I shared a silent, stunned look with the man standing next to me earlier today. We didn’t need to speak to know we’d both just witnessed the same sight: a man on roller skates, dressed in nothing but a rainbow flag. Naturally, as he passed, a rogue gust of wind whipped the flag up, revealing much more than I’d bargained for.
Following a week of lacklustre weather, Stockholm finally turned it on with brilliant blue skies. It was prime weather for shorts—or, in his case, for wearing absolutely nothing. I didn’t manage to capture the skating exhibitionist on camera, but here are some of my favourite highlights from today’s Stockholm Pride parade.
I read every single word in “The Australian” today. I read newspapers for a living, of course, although my style of reading is mostly utilitarian. But today I read the paper for pleasure. I enjoyed the article about the American presidential election. I thought the letters to the editor were quite interesting. I loved the story about the death of Hugh Massingberd, the former obituaries writer for London’s “Daily Telegraph”. In a wonderful anecdote, the article describes how he convinced the reluctant former editor that it was sometimes relevant to report the cause of death, something which the paper hardly ever did. The very next day, “The Australian” article states, “someone had died of a penile impact which had imploded”. Ordinarily I would have just skimmed the first paragraph of the story, but today, and this week generally I’ve been able to read newspapers at a more leisurely pace, thanks to the much quieter work environment.
While others flee Sydney in the week between Christmas and New Year I like to remain behind. Sydney becomes a “ghost town”, and as such, you find a change in human behaviour. People are talking to each other in the street, people are polite on buses, and some of the usual evidence of “road rage” and “supermarket rage” has disappeared. At work, there is a wonderful spirit of co-operation, evidenced by the daily cafe run at 7.45am to the nearby Cafe Nine, due to the summer shutdown of our work canteen. I love it.
I’ve even found time to get on top of some of the paperwork that I was behind on. And I’ve been starting early and coming home early. Unlike tens of thousands, however, I haven’t gone to the beach. Instead, I’ve come home most days and have enjoyed a quiet refreshing late afternoon nap. The only things which have bothered this idyllic existence have been the occasional work-related phone call.
And now I’m on holiday for a few days. Aside from lunch tomorrow with a friend, I don’t really have anything planned before returning to work next Thursday. I don’t know, for example, what I’m going to do on NYE, though I would imagine it will involve some sort of “festival of beer”. I’d like to spend some more time surfing the interweb though, as part of my travel planning for later next year. And of course, I’ll write my Year in Review post, which I’ve done annually since 2002.
That’s about it though. What about you? Got anything excited planned?
“So that’s what you do for a living?”, a family member commented yesterday. Aside from presenting radio programs, she finally understood my role as an editorial manager. Well, kinda.
I have a job title that is often misunderstood, “Manager, Planning for Regional and Local”. I regularly get recommendations on LinkedIn for a whole range of jobs, often around infrastructure. When my job title was previously, “Manager, Network Planning”, I would often get recommendations around IT. I manage a “radio station network, not an IT network” I would often tell people, assuming I was the person who might purchase computer routers.
My job has a wide brief, from actually making radio, to workforce and technology planning. And I also have a “brief” around planning for major events. These events range from those you don’t expect, such as changes of Prime Minister to those you do expect, such as ANZAC Day. New Year’s Eve, Australian Of The Year and… the inevitable death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The “dirty little secret” of almost every media organisation in the world is the planning that’s been occurring behind the scenes, which includes everything from pre-prepared obituaries and even rehearsals.
It’s something you don’t want to talk about publicly, as it can seem a little ghoulish, but it’s something you need to do. And when you’re talking about someone who has led such a public life for such a long-time, there’s no shortage of material. You also want to get the “tone” right. You don’t want to be “fawning”, as the coverage could be inclined, but you also don’t want to be unduly disrespectful.
We did a few “rehearsals”, and I recall there was one where the presenters sounded a little too “excited”. While there was an expectation the story would be about a death of an aged woman after a period of illness, there was also the possibility of a much more “public” death. #diana There were also rehearsals around how the coverage might differ due to COVID lockdowns.
I don’t remember exactly who gave this to me, but this has sat on my desk at work (and more recently at home), as a reminder of one of my many jobs. By the way, that’s not a drawn-on moustache, merely a bit of a scratch, due to time and ageing. Note the sticky tape, holding it together!!
And even in the midst of republican feeling, an idea the monarchy is a dated concept, there’s the reality she is the Queen of Australia with an official role.
So after all those years of planning, it happened quite suddenly on a Thursday night/Friday morning.
After the official statement of “serious concerns” for the health of the Queen, I went to sleep with BBC Radio playing on my laptop. I was waiting for the words “grave concerns” to know of the inevitability of it all. When the BBC TV presenters donned “black clothing” (as per their known plan) I knew something was up. Perhaps unconsciously (or maybe the sound of the radio entered my consciousness) I woke up about 10 minutes before the “official announcement”.
The next 12 hours were a hive of activity, as aspects of the plan were enacted.
A couple of former colleagues who were previously involved in the planning texted me on Friday morning wishing me all the best. I also received some lovely messages from colleagues and friends who knew about my involvement. “I’m tired, exhausted and having a beer, but your message gave me a much-needed smile”, I told one colleague who messaged me on Friday afternoon. I mentioned it was a “team effort”, and I was equally amazed at the work of colleagues both on air, and behind the scenes. In particular, the efforts of a colleague who had to book flights and accommodation for our team heading to London to cover the events over the next few weeks.
This is something I was particularly happy with. Conscious that pre-recorded “obituaries” can be problematic – the need for constant updates – I commissioned Jacob Round to go through the archives to tell the story of her life through her own words, and radio and TV broadcasts throughout time. It’s a wonderful collection. https://www.abc.net.au/sydney/collection/the-queen-in-her-own-words/101422600
Later in the day, after a nap, I was able to reflect on a couple of Queen-related intersections in my life.
In 2000. the Queen visited Bourke, NSW. Presenting “Statewide Drive” for ABC Radio at the time, I travelled to Bourke and did a live broadcast from the local community station, 2WEB. I had previously lived and worked there. And the show’s awesome producer, Jen Courtney was actually from Bourke. We stayed at the Outback Hotel, owned by Jen’s parents. For this special broadcast, we asked singer-songwriter, Merri-May Gill (who grew up outside Bourke) to pen a song about the Queen’s visit.
And in Lismore, itself, there are lots of Queen-related memories.
In 1954, the Queen visited Lismore and thousands turned out. She stayed overnight at the Gollan Hotel. According to mum and dad, she was spotted having a beer on the balcony. Days later, Lismore experienced the worst flood on record, and mum said everyone blamed her for it.
Years later, the Gollan still stands, though severely damaged in this year’s flood.
Until recently, the Gollan remained proud of its connection, with photographs on the wall, now presumably washed away. I snapped these shots a couple of years ago.
Hotel Gollan, LismoreHotel Gollan, LismoreHotel Gollan, Lismore
In another connection, a friend born and raised in Lismore, but now living in Sydney, told me this story.
My uncle was not the publican when the Queen was there in 1954. He was the following publican and hence the Queen’s stuff was still in the hotel when he took over. Hence I still have the pillows.
Fountain in Spink’s Park, LismoreFountain in Spink’s Park, Lismore
Yvette and I caught up for lunch at a nearby Chinese and shared life-stories. It seems like both of us are in a reasonably good place at the moment.
And then tonight, Damien and I caught up for dinner. Initially, we had a small bite to eat at Agave, the new Mexican place I mentioned the other week, and then at Yulli’s my favourite small bar in Surry Hills.
It’s great, isn’t it, to have one of those really great days when you get to catch up with people you’ve known so well for so long?
Oh, and I bought a couple of tickets for the forthcoming performance of Forbidden Broadway in Sydney.
There was a time, I remember reading, when the supermarket chain Aldi would never advertise. Aside from shop openings, and their weekly “specials” the company has had a “no frills” approach to advertising the other supermarket chains could possibly learn from.
Tonight, there’s a lone bloke standing outside the Surry Hills Mall with a sandwich board advertising the opening of a new Aldi store on the corner of Bourke Street and Danks Street.
That brings to “three”, the number of new supermarkets in the area since I moved here seventeen years ago. For a long long time it was the rather average Coles. And then Woolworths opened near St Margarets a few years ago. And now, closer to the Moore Park housing complex (or Moore Park Housing Commission as some people call it), there’s another Woolworths and now an Aldi. It’s been fascinating to see such growth.
“A lot of people in the homes we’ve visited just stand and stare into space”, one of the volunteers working on the flood recovery in Lismore told me today.
I had just apologised to her for finding it difficult to respond to a very simple request. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but to illustrate, I found it difficult yesterday to put on rubber gloves. I struggled for a couple of minutes to find the thumb hole.
Today, I’ve seen two other family members go through this also. My job today quickly became one of assigning them simple tasks which didn’t require much thought. “I need you to wash these plates”, I said to one family member. “I need you to sweep this floor”, I said to another.
It’s the one part of cleaning up that I didn’t consider. I was expecting tears, as we moved into cleaning our family home, not an inability to think clearly. But that’s what has been happening today.
Today was the first day that Jack, who has lived in the house since 1969 came down to assess the damage. “It’s as bad as I expected, and then 100% worse”, he told me today.
Jack is my brother-in-law, “But really you and Pat (my sister) are like mum dad”, I told them today with a tear. Later this afternoon, we sat around and shared many moments of laughter, as we reminisced about family stories. It was a welcome end to the day.
Today I also visited some near-neighbours, checking in on their welfare. I also visited the former home of Nancy who died last year. “My sister lived here until last June”, I told Cathy who lives there now. She told me she had bought the house after that, and after significant renovation, had only recently moved into the house., “That’s my home on the lawn”, she told me, adding, “I can never go through this again”.
The flood waters reached the gutters of a number of houses on Union Street, South Lismore. All of their household items now sit outside on the street, awaiting assessment about what can be saved, and what will go to the garbage dump.
She welcomed me into her home to see the renovations and introduced me to the builder.
Only minutes after arriving in our house today, there was a group of six volunteer workers from the Gold Coast knocking on the door. There were four women who did an awesome job of cleaning mud-covered household goods and photographs, and there were two huge blokes (a carpenter and a plumber). They achieved all of what we wanted to achieve in the day in just an hour or two.
Later we were joined by a group of Michelle’s colleagues, a bunch of nurses from Lismore Base Hospital. They have been awesome in their hard work and care. One, in particular, has been wonderful recognising the emotional stress we’ve all been under. Another of her colleagues will be delivering dinner. We are so incredibly lucky, and fortunate to have been helped through this. And when Jack scratched himself, there was no shortage of nurses on hand who could treat the wound. But Jack, being Jack, he treated himself!
Colleagues who help
Michelle and I were interviewed for ABC Radio.
Dom: We continue to focus on Lismore here with our colleague James O’Brien, who is Lismore born and raised and coming to terms with what’s happened to his hometown over the past week or two where he still has a whole lot of family. James. Good morning.
James: Hey there, Dom Yeah, I’m at my sister’s house at the moment in Elliott Road, South Lismore. And there is a pile of rubbish. We’ve just thrown out the window onto the street. And I can see what’s happening on the rest of the street. The people next door would have similar size actually, these might be bigger, down another house. They’ve got rubbish out the front. And I can’t the reason I can see up the street is that our front windows were broken. So we’ve got lots of air conditioning we’re joking about here this morning.
Dom: Yes, I’m sure I’ve got a photo of where you are now. And really, it’s almost indistinguishable, the scene outside the front of your family home there. From when you gut to the house. It’s basically you haven’t got the house, aren’t you? That’s what’s going on?
James: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re in the front bedroom now. And I spent last year I have the last year living with my sister and brother in law in this house. And so this is my bedroom from last year. My great-nephew, Sam is living has been living in his bedroom over the last few months. And he was amazing in helping his nan and pop, my sister and brother in law survive. We’re in the bed in the front bedroom now of a two-story house. And the water as you can imagine got up to the top of the windows. So that’s about three feet taller than I am. And about four feet taller than my niece is standing here next to me. She grew up in his house. So to mom and dad’s house, and her son was amazing. Can I kind of hand it over to Michelle, we want to Yes. Here you go. Here’s Michelle.
Dom: Michelle, thanks for joining us. Great to have you with us. Talk us through the past couple of days. How on earth have you gotten through this?
Michelle: Oh, I’ve got no idea. I think you just switched into autopilot and you just do what has to be done. I think want to go over the shock of that. You know, like if I didn’t, except if my son wasn’t here with my parents, they would have drowned in their home.
Dom: And sadly, that’s been the case for some in your community. There have been deaths. But it just seems as though no one really anticipated something on this scale. This is an area that knows flood the Northern Rivers, you know that the rivers rise, everyone knows that but not like this not before and your community just got swamped, didn’t it?.
Michelle: That’s right. I mean, I remember the 1974 flood it’s there were a few steps from coming in. And that was a massive one. And then, you know, there’s been ones over the years when I’ve been in high school and then 1988 And you know, you know, it just went underneath the house and we were you know, just trapped in the house. You know, you can still live you still drive. We still got our electricity. But this was just and then 2017 Just just about wiped out loose more. And this mall was barely had barely recovered since 2017, and then this one come along to just about pretty much wiped us out completely. But everyone just thought, Oh, well, you know, we survived 2017. So it’s not going to be as bad as that. So you know, we rebuilt once we’ll rebuild again. But then it was just terrible. When my son rang me early in the morning he said Mum was coming in to nan and pops house. And I was just in shock. I was like, Okay, well, I need I said I need you to be strong. And I needed to look at the look afternoon and I just had the ad caught stay awake and worry. Yeah. And then just kept in constant, you know, half alley phone calls. And as I’m sure that the story for everybody else. And you know, that was quite affected.
Dom: I was talking to my colleague Chris Bath earlier in the show has just come back from spending the weekend in the northern rivers, she said that there were two hardshell flood boats in Lismore at the start of this and it just goes to show that even with the experience that has been had in the planning of this thing, this just went far beyond what anyone expected. How are you feeling about the future and about rebuilding? We’ve I’ve got a photo in front of me of just your house with everything ripped out of it. What are you planning to do from here? Or is it just too early to make plans?
Michelle: It’s far too early to make plans. I’m not even sure if the house is gonna be safe to move back into like the floorboards are bowing and you can see in part so you can see through to underneath the house and you think it moves, you know, you walk through it and it moves and it’s like, Well, shit, I’m not even sure if you know it’s safe for us to be in here ripping up carpet throwing things out, but
Dom: and this is a town of 20,000 people, many of whom would be in the same boat. It’s just the devastation is unimaginable. Our hearts are with you, Michelle.. I really hope you can find a way through this and work out what to do next. Because, yeah, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t know.
Michelle: Yeah, can I thank the volunteers. There are so many people that have just come in, even friends of my teenage son have just turned up and just came in and got their hands dirty. But work colleagues that are dropping in for a couple of hours at a time help out. There are random strangers pulling up across the road with washing machines to the service station, there are people pulling up in their cars out the front singing out food and water, food and water and we just run out and get some food, you know, and, and then they drive to the next house and hand out food and water. It’s like, the generosity has been overwhelming. We’re very, very grateful.
Dom: Well, I’ll tell you what, but for the tinnies Michelle, what we’ve seen the tinny army going around and helping people and as we heard from some experts before, it’s quite hard to do. Flood rescue is there special training for that, that people do in the evacuation centre that was used for, you know, Olympic kayaking and so on, but people have had to do it for themselves. And that’s what happened in your family. People have had to rescue other family members and the community has pulled together but it’s a pity you had to
Michelle: Yeah, my poor mum, I mean, you know, she’s got a bit of a back end on her and I pushed it through an 18-inch window in the kitchen, you know, into a boat and the dock in under the power lines and you have a look outside how high the power lines are, you know, they were 20 foot off the ground.
Dom: Yeah, I mean, we’ve all seen the phone with the fast-food joint where the waters were as high as that as the sign. You know. I’ve been to Lismore a few times over the years and the notion of the amount of water that was there. The mind absolutely boggles Michelle. Look, really appreciate your time, all the best to your community. And thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you. Yeah, that’s Michelle there, the nice of our colleague, James O’Brien, who’s on the ground and Lismore trying to make sense of what happens next.
