Easter Buns
It’s that time of the year and I love it. When they appear at the local bakery or coffee shop I can’t resist Hot Cross Buns. I know they’re only supposed to be for Easter, but surely they could be available all year round? :)
Similar Posts
Flood Friday
I made a brief return to the airwaves today, as part of ABC Radio’s coverage of the North Coast floods.
As a Lismore-boy, born and bred, and having lived through my fair share of floods, I have a reasonable knowledge of how the floods “work”, and of the main indicators that you need to keep an eye out for.
For my colleagues in Sydney, I wrote the following briefing notes…
NORTH LISMORE: North Lismore has no flood protection. It’s a low-lying area that floods EVERY time Lismore gets a flood, so an evacuation of North Lismore isn’t that unusual. A couple of thousand people live there. There aren’t many businesses. They’re used to flooding and to evacuations. A bit of trivia, I went to school in North Lismore, and in 1983, HSC year, when the flood reached 8.18 metres, our HSC class still went to school, even though we were surrounded by water.
LISMORE TOWN: The CBD has a levee bank which protects the town area set to 10.65 metres. It’s like a big “Berlin Wall” around the town, and they’re saying it’s very likely the levee will be breached, and the town will be inundated. It’s the main shopping district for the city, even though there are other shopping centres like Lismore Square. If it does, here are some attached images which help illustrate what the figures all mean…
SOUTH LISMORE: South Lismore has a system of flood gates and a levee bank. Mostly South Lismore is fine, except in major floods. This is where most of my family lives. There’s an area at the bottom of Union Street which is likely to flood, based on the current estimates. My granny, mum, sister and others lived in that area for a long-time. The flooding they have is a bit like the flooding they have in North Lismore. Even though there’s an evacuation order underway for South Lismore, I think most people will choose to stay, unless they’re old. There’s a lot of older people who live in South Lismore. It’s an ageing working class suburb, but it’s also a younger low-income suburb too, with some shops including a local supermarket “Cassagrande’s” (Serg Cassagrande’s family has run the business for decades) and a pub “Hogan’s Heroes” (hotelier, Doug Hogan). If South Lismore floods, almost all of the houses should be fine, as they’re almost all on stilts. I’ve got two sisters, as well as cousins etc who live in South LIsmore. I’m pretty sure they’ll be fine, and I doubt if they’ll follow the evacuation order. The last time South Lismore was genuinely flooded was in April 1989 when the river height reached 11.28 metres. That meant about three or four feet of water in everyone’s backyard.
The notes go on, and on, and they seemed to help my colleagues in Sydney make sense of a fairly regular situation that occurs in the area. In some years, for example 1967 and 1974, we have five floods in a row! I hoped these notes would lead to more informed reporting.
Damien emailed me earlier in the day with concern about my family, saying one television station had reported the flood in Lismore was “the worst in decades”.
I replied…
They’re all fine of course. The current prediction is 10.4 metres which will flood some parts of South Lismore. If Nancy was still living down the bottom of Union Street, she’d have water around her place. “The worst flood in decades”? Typical journalistic hyperbole… Based on 10.4 metres… It’s 20cm higher than the flood in June 2005.
2cm lower than February 2001.
88cm lower than April 1989.
38cm lower than May 1987.
2cm lower than March 1987.
And 1.77m lower than March 1974.
So…. “The worst flood in decade”? A more accurate description would be “the worst flood since June 2005”
It was fun going back on the radio. And I hope my local knowledge made a significant contribution to accurate reporting.
Going for a test drive
Today was all about mobility scooters, trying out a couple of models and I think I might have found “the one”!
This conpact foldable model I looked at is seriously cool because it’ll fit in car boots, taxis, and even as airport luggage – talk about freedom!
Being 73kg and 172cm means I don’t need anything massive.
The other scooters I have tried just felt enormous compared to this one, which suits the terrain, and was light enough for me to fold up and transport in and out of my apartment. It took a few tips to learn how it all worked, which buttons to press, and how to lift it up, and put it down, but I’m sure I’ll get there.
As part of the process, I needed to do a short quiz about scooter safety.
The quiz wasn’t too hard, mostly about being considered a pedestrian, staying left on footpaths, and facing traffic if the footpath is unusable.
Did you know the speed limit for scooters in Australia is 10km/h, and the one I’m looking at only does 6km/h, so I’ll never go over the limit, and I promise to be a safe driver.
They even quizzed me on what to do if it broke down or tipped over. Good news – I handled it all!
Many thanks to Sam from Golden Age and Gianluca from Independent Living Services for their help and guidance today.
My Ancestors Raised Pigs
I remember reading somewhere – maybe in a history of the Bega Show – that one of my ancestors was a champion pig breeder.
I have no idea what that means. The closest I’ve come to day to day agriculture is growing up on the outskirts of Lismore, where there were cattle in the paddock behind us. Occasionally, on the way to the saleyards they would break through the fence. My childhood “chore” was to jump over the fence and collect the dung, which I would then mix with water to put on the vegetable garden.
We would also regularly visit the farm of Uncle Barney and Aunty Maisie who lived at Goonengerry, near Mullumbimby.
And so it was with some interest that I went to see the film, “Gunda”. I’d seen the trailer the other week and thought, “yep I want to see that”.
When I told friends at lunch yesterday I was going, and told them a little about the film, they instantly referred to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, and the 1990s classic, “Babe”.
It’s not like that, I told them. “It’s a ninety minute documentary film, shot entirely in black and white, there’s no commentary and there are no humans in the film”, I told them. Doesn’t sound great? But it’s definitely worth seeing.
The film was shot on farms in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. The connection with Norway is an appropriate one, as that country is also the home of “sakte-TV” (slow-TV), which has seen “marathon length” programs of everday life, such as train journeys receive high viewership.
In some ways, the film is a prime example of that. Over about ninety minutes, the film focuses on the everyday lives of a family of pigs. On the surface, not a lot happens. But in other ways, an awful lot happens, as the pigs (for example) transform from being very young (a few hours after birth) to being independent from their mother.
Though the pigs are at the centre of the film, there are side stories of chicken and cattle.
As I watched the film I couldn’t help but watch it with “human eyes”, to portray the events in terms of human emotions. In part, that’s because the film focuses so much on the animals eyes (giving you an insight into their “soul”), and because there’s so much about their experiences (eating, drinking, looking after their babies), in common with our lives. As you watch, you imagine the animals are, at times, happy, sad, and sometimes bored.
The film also sees the world from the perspective of the animals. For example, when a tractor comes into the film, you see the world from the line of sight of the pigs, and in close-up.
The film’s executive producer is Joaquin Phoenix, a well-known vegan, and so you have to think about the film from that perspective.
I really enjoyed the film. But as I watched it, I wondered about how my view might of the day to day lives of the animals might differ from that of my ancestors who were much closer to it all. I’d like to think they looked after the animals they had.
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
Why did I buy that?
“And is it still edible?” was my second thought.
After surveying the can, reading about the origin, the ingredients and so on I concluded it probably was still edible. “Edible yes” I concluded, but maybe not “advisable”.
It reminded me of when I moved from Wagga to Sydney and found some food at the back of the cupboard which I knew I hadn’t bought, and was presumably a left-over from the previous tenant.
In hindsight, the “Chinese mixed vegetables” were probably a “convenience buy”. At the time, I probably THOUGHT it was something that would assist in an easy week-night meal, but obviously never quite got around to using.
You know it’s a Monday night when you start doing the semi-regular process of cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, don’t you?
It’s perhaps one of those things you do when you’re quite busy and need a bit of time out to do something which maybe doesn’t require a lot of brain power. It’s what I call “stuffing envelopes” at work. In the midst of all the creative, strategic, blah blah stuff that you’re paid to do, sometimes you’ve just got to stuff envelopes to keep yourself both grounded and to give your mind some “time out”.
“I’m working quite hard at the moment”, I told a friend on the phone tonight to which he replied, “You ALWAYS work very hard”.
I’m kinda doing two jobs right now, both of them quite busy ones. As I left the office tonight I said to a couple of colleagues, “I think the tax payer got good value for money today”.
But in the midst of it all, there’s time for a bit of socialising. I have Swedish class on Wednesday night, a farewell drinks for a colleague on Thursday who is going to Melbourne to work on the 7pm Project (how GREAT is that!!), and then on Friday night, I’m off to a play.
In between, I’m hoping to see my friend, The Best Judge who is flying out to Sweden on the weekend for Stockholm Pride. Lucky bastard.
As for me? No plans for the weekend, though yet. Maybe more cleaning out of my food cupboards?
Revue Review
Tonight, I attended what’s being billed as the final ever “Wharf Revue”. This annual satirical comedy event has been a Sydney institution for 25 years. The creators, now in their 60s, have clearly poured their hearts and souls into this production. Judging by tonight’s performance, they’re determined to go out with a bang!
The show opened with Jonathan Biggins, one of the creative forces behind the Revue, delivering a masterful impersonation of Paul Keating. Biggins, who previously starred in a play about the former Prime Minister, absolutely nailed Keating’s voice, mannerisms, and attitude. The opening skit cleverly highlighted the importance of the arts in political discourse, with a witty reminder that even the most brilliant cabaret couldn’t have stopped the rise of Hitler.
Much of the Revue focused on Australian politics, with hilarious send-ups of figures like Pauline Hanson, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, and Julia Gillard. One particularly memorable bit skewered Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer, and the Jackie Lambie sketch was hilarious. The show didn’t shy away from international targets either, with a biting satire of the Trump era and the media landscape. A brilliant sequence portrayed Rupert Murdoch as a Mr. Burns-like figure, enlisting a Homer Simpson-esque character to play the role of Peter Dutton.
There were so many laugh-out-loud moments. One line that particularly tickled me was a reference to Senator Larissa Waters: “I thought that was a cattle station in the Northern Territory!”
As soon as I got home, I messaged friends urging them to see it before its final run, and that’s what I’m suggesting people in Sydney should right now. I’m pretty sure it will tour to other centres, as it normally does.
I can’t recall exactly when I first saw the Wharf Revue, but I believe it was with my friend Colin, who is sadly no longer with us. Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen it on and off, though I admit I lost interest for a while. A few years ago, the humor felt a bit too mean-spirited for my liking. While I appreciate sharp political satire, it seemed to cross a line into personal attacks. Thankfully, this final show has rediscovered the right balance, delivering cutting wit without resorting to unnecessary cruelty.
This year’s performance was particularly poignant for me. It’s been almost 18 months since my lower leg amputation, and I’m still recovering. Last year, I saw the Revue at the Seymour Centre, and I vividly remember struggling with the stairs. Navigating those steps without a handrail on the inner side was a real challenge. I had to use the handrail on the far right, slowly make my way down to the front, and then awkwardly shuffle across the stage to find my seat.
Determined to have a more comfortable experience this time, I booked a front-row seat. It was the perfect solution, providing an unobstructed view and easy access. This simple change made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the show.
The final Wharf Revue was a brilliant send-off to a beloved Sydney tradition. It was a night of laughter, reflection, and a reminder of the power of satire to hold a mirror to society.
