“You have the best life” was the Twitter reply I received from @swedense
I’d just written a note to say thankyou for all of his/her tweets about the Swedish Royal Wedding, while explaining that I too, was enjoying some Swedish royalty of my own.
I was at an event featuring ABBA fans who had gathered to celebrate the opening of “ABBAWORLD” in Melbourne.
As I mentioned the other day, this weekend is also a bit like a “school reunion” as I recognised about two-thirds of those attending from previous fan events which, for me, go back at least 10-15 years. Others attending have known each other for about thirty years.
Roxy and Trudy
As with a school reunion there was a little nervousness at first as people looked around the room for familiar faces. “People everywhere, a sense of expectation…” After a few drinks, and as the room filled up, people began to be a little more outgoing, especially when the dance floor started in full.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Some people feel nervous, others aren’t good at mixing (and I include myself in that). By and large though, it was a fun night, which I enjoyed immensely. Congratulations to all those who organised it.
The tweet from @swedense also reminded me of that line from from Muriel’s Wedding when Muriel tells Rhonda that when she lived in Porpoise Spit she used to sit in her room all day and listen to ABBA songs, but since moving to Sydney her life had been as good as an ABBA song, it’s as good as “Dancing Queen”.
Reading “The High Rise” blog by Andrew about politeness in public, and I was inspired to write about my experiences as someone now living with disability.
The past year has been a whirlwind of adjustments since my amputation and the subsequent use of a prosthetic. While the physical challenges have been immense, I’ve also encountered a surprising number of social obstacles.
I’ve noticed a different response in people’s behavior towards those with visible disabilities. It’s almost as if having a wheelchair or a crutch automatically grants you a hall pass to politeness. People are far more likely to apologize for bumping into you or taking up too much space. While I appreciate the sentiment, it highlights a broader issue: our society often defaults to treating people with hidden disabilities.
Public transport has been a particularly interesting microcosm. It seems as if everyone is glued to their phones, oblivious to the world around them. This is especially frustrating when trying to secure a disability seat. It’s often necessary to explicitly ask people to stand up, and even then, it’s rare for someone to offer their seat without prompting.
Often I find it’s older people who are more likely than younger people to get up and offer me a seat. As someone with a disability, I always look around to see if someone else needs a seat more, and have sometimes been the only one to offer their seat to someone else.
This disconnection from the physical world extends to pedestrians. People are so engrossed in their devices that they rarely look up, creating potential hazards for those with mobility challenges. I’ve even had someone physically push me out of their way, completely disregarding my presence. It’s a stark reminder that for some, appearances matter more than people.
To avoid these kinds of encounters, I’ve learned to steer clear of certain places and times. Newtown on a Saturday night, for instance, is a recipe for disaster. Alcohol and inattention are a dangerous combination
If I’m going into a busy space, I’ll generally take my crutch/walking stick, even though I don’t need it, just to signal to others I have some mobility requirements.
While these experiences have been frustrating, they’ve also been eye-opening. It’s a harsh reality check about how we interact with each other in public spaces. It’s a call for greater awareness and empathy. We need to start looking up from our screens and really seeing the people around us.
The flash car outside the pizza shop was attracting a lot of attention tonight.
While I was inside waiting for my Chicken Calzone, there was a steady stream of people stopping for a closer look at the Silver Rolls with the personalized number-plate, “Rolln”.
I feel no shame in giving the number plate, by the way, as I figure the combination of flash car and personalized plate means you just want to be noticed.
Meanwhile I was sitting inside wearing my tracky-dacks because it was a tracky-dacks kind of day for me.
After a few drinks last night and an online chat with Sue, I hit the sack and slept most of the morning. Even though I woke and watched a little of The Simpsons, I went back to sleep for a while, eventually waking up just before lunch.
Today, frankly, I didn’t do much at all. “It was time for a rest”, I felt my body telling me.
I had a work-related matter to attend to this afternoon, but that was reasonably straightforward, so for most of the day I’ve been listening to music and watching downloaded television programs.
There were some current seasons episodes of “The Simpsons” – which were okay, not memorable – as well as a new HBO series about a male school teacher going through a mid-life crisis who becomes a male prostitute which is quite good.
The moment of greatest sadness, though, was that suddenly I’m no longer able to download Swedish TV’s nightly news program because they’ve detected my au i.p. address. I did, however, discover SVT Play which offers a variety of Swedish programs for online viewing, a bit like the ABC’s iview.
“You timed that well”, came the message from a colleague late this afternoon. There were several others, too, referencing the news that Lismore has gone back into lockdown. “Yes, I KNEW Lismore was going to head back into lockdown. Too close to the anti-vaxxers”, I replied. Hopefully it will only be for only a week, and Lismore will return to “normal”, along with Sydney next Monday, October 11.
“I know this sounds very ‘hippy'”, I’ve said to a some friends this weekend, “But I think COVID is the earth giving us all a message to do something about climate change, and generally lead a more simple life”. Of the small sample of four (two couples), there was no disagreement. Even though there have been some very negative things about the last eighteen months, at least it’s meant people have slowed down a little. They haven’t been able to spend more time with friends and family, but hopefully these times have allowed people to be more thoughtful about them, and about the simpler things in life. Like picnics!
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in this park, let alone people having a picnic”, I said to a couple of friends yesterday. We’re still not out of lockdown yet, but we are allowed to catch up with friends in public places, like parks. So that’s exactly what half of Sydney seems to have done this weekend.
It was the first time I’ve seen them since June, and the first time I’d seen one of them, since he had been previously living in Canberra. We embarked on a mid-morning walk around Surry Hills and Darlinghurst, taking into the various sites, and discovering new places. My friends moved from Canberra to Sydney earlier this year, and though one had previously lived here, he noted “Sydney has changed dramatically. It’s a much better place than when I lived here in the 80s”, he said.
We spotted this awesome garage on a street in Darlinghurst. In the midst of a fairly ordinary street we spotted this open garage, and at the end of a laneway of about 25 metres, we spotted this rather flash car being worked on.
And that’s when it was time for a picnic lunch. Well, not so much a picnic in the sense of having brought prepared food with us; we popped in and bought some very, very tasty chicken burgers, and found ourselves a spot in a nearby park, next to the Surry Hills police station, along with a couple of hundred others.
“I read the other day some of the native fauna has been really struggling with the lockdown”, one of my friends commented. “There’s just not enough waste food around the place”, he added. It was then a lone white ibis (known in Sydney as bin chickens) came close to us. There were a few lettuce scraps in my cardboard lunchbox container, which the ibis must have smelled even though the box was closed. Using its pointy beak, it was able to reach into the closed box and and pick out the small pieces of food. After a while, we decided to open up the box to allow for greater access.
Sydney’s ubiquitous “white ibis”, otherwise known as “bin chickens” because you’ll often see them circulating around garbage bins.“Don’t you think the mural looks like Lenin? That makes sense for the bread queue”, one of my friends said today about the Bourke Street Bakery.
I hadn’t known before today the hill near Centennial Park is actually called “Mount Steele”.
Those “picnics” and catching up with friends were a lovely way to spend the weekend. And there’s a whole day left, with the Labour Day Holiday tomorrow.
Aside from those activities, I’ve listened to a fair bit of music and watched some television.
Last night I watched a film about the life of Robert Mapplethorpe. Interestingly, I discovered I’ve been mispronouncing his name for at least forty years. It’s “maple” not “mapple” apparently. I also hadn’t realised that he was once in a relationship with Patti Smith, or that his brother was also a photographer. Or that he was a complete arsehole! The film portrays him as as very flawed individual. “Despite his obvious talents, he didn’t have to be so awful to other people, or to be so manipulative of other people”, I thought to myself as I watched the film. The portrayal by Matt Smith (aka Dr Who and Prince Philip in “The Crown”) was, nonetheless very good.
I don’t know if it’s my television viewing habits, or if it’s the summer season, but every time I turn on Channel 9 or Gem, there seems to be an episode of “Embarrassing Illnesses” (or one of the associated spin-off programs). Are they strip programming it at the moment?
I can’t recall exactly the first time I saw one of these programs, but I suspect it was late at night and I suspect I was channel surfing looking for something, anything to watch. Click, click, click, click. And then suddenly, there was a rather cute bloke – Dr Christian Jessen – who had just asked an equally cute bloke to drop his pants. “I think I’d better take a look at your penis”, he would have said, I’m sure.
“Hang on, I might stay around on this channel and watch this for a while”, I’m sure I would have thought to myself, only to discover a few seconds later the attractive bloke had some awful condition of the “private parts”. Something not quite right. Maybe something was a little bent? Something was, maybe, a little too large or a little too small? Or perhaps he’d had some unexpected and unwelcome visitors? :)
And then again a few minutes later, there’s someone under surgery, or someone with some awful skin condition on their bum. It’s not what you would call “polite television”. It’s not something you’d expect Mel and Kochie to host, is it?
But it’s actually quite a good show both in its concept and execution. I love the way they’ve taken lots of taboo subjects and have tried to normalize them, to make it okay to talk about stuff that affects many people, but which we don’t talk about. I think it’s fantastic they’ll address medical conditions which obviously cause people deep shame, and which often results in an avoidance of medical assistance. Sure, there’s a slightly voyeuristic quality about the program, but I think it’s great that they show people with these conditions, and show there’s a potential solution.
Every time you see Dr Christian Jessen with this face, you can be sure someone he is going to ask someone to drop their pants.
I don’t quite understand how English people go on the program. I mean, they have the National Health Service which, eventually, means their condition can be dealt with. But I guess there’s a degree of individual exhibitionism going on in the UK as well as the USA. Programs like Jerry Springer would struggle to work in Australia because of the shame factor, but I guess the UK is large enough to sustain a population of people for whom that wouldn’t be an issue. Personally, I would never go on a program like this, and I would never expose my personal, private illnesses on television, and I would never – intentionally – flash my tackle on national television, even if it meant speedy, safe surgery. But some people are happy to do this, and I guess we should all be grateful for that.
The program, of course, concentrates on physical conditions. It would be interesting to see them deal with mental illness, for example, though the treatment would obviously be far more complex and long-term than chopping off a bit of foreskin (which is not a good idea at the best of times in my humble opinion), I guess.
Yes, a good show. But what’s going on right now? Why is it that every time I turn on some late night television there’s someone with some awful scabby condition on their bum? :)
If you’re planning a visit to Uppsala and you like things to be open, Monday probably isn’t the day you should visit. In the back of my mind, I knew most museums and galleries were probably going to be closed, but I headed off anyway. The train from Stockholm takes about an hour, and costs you a bit extra, not otherwise covered by the travel card. Along the way, I also discovered you can use your Stockholm travel card all the way to Arlanda Airport, but again you need to pay an extra 75k for the privilege, and which still works out to be slightly cheaper than catching the airport bus.
Uppsala, SwedenUppsala, Sweden
On arriving at Uppsala I was pleasantly surprised. Even though there is a rather strange statue which greets you at the train station, Uppsala is a really lovely little city. You can tell the strong influence of the university, with lots of young people wandering around, with the large numbers of bicycles, and with a multicultural feel to the place. You can also feel the strong sense of history, with the many older buildings.
If, like me, you have grown up Catholic, you can usually pick a Catholic church from its architecture, and, as I walked into the Lutheran Cathedral in the centre of town, I knew instantly it was built prior to the reformation. Hey, there is even a modern statue of Mary! In contrast, the nearby Catholic Cathedral is modern and spartan, reflecting changing times. The graveyard too, is worth visiting. Over the course of several hours, I really enjoyed wandering around, enjoying the sunshine, snacking on some fruit I bought from a stall, and taking photographs.
Maria at Uppsala Cathedral
Last night, the sunset was absolutely stunning as you will see from some of the photographs I snapped on my phone. What is it they say about the right camera in the right place.
Stockholm SunsetStockholm Sunset
The only downside to the day was discovering one of my all time favourite bars in Stockholm, Victorias has closed. I have been there on many occasions, with many fond nights of their schlager nights on Monday. Talk about disappointment.
