If you’re a regular reader to this blog it won’t surprise you to discover that I went to the pub tonight. It’s a Wednesday night tradition after all. Some weeks I don’t go, but most weeks I do, to catch up with friends for a chat over a few bevvies.
But tonight it managed to surprise two people at least. First, my friend Sue who called expecting me to be at home. And second, a colleague who came into the pub and almost fell over backwards when he saw me. “Are you here for the Cuban Night?”, he asked me, referring to the music that was playing in the pub’s back-room. “Nah, just beer and a chat”, I told him.
As I made my way to the supermarket tonight, I noticed there were about twenty teenage girls camping out at Globen, the big concert/sports arena in Stockholm. Actually, I’d noticed them last night too, but didn’t think too much of it at the time. “That’s odd”, I thought briefly, thinking they must have been queueing for concert tickets. Do people still queue for concert tickets? Or is it all done on-line these days? “What’s on?”, I asked one of them. That’s when I discovered Justin Bieber is playing Globen tomorrow night.
This is only of interest because I’ve spent the last week staying opposite the arena. From my bed-room (on the seventh floor) I have an uninterupted view of the arena. From the main living area, I’ve been able to sit and have dinner and watch the rotation of posters on the electronic billboard reflected in the window. For a while today, I actually sat outside on the balcony enjoying the sunshine. It was that kind of day. Warm weather. Clear skies. What more could you ask for?
Tomorrow night I might have been able to sit on the balcony and listen in as Justin Bieber entertained Stockholm’s teenage girls. I quite like Baby, Baby as a song, by the way. Instead, I’ll be on my way to Turkey. You can expect lots of great photographs and hopefully some interesting stories.
We’ve been talking a lot about travel lately. In particular, he’s interested in knowing more about Sweden, as he is considering travel there next year. “I have thousands of tips”, I’ve told him.
My workmate and friend, Tony retired last night, having spent the last twenty-six years presenting Nightlife on ABC Radio. Along with a group of others, I went in to work late last night with champagne and nibbles as he hung up his microphone. It’s not retirement, it’s not farewell, it’s bon voyage.
“Feel like a beer?” came the text message from my mate Michaela tonight. “Is Clay Aiken gay?”, I replied. `Over a beer we chatted about life, the universe and everything. And then I told her about one of my favourite television shows while visiting Sweden, Allsang pa Skansen, the national community singing program held over summer. I promised her I’d download an episode, though unfortunately I’ve yet to find a complete one through my friends at Mr Pirate Bay. I did, however, find a few individual songs including BWO performing “The Bells of Freedom”. And guess what? I’m in the audience.
You have to squint and use a bit of imagination. But if you look in the audience to the left of Martin Rolinski (singing) towards the inflatable toy, and then down on the right hand side, you'll notice my distinctinctive bald head near the bottom of the screen.
Maybe a close-up will help?
Of course...
Lame, I know, but a treasured memory nonetheless.
The only other thing I did today was spend a couple of hours in nearby Ward Park enjoying the sunshine and solitude until all the people with dogs arrived.
Belvoir Street Theatre has a warning in their publicity for “Radiance” that it may raise issues for people who have experienced sexual assault. “OK, a bit grim”, I thought, but I was still really keen to see the play, as I’d heard so many good things about it over so many years. I also knew there was a movie based on the play, which I’d read was Rachael Perkin’s feature film. But I’d never seen it, so I didn’t know too much about the play. But I really liked the sound of the play, and I was really keen to see the cast: the amazing Leah Purcell, and two actors I’d come to know through the wonderful film, The Sapphires: Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the play concerns three women (half sisters) who come together for their mother’s funeral. One of the daughters had been living and caring for their mother through dementia, having previously worked as a nurse. There’s a couple of really upsetting descriptions of the mother’s experience with dementia, by the way. Another had been living a wonderfully casual life, with no real career, and was pretty fond of spending time with a lot of men. You soon discover, she’s probably the most similar to her mother. The oldest was a world-famous opera singer who had been living overseas for a number of years, and although she had “sent money home” to her family, hadn’t had all that much contact with her sisters.
Leah Purcell in Radiance at Belvoir Street
At the heart of the play is how they confront some of their family secrets and myths with tears and laughter. There were moments in the play when we laughed out loud, side-splitting humour. There’s a scene with a vacuum cleaner which is both hilarious and wonderfully dark. There’s also a moment in the play which had me in tears, almost on the verge of sobbing. There were a couple of occasions when I almost had to get up and leave. How embarrassing would that be? And what a terrible diversion it would have been to the experience of others enjoying the play. That said, a bloke sitting in front of us looked around as if to say “are you okay?”. I pulled it together, though I left the theatre with red eyes.
It’s a wonderful play. I’d highly recommend it, and this production was excellent.
I had studied French in high school, ahead of settling on German. I don’t recall the reasons why, but I ended up studying German to HSC level. For the final two years, our school couldn’t justify enough students for a class and so we studied via the Correspondence School.
My fellow student (and friend to this day) hated the experience (and so did I). To this day, I still remember our Correspondence School teacher’s name and her handwriting. Our papers were always marked (seemingly anonymously) in red. It was such a contrast to the wonderful face to face experience we had with our teacher, Barbara. She was funny and smart. We had also travelled to Germany with her.
Barbara Kearney, Louise Brooks, James O’Brien, Amanda King, heading off to Germany, as featured in Lismore’s newspaper, “The Nothern Star”.Drinking beer in Germany.Germany 1983Belin Wall 1983
I’m not sure what happened and why, but I signed up for a French course on Duolingo a few years ago, and despite the constant lesson reminders, it fell by the wayside.
In the meantime, I’ve been studying Swedish with a wonderful teacher, Marianne, which I’ve blogged about on numerous occasions.
I enjoyed the classes very much, but I have struggled with the timing of the classes which have been in the evenings. Over the last few years, I’ve become much more of a “mornings person”.
I don’t know why, but a few weeks ago I decided to swap from French to Swedish on Duolingo. And I also decided to commit to a whole year of “professional support”, so a commitment of $130 has made me even more determined.
Since then, I’ve been doing a few quick lessons each day in Swedish.
At first, it was really frustrating, as I couldn’t move beyond the very basic Swedish I began to learn several years ago.
A colleague who is on Twitter noted “I think you have to start from scratch. Which is how I got a bit bored with Norwegian. It’d be great if you could speed through the beginner levels.”
The moose is eating an apple. Yeah, not sure I’ll be using that phrase most days!
Since then I’ve been trying to go through the “beginner” levels by doing them as quickly as possible. Going through the basics has been quite good actually. As I noted to a friend on Messenger “For months I couldn’t remember the difference between hon and han. But now I do”. He and she. “These days, who knows what han or hon is. I wonder if Swedish has a pronoun for non-binary,” he asked. My reply was, “Yes, gender-neutral is hen”.
So far, it’s going okay. I think it’s been good to refresh on some of the earlier lessons, with repetition. Hopefully, I’ll keep up with daily classes. Hopefully at times where I can fit them in will fit in much better to the rigour of weekly classes at night.
Red Duck Curry @ Spice I Am, Wentworth Street, Surry Hills
I’m not really normally one for doing tagged memes, but I thought this one from Cellobella was pretty good. I won’t bother tagging anyone, but if you choose to follow that’s fine by me.
Here are the really simple rules. Answer each of the five questions. Tag five bloggers you would like to pass the meme to. Have them link back to you and to this post as the source meme.
1. What food do you consider the best “date” food? In other words, what meal or food item do you think is sexiest to eat in the company of someone you would like to look sexy around?
I think you should avoid anything that’s too hot. Even though hot food is great, there’s nothing worse than a case of hiccoughs (which is my normal reaction to overly hot food), on a hot date (irony intended).
The last time I had hiccoughs from food was dinner with Damo at Spice I Am.
Early in a relationship, I would recommend something with lots of atmosphere to help you overcome those awkward silences. As for the ultimate, well I think weekend brunch is pretty sexy, as it’s informal, chatty, there’s nice food, and it gives you an all-important energy boost to resume the hanky panky.
2. What well-known person would you like to share a meal with—with or without clothing. (saying whether or not clothes are involved is optional).
A few years ago I would have said Keanu Reeves. Oh, you’re talking about sharing a meal. I think a meal with The Two Fat Ladies would be good.
3. What does your perfect breakfast-in-bed look like? (Food AND the details, please. Candles? Music? Flowers? Hot tub? Dancing girls?
I’m not a “breakfast in bed” kinda guy myself. I hate the crumbs. And besides, beds are meant for two things and two things only… sleeping and watching television.
4. What do you consider the best application of whipped cream to be?
Scones and jam.
5. Oh-God-No, Biff, the yacht is sinking! You are sent to the galley to retrieve the food. What luxury food items do you snatch first? The champagne? The caviar? Smoked Salmon? Truffles? Chocolate? Or something else?
