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Summer in Sydney
Forresters is definitely one of my favourite pubs in Sydney.
It’s located on Riley Street for a start which is such a lovely, tree-lined street. Thankfully it’s also a street where you don’t find many cars. If you’re on Crown Street and traffic is at a standstill, you can always take a left turn over to Riley Street and get a good run through.
And for many years, the Touch of Class brothel operated across the road. So as you waited for a friend to arrive, you could always pass the time watching men – uncomfortably – making their way in and out of the brothel, hoping to avoid the gaze of those sitting in the pub opposite.
They introduced the first cheap steak in the area, as I recall. The pub, not the brothel. And they have a great comfortable space which is equally good in summer as winter, though I have a preference for summer.
And so when a friend called this afternoon asking if I felt like a beer after work, Forresters seemed like a pretty good choice.
“I’ll just go and ask one of the kids for a lighter”, she said at one point, noting the group of young men sitting next to us. “The kids”, I laughed in recognition.
As we reflected on being amongst the oldest in the pub, we settled down for a couple of hours of chatting, drinking, and eating their rather nice chips.
And we had a terrific table out on the footpath which, aside from the occasional visit by one of the many more colourful folk of Surry Hills, meant we escaped the noise of the pub, and had a great view of the street.
“You’ve gotta take a photo of that”, she said, as we looked up at the lovely sky, the trees, the moon.
You gotta love summer in Sydney.
Jealous Much
Graeme and Grant were at the pub tonight. Grant still seems to be suffering from a bit of post-travel jetlag, occasionally nodding off; while Graeme was speaking at a thousand miles an hour. Oh hang on, that’s no different to normal :)
One of the really nice things Graeme did was bring along some photographs he had printed from Stockholm Pride of my favourite Swedish male pop singer at the moment, Magnus Carlsson.
According to Last FM, I listen to Magnus Carlsson 9% of the time which makes me currently his greatest listener, percentage-wise at the moment. And that doesn’t even take into account listening via my mobile phone! I like his voice, I think he’s a bit cute, and I really like his songs, especially the Swedish language songs which I have been using as a tool to re-inforce my Swedish lessons.
Graeme and Grant spoke with a great deal of passion about their recent trip to the UK and Sweden, and you just know it was probably more enjoyable than perhaps they had expected. Grant is already talking about making a return trip to Sweden in December for a Peter Joback concert. And for me, it was really great to see some of the photographs from Stockholm Pride which I was at just twelve months ago. I also received a big hug sent on behalf of a mate who lives in the UK which was nice also.
As for me, the general plan at the moment is make a return visit in March next year for Melodifestivalen, leading up to the ABBF Day in The Netherlands in April. Though this trip is in the planning/saving stage, with a forthcoming trip with Sue to New Zealand there was a far greater imperative to go and renew my passport today, which runs out next week.
The new photograph? Older, fatter, but somehow a little more sophisticated wearing a suit, tie and glasses instead of the crappy old jumper.
Magnus och Graeme
Magnus Carlsson playing at Patricia, Stockholm during Europride 2008.
Meeting Magnus Carlsson at Golden Times in Stockholm
Magnus Carlsson at ABBA tribute in Sandviken
Magnus Carlsson on stage at Golden Times in Stockholm
Magnus Carlsson
Christmas Music in Sweden
They’ve been playing Christmas music in the shops for a few weeks, and Christmas is still two weeks away!
Here in Australia, there’s a certain cringe factor with the likes of Michael Buble and Mariah Carey with their “Christmas Albums”. However, as I’ve written previously, the Swedes seem to love it, and at this time of the year, the Swedish charts are usually full of a combination of new and older Christmas songs.
This, by the way, is my favourite Swedish pop song for Christmas, performed by the awesome Magnus Carlsson. Awfully catchy, awfully camp, but not awful.
Oh, and if you think it’s all cheesy and schmaltzy, check out these recent Christmas songs from Swedes which put a “twist” on things.
If you take a look at this week’s Topplistan, you’ll see there’s at least thirty-five Christmas songs in the top 100, including Bing Crosby and Andy Williams. They’re pretty easy to find, but if you look for the Swedish word for Christmas, “Jul”, you’ll find the others.
Death in Melbourne
For a while I thought I was actually going to die. For a while I thought my time was up and someone would need to break through the door of my hotel room to recover the body. I was THAT sick.
Sue and I went out for dinner tonight at a rather good Chinese restaurant where we enjoyed half a duck, some vegetables and rice. From there we went looking for a coffee and desert at a nearby cafe. While Sue had the macadamia nut tart, I went for my favourite: tiramasu.
I remember now thinking at the time the cream wasn’t as fresh as it should be. But with what I thought was my cast iron stomach, I soldiered on. We were both back in our respectives beds by eleven o’clock, and I was feeling fine.
Then at about twelve o’clock I began to feel a pain in my lower back. I put it down to the usual aches and pains of being a 44 year old man. An hour later the pain was so intense, and I felt so incredibly uncomfortable, that I went and had a shower, hoping the warm water would help ease what I thought was back pain.
An hour or so later and I had developed a high fever. Looking at myself in the mirror, all of the blood had drained away. By this time I’d also had a few more showers and had drunk a litre of water or so. I’d also placed a towel containing ice cubes on my face to help bring down the fever. I tried to vomit but could only manage a little.
For a moment I wondered if I was having a heart-attack. It was then I began to wonder if I was going to die alone in a hotel room in Melbourne. I’m a little dramatic sometimes. “They’ll find the body and instantly think it’s a drug overdose”, I thought to myself.
In a moment of common sense, I went online, typed in the symptoms, and realised it was actually probably food poisoning. I’ve never had it before. On occasion I’ve said I’ve had food poisoning, but of course everyone knows “food poisoning” is generally code for “drank too much”.
By about four o’clock I was feeling a little better, though not remarkably so. I ended up spending most of Saturday in bed drinking tea and letting my body recover from the bug that had overtaken me.
Tiramasu is no longer my favourite desert, I suspect.
Road Collapse in Sydney
There was a news story the other day about roadside flooding in Ultimo, Sydney. As the location is right next to my workplace, and very near the very fantastic bread shop where I get my lunch most days. I shot this photograph today of the big hole in the ground that still exists caused by the flooding.
Privates On Parade
“Meet the gang cos the boys are here, the boys to entertain you…” Nearly forty years after having first watched “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”, the 1970s BBC sit-com, I can still remember and sing-a-long with the opening theme song.
Having spent most of my formative years just a few feet away from a 26″ Chrysler colour TV, it’s no surprise. Along with “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”, there was a steady regular Friday night television diet courtesy of the ABC which included Dave Allen, The Two Ronnies and “The Trots”. And when I say “The Trots”, I mean trotting. Horses. Yes its true. Every Friday night, ABC TV in NSW (and probably elsewhere) used to regularly feature live coverage of trotting. They might have been done “The Dogs” also, though I don’t have that memory.
Yes it was a different world back then. Although it wasn’t evident to my young eyes, I’m sure if you looked closely at “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum” these days, there would be more than a hint of racism. I don’t think I will. But going to see “Privates On Parade” has re-ignited in me an interest in some of those BBC comedies of my youth.
The subject matter of “Privates On Parade” is similar to “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”: both are based around the activities of a 1940s English Army Entertainment Troop. Although I’m sure the original play was the basis for the television show, the subject matter of the play is much darker, dealing openly with homosexuality (whereas it was only really hinted at in the TV show), and with death.
I thought the production by New Theatre (as part of Mardi Gras) was excellent. It’s a well written play (of course), though perhaps a little dated. so the company had good material to start with. While there could have been a propensity to ham things up a little, I thought the company did an excellent job in playing it straight, and allowing for the depth of the characters to show.
