Chatting with a colleague yesterday, she told me she felt “terribly organised” for Christmas this year, in a way she hadn’t been previously. This surprised me, as she’s ordinarily a “terribly organised person” in my view. “It must be the placement of the days”, she told me. And indeed, it was lovely to have three days off in the middle of the week, though to be truthful it was probably only Christmas Day when I really took time out. This is a busy time of the year for me, as others take time off, and I “keep an eye on the shop”.
Christmas Day was spent chatting with relatives and friends on the phone and Skype, and in person, for lunch with a friend and her family at Bondi. What surprised me most was the growth of her niece and nephew. The last time I’d seen them was at my friend’s mother’s funeral six years ago. At the time, they were “awkward teenagers”. Several years later, they’re young adults.
Also this week, I went to see the film about Dick Cheney, called Vice. “Christian Bale is awesome playing a complete c…”, I texted a friend after the movie. It’s a good film, not a great one, as some of the more “theatrical” parts of the film seemed a little contrived, in my view. But I enjoyed it, and it was nice to spend a couple of hours in an air-conditioned cinema.
With three days off in the middle, work on Monday and Friday was extremely productive. The only downside at work was that the usual places I grab coffee and lunch were closed this week. Yesterday, I ended up wandering all the way to Darling Harbour to find lunch. My usual lunchtime places were closed, so I headed towards The Powerhouse (too crowded), and then towards two local pubs (neither of which were doing lunch), until finally, arriving at Darling Harbour, where I discovered Fratelli Fresh was open.
Chicken salad and a glass of wine for lunch? Don’t mind if I do.
Over a couple of drinks with a colleague from work tonight, we got talking about some of the more mundane aspects of our lives including washing and ironing.
She’s just about to move into a new apartment (out of the hell of share-house living), and she’s contemplating the purchases she will need to make over the next few weeks.
High on her list of priorities is a washing machine because she feels she doesn’t want to have to cope with the dramas of the communal laundry.
I don’t know where I’d be without my washing machine which has, so far, served me well for about 15 years.
Ironed or Unironed Shirt
I remember purchasing it one night, many years ago, from Hardly Normal at the Super Centre.
I’d had my previous washing machine for about 6 or 7 years. But it was, unfortunately, one of those machines which “walked” around a fair bit when it went into the spin cycle.
I knew it was time to replace it when, walking down the stairs of my previous apartment block scream in a completely passive aggressive manner…. “it’s that fucking washing machine again”.
So I headed off to Hardly and bought a new one and I’ve been living in laundromatic bliss ever since.
So yeah, washing and ironing, and conversations about such. That’s how I spent my Monday evening :)
After work last night I wandered home and watched television for a while. After having dinner at the “Happy Garden” Chinese restaurant (which has an outdoor area with fans, where you can have a beer as well), I returned to work to do a “cross” about “life in Darwin” with James O’Loghlin on the Evening Show. I emphasised the architectural change occuring here and read him a few funny stories from the “NT News”, including the obligatory crocodile story.
It’s Saturday morning and I think I may have malaria, or at least I think I have “gone troppo”, as some of the smallest things are giving me the giggles. I’ve just been listening to ABC Radio’s “Gardening Talkback”, and the first few questions were “I have a palm tree in the backyard that’s about to die”, “I have a termite mound growing in my front yard”, and “I’m having trouble getting my coconuts out of the tree”. I swear it’s true! And last night, I wandered to the local bar and met a girl, Michelle, who was from Snowtown, South Australia. I also swear it’s true. She, apparently, never worked in the State Bank, but did have an account there.
The local “bar”, the The Railcar Bar & Mississippi Queen is just as I remembered it with Damien two years ago, except this time a couple of people actually spoke to me, albeit briefly. The bar is in an old converted tram. The guy who owns it either has a massive inferiority complex or a massive ego… one of those people who wants to be the centre of attention, and commands a fair deal of attention, but frankly, wouldn’t be anyone anywhere except Darwin. As for the people… a strange combination of Tennant Creek “style”, but Sydney “attitude”. Maybe I will be able to present a better review with subsequent visits.
I spent an hour or so of this afternoon at the Lewis Morley exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. The two most compelling (and memorable) photographs are quite similar in many ways: those of Joe Orton and Christine Keeler.
In a very brief shoot, Keeler is photographed nude sitting on a chair, belying both a naivety and provocativeness. Morley describes it as an example of where the photograph was almost, if not more significant than the incident. It’s no surprise that Orton, then requested a similar photograph. By the way, I recently purchased a copy of the “Prick Up Your Ears” DVD and remain fascinated by Orton’s life.
I really love the history of 1960s UK theatre that Orton was part of. Reflecting my own personal tastes in life, I wasn’t at all moved by the many fashion photographs, but I really loved the theatre photographs and the celebrity portraits. In particular, there is a wonderful, informal photograph of Judy Dench, taken in 1965, providing both an insight into theatre and celebrity.
Joe Orton by Lewis Morley
Other interesting portraits include Charlotte Rampling (disturbingly beautiful), Salvador Dali (dishevelled, taken by surprise), Somerset Maugham (a photograph capturing both the integrity and humour of older age) and Victor Spinetti (who looks remarkably like modern day actor, Matthew McFadyen).
With many of the photographs, Morley likes to play around with the subject, including the artists, Tracey Emin (who is photographed with her eyes closed, almost like a death mask, in a pose that reminded me of Frida Kahlo) and Christo (who is “wrapped”), as well as Helen Glad (Norman Lindsay’s grand-daughter who insisted on a full-frontal nude, and who is photographed with a Lindsay image project onto her body).
As with his portraits, shadows play an important part in the construction of his more abstract photographs, (such as the almost obscene Coco de mer and aubergine), giving even the abstract and man-main a wonderful sensuality.
“Though I sometimes feel a bit “old”, I can still hang out with the cool kids at a bar in Paddington, drinking a Japanese beer”, I proudly proclaimed to friends on Facebook last night.
I was seated at the bar of “The Paddington”, a Justin Hemmes-owned restaurant and bar. I was the oldest person there, with most aged in their 30s. They were all very good-looking and fashionably dressed, the kind of people you might see on the social pages of the weekend newspapers.
Japanese beer at a trendy bar in Sydney.
A similarly aged friend and I were due to meet there for an early dinner (6.15pm). We might still be able to hang out with the hip and happening crowd, but we also both like to be in our pyjamas, and in bed by 9 o’clock at the latest. I like to get up for early morning walks, and she likes to go ocean swimming. It’s a stark contrast to our earlier days when it was not unusual for us to go out for dinner and drinks, and then a bit of all-night clubbing.
“I’m meeting a friend I’ve known for about 25 years”, I told the taxi driver on my way there. “Oh that’s so funny”, he replied, “I’m only 24 years old”, he added. “Piss off”, I said under my breath.
Meeting friends for lunch in the city this week, and the delights of the Christmas Tree in Martin Place.
As I drank my beer, I sat and waited for my friend. I didn’t worry at first, as she is often a few minutes late. But after waiting for about 20 minutes, I started to get worried. We didn’t have a restaurant booking, I found out. Maybe I had the wrong venue? I texted and rang her. No answer. I went back through our message exchange, finally realising I was 24-hours early. D’oh. She got back to me eventually, noting the missed call and messages. LOL. I’ll be back there tonight, which I’m very much looking forward to.
It was the second time this week, I had a “bar problem”. I caught up with some colleagues earlier in the week for after-work Christmas Drinks. I was so excited to see them that I missed the uneven floor, and came to a very public crumbling fall. “I haven’t even had a drink yet”, I joked, noting that I might have fallen and hurt my ankle, but hardly lost a drop from the beer in my hand :)
It’s been a fortnight for catch-ups, including meeting Rod from Geelong, who often comments on this blog, which was lovely. He was in Sydney for a holiday week, which included visits to the new sections of the Art Gallery of NSW. I haven’t been there yet, and so it was good to hear his observations about what to look out for. It was also lovely to connect with Rod’s face and voice, so when I see his comments in the future, I’ll have more of a sense of the person behind the words.
I’m going to squeeze in a visit to the Art Gallery today, before heading up to Lismore for Christmas.
While some people “slow down” in the lead-up to Christmas, it’s always quite a busy time for me work-wise. While others take time off, I generally work through it. I’ve learned so much about combining work from the office and work from home, a have found a pretty good equilibrium. I’ll be able to do my job from home in Lismore, seeing my family, but also getting on with the job.
I had a moment this week, however, when I realised the downside of working from home when I briefly fell asleep on the couch while doing a “deep listen” on some audio I needed to preview. You lie down, you close your eyes, and as you really concentrate on the words, you generally can pick up things in the edit you might not otherwise notice sitting at your desk. I’ve been doing it for years! But this time I nodded off!!
“What were you listening to?”, a colleague asked. “Something I recorded for summer…”, I told him :) “Not a good sign”, we laughed!
But the edit is much better now, so this might be a good future workflow.
It’s all “party of five” here in Sydney for NYE tonight. That’s the maximum number of people allowed in homes tonight, though I’m sure tomorrow’s newspapers will tell of stories of people who’ve breached the rules.
The fireworks are still going ahead, without crowds around the foreshore. The cricket is going ahead next week at 50% capacity, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they revert to no crowds.
Sydney doesn’t get it. I caught a bus and walked around the city last night and hardly anyone was wearing a mask. So, as we approach the end of 2020, it looks like we haven’t learned all that much. Speaking to friends and colleagues in Melbourne, they think we’re all mad.
2020 was the year of the facemask, and here I am on my first flight home to visit my family back in June. Though masks were “compulsory” on the flight, there was still a few people who didn’t adhere to the policy. By the end of December, peeople had pretty much stopped wearing them in Sydney.
We have quite a few shops in Surry Hills that are now empty, largely due to the result of changes in retail (generally) and COVID-19. In their place, a few shops have popped up containing a range of things you might otherwise find at garage sales. The imminent closure of our local shopping centre may mean, however, that some shops from there will relocate to the empty shops, which is a good thing.During October, Sue and I embarked on a two-week road trip to Western NSE. We stayed in Orange, Mudgee, Parkes, Griffith and Canberra. Sue also stayed in Dubbo, while I went further west to visit Bourke. Here we are visiting ‘The Hermit’s Cave’, which is a “series shelters, terraced gardens, exotic plants, water-cisterns, dry-stone walling and linking bridges, stairways and paths that stretch intermittently across more than a kilometre of the escarpment. Made single-handedly by a reclusive Italian migrant, Valerio Ricetti, these structures involved the moving of hundreds of tons of stone and earth, together with the ingenious incorporation of natural features in the landscape”. We both really loved visiting the site which enjoys excellent views over Griffith.On the Darling River at Bourke.Griffith, NSWThis year, we lost a dear family member, Margaret Hyland (she’s on the right). Margy was only nine months older than me, succumbing to pancreatic cancer. Tragically, it was the same cancer that killer her mother, Margaret O’Brien (she’s on the left). Also in this photograph are mum (Bertha Dunn) and granny (Berth Rixon) and the baby, Jacqui Hall. Jacqui is still with us, a strong independent woman who pulled it all together with her sister, Emily, when their mother died.
According to YouTube Music, this was the song I listened to most this year. But I already knew that, or more likely the neighbours did. At a time when we couldn’t go out dancing, I spent many hours jumping around the loungeroom listening to this song. It’s a fun track.
One of my all-time favourite songs covered by Sophie Ellis-Bexter. Her big hits included “If This Is Love” and “Murder On The Dancefloor”. Her social isolation music videos were a highlight of the year, and she sums it up pretty well.
Though I know there’s a feeling NYE marks an opportunity for us to start things afresh, I’m not feeling all that confident right now that 2021 will be any better than 2020. Happy New Year, nonetheless.
This was before I started school, as we were still living in Kyogle Street. I'm guessing I was about 4-5 years old.
I played football or catchies or a combination of both with my five year old nephew this afternoon.
Well, I threw it to him so that he could catch it. And then he threw or kicked it back to me, which meant I had to run half-way around the yard as some of his hand-eye co-ordination skills are still developing.
He’s going to kindergarten at the moment, ahead of starting school next year. And thus, he still has the great innocence and joy of youth. He’s passed the terrible twos, but hasn’t reached the cynical sixes yet :)
Did I feel in any way clucky? Nah, as he’s quite the chatter-box. Believe me, a small amount of a five year old goes a long way.
I love his honesty though. My family have started to calling me “James” instead of Jimmy, which I’ve been known by for almost all of my adult life. “It’s Jimmy, not James” he keeps reminding them.
I guess they’ve come to a collective decision you can’t be a “Jimmy” when you’re 44 years old. I quite like, however, having a name that my family calls me that no one else does, except perhaps when they’re being sarcastic.
It’s part of that bond you have with your family, but not your friends. And equally you have a bond with your friends that you don’t have with your family.
So today, we just hung out. We watched some television. We went to the supermarket. I renewed my Worker’s Club Membership, we visited some relatives. Nothing much in particular, but rich in many ways.
