Saturday
Did nothing.
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Spiritual Saturday
It’s Saturday night and I’ve just woken up from a little nap. I’m on holiday for the next two weeks and so I think it’s only right that I should have the occasional nap, especially as it’s been almost two years since I’ve had a proper holiday. There’s been the occasional day here and there, but the last real holiday I had was in the weeks leading up to going to Perth last year.
Today was a really terrific day. After bumming around at home for a while, I met Sue for lunch atBodhi, the vegetarian (vegan?) restaurant near St Mary’s Cathedral. Sue hasn’t eaten meat for manyyears and, during our time living together, I didn’t eat meat either (aside from the occasional binge).
I became a vegetarian again at the end of last year in an effort to clear my body and my mind. Mostly I’ve been pretty successful in sticking to the diet, though I sometimes have a bit of a craving, especially for something like steak or duck. I also don’t make a big deal of it, if those around me are eating meat, but mostly I don’t eat meat any more and I feel pretty good about it. And anyway, the food at Bodhi is great, especially with today’s addition of a salt and pepper tofu.
After lunch, Sue and I wandered off to the National Maritime Museum for a special dedication as part of Refugee Week. The museum was re-launching its restored Vietnamese refugee boat Tu Do (Freedom) with the family who made an epic 6000 km sea voyage on it in 1977 attending as special guests.
Tu Do, 19 metres long, was in the first wave of refugee boats to arrive in Australia after Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) fell to the communist forces of North Vietnam in April 1975. Tan Thanh Lu, a young businessman on the island of Phu Quoc, built Tu Do in the style of a local fishing vessel for his family’s escape. With his pregnant wife, Tuyet, their three young children and 34 other passengers, he set out secretly from Phu Quoc under cover of darkness on the evening of 16 September 1977. Having outpaced pirates and survived a wild storm in the Timor Sea, Tu Do reached the safety of Darwin Harbour 13 weeks later. Tan Lu had navigated his way to a new homeland with the aid of a simple compass and a map torn from the lid of a school desk. The Lu family gained refugee status.
Tan Thanh Lu died last year while revisiting Vietnam for the first time. Clearly moved as she spoke, his daughter talked about the importance of the day and with great honour about her father and the difficult choice he would have had to make almost thirty years ago. Both Sue and I were very moved by the whole ceremony and were really glad that we attended, especially as the family went on board the boat again and threw petals overboard.
On the way back towards the car park, we wandered through Hyde Park where the annual Food & Wine Fair was being held with funds raised to support the Aids Trust of Australia. As we wandered through the park we noticed everyone wearing the red ribbons. It’s remarkable when you think it must be 15 or 20 years now since the red ribbons first appeared. I reflected briefly on all of the ribbons that are around these days and concluded it was only the red ribbons for AIDS and the pink ribbons for breast cancer that have really made much traction.
We also spent a little while watching a big Italian wedding at St Mary’s Cathedral. And when I say big wedding I mean big, with four bridesmaids and groomsmen. Looking around at those attending you could clearly see they were two big Italian families and the wedding was probably of the grandchildren of Italian immigrants. Maybe they were here before WW2, maybe they came after, it was hard to tell. But you just kinda had the feeling they (the grandparents) came to Australia with nothing 50 or 60 years ago and here they were all those years later, enjoying the fruits of their labour with a big wedding.
And that’s when it synched together. All of these things were about meaning. The Vietnamese boat, the AIDS ribbons, the Italian wedding. They were all about people finding meaning in their lives which, in an increasingly materialistic society, was an optimistic sign for the future. I’m not writing about this in some kind of preachy way, but I suppose as a really interesting awakening to parts of Australian culture which aren’t necessarilly celebrated as much as they perhaps should be. And it all happened so naturally walking around Sydney.
On the other side of things, it also occured to me today I know quite a few people overseas at the moment, probably for the first time in my life. I received an email from Michael today who observed “BTW, everyone in NYC is just like (NAME BLANKED OUT) – they premise everything with “You know what..” and from Wendy in China who wrote… “And I thought China was my retirement job, travel, food and fun. I hadn’t counted on the Chinese work ethic. Well its not really the Chinese work ethic, they seem to go very slowly, its more what they expect of the highly paid expats.”
On the verge of my fortieth birthday, it’s an interesting moment for a young working class boy from country NSW to reflect back on his roots and to observe and give thanks for the amazing life he now leads.
Tisdag
It’s not often you hear the name “Nanne Grönvall” mentioned anywhere outside of Sweden. She’s a well-known singer-songwriter there, and she just happens to be the daughter-in-law of Benny from ABBA. But aside from a few attempts at Eurovision, she is really only well-known in Sweden and usually sings in Swedish.
Earlier this year while I was in Sweden I saw her perform, and was lucky enough to meet her and obtain a signed CD which I’ve had on my notice-board ever since I’ve been back. Most people who come into my office would have no idea who she was. But someone today did.
He was a bloke from Melbourne who was into discuss a potential project. As the meeting ended with the usual pleasantries he then said – and you could have knocked me over with a feather – “I love your signed Nanne Grönvall CD”.
“I’m a huge fan of Melodifestivalen”, he told me when I asked how he knew Nanne. We then went on to chat about this year’s competition, and I then told him I’d attended and was able to show him some photographs. How random is that?
A few hours later I was on a bus and I heard a few more words you hardly ever hear in Australia: grönsaker and kyckling (the Swedish words for vegetables and chicken). There was a bloke seated behind me who was obviously chatting to someone about their shopping requirements for dinner that evening.
So it’s been a day of random Swedish moments. I’m sure it’s a sign… (of something).
I was on the bus, by the way, to see my friend who has been in hospital for a few weeks. He’s not 100%, but considerably better than he was a few weeks ago.
Feeling A Bit Off
I’m feeling a bit crook tonight. I’m tired, my muscles ache, and I’m just feeling not 100%.
It was a busy day at work, with barely a moment to scratch myself, in the midst of some very worthwhile meetings.
And I mean that seriously. When it comes to meetings I’m a firm believer in having an agenda, a clear allocation of time, and a summation at the end involving an action plan. I loathe meetings which are organised through Outlook (half-hour, an hour, two hours) without any clear sense of purpose. The phrase “we should catch up to talk about” implies for me someone who doesn’t have enough things in their diary, whereas I’m quite busy all of the time.
In the midst of it all, I had some fun, as I was asked to appear on the ABC Hobart Afternoon Show to talk about the influence of Scandinavian pop music.
Apparently if you search for such words using Google, you find me… I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Anyway, here’s the spot I did on ABC Hobart with Libbi Gorr…
My central thesis was there are many musical traditions, there’s a good reason why “voting blocks” occur in Eurovision (“cultural similarties” is my argument), and that Swedish pop influence goes back a long way, even before ABBA, and relates to their open-ness as a people. The only thing I forgot to mention was more recent additions to Scandinavian pop culture, including Robyn.
I Wish
This came via email today. Sounds like a hoot.
Kate with an L
“Shouldn’t that be a B?”, I thought to myself when I saw the Kate Lush poster at the Lewisham Hotel.
It was another exceptionally quite night at the pub. Aside from our group there was just a handful of others. Seriously? How do they make any money?
The barman told us they have a big weekend coming up with a sold out event.
But seriously you have to wonder how any pub could make money with so few customers.
We had fun, of course, as we talked about our lives, the week we’ve had, and so on.
In other news, I’ve registered a really good domain for an idea I’ve had for a while now but have done nothing about. I also picked up the same gmail address which is good.
I’m not going to talk about it now, in case someone else thinks it’s a good idea. There was a similar project earlier in the decade, which fizzled out.
But it’s something I think there’s room for, something I would enjoy doing, and perhaps something which will open up a few doors to the future.