The taxpayer is sure to get good value from me this week, as I’m working straight across the road from where I’m staying. It’s literally a 60 second commute from my hotel room to my office.
As a result, I stayed in bed a few minutes longer this morning which was needed because I’m “slightly jet-lagged”.
Who would have thought a one-hour time zone difference would actually make a difference. But when you’ve started early in one time zone and finished late in another, it actually does.
It was a reasonably busy day organising coverage around the NZ Quake.
The day finished with dinner with a couple of colleagues here in Brisbane, which was very pleasant.
It’s late Friday night and I’m taking it easy after a busy few days. On Wednesday morning, I flew to Melbourne for the day. Things didn’t really get off to a good start, though, as I arrived at the airport only to discover my return flight had been changed to Wednesday morning and not my departure flight. It’s just as well I arrived early, as it took about half-an-hour to fix up the mess created by that error in the Qantas Flight Centre. The woman on the counter confided to me, “We have a new computer system and no one knows how to use it!”. I said, “I really don’t think you should be telling that to a journalist!”.
I stayed overnight with Sue which was great. She joined me at the pub after work and came out for dinner with some of my work colleagues. We had a great old gossip, a few drinks, and I slept soundly… and for a long time. The following morning I arrived at the airport just as the flight was closing.
Work that day went well. Later in the afternoon, a few workmates and I went for a wander into town and had a look at Federation Square. The project, which began construction in 1996, has cost about $15 million to build. It’s visually quite arresting. With all that metal and glass, it was also very hot wandering around. There are some good visual arts galleries and SBS, as the first tenant, has scored a great location in view of the public.
Last night I went out for dinner with Damien to celebrate my birthday. I will be 37 years old in a matter of hours. Damo suggested the restaurant at the Westin Hotel. The Westin is located in the former GPO Building in Martin Place and has been beautifully fitted out. The food was excellent and we had a really great time together. Curiously enough, each table had a fresh Granny Smith apple placed on it. We’re not sure why. It didn’t look that great, it didn’t even fit in with a particular theme. It was just a Granny Smith apple on a plate. Go figure.
Tomorrow, I’m planning on spending a few hours at the cricket (NSW v TAS), and then Colin has invited me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. On Sunday, I’ve been invited to a BBQ. I also have an assignment to do. A busy weekend… I must get around to tidying the house!
You know how ugly those hoardings on construction works can be? Chip-board. “Do not enter” signs. That kind of thing? The other week I noticed there’s a new approach that’s being taken by the City of Sydney.
I first saw it at the old fruit and vegetable shop on Crown Street, Surry Hills, currently under construction. They’ll probably turn it into a cafe, or a nail salon, or a hair-dresser for pets, as seems to be the fashion for everything in my suburb, these days.
But the one thing they have gotten right, is the decision to decorate the construction site hoarding with some terrific public art. I also noticed there’s a construction site in Chippendale with these hoardings also. Very welcome, in my humble opinion. Enjoy.
I think I developed a slight crush tonight on the American politician, Jim McGreevey, who featured prominently on a documentary on SBS television about American politics and homosexuality.
He was the Governor of New Jersey who resigned after admitting to an extra-marital relationship with a man, thus ending both his political career, as well as his marriage. He’s quite charismatic, and physically, he’s of that clean cut, slightly nerdy look that I quite like.
The focus for the documentary – called “Outrage” – was on “closeted” American politicians.
The main narrative concerned the outing of a number of mostly conservative American politicians whose voting record was at odds with their personal lives. That is, they voted against a whole range of pro-gay legislation, and often spoke openly against gay issues, but in their personal lives were either married to a woman, or remained single, but who still engaged in same-sex sexuality activity.
It wasn’t entirely judgemental, though. There was a degree of sympathy for these men who, for a range of reasons, chose to live lives which may not have been at the essence of their core as an individual. They were of a different time. They had religious beliefs. There again, you have the simple life choices that we all make. There were many reasons offered to explain why they were the way they are, so it wasn’t entirely polemical.
I thought it was a really great documentary. I was amazed by the honesty and the way the documentary featured people who spoke openly about their relationships – including some sexual detail – with politicians. I doubt Australian defamation laws would have coped all that well with a documentary like this one.
I’ve become somewhat fascinated lately about the way in which people apply hand sanitiser. It’s everywhere you go, from the supermarket to the pub. As I’ve observed others, it seems to me there’s two types of user. There’s the get it on, rub your hands about a bit kind of user. A bit like when men go to a public toilet! And there’s the slow, rub it in like it’s hand-moisturiser kind of user. Have I missed anyone?
Personally, I’m not one for applying publicly available hand sanitiser. Even though it’s “sanitiser”, I figure it’s best not to use the same sanitiser bottle that someone else has used. Gross!
As I’ve been to supermarkets and pubs (my two favourite establishments), I’ve noticed people have become less strict about “social distancing”. People seem less-inclined to stand on the spots on the floor.
Things don’t seem to have changed much on Oxford Street. People still don’t want to sit next to you :) The weird thing is you have to sit down and you’re not allowed to dance. I saw a couple of people the other day start to dance, and they were told to sit down. It was like something out of 1950s American Gay Bar, awaiting a police raid!
Last Friday night, a friend and I went out for dinner, and it seemed like the restaurant we went to had the same number of patrons as normal. As we looked around the room and counted, we noticed they had just as many as they were licensed for. It was wonderful to catch up with my friend. She’s been avoiding social contact lately, as she has been living with breast cancer for the last two years. In fact, it was two years to the day since she was first diagnosed. Though we’ve caught up with video conferences, she’s only just begun to get out and about. She joined friends at a restaurant last weekend, and we caught up for an awesome meal (and a couple of bottles of wine), and great conversation.
Awesome dinner at Bar Vincent, Darlinghurst. “It’s so good to have a meal cooked by someone else that didn’t arrive in a plastic container or a cardboard box”, I told our waiter.My local pub also re-opened this week, albeit only the pokie room. The lock-down has meant a re-appraisal of their floor space, as they’ve needed to have greater distance between the machines. They’ll re-open the other bar in a couple of weeks.A sign of the times is that you need to sign in (phyiscally or electronically) to assist with contact tracing. (I thought the government app was supposed to do that – it seems like it’s been a bit of a fizzer)
I’m still enjoying working from home. In fact, in the last few days I’ve come to realise I PREFER working from home. At first, the blurred line between work and home life bothered me. The early advice was that you should stick to your working hours, and have clearly defined limits between the so-called 9-5 hours of work and the rest of your life. In reality, my job has never been like that. I’ve always done a fair bit of unpaid over-time. Over the last few months, however, I’ve been able to manage things much better. I really like to get up early and do a few hours, and then take a mid-morning break for a coffee, and a walk around the neighbourhood. Later in the morning, I’ve returned to work and have sometimes had meetings where I’ve also been able to do some lunch preparation. Before the meeting you put something on the stove, move your computer to the kitchen, and you can keep an eye on things, occasionally stirring the pot (both literally, and sometimes in the meeting too!!).
Over the last few months I’ve continued to take “work free Wednesday”. As mentioned previously, I’ve had some excess leave which I’ve been reducing on a weekly basis. In reality, I’ve continued to do some work meetings on Wednesday, as there hasn’t been much else to do. But now that shops and galleries have re-opened, I’m going to become a little more determined to have my “leave day” as an “actual leave day”, and not allow the two to blur.
I’m most looking forward to taking a few days off in a couple of weeks time to visit my family on the North Coast. There was a a Jet-star offer a couple of weeks ago which allowed me to snap up a $70 return flight, so of course I bought a ticket. In my family we have a fair few older people who I’ll be seeing, and we also have a new pregnancy, so I’ll be wanting to make sure I’m as healthy as possible, so will grab a COVID-19 test to protect them. Though I feel healthy, I participated in last weekend’s #blacklivesmatter rally, so I figure I should get tested to make sure my family will be okay.
Oh, and of course, I could use hand sanitiser, too, shouldn’t I?
One minute you’re embarking on life’s great adventure, having graduated from high school. You’ve made a small group of friends, and you find yourself going in different directions. Sometimes this involves relocation for work. Other times, there’s a more fundamental shift in your lives. But even so, forty years later you’re still in touch (and I think that’s a wonderful thing).
Today, I caught up with a couple of friends who fit into that category (and one partner). Sue and I travelled to Nimbin to visit Paul and Kerry who are dairy farmers, goat farmers, and cheesemakers.
Over a wonderful homemade lunch we talked about a lot of stuff. Sue and Paul cooked. My job was to document our gathering with photographs! :)
Nimbingj – Nimbin Rocks
Even though Paul and Kerry take all the credit, these are the real hard workers of Nimbin Valley Dairy. Paul and Sue
“They’ve been spending a lot of time and money on the Nimbin Road”, a family member, Karran told me a few months ago. Her former partner (and father of her children) is a council worker, and that’s how she knew. “It’s a shame they aren’t spending more time fixing up the potholes around town”, she added.
In addition to all of the well-canvassed problems caused by this year’s floods in the Northern Rivers, there’s the issue of the roads. There are still roads (such as the road to The Channon) that remain severely damaged. Some roads and bridges collapsed, due to the floodwaters or heavy rain.
But as we drove to Nimbin today, we were quite impressed.
Improvements in the road between Lismore and Nimbin.
“I haven’t seen the road look this good in many years”, my friend, Sue, who grew up in Nimbin said today.
There is still some quite damaged road closer to Nimbin itself.
If there’s one good thing to come out of the floods, it will be that some long overdue infrastructure improvements occur.
“Everywhere you go in the Lismore CBD, you can smell fresh paint”, I said to my friends. “They’re also installing fairly similar shop windows and fittings, and so it’s likely to give the main block a more consistent look”, I noted.
There are still lots of empty shops of course.
A very brief video tour of Nimbin.
For a number of years, we’ve been heading to Nimbin, because an old school friend and his partner live there, where they run a dairy and goat farm, making milk and cheese. On occasion, we’ve actually helped with the milk-making, though mostly we spend the time at Nimbin sitting, chatting, making lunch, drinking wine, and enjoying the long friendships we share. (45 years!).
Sue, Paul and James.As my friend was raised at Nimbin, she couldn’t resist purchasing this t-shirt for her brother for Christmas.
