“Do you mind if we call in to Myer? A girlfriend told me about some great new mascara and lipstick from Clarins”, my friend asked as we made our way through the city this afternoon.
As I stood and watched, I listened to the conversation between the two women. “It doesn’t run and all you need to do is rinse with warm water…” the assistant told my friend. “What about tears? They’re warm water, aren’t they?”, I interjected. The looks on the faces of both my friend and the shop assistant clearly told me I was out of my depth in this conversation.
It was then I looked down and saw cotton buds, presumably used in the application and or removal of makeup. “I could really clean my ears out with those”, I thought to myself. It was then I realised the difference between men and women.
Over the past six months, friends have joked that as a below-the-right-knee amputee, my shoes and socks would last longer. They’ve also joked I might be able to share shoes and socks with someone who is a below-the-left-knee amputee. While I loved the jokes, it’s clear they hadn’t delved deeply into the logistics.
Despite my below-the-right-knee amputation, my prosthetic right foot still demands its own set of shoes and socks. This was clearly evident after I had a shower today.
Having removed my prosthetic leg as usual, I placed it outside the shower cuble along with the silicon liner and socks, in a bid to keep the socks dry. After the shower, I absentmindedly slipped on the liner without the socks. This small oversight revealed a larger problem – the lock-key (see the left off my prosthetic in the photograph), designed to secure the leg, became jammed shut. I couldn’t unlock it to remove my leg.
Turns out, this predicament is not uncommon, as I discovered through online research. Numerous suggestions abound, including removing the silicon insert by wetting the leg, allowing it to slip off.
Despite attempting this method, success eluded me.
Other online tips advised against tinkering with the locks and recommended consulting a trained prosthetist before doing any “mechnical work”. When you mess around with the leg, you can run into all kinds of problems, particularly with balance.
Acting on this advice, I sought out my prosthetist, Carl, who greeted me with a knowing smile, when I turned up at OAPL, the company which looks after me. Acknowledging the frequency of this issue, he deftly demonstrated a solution – tapping the lock with a hammer while simultaneously pulling up the silicon insert. The leg came off smoothly and efficiently, leaving me now equipped to handle such situations in the future myself. Carl wisely suggested enlisting the help of a friend if assistance is needed. So friends, get ready for that strange call or message when I tell you “my leg won’t come off”.
During the removal process, we made an unexpected discovery – my left sock had wedged itself into the lock, exacerbating the difficulty. In an attempt to keep it dry, I had placed the sock on my prosthetic, inadvertently causing an obstruction. That’s today’s lesson.
As much as I really like Genevieve Lemon, I didn’t enjoy “My Brilliant Divorce”, tonight at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth, which probably puts me in stark contrast to the rest of the audience which really seemed to love it.
The play, a ninety minute monologue, about Angela, who is a middle aged mother of one, who is recently divorced from the man she refers only to as “the roundhead” because, as she says, it wasn’t until after he left her that she realised how some things could really annoy her, such as how round his dead was. In just ninety minutes, we were taken over a three year period in which she goes through periods of anger, a desire for revenge and attempts at finding a new relationship.
Although I’ve been through a similar experience myself – without the child, of course – and although I know people who’ve been there and done that, I never related to Angela at all. Although I thought Lemon played the character for all it was worth, I didn’t think the character itself was interesting enough to sustain a 90 minute monologue. Unlike similar characters, Shirley Valentine and Rita (Educating Rita), for me the character of Angela was too one-dimensional. With the exception of the very end of the play, Angela was always the wise-cracker with a smile – we never saw her go through the gut-wrenching tears of divorce – which didn’t really satisfy me. That said, everyone else around me had a joyous old time.
Ola at Schlager Night at Stockholm Pride 2008. Love the rainbow jacket, not so sure about the perm.
Today I would like to introduce you to my favourite Swedish pop star at the moment, Ola Svensson.
I first discovered his work when he was an entrant in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish finals leading to the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2008. I thought the song, Love in Stereo was “okay”. A few months later I saw him perform live at Stockholm Pride and, again, I thought he was “okay”.
He went from being “okay” to pretty fantastic when, two years later, he entered Melodifestivalen with the song “Unstoppable (The Return Of Natalie)” which was one of my favourite songs that year. It’s so incredibly catchy, and he performed it with such great enthusiasm.
Even now, I sing it from time to time. Heaven knows what my colleagues, or people on public transport make of it when they hear me singing along to lyrics like “Natalie keeps coming back from the dead again. She’s a little bit too much even for my friends. She’s just so unstoppable…”
Ola is now on the verge of international recognition, having released his latest song in the UK, and soon in the US, as well as a number of other European countries. Let’s hope it’s released in Australia also, as it’s a great song. Again, it has a a terrific singalong chorus.
So there you have it: an introduction to Ola Svensson. Enjoy! Smaklig måltid! (and yes I did mean to say that!).
A few days ago I was inspired by a photograph on Instagram.
From what I can see, the photographer, Mark Kriedemann is a journalist at the local commercial radio station here in Lismore.
And when he’s not doing that, he’s a photographer who travels around the area taking lots and lots of photographs.
As an artist, he’s very good. And his photograph of the railway station at night (in black and white) really connected with me. I like the light and shade, the leaves in the foreground, and the familiarity of a place I’ve known all my life.
“Great shot. You’ve inspired me to go for a walk down the street.” I commented.
The old Hensley Brothers railway shed, soon to be home to a boutique brewery.The NORCO FactoryThe servo at 21 Kyogle Street, South Lismore. Though the house has since moved, this is where I spent the first few years of my life.Quiet times at the bottle shop.COVID vaccinations at the Southside PharmacySouth Lismore BakeryThough no longer active as a railway station, the lights are still on.
I was definitely back in “work mode” today, as I attended “Radio Days Europe”. It’s the first ever meeting of commercial and public sector broadcasters in Europe. By a show of hands, it was 30/70 today.
It’s a conference I read about a few months ago, wrote to one of the organisers asking if they accepted registrations from outside Europe, and then after a few more emails was asked if I would like to participate in one of the forums. I’m speaking tomorrow at 12 noon.
Today I got to meet some of the people I’ve been corresponding with online, got to meet a lovely woman who runs local radio in Copenhagen, met some cool guys from Switzerland, and also to chat with a couple of people I’ve met previously.
And along the way, I tweeted and took far too many photographs to share here tonight. I’ll be revealing more to my colleagues back in Australia when I return. In the meantime, this is what I learned along the way through my various tweets.
85% of all uk listening inc mp3 is radio #radiodayseurope
One of today’s early speeches came from Tim Davie, Director Radio (despite his title) for the BBC, who explained there was room for optimism in radio, depsite concerns young people aren’t listening as much as they used to. He explained research showed that 85% of all listening time, which incuded mp3, CD, etc, was actually to radio.
Bbc radio emphasises content partnerships with tv museums #radiodayseurope
Tim Davie spoke about some of the content partnerships the BBC had entered into, including a terrific series about objects in the British Museum.
Uk radio player featuring both com and public radio #radiodayseurope
He also anticipated the common radio player, due to be released in Beta in the European summer, which allows for the BBC and the commercial sector to compete in an online environment.
Radio is no longer medium for new music trends (worry) #radiodayseurope
There was some worrying research, though, that radio was no longer the place where people went for new music.
New swedish radio website integrates player in site. Player is site is player.#radiodayseurope
The next presentation was from a woman involved in the re-design of the website for Swedish radio. She explained how they couldn’t see a reason for separating the website from the audio player, as often occurs with radio websites, so they have integrated the two in the design for their new site.
Love the idea of music hack day at swedish radio #radiodayseurope
One of the many things she spoke about was a day when they invited ordinary developers and hackers to come in to play with their music station websites. I think this sounds like such a great idea, a bit like they do with Google, WordPress and other companies I admire.
Tim Davie from BBC talks about radio at the crossroads
Tim Davie from BBC is interviewed
Some of the psycho-social profiles they did in reworking Swedish radio website
The new look Swedish radio website to be launched later
The UK plans a combined commercial and BBC radio player, as Nick Piggott explains
Lunchtime
Katarine Grafmann talks about the research she has done into Swedish teens
One of the Swedish teens she quoted
Filippo Solibello talks about the radio show he does in Italy
Jacob Loje from Danish radio station P5000
Some of the audience attending Radio Days
Talking about a digital future for radio in Europe
The different digital radio platforms around the world
Can music radio handle Spotify
Central square in Copenhagen ahead of tonight’s reception
Everyone loved the indoors of the town hall in Copenhagen
The reception at the town hall
Something about Mary in the Danish papers today
New uk player based on mp3 and aac to deliver flash#radiodayseurope
And then Nick Piggott spoke about the new common radio player for the web in the UK.
New uk radio player seeks to be google for radio #radiodayseurope
He explained they wanted it to be like google for radio, and that when you went looking for a song or an event, you would – thanks to the metadata – be able to find it straight away. He explained that if you went looking for Janet Jackson (goodness knows why) you should be able to find the radio station that would player her next.
Sat with group of danish local radio managers for lunch. World too small. #radiodayseurope
Over lunch I sat with a group of people doing a similar job to my own. The woman from Copenhagen described her station which sounded not unlike 702 ABC Sydney.
Teens blur the line between production and consumption of media #radiodayseurope
We then heard some further research about how young Swedes, in particular, use radio. The research, done mostly through participant observation, revealed that young people “produce” all of their lives.
Love the concert of creating faceradio as in facebook #radiodayseurope
And the researcher offered that we should be creating a Facebook of radio, not putting ourselves on Facebook. We need something as revolutionary as Facebook to create radio as a space where young people want to be.
Love idea of italian radio show with teen reporters around the world and only indie music. #radiodayseurope
We then heard from a bloke from Italian radio who spoke about the listener involvement of his audience. Even though he is 37 and his co-host 51, they have an active audience or 15-24 year olds who act as “citizen journalists” reporting for the program from around the world.
Danish youth station p5000 operates with three hosts on two hour loop. Lots of club sounds. #radiodayseurope
And from there, it was a speaker who talked about a new Danish radio station that employs just three hosts, one of whom he described as Denmark’s answer to Paris Hilton, but with larger breasts.
Radio needs to be confident and aggressive with government about digital radio standards says bbc bloke #radiodayseurope
The next segment had me really confused, as a group of people spoke about the digital roadmap for Europe. At the moment, in something straight of “Yes Minister”, the panel described the different competing platforms in different countries. The bloke from BBC said they needed to agree on a common standard, a hybrid of DAB and IP (he said the UK has missed the boat on DAB+), and actively promote it domestically. While it would be good to have the EU behind it, he argued, there was more to be gained from having the political debate locally.
Head spinning after digital radio for europe discussion. Lot to be said for island nation continent. #radiodayseurope
Ditto
Digital ghetto speaker says he is going to make people angry with his views. #radiodayseurope
The next speaker from Finland told the organiser just before he started he would challenge a lot of people’s views and make them angry, as he described the lost opportunities with digital radio. He said, they should have pursued the path of CD technology, where Phillips and Sony (on two continents) worked together. Did he make them angry?
He didnt #radiodayseurope
And finally, there was panel of how music radio could compete with Spotify. Unfortunately, there was no one from Spotify on the panel, and no one on the panel actually appeared to be from a country where Spotify operates.
Unlike spotify etc music radio remains human says danish p3 head. #radiodayseurope
And finally, a comment about why music radio remains important when people have ipods.
Mass radio important because people want things to talk about says ken benson #radiodayseurope
Wow. What a day. I enjoyed it immensely.
Great day. Now for a beer. #radiodayseurope
And there was a official reception tonight at the Town Hall which was a very nice vanue.
💅 astute guy!