Though it can sometimes be cold, wet and miserable in Sydney during winter, it can also be totally awesome. And yesterday, in the midst of our visit to the NAIDOC Week Arts Festival, I took a brief walk out in the sunshine. I sat down, I closed my eyes, and just enjoyed the awesomeness of a clear winter day.
And as I opened my eyes, I noticed there was a new bar and restaurant at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. Though it’s a little expensive ($11 for a pint, mains in the $30-40 range), I’m happy to pay a surcharge for the view.
Seated near the window at James Squire Circular QuayJames Squire at Circular Quay
With a newish phone (Pixel 2), lately I’ve been taking quite a few photographs, and so whenever I see a terrific view, I’ve been snapping a shot. Here’s a couple of other terrific views.
Looking towards the city on a Saturday night, viewed from Kings CrossThe view from the thirteenth floor of the ABC building in Ultimo, Sydney
And here’s a couple of churches. One current. One former.
It’s Christmas eve… no I think it might be Christmas Day. As you can I see, I am imbued with the spirit of Christmas… or maybe it’s the champagne I bought earlier tonight. Damn damn damn… I bought a small ham at the supermarket earlier tonight and somewhere between the supermarket, the bottleshop and home, I lost it. Anyway, I figure if someone has stolen my Christmas ham while I was getting my champagne at the bottle shop, they probably needed it, and if I was stupid enough to drop it somewhere, it’s my own fault.
Had an interesting discussion today about Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas. On both ends of the Christian spectrum there are people who either see Christmas are too materialistic or too far from the Biblical tradition so that, although they are Christians they don’t celebrate Christmas.
For example, many Christians opposed to Christmas argue that Jeremiah condemns Christmas trees. According to Jeremiah 10:2-4 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen…. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. Other Christians argue Jeremiah is not condemning Christmas trees, He is condemning idolatry and yhe trees in Jeremiah 10 are cut down to carve them into worthless idols that will later be decorated with gold and silver. Jeremiah says nothing about Christmas trees, they argue.
Personally, I think Christmas is okay. As someone explained to me today, Christianity has a great history of appropriating non-Christian celebrations and traditions, turning them into Christian celebrations and traditions. Although I appreciate the essence of the argument – by celebrating what WERE pagan celebrations you may be honoring Satan, not Christ – I’m not sure if it really holds true if you actually spend the day honoring Christ. Anyhoo… it’s obviously a complex issue.
A bloke I spoke to today suggested that with the increasingly secularisation of society, the modern Christmas – with Santa, gift giving etc – may turn into an essentially secular celebration, while many Christians may look for something different in Christmas.
Christmas has truly hit Sydney. This year, for the first time, I have received more “virtual” Christmas Cards than paper ones which is an interesting trend. I also got a mention in someone’s Christmas Letter.
…second big blast form the past was catching up with James O’Brien who did a program on ABBA (my favourite childhood group) on community radio when we were both teenagers. I hadn’t seen him in years since we both went to the same university.. it was cool to catch up and yes, we both still list to ABBA (although I’m more likely to have Moby or Pink on the stereo these days)
James’ involvement in ABBA fandom goes back to his teen years when he ran his own ABBA radio program on a community radio in Lismore, New South Wales. This program, the ABBA SCRAPBOOK, ran for 5 years and eventually lead James to his present career as a radio announcer for ABC Radio Australia. James hosts the “Statewide Drive” program which is heard right throughout New South Wales each day between 4pm and 6pm. James has been a big supporter of ABBAMAIL from the very beginning and has been on our mailing list for more years than he cares to remember. An all-round nice guy, James has impressed many fellow ABBA fans with his warmth, sincerity and down to earth sense of humour. James has been a fixture at ABBAMAIL’s fan events and conventions over the years.
So there… what a way to end the year!
But don’t forget, my “Year In Review” post will appear on December 31.
For the last two or three years in the run up to Christmas one of my colleagues has been in the habit of bringing in some “lollies” as a gift to the workplace.
Snakes. Bananas. Teeth. Bullets. You know the stuff I mean? The stuff we all grew up with and love. Even butter-scotch which is a particular favourite of mine.
He places them on the partition above his workplace in some “party bowls”.
Workplace Sweets
It’s a lovely thought on his part, and we all think it’s terrific that he does it. But oh my, it’s such a temptation for those of us with a sweet tooth!
There must have been eight or nine occasions today when I needed to go to his desk to ask about something. “How are you going? Is everything okay? Shall I check back in half an hour?”, I found myself asking, while sneakily grabbing another sweet (or two).
Just yesterday, another colleague who I haven’t seen for a while commented on how much weight I’ve lost this year. “I can’t believe it’s as simple as regular exercise and eating properly. It’s crazy! I always thought it was glandular!”, I told him, adding that I’m sure there’s room on the market for another weight-loss book based on my experience this year.
But with the sweets on my colleague’s desk, I fear I’m on the verge of a return to being overweight. Nooooo!
Tomorrow, I’m going to have a lollie-free day, I swear.
And next year, he’s moving to an earlier shift, so hopefully that might help as well.
One of the many things Damien and I have in common is an interest in politics. At times, you might describe us as “political junkies”, as we often get together for election nights. We also will often discuss over the phone or through chat major political events.
We’re not, however, what you’d call “partisan”. We have our own political preferences, but we’re definitely not “slaves to the party”.
When I won tickets to see the new Oliver Stone movie, “W” about George W. Bush it was only natural that I’d invite Damo.
We were both, however, somewhat disappointed with the film.
“It was like watching a cartoon”, Damien commented after the film. “Everyone was a charicature”, he added.
I was in total agreement. For me, It was just a film for the “chattering classes”, confirming or re-affirming their beliefs about George Bush.
As we watched the film at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, the “chattering classes” giggled at all the expected moments.
For me this was a real disappointment. The death of thousands of people is not something you dismiss with a giggle, and sly “he was an idiot” comment.
“These are serious issues” I thought to myself.
But still they giggled and laughed, as they had their views re-affirmed by a film that barely went beyond the surface.
“They didn’t tell me a thing I didn’t already know or feel about the Bush presidency”, Damien told me as we wandered down the street.
It was disappointing in so many ways. In fact, I began to feel the man “W” was probably more interesting and complex was the film “W”.
It’s such a shame because the last eight years were so important in so many ways. The end of an era. An important change in US foreign policy as they moved to a “first strike” philosophy. The fundamental change as the United States moved back into isolationist mode.
I refuse to believe – as the movie suggested – it was all about a bloke who could never live up to the expectations of his father. It was far more complex than that, which unfortuantely “W” failed to explained. It was, as Damien suggested, just a big cartoon.
That said, I did like Colin Powell and George Bush Senior, as they were clearly the film’s “heroes”, the dramatic counter-balances to “Junior” and played by the actors with a great deal of intelligence and authenticity.
My first memory of Nancy was when she came home to Lismore, after a number of years living in Sydney and Brisbane.
It was about 1970, and she was only about twenty five years old. Despite her apparent youth, she was beginning to feel she had left it “too late” to get married.
After a few adventures (and misadventures) she returned to the family home in Kyogle Street, South Lismore. Also living there was mum and dad, granny, my uncle and me (then aged five or six). All of the other girls had, by this time, married and were having children of their own.
Not long after, she married a neighbour, had a daughter, worked for many years as a school cleaner, and has been living in Lismore ever since.
A couple of weekends ago, when it was pretty clear Nancy was going to die, I booked a one-way ticket home to Lismore, unsure of how long I would need to be here.
Nancy had been living with reasonably advanced dementia, and her body was starting to fail, the result of many, many years of heavy smoking. With the combination of illnesses she had, it was good that she died peacefully.
Here’s a few excepts from the eulogy/wake…
As we began to prepare for this day, I started to look around for photographs and songs we could use to celebrate Nancy’s life.
Only in the last few days, I discovered there was a song by Frank Sinatra which I think perfectly sums up Nancy’s life. The song is called “Nancy With The Laughing Face”.
It was written and recorded in 1942, three years before Nancy was born, and so it’s possible Nancy was named after that song. Dad was a keen fan of jazz music, and there are no other people called Nancy in our family.
You can imagine the scene when mum and dad saw their new born baby for the first time.
While other babies would have been screaming and shouting, you can imagine the new born Nancy was born with a huge grin on her face, a laughing face that stayed with her throughout her life.
When Karran posted news on Facebook of Nancy’s death there were many, many comments, and there was a common theme: that she was much loved. Here’s a handfull of comments
“Nancy was a beautiful soul and was always there to have some fun with”.
“She was a little character with a lovely caring heart”.
“RIP Nancy. You will always be in my heart, as you were a mum to all of us, and will be greatly missed by everyone that has ever met you”.
“You have touched all our hearts so much and played a part in most of our lives, taking us all on board like family.”
R.I.P. Nancy – with the laughing face.
Nancy Ann O’Brien / Keaton 27/12/1945 to 09/06/2021
My friend Graeme says I think about things too much sometime. By and large, he’s sometimes right. But tonight, having seen Josh Thomas at the Sydney Opera House, I can’t stop thinking.
I’ve been anticipating this show for several weeks, ever since fellow blogger Tom suggested going.
I’ve quite liked Josh as a performer for quite some time, and the promise that this show would be about his recent “coming out”, and in particular, his relationship with fellow comedian, Tom Ballard made it even more interesting. And then the recent Youtube clip where Tom talks about his surprise that his relationship would be the subject of a comedy routine made it even more interesting.
While the show was funny, it wasn’t funny in a belly-laugh kind of way. That’s his style, and that’s why I quite like him. I was also quite surprised at the level of audience interaction, without it being the cliched response to hecklers you often see from comedians.
But what surprised me most was the apparent honesty and intimacy of the material. It was amazing to hear a comedian talk about another person in their lives in such an open manner. While other comedians will talk about “ex girlfriends” or whatever without naming them, you knew exactly who Josh was talking about, and thus you could very strongly imagine the situations he was describing. For example, when he spoke about them having a shower together, and Tom having a pee in the shower, my mind was completely there.
I was left confused and wondering about the appropriateness of it all.
I was also left wondering about Josh as a person. Is he really as insecure as he comes across, or is that part of the routine. Comedy isn’t supposed to be that honest, is it?
As I’ve come home town, I’ve been wondering if there might be a deeper meaning to the show? Was it, in some way, an apology to Tom… saying “sorry, I fucked up the relationship TWICE”?
Travelled through the Hawkesbury earlier today. Such a beautiful area. This photograph was captured with a mobile phone camera, held up against a dirty train window. So you can only begin to imagine what it might be like with a proper camera outside, enjoying the winter sunshine.
