right to consent”.
I was a bit surprised about the backlash to the older man, because my response was “If it was me and an older man had asked me to pick up the newspapers, or more than that I would have stood up and offered him my seat. I see this quite a bit on Sydney buses and trains, where younger people will stare are their phones and “pretend” not to see older people. I’ve become the person who says to them, “Get up, there’s an older person who needs a seat, just like the signs say”…
“Now there’s a song I haven’t heard for quite some time”, I thought to myself when I heard it on the radio.
It’s odd because when “Flotation” by “The Grid” was released back in about 1990 (as I recall), I was quite a fan.
It was one of those songs that I played for months and months, and was even known to dance to on occasion, but haven’t thought about it much since.
Until I turned on my radio just a short while ago.
A few months ago I bought a digital radio, you might recall. Unfortunately, I connected it with the wrong power cord just before leaving for Sweden and blew it up.
I’ve been surviving since with traditional radio, online streaming, and the audio channels on Foxtel.
I haven’t quite gotten around to buying a replacement yet.
But this weekend I brought my digital radio home from work so I can listen to ABC ANZAC Day, a project I’ve been working on, a 24-hour digital/online channel featuring new programs, live crosses and archival material, which goes out on Sunday.
As I tuned around the dial I was pleasantly surprised by a few new channels which have sprung up, in addition to all of the other new music channels which were launched last year.
SBS has two new music channels, PopAsia and Chill, which is where I heard Flotation.
There’s a station called “The Crack” which, when I tuned in, was playing the recent version of “We Are The World”.
There’s “Zoo Smooth Rock” which plays “Sydney’s biggest variety of smooth rock”.
There’s a channel called “Choose The Hits” which was playing some of the young person’s music, the hippity hop.
Oh yeah, and there’s “Radio GaGa” which only plays songs by Lady GaGa.
Few of them are my preferred listening, but it’s great there are a lot more stations to choose from.
I’m on the hunt for a “proper” digital radio to replace my cheapie I bought a while back. I’ve seen a few with wifi attached, which is where I want to go I think.
Because as wonderful as it is having all these channels, I’ve also been listening to this week most nights to some P4 Stockholm. It’d be great to have it all integrated into one device, I think.
Nooo! I love Grain Waves. They’re an NZ snack and have only just become available here. They’re more like a cracker than a chip to me. Try them again, eh? :)
Graeme reports that the $100 was successfully utilised over the bar at the Lewisham Hotel on Wednesday & Friday nights. I am sure the pub could not be happier!
I left there ten years ago and had hankered after them ever since. Try the sour-cream-and-chives flavour, with or without a good Malborough Sauv blanc.
Nooo! I love Grain Waves. They’re an NZ snack and have only just become available here. They’re more like a cracker than a chip to me. Try them again, eh? :)
From NZ? Really? I know loads of Kiwis – my ex was born thee – but no one has mentioned them before. Should I try them with a sav blanc? :)
Graeme reports that the $100 was successfully utilised over the bar at the Lewisham Hotel on Wednesday & Friday nights. I am sure the pub could not be happier!
I left there ten years ago and had hankered after them ever since. Try the sour-cream-and-chives flavour, with or without a good Malborough Sauv blanc.
Graeme – so you think the philosophy of the pub comes from the bible.. Luke 6:38 >> “Give, and it will be given to you”. :)
MH – Oh so they’re not beer chips. They’re wine chips. Aha, I’ll give them another go with some woine instead.