Tired and Crook
Although I made it as far as the pub for a meal and a beer (with Grant), I’ve skipped Swedish class tonight.
I’m REALLY tired. I’m a bit sneezy. And generally I’m feeling a bit crook.
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Cockatoo Island – #thewalkdownunder
When the alarm clock went off at half-past-five I thought briefly of turning over and going back to bed. I’m not really one for getting out of bed early on a Saturday. Eight-thirty, nine-o’clock is generally okay, but five-thirty is not within my frame of reference.
But when I checked the weather and it was fine, and when I realised I had enough time for breakfast, I figured I would go ahead with it and take part in #thewalkdownunder, a photographic walk that took place across Australia today. Although it was the work of some individual volunteers, Google assisted with sponsorship for things like t-shirts, hats, breakfast and transportation.
“Are you a photographer?” I was asked by a woman I have had some real life work dealings with over the last few years. She was from the events company which was organising the event in Sydney. “No, I’m just a geek”, I told her. And it was true. I’d estimate most of those taking part were amateur photographers, complete with big cameras, big lenses, and big tripods. In contrast, I decided to attend with only my camera phone. As a camera phone, it’s pretty good, and anyway, I susbscribe to the view the best camera is the one you have with you.
For me, I was more interested in the social media aspect of this than the photography aspect. That said, I really enjoyed wandering around Cockatoo Island for a couple of hours taking photographs. Overall, a lovely day.
But now it’s time to go back to bed for a couple of hours missed sleep.
Kevin Rose from Google has posted this terrific video on Youtube which captures the day far better than I have.
Here’s my pics
Why I have no interest in the new Smart Watches
The other day I was chatting with a colleague who is much younger than me, and the issue of the new generation of watches came up. I told them I hadn’t worn a watch in about twenty years, and I couldn’t imagine a scenario where I’d want to buy one of the new ones.
I had a terrible history of losing watches. I’m one of those people who comes in the door at night, takes off my clothes on the way to my bathroom, and drops my keys, glasses, phone and wallet, somewhere on the way. I used to do this my watch also, and that’s why I would often lose them at locations like behind the couch, on top of the fridge etc.
I’ve also never really been one for purchasing jewellery. I’ve never worn a ring, for example. To me, watches are a little like jewellery.
Having worked in radio for a long-time I’ve developed a fairly good sense of time. When you spend hours and hours “timing out to the news” and recording items of a specific length (for example, most promos/ads on the radio are thirty seconds in duration), you develop a fairly good sense of time. I know it’s a generalisation, but when we have meetings at work, the people from the radio invariably turn up exactly on time (sometimes to the minute and second) whereas those in other parts of the workplace are often a little bit late. In my own personal life, it’s also meant that I’ve developed a good sense of what the time is (based on daylight), and how long something might go for.
But most of all, the reason I don’t wear a watch is because of the “bulk eraser”. The bulk eraser was a device that was commonly used to erase the material on magnetic tape. Put simply, you took your magnetic tape (cassette, open-reel, cartridge) and placed it on top of the piece of equipment that “erased” the contents. You had to do it fairly thoroughly or else you could end up with remnant pieces of audio.
You also had to be sure to remove your analogue watch, as that could be rendered unworkable. Many times, I (and others) would walk away, having left their watch on a nearby shelf. After a while, I decided the option of removing my watch was far too problematic, so I would often just hold the hand with a watch on it away at a “safe distance”. Eventually, I stopped wearing a watch.
Like chinagraph pencils and cutting blocks, the “bulk eraser” is a thing of the past in most radio stations. When I had the idea of writing this blog post I wandered up and down the corridors of the ABC in Ultimo to see if a “bulk eraser” might have been found in one of the sealed boxes of “old equipment” on display. In the end, I couldn’t find one, so I put an appeal to some of my interstate colleagues. With many thanks to colleagues in Melbourne and Newcastle, I can now share with my younger colleague (and you) what a “bulk eraser” once looked like.
Walkley Awards
It’s as hot as hell. Although the weather bureau says it’s only about twenty degrees, I can assure you it’s much warmer, or at least it’s far more humid. We’ve had bushfires, we’ve had high levels of humidity. It’s hideous and I hate it. It’s Thursday night/Friday morning and I have just arrived home.
I have been to the Walkley Awards. I was in quite good company. Although I was tempted to take Kerry O’Brien’s name-tag and pretend it was all an honest mistake, I eventually decided not to.
Nonethless, as Sydney traffic was incredibly busy tonight, I had to catch a cab across town and walk the rest of the way. By the time I arrived I was a little warm. Thank goodness there was a lot of fluid available to the stress my body hat been put under.
I had an SMS from Damien after the awards ceremony was finished mentioning that he saw me on the television coverage. I messaged back, asking “did I look thin?”. He messaged back with the right answer.
Chat chat chat. Drink drink drink. A great fun night. Got home at a reasonable hour and I kept myself nice. Actually, a tip for the future… I set myself an “alarm” on my phone which rang me at 12 and told me “time to go home, loser!”. Which I did.
This was my second drink fest for the week, having also attended the Book Publicists Christmas Drinks which, this year, featured some gorgeous red drinks. It was held at the Arthouse Hotel.
Anyhoo…..
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thank God It’s Friday
The graffiti on the wall of the men’s toilets at Ching-a-ling’s is way cool.
I don’t recall the graffiti from the last time we visited one of Sydney’s new “cool, small bars” which was maybe six months ago.
That time, we entered from the back door on Little Oxford Street which, oddly enough was the main entrance then.
But due to resident’s noise complaints which temporarily forced its closure, this time we entered from Oxford Street.
The night started off quietly enough with just a friend and I catching up for a post-work debrief. I had a reasonably important meeting, and she was keen to buy me a drink as a post-meeting de-stress.
After a couple of glasses of wine, two other friends who were in the area texted me, and they joined us at Bentley Bar for a drink or two.
Just as we had all decided it was time to get home and to “keep ourselves nice”, we decided one final glass of something was necessary, and that it was the duty of my first friend and I to introduce our other friends to Ching-a-ling’s.
Once again, we were the oldest people there. Well, aside from one really old bloke (read: five years older than me). I suspect there were probably one or two there born in the 1990s (gulp), though I think most were in the 25-30 year old age group.
Interestingly, though, none of us had hangups about being “the old people” in the bar. After a while in life you gain a certain confidence that you might not otherwise have expected to develop. And so we sat and chatted, and entertained I’m sure, a group of people around us.
The bar was packed.
And best of all? We all got home and kept ourselves nice.
22nd Biennale of Sydney
“No problems .. it runs till 9 .. might be the last gathering we go to for a while?” my friend Kate said to me in a text, when I told her I might not make it to Cockatoo Island for last night’s event held there for the Biennale of Sydney.
After a week at work dealt mostly planning and action around COVID-19 (aka Coronovirus), I was feeling a little tired. In the end, when I got home, and was still dealing with some emails, I decided I didn’t have the energy or the headspace.
And besides, I’d already been out to two other events: Wednesday night at Artspace, and Thursday night at the National Art School. These are my favourite works from those events.
Artspace
National Art School
A beautiful work by Tony Albert greets you, as you enter the NAS. 
Tony Albert leaving the NAS
Is it catchy via blogs? Maybe I gave it to you? Is your ear blocked? I’m going back to work today with the aid of many over the counter medications. Get well soon – big hugs!
Actually, might be time for you to have a blood test – full blood count. Ongoing tiredness can be the first sign of many things including Type 2 diabetes. If you haven’t had a full blood count done in the last year, you really should go to the doctor and get it done.