If you’ve never been to Bundeena in Sydney’s South, I’d highly recommend it. You can catch a train to Cronulla, and then take the ferry across. Or, like us, you could always drive, taking in the terrific Audley Weir. I’m home now, after a lovely day walking along the beach with a friend. As you’ll see, some of the rock formations are simply gorgeous. I also liked the way the rusted engine had begun to take on the adjacent colours of the sandstone. It’s a lovely quiet spot. It’s almost like being in a country town.
Initially I was a little “ho hum” about Loreen’s entry in Melodifestivalen (the contest which leads to Eurovision) in 2011, “My Heart Is Refusing Me”. It kinda sounded like someone had put Swedish lyrics into “Google Translate”.
I have since come to love this song, thanks largely to seeing her performance at the Swedish Gay Gala in 2012. The song, which went on to represent Sweden at Eurovision was Eric Saade’s “Popular” was very good, even though, of course, it was musically a rip-off of Boney M’s “Rasputin” and Lilli och Sussie’s “Oh Mamma”.
But it was the Gay Gala performance that convinced me how great the song was, and what a terrific performer she is.
And of course, the reaction of the audience is terrific! In the midst of a bunch of nameless people, you get to see some well known (for Sweden) performers performers really getting into it. Swedes have a reputation for being quiet and reserved, which I know, from my many nights at many venues including the now, sadly closed, Victoria’s, isn’t true. The Swedes love a good sing-a-long.
It’s Thursday afternoon and I’m just about to finish work. The last few days have been pretty flat-out and I haven’t had much time to think about writing in this online diary.
Sunday night was pretty amazing. I met Sarah from work for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, called Yum Cha, before heading off to the Darwin Entertainment Centre for a performance by visiting performer, Steven Brinberg, aka, Simply Barbra. His tribute to Streisand was pretty good and there were a couple of very funny moments, such as when he impersonates just about every “diva” you might want to consider. The fore-runner to the Streisand show was two Darwin-based drag-queens who did a show in tribute to the Chief Minister, Claire Martin. It was worth a few smiles.
East Timor Celebrations in Darwin
After the drag shows, it was off to something far more serious, and far more moving: the East Timorese Independence Celebrations. Since the 1975 invasion by Indonesia, literally thousands of East Timorese have sought refuge in Darwin, many of them still here. As the midnight hour in Dili approached, several hundred East Timorese and supporters gathered to watch the big-screen, to celebrate, and to raise a flag at Darwin’s Parliament House. It was a wonderfully moving experience, especially as one older woman weeped loudly during the flag raising ceremony and thanked the Lord for independence. As soon as I can, I’ll post some of the photographs from the evening.
East Timor Celebrations in DarwinEast Timor Celebrations in DarwinEast Timor Celebrations in Darwin
In the early hours of Monday morning, I returned to work to put together a package for programs. As it was a late night, Monday evening was spent at home, sound asleep, and Tuesday was also rather quiet… just an opportunity to rest.
On Wednesday evening, I joined Penny and a few friends for dinner, before heading off to Darwin Airport, to pick up Kate. We sat around, had a few drinks, enjoyed our conversation and hit the sack.
This morning, Kate and I wandered around town… made it to work at about 10… met her for lunch… came back to work… and now I’m just about to leave. Not sure what the evening holds, but if I should die in a pool of my own vomit… don’t worry about flowers at the funeral!
The last time I was in Stockholm (July 2015), the debate about the deconstruction and reconstruction of Slussen (the main transport interchange in the middle of the city) was in full flight. Although the plans were well-known by then, there was still a strong voice of resistance to the planned changes.
Slussen ConstructionSlussen ConstructionSlussen Construction
Almost two years later, I’m not sure where the debate is up to, but I know one thing for sure: it’s happening. Along with the ongoing works at the National Museum, the City Museum, the swimming baths at Medborgarplatsen and now Sergel’s Torg, Stockholm is, like Sydney, a city “under construction”.
Of course, the other thing that’s happened since I was last here was the terrorist attack only a few weeks ago. As I watched them from afar, I was reminded of arriving here in the wake of Anders Brevik’s attack in Oslo a few years ago. I arrived here the afternoon of the attack, only to find Stockholm, too, fearful of what might follow. As I walked past the department store where the recent attack occurred I saw a school group preparing tribute post-it notes, and pinning to them to the wall.
Ahlens MemorialAhlens Memorial
After about 24-hours of flying, I arrived here just after 7 am yesterday morning. “You’re lucky. At about 4m the entire city was completely fogged in”, my friend Sandra told me, adding, “you’ve brought the warm weather, finally, to Stockholm”. Around lunchtime yesterday, quite randomly, I actually ran into a couple of blokes I know from Melbourne, who complained the entire time they’ve been here has been beset with clouds, rain, and even some light snow. “Well you brought the weather from Melbourne, I brought the weather from Sydney”, I thought to myself.
Back in Stockholm
So far, I’ve had lunch at an old favourite Urban Deli, wandered around the city, had a “jet lag nap” in the afternoon and then met Sandra for a bite to eat and drinks, which included a serendipitous meeting with a friend of hers with common Eurovision/Melodifestivalen interests. As a result our names are “on the door” for an appearance on Saturday by Isaiah Firebrace, Australia’s entrant in Eurovision. Life’s good.
Due to the COVID lockdown – or maybe my own laziness? – I haven’t exercised all that much over the last few days. Mosty days I’ll walk at least a few kilometres. I’ll head out, mostly in the afternoon, and take a walk around the city. But for most days, this week, my tracker tells me I’ve managed on average less than one kilometre most days. Mostly, that’s been a walk to and from the coffee shop in South Lismore, the Duck Pond Espresso.
Inspired today by the tweet of a colleague who lives in Melbourne, recording that he had been out for a run of close to ten kilometres, I headed out this afternoon to walk off some of those creamy apple turnovers I’ve been enjoying from the local bakery.
As I walked around, I noticed there were people in cars, though nowhere near as many as you might see on the road around Lismore, even on a Sunday.
A family member who was out and about tells me there was only a handful of cars in the Woolworths carpark, but that the Bunnings carpark was close to full. Yeah, like a trip to Bunnings is essentail, but the supermarket isn’t?
On foot, I passed two or three people running (and panting heavily, so I secured my mask that little bit tigher), and there were probably less than a dozen people I passed in total.
Along the way, I thought it might be fun to stop from time to time to record some short videos of places of interest, and here they are.
The disused Lismore Railway Station will soon be re-developed.
The next life for the Railway Station involves a food van, and possibly a restaurant.
Though I grew up nearby, I have never visited the Paul Jones Lane before, so I took a look. The car that goes past was coming out of the Station Hotel Drive-Through.
Houses at the bottom of Union Street, South Lismore, near the Railway Viaduct play an important part in our family history story.
The historic Winsome Hotel was once a working class pub, then a gay bar, and currently a soup kitchen.
I spent many, many hours of my youth at the Lismore Memorial Baths.
It’s quite good fun recording these little videos, so I’ll probably record some more.
It’s not exactly “Getaway”, but maybe you’ll still enjoy these videos as a very low-fi insight into my hometown?
A mate who was sitting one seat away from me – who spends his working life as a food critic – noted there was something special on the menu for me, The entree at this year’s “Andrew Olle Media Lecture” was gravad lax, a typically Swedish meal, though the descriptor in the menu had this particular version as “Norwegian style”. Accompanied by herring in a teppan’yaki style batter, it was a very lovely entree. The main was good too – I had the chicken – and so was the desert and other parts of the night. Given the scale of it all, I’m constantly amazed at how they can dish up 300+ meals simultaneously without any obvious stuff-ups.
The venue was the Shangri La, by the way, or the old ANA, as many older people still refer to it. On my annual calendar, this is my annual “big night out”. Most of the time for the last five or six years, though, I’ve been working, as I’ve always had some involvement in the planning and implementation of the night. But this year I’ve had no involvement, and for me it was just a night to relax, have a great meal, chat, and generally enjoy life and just to experience the event as a “punter”.
I wasn’t around for the first one, but I’ve been going regularly to the “Olle Lecture” since the second was delivered in 1997 by Jana Wendt. As I recall, she and Channel 9 had just parted ways, and there was a “story to tell”. Along the way, there have been various journalists, media owners, and media players most of whom were on “their way up”, though some have some “made their way down” again.
2009 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Julian Morrow
2008 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Ray Martin
2007 Andrew Olle Lecture – John Hartigan
2006 Andrew Olle Lecture – Helen Coonan
2005 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – John Doyle
2004 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Chris Anderson
2003 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Harold Mitchell
2002 Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Lachlan Murdoch
2001 Andrew Olle Lecture – Kerry Stokes
2000 Andrew Olle Lecture – Eric Beecher
1999 Andrew Olle Lecture – Steve Vizard
1998 Andrew Olle Lecture – John Alexander
And this year it was the Editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger who
has overseen the newspaper’s website being voted best newspaper website in the world, while he has been named Editor of the Year three times and he is also noted for fighting, and winning, a number of high-profile legal cases involving free speech issues and corruption in government.
Digital is biting most fiercely on the press, if only because we have somehow to earn our own living (I will qualify that in a moment) and don’t enjoy the sheltered protection of licence fees or government funding. As digital eats into the press, so the press has turned its fire on public broadcasters, imagining that if only they went away everything in the garden would once more come out in bloom. And so the balance between these three separate ideas of journalism begins to teeter.
A highlight of the speech was his 15-point – very good summary – of how important Twitter is, and how it’s often under-estimated by many working in traditional media.
I’ve lost count of the times people – including a surprising number of colleagues in media companies – roll their eyes at the mention of Twitter. “No time for it,” they say, “Inane stuff about what twits are having for breakfast. Nothing to do with the news business.” Well, yes and no. Inanity – yes, sure, plenty of it. But saying that Twitter has got nothing to do with the news business is about as misguided as you could be.
“I’ve never heard Twitter intellectualized in such a manner before”, a colleague said to me as we chatted after the speech.
As the official part of the evening came to an end, a few of us made our way to the Horizon Bar on the 36-th floor, I think. I’d only ever been there once before, but remembered the view in particular. With cocktails starting at $20 each, it’s not the kind of place you chuck em down with gay abandon. But with such a great view, you’re hardly inclined to.
Very memorable night. The only downside was arriving home at about 2.00am, and discovering it was more difficult to take off my bow-tie than it was to put it on. Nothing to do with the cocktails of course :)
“Normally it’s the queue at Bourke Street Bakery that’s this long” joked one of the people handing out how to vote cards at Bourke Street Primary School this morning. I decided to vote early this morning, thinking the earlier I got in, the more chance I’d have of avoiding a lengthy queue, since Surry Hills isn’t (to my eyes) a community of early risers. How wrong I was.
On top of that, they’ve changed the electoral boundaries, and I’ve been redistributed into the seat of Newtown, , as I’ve previously written about. In previous elections, there’s always been a high rate of absentee voters at this polling booth (due to the large number of people living in rented accommodation and often moving about) which has meant locals were quickly moved to the front of the line. But this time it’s different with local voters forming the large majority of the queue, and it’s the voters of Heffron and Sydney (the neighbouring electorates) who were brought to the front of the queue.
Voting at Bourke Street Primary School
The wait wasn’t too bad, I guess. Maybe twenty minutes? There were times when I thought I might give up and come back later, but I decided to stay around, sniffing the smell of the bacon and egg, sausage etc sandwiches at the stall being run to support the primary school was too great. Unfortunately the coffee wasn’t ready (Bills Blend by Single Origin – hey, it’s Surry Hills) by the time I made my way in to vote. But as I came out, it all seemed to be pumping along nicely. The school also has some very nice cupcakes which made the wait well worth it.
Saturday Night At My Place Ten years ago I was out and about, enjoying Sydney’s nightlife, in all its variety. Now it’s a glass of wine, takeaway Japanese, a computer and watching #nswvotes
Like this:
LikeLoading…
Related
2 Comments
Lovely photos!
And really a wonderful day for it – absolutely glorious weekend weather-wise so far, perfect for outings.
Lovely photos!
And really a wonderful day for it – absolutely glorious weekend weather-wise so far, perfect for outings.
Thanks Carol. Yes indeed. Gorgeous day.