Though I’ve been on many ferries over the 20+ years I’ve lived in Sydney, for the first time EVER I went on a cruise of Sydney Harbour today. For $39, a group of friends and I (including visitors from the US), enjoyed two hours cruising the harbour. The cruise included a complimentary glass of sparkling wine, tea, coffee, and cake, and an excellent commentary. Unlike catching ferries, we got up and close with some of the lovely houses of the rich and famous. We also learned a few things about Sydney which none of us had previously known. Captain Cook Cruises, Sydney Harbour Story. Highly recommended.
Not long after arriving in Sydney in the mid-1990s, I remember being blown away by the elaborate wigs of drag queen, Maude Boate.
Maude was a regular performer at the legendary, sadly missed Albury Hotel. Working alongside Maude at The Albury, was barman, Tim Chappell, one of the Academy Award-winning costume designers for “Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert”. Apparently, that’s how some of the Maude Boate-designed headgear and dresses ended up in the movie.
In contrast to the permed and blow-dried wigs of so many drag queens, Maude had cartoon-like headgear made of plastic.
The other connection between Maude and Tim was that both came from my hometown, Lismore. I remember discovering that about Tim about the time he won the Academy Award. But it wasn’t until a few years later I discovered Maude Boate was in fact, Michael Gates, also from my hometown.
“When I was growing up in Lismore, drag was completely unacceptable”, Michael says on a short video that’s playing as part of “Maudeville” an exhibition currently at the Lismore Regional Art Gallery.
Being of a similar age, I knew exactly what he meant. And yet, at the same time as Jim Brigginshaw, the editor of the local newspaper, The Northern Star was writing inflammatory anti-gay editorials, people like Mike Bray and Vera Bourne (the mother of a schoolmate) were hosting Gaywaves on the local community radio station, 2NCR-FM, Mike ran a gay restaurant called “Double Dutch” and the local social group, Tropical Fruits was just starting out.
Maudeville at Lismore Regional Art GalleryMaudeville at Lismore Regional Art Gallery
Thirty five years later, Tropical Fruits is now a multi-day festival (with a pool party and street parade) that attracts a lot of visitors from elsewhere (the actor Alan Cumming was the star celebrity guest this year), and there’s an exhibition at the local art gallery paying tribute to the work of a man who achieved a great deal through his drag persona.
Design-wise, Maude Boate continues to influence how many of Sydney’s drag queens dress. In the short video, Michael also describes how he makes wigs for the stage production of “Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert”.
Maudeville at Lismore Regional Art GalleryMaudeville at Lismore Regional Art Gallery
It’s a lovely exhibition. Well worth a look. But be quick, noting it closes January 30, 2016.
After the closure of the Surry Hills Shopping Village, the search for my new supermarket continues. Though it’s not exactly “desperate” (as I have quite a few supermarkets within walking distance), I still haven’t settled on which one I’ll start using after the three year closure of Coles.
It’s official: the Surry Hills Shopping Village closed last Sunday. They’ll re-open in two or three years, after the re-development which will include lots of apartment accommodation.
Ahead of the closures, the supermarket shelves were allowed to empty themselves (no re-filling) and many of the items were significantly discounted. “Why don’t you stock up?”, the young bloke at the bottle shop said to me, offering a pretty reasonably discount on some bottles of wine.
There was a heavy run on cask wine at the bottle shop, I noticed.Frozen pizza also seemed pretty popular in the “dying days” of Coles.The first time I really “felt” the closure was on Thursday morning, when I had to visit the local service station to buy some milk. Again, it’s not a big thing since the service station is at the end of my street. On top of that, they have a brand of milk that I really like. On the downside, it’s pretty damn expensive. Ordinarily, I would have gone to my local supermarket the night before, and would be well and truly ready for my start of the day coffee.
Though I would ordinarily pop into the supermarket a few times each week for minor shops, I’ve found myself going down the more expensive route. I bought a loaf of bread from the awesome Bourke Street Bakery, and a few small items from the equally awesome, Maloneys (on Crown Street). They’re both terrific, but they are more expensive than I’m used to.
I also made a shopping visit to Aldi’s on Oxford Street. Ordinaily, I’d only visit Aldi for those (often) weird specials they have. A suitcase. A radio. That kind of thing. But on Tuesday, I called in and bought a few small items, including some cheese and some fresh produce. “Their fresh produce is quite good and quite cheap”, I told my friend on the phone. She agreed, noting they’re generally quite competitive.
It was a rather curious experience to visit Oxford Street on a weekday. Ordinarily, Oxford Street is a place I would only visit at night-time, or on the weekend. On a weekday, it’s a much different place.
And then today, I visited Woolworths Express, just up the road on Bourke Street. The supermarket range and price was just as I expected. The only confusing things for me were how to use my rewards card, and how to find the checkouts. The supermarket is on two levels, with fresh produce upstairs and grocery items downstairs. The signs for the checkouts were somewhat obscured, and so I found myself walking around a little confused. “Should I ask someone for instructions, or will I seem like some crazy old man?”, I thought to myself.
I still haven’t tried the Coles at Waterloo. I also have the option of supermarkets at Town Hall (a quick trip on the light rail) and at Bondi Junction (a quick trip on the bus). Either way, I’d really love to see the opening on our part of Crown Street of a small convenience store where I could buy daily things like bread, milk and fresh produce.
Who knew that it would be so hard to adjust to new habits after 25 years of entrenched shopping habits?
If you have an eye for history or architecture or hotels, and you’ve visited the town of Appin (near Campbelltown in Western Sydney), you will have probably noticed an old derelict building not far from the church. Though in a poor state of repair, the old Appin Inn is a lovely building which I had an opportunity to visit about five years ago when Appin celebrated its bi-centenary.
“I have a connection to the pub across the road” I told the woman who was looking after things at St Bede’s Catholic Church in Appin today. “Two of my ancestors ran the pub back in the 1840s”, I told her, referring to William Rixon and Ann Hoare. “There was a close connection between the church and the pub” she told me, pointing to the family, the Carolls who owned the pub and who ran it as a guest and boarding house, who were buried in the graveyard. “The sisters also used to have rooms there”, she added.
Walker Corporation has announced its plans to restore the Old Appin Inn to its original state with work to begin in three months. The developer has committed to upgrading the historic icon regardless of whether its planning proposal for Macquariedale Road is approved. The estimated cost of the restoration is $1.2 million.
Living locally, fellow “Rixonites”, Margaret and Kevin Rixon went along to the announcement on Thursday, and with their permission, here’s some photographs Kevin took.
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
The Old Appin Inn. Pic : Kevin Rixon
I’ll be seeing Margaret and Kevin tomorrow at another Rixon-related activity.
Tomorrow I’m heading off to Windsor to see a plaque unveiled at the grave James Rixon, one of my earliest ancestors to have arrived in Australia. James was a convict who was sentenced to be hanged, but who was transported instead, arriving in 1798. For 205 years, he has been buried in an unmarked grave at St Matthew’s Church of England at Windsor which, incidentally, is the oldest church in Australia, though the cemetery pre-dates construction of the current church. Thanks to the efforts of some keen genealogists, he’ll be getting a plaque on the grave. I’ll write about that tomorrow.
It’s Sunday night. I’ve just spent an hour or so updating things on the Hawkesbury Website, including writing up the minutes of this evening’s meeting. I’ve also just read the email about the debate I’m participating in tomorrow at the Royal Easter Show, arguing the affirmative for “The Future of Rural Australia is along the coast”. Should be interesting stuff. I’ve had a reasonably busy few days, so I thought I should update this before I lose track of everything.
I spent Friday at the Royal Easter Show. Despite the drought, there appeared to be a genuine sense of optimism amongst those I spoke with. Of course it may have been only the optimistic ones with enough money could afford to come to Sydney or perhaps a sense of “well, it couldn’t get any worse”, but I genuinely did sense a feeling that things can only get better. Even in the District Exhibits, themes of rural renewal and environmentalism were evident. After a couple of drinks, I came home for a reasonably early night in bed.
After waking up on Saturday, I headed off to Balmain to meet Damien for our planned “Historic Pub Crawl”. Upon arriving, we were told it was next week, although the website clearly said (and still does) that it was April 12. Anyhoo…
That meant we could head off to the Paddington Bowling Club early. We were heading off to Greg’s 30th Birthday Lawn Bowls Game. No doubt inspired by the movie, Crackerjack, and The Secret Life Of Us, Greg had booked two lanes (?) at the Bowling Club for an afternoon.
Lawn bowls at Paddington
Although at first, as a left-hander, I was a little unsure of how to take into account the bias of the lawn bowl, I soon discovered and became quite reasonable at it (or so I thought). After an afternoon of lawn bowls and beer, we headed off to the Lord Dudley.
I met Kate just after 11 this morning for Yum-Cha. The meal was EXCELLENT. From yum-cha it was off to the Australian Technology Park at Redfern, based around the old Eveleigh Street Railway Yards. There was a small, but diverse group of us who went on a tour around the old Locomotive Workshop Buildings. According to the organisers, the original fabric has been maintained and contains a large display of original machines and plant used in the fabrication of steam locomotives and the largest steampress in the Southern Hemisphere is still located in the Blacksmith’s workshop in Bay 1.
There’s also an outside urinal! The group was really an odd one. There was a man who knew more than the tour guide, or so he thought, interrupting her tour with the most innane points of trivia, much to the amusement of everyone. There was a woman with a rather disturbing prosthetic hand. There were also two old woman (96 and 80) who were an absolute hoot, thanks to their very active minds and senses of humour. We also met up with Kate’s friend, Judith and her girlfriend.
From there, Kate and I went to the Palm Sunday Peace March and caught the ferry to Woolwich for the Hawkesbury Group meeting. And that’s the last few days!
It’s been a reasonably quiet week on the holiday front. I’ve been going out for a mid morning coffee most days, have been reading and viewing a few things, and have been doing some house-cleaning, ridding myself of unwanted clothes and books.
I’ve been enjoying my mid-morning coffee, in particular, at a new cafe called, “Cee Cee” that’s opened up in Crown Street. The coffee and food have been well made and presented, and the cafe has a nice, airy, summer environment. It’s been a real pleasure just to grab a copy of “The Australian” (they don’t have it as one of their newspapers), head across the road and “smell the coffee”.
Just thirty minutes of reading, drinking, and watching the world go by. This morning, for example, three people caught my eye. There was the heavily tatooed bloke walking down the street with his shirt off (it’s not that hot, surely) with his girlfriend. There was the obese young man, walking down the street with his elderly father, looking old before his time. And there was the “young middle class mother with a conscience” who, despite the warmth, was dressed like a Kosovo refugee, in solidarity, I’m sure. All of these people interested me, as I wondered to myself “how did they get there?”.
The weather’s great. The bird’s seem happy, making their noises. So all in all, a nice time to take some leave.
Looking at my “Last FM” profile today, and in particular those I share musical tastes with, I notice the lack of any Australians and a preponderance of European men in their 30s and 40s (including those who have chosen Agnetha Faltskog and The Flying Nun as their avatars).
What should I make of this?
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Captain Cook Cruises is omnipresent at the Quay, and so I thought it should be avoided. Added to the next Sydney visit.
As a teenager convalescing from an ulcerated shin wound I went with my mother on a “luncheon cruise” for longer route than you took – all the way round to Spit Bridge. Good and obviously memorable. Possibly something you only really need do once.
Captain Cook Cruises is omnipresent at the Quay, and so I thought it should be avoided. Added to the next Sydney visit.
I felt the same way. Of our group of 5, 3 were from Sydney, and we all really enjoyed it. $39 if you book online, $49 if you just turn up.
That is interesting. I must try it.
As a teenager convalescing from an ulcerated shin wound I went with my mother on a “luncheon cruise” for longer route than you took – all the way round to Spit Bridge. Good and obviously memorable. Possibly something you only really need do once.