“What are you doing, and what are your plans for the afternoon?”, my friend Sue asked me on the phone around lunchtime. “I’m sitting on the couch watching Youtube and that was my plan for the afternoon”, I told her.
Even though it’s mid-winter in Sydney, the weather’s terrific. A little bit chilly at night, but late teens most days. Today it was 23 degrees, apparently.
So a walk around Circular Quay, taking in the gardens, a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art (to see the Shaun Gladwell exhibition), and an ice-cream turned out to be a perfect way to spend the afternoon.
Wattle in bloom at Sydney’s Botanical GardensSydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, as viewed from near Lady Macquarie’s ChairOn the way home, I called in to Vinnie’s on Oxford Street. Though the visit was on spec, in the back of my mind there was a desire to buy a couple of pairs of shorts I can take with me to Darwin next weekend. As I’ll be working there for a few weeks, I’ve been on the hunt for some clothing that’s suitable for work, but is also mindful of the expected thirty-three degrees temperature I can expect every day.
The walk today was a nice bit of “fresh air”, as I’ve spent most of the weekend not far from the couch. In contrast, it’s been a fairly busy week, with something happening most nights. On Friday night, I attended “Christmas In July” for our work social club, which was loads of fun. On Wednesday night, I went to a talk at ACON by Anthony Venn-Brown, about his ongoing work around the “Ex Gay Therapy” movement. And on Tuesday night, I attended a play at Sydney’s Kings Cross Theatre.
The central premise for “Omar and Dawn” is the relationship between an eighty year old woman and her foster child. Since the death of her husband, Dawn has been taking in young people in need, and caring for them until they’re able to get on their own feet. Dawn’s brother thinks she’s far too kind, though he eventually comes to realise Omar is “worth it”. Meanwhile, Omar has a friend, Ahmed, who is also gay, who is homeless and makes ends meet through sex work.
In some ways it was also a story of “modern Australia”, touching on issues of sexuality and multiculturalism. Both Omar and Ahmed come from Lebanese Muslim backgrounds, and face difficulties with their families. So just when you think homosexuality is “no longer an issue” because of marriage equality etc, the play reminds you it’s still an issue for lots of people in many communities.
I really enjoyed the play. It’s about 80 minutes long, though it didn’t feel that way. Highly recommended.
I felt a slight bit of sadness today when I saw the email come through about returning to work. With the easing of the pandemic in Australia, my workplace has given the go-ahead for Phase 2 of the return to work plan. I saw the email header, sighed a little, moved on, and then later came back to it.
Though there’s a lot of my colleagues who’ve been going into the office everyday (as a public broadcaster, the ABC is deemed an essential service), I’ve been working from home since March. On less than half a dozen occasions I’ve been into work (most recently on Monday).
On a couple of occasions, these have been to pick up some items off the printer. I have a printer at home, but occasionally I’ve needed to print off some larger A3 items (my eyesight is not what it used to be!)
Some of these visits have also been for the kind of reasons you can only do face to face.
At other times, the occasions have been more “social”, such as a welcome lunch yesterday for a new colleague. How weird must it be to start a new job, especially having lived in the UK for a decade, and those you work most closely with aren’t in the office?
I live in a lovely neighbourhood. Though close to the city, it’s far enough away from the main roads to be reasonably quiet.
It’s probably the “social” stuff that I’ve missed most. Learning about the day to day lives of my colleagues. It was only when I went in a few months ago, for example, that I learned a colleague was pregnant. “It didn’t feel like it was the kind of thing I wanted to tell you over a Zoom call”, she said. Her baby arrives in January.
That, and the informal discussions you can have with someone in the corridor, or while waiting at a nearby coffee shop. It’s amazing how much you can achieve very quickly when you run into someone unexpectedly. Things which could have taken a meeting or two, or several emails, can be resolved in less than ninety seconds.
“You need to work harder around the dailies”, a few colleagues have commented. What you could otherwise achieve very quickly in those informal meetings, you need to work harder at. “You need to plan for those converstions”, they’ve often said.
But it’s also been a great “leveller”, a few people who live outside Sydney have also commented. “I’ve always felt a little left out of those informal conversations”, a few colleagues who live in Canberra have told me.
“That, and the fact it takes you several hours to travel to and from the airport”, they’ve added, noting that a meeting of only a few hours usually involved day-long, if not overnight travel. I used to travel a fair bit for work, but have been achieving a lot of good engagement through video conferencing. Good for the planet!
There’s a pottery workshop not far from home. It’s lovely to walk down the laneway and take a peak inside.
The thought of how hard I might find it to return to full-time in the office occured to me late this afternoon. I’d had a fairly intense day of meetings, conversations and writing, starting quite early.
I’ve gotten in the practice of getting up early, doing a few hours of work, and then taking a break for an hour or two. It suits my body clock.
At around 3.00pm I was in a meeting with a colleague from South Australia. As we finished our conversation, we were talking about how lovely the day had been, weatherwise, in our respective states.
“It’s a lovely day here”, I told her, adding I’d only taken a brief break for about fifteen minutes to make some lunch. “I’m going to go for a walk down the street. I need some milk”, I said. That brief walk down the street, enjoying the outdoors, and wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and thongs, reminded me how much I’ve really enjoyed working from home.
There was a lovely feeling in the air. I’ve noticed this on the occasions I’ve gone out for lunch, or down the road to grab a coffee. There’s a lot of people in my neighbourhood who are also working from home, and there seems to be a “joy” in my neighbourhood that I’ve never noticed before.
Though I live close to work, I’ve really enjoyed not having the daily commute. By the time you get up, get dressed, and go to work, there’s easily ninety minutes of “lost time”. In contrast, it can take me ninety seconds to go from my bed to my computer. That can also a negative!
Coffee, breakfast and the daily ablutions can be achieved during or in between some work tasks. Actually, cancel that, the ablutions should not be achieved during work tasks!! You’ve seen that video, right?
And coming home, there’s also the commute and “wind down” time that, in many respects is also “lost time”.
Though I have one of those 24×7 jobs anyway, I’ve really enjoyed being able to work more flexible hours. My official hours are 0900-1736 with a one-hour lunch break. But working at home, that’s all changed.
I’m an early riser, so doing a couple of hours of work from about 6-8am, has been fairly suited to my personal body rhythm.
I’ve been far more productive working at home, with less daily transactions to worry about. The only distractions have been noises from the street and from my apartment block.
Who knew there were so many leafblowers and lawn mowers in my street? Who knew the people upstairs thought a pandemic would be a good time to start renovations?
Aside from those bits of distracting noise, I can mostly start and finish a job with maximum concentration.
Colleagues also seem more “mindful” of your time, with many phone conversations starting with the phrase, “I’m sorry to bother you”.
I’ve also noted people are more likely to start meetings exactly on time. Phrases like, “I’m sorry I’m late. I got caught in the lift” are no longer uttered.
Occasionally someone will say, “I’m sorry, I have to answer the door. There’s a delivery”, but generally people arrive on time, get through the discussion that needs to happen, and meetings will often finish before the allotted time.
In the midst of the pandemic, I’m very very lucky to still have a job. I’m also very very lucky to be able to work from home. I don’t take any of that for granted. I’m still part of the “work from home if you can” part of the ABC. However, it’s true to say I’ve loved working from home, and hope that I can continue to do so, when things return to normal.
As you travel between Sydney and Canberra, the impact of the drought is fairly self-evident. I mean, there are “green droughts” where all looks okay on the surface, but deep down the soil is dry. But that’s not the case this time, as I noticed kilometre after kilometre of brown as we travelled to Canberra this weekend. Still, I noticed a couple of paddocks were still quite heavily stocked (maybe overstocked) with sheep on a couple of occasions.
Even in the midst of Canberra itself, where they’re currently on Level 2 Water Restrictions, I noticed the environment lacked some of the green evident when I last visited in August this year. Despite the over-arching presence of Lake Burley Griffin and the abudance of evergreen trees, Canberra is a part of the Australian bush and it really shows, and not just environmentally.
In fact, one of the most obvious ways in which it shows is in the gay social scene in Canberra, which mostly seems to be based around just one club, smallish house BBQs (we attended two this weekend, both of which were great fun) and larger one-off events including the annual Bushdance at the Yarralumla Woolshed.
Gay Bushdance in Canberra – held annually in Canberra at the Yarralumla Woolshed
I’d first been to the bushdance about 10 or 15 years ago, and had enjoyed it immensely. And then a few months ago I had the idea of paying a return visit, especially since a good mate now lives in Canberra. As was the case 10 or 15 years ago, the dance was an absolute hoot. Larger than it was then, and maybe less “authentically Australian country”, and maybe a little more “Brokeback Mountain” this year, I still thought it was one of those great grass-roots events that maintains a strong level of authenticity.
I really like the lack of pretension evident at this event, as the inability of almost everyone to dance properly seems to act as a great leveler. It didn’t matter that one of the people in our group was a native French speaker who found it difficult to understand the directions, as we were all in the same boat. Still, I was told by one bloke, a friend of a friend, that I was a good-dancer, so I’ll happily take the compliment. Maybe, like the girl on “Dancing With The Stars” who’d received lessons, I should have revealed that growing up in the country, learning how to bush dance was par for the course.
My mate who came with me, Scottish by birth, also said it reminded him of ceilidh dances, with many of the dances common to both. And I guess that’s how Australian bush dances originated, with Irish and the Scottish immigrants. However, I wonder what my Irish and Scottish ancestors, who during the 1800s would have done these dances in nearby places like Braidwood, Bombala and Cooma and Gundaroo (yes, I’m an authentic country boy), would have made of the site of about 500 gay men (and a prominent sprinkling of lesbians) dancing to the tunes they would have also danced to. I suppose, however, in the days when the men often out-numbered the women 10 to 1, and everyone knew everyone else, it may not have been all that unusual.
But everyone still knows everyone else in the area, or so it seems in the gay community of Canberra at least, where the idea of “six degrees of separation” could easily be reduced to just one or two. As evidence of this, I ran into an old mate from my days in Wagga and we chatted for a while, which was good. I also spoke with another bloke from my Wagga days who I hadn’t seen it about 15 years. We both concluded it might have been the last time I’d attended the dance that we’d seen each other, with him living in Victoria and me in Sydney during the intervening period.
Mind you, the two degrees of separation might just be a gay thing. At the BBQ this afternoon for example, two people working in a similar profession, knew instantly of a third and fourth working overseas. Small world, eh? But maybe that’s one of the things I like most about Canberra – quite local and parochial, but also quite international – leading me to believe it’s probably a place I could happily live.
Overall, it was a great weekend, especially as I was hanging around with some nice people doing some fun things. And then I came back to Sydney where something shitty happened almost immediately, as I seem to have left my phone in a cab. Thankfully, I recognised it was missing pretty quickly, as soon as I got my bag out of the back and had checked my pockets, and as much as I tried to hail Silver Service driver T-7922 down, he was off in a flash. And even though I’d reported it within minutes (like less than 5 minutes of him driving off), so far the people at the Call-Centre have been little or no help. He hasn’t responded to their messages so far, though I remain hopeful since the phone was on silent, and a few attempts to call it have rung out, meaning no one has replaced it with their own SIM card. I guess they – those at the Call-Centre – assume I was just another pissed customer who left their phone behind and ironically, since it was me, I wasn’t. I was just one happy little camper who’d had a nice time in the bush, who was just a little absent-minded.
To my delight, I discovered boxes of chocolates and bottles of wine on my desk at work today. As I’ve been working from home for almost two years, I don’t know exactly when they appeared. Thankfully, the chocolates still seem to be within their “use by date”.
For the most part, I can do my work from home without any problem. Even making a radio show is a little easier, as I don’t have to worry about booking time in studios. I can record right into my laptop and then edit from there.
But today I had one of those complicated procedures that involved multiple levels of printing and scanning, and even though I have a printer and scanner at home, it was more of an “industrial grade” activity that I needed to complete. So it was just easier to go into the office.
How great it was to discover the chocolates and wine!
To be honest, I’m quite embracing working from home right now and don’t really want to return, especially not in a full-time capacity. Without the regular “interruptions” of office life, I feel like the quality of my work has improved significantly. I’m probably a better person, without the added stress of commute times.
On the downside, I miss the social interactions with my colleagues. And there’s the informal work that is often achieved simply by a 30-second conversation in the corridor. To get around this, I’m having to schedule conversations with people I might otherwise have achieved things with, simply through those brief interactions.
And of course, there’s screen time. I had two days this week where I spent the whole day interacting with people on screens. It’s much more exhausting than dealing with people face to face. One day, I was so exhausted I had a lunchtime nap!
My diet has also improved dramatically, as I can cook throughout the day, make nice lunches, and not have to rely on take-away, or heated up left-overs. I think I made THE BEST bolognese sauce of my life this week. At about 7.00 am, I chopped up the necessary ingredients, threw them in the slow cooker, and by lunchtime, I just needed to boil up the pasta, and voila!
I think it’s officially two years now since the first COVID case in Australia? I certainly remember the date we were all sent home: it was March 17, 2020, and I remember that because it’s a family birthday.
I discussed with a friend the other week that dancing was one of the things I miss most about the last couple of years. Though I’m no spring chicken, and my days of going out clubbing are well behind me, there are times when I really like to hit the dance floor. “Palms” is a favourite venue in Sydney, with its 70s-90s music, and its “Blue Light Disco” vibe. Sadly, it’s been closed for most of the last two years. And when it did re-open, I think I found myself a little “out of practice”. It’s just easier to stay at home and watch TV, right? And trying to convince someone of a similar to go out on a Friday night? All too hard. So I’ve been having my own dancing parties at home.
I’ve been catching up lately with “Season 3” of “Succession”. It’s a terrific show which tells the story of a “Murdoch-like” family grappling with the issues of who will take over and how, as the patriarch ages. The script, the acting, everything is “top-notch”. As much as I loved the rich-world intrigue of things like “Dallas” and “Dynasty”, this is not your average rich person soap opera!
Season 1 Trailer
Amusingly, there was a report recently that Elisabeth Murdoch had put together a video montage celebrating Rupert’s 90th birthday, and used the theme music of “Succession” in the background.
There are few redeeming features in all the characters, though there are moments of frailty in all of them which make them, somehow, “human”
I gulped down the first two seasons but initially found Season 3 a little hard-going. I quickly realised I was watching it too late at night. It’s a show that requires concentration, but definitely worth getting into, but not when you should be in bed, going to sleep. In Australia, it’s on “Binge”. Highly recommended.
Construction work has officially commenced on the new flood-resilient buildings for South Lismore Public School, marking a significant milestone for the 100-year-old institution. For many locals, the sight of the rebuild brings back powerful memories, particularly for those of us who grew up in the area. I had the privilege of attending the school in the 1970s, and with this new chapter beginning, I joined ABC Radio Lismore today for a brief local history spot to share some recollections of my time there.
Transcript: South Lismore Public School Memories
What do you remember about your primary school? Was it the teachers that stood out to you, the cute little buildings, perhaps even the canteen and what you used to order for lunch?
Construction is underway on new flood-resilient buildings at South Lismore Public School, a school with over 100 years of history. And the ABC’s James O’Brien attended the school back in the 1970s. He’s here to share some of his stories and memories about the amazing things he remembers learning about, and the people who came out of there.
Good morning, James. Thanks for coming on.
Hey there, Bridie.
What do you remember most about the school? What sticks out as the most prominent part?
Well, I think at the moment, because the construction is underway, I remember back in the 1970s, the school was rebuilt then. And it was about the time of the ’74 flood that they saw the need for a new school. So, my strongest memories of going to South Lismore Public School between ’71 and ’77 was the reconstruction of the new school.
So, those buildings that were recently pulled down, they date back to the ’70s. There were a couple of older buildings that were still around. But yeah, it was the sound of jackhammers and pile drivers and the fact that we kept staying in our classroom. And I do remember one day when one of our teachers just got so annoyed by all the sound that she just stopped the class for half an hour.
She just couldn’t take it anymore?
No, she was completely over it. I remember we had some new demountable classrooms at the time, and there were some students in those. And it was a couple of years of really quite difficult times at the school in terms of the whole construction work. But then when the new buildings arrived, the strongest memories I have, first of all, is we had carpets. We had fans.
I remember the library was this little tiny part of one of the old wooden buildings, and all the books moved over, and the library was too big for the books that we had. But it was this huge transformation of the school.
Can you remember primary school age James’s face walking into, for the first time, the carpeted classrooms?
Look, I remember we all were allowed to go and have a look, and I actually spent Sixth Class in one of the carpeted classrooms. And I think we were all just amazed because, you know, before that it was wooden buildings and wooden floors and all of those sorts of things.
Any air conditioning back in those days?
Look, I’m trying to remember now if it was air conditioning or fans, but certainly we had some fans. I remember when the fans were installed. And just to give you an idea of how old I am and how old things were back then, we used to have these radios on the walls that weren’t quite high up, or maybe they weren’t so high. They were high for me, you know, seven or eight year olds. And we used to listen to ‘Kindergarten of the Air’ on the radio every morning, I think about 10 o’clock.
Wow. I wonder if anyone else remembers listening to, was it ‘Kindergarten of the Air’, the program, James?
‘Kindergarten of the Air’. It might have had a few name changes, but it was on the ABC, and I remember the ritual of the teacher turning on the radio every morning, and we’d sing along to the songs.
So sweet. And was it an educational radio program?
No, it was songs.
Just songs? Just music?
Kids’ songs. Yeah, nice.
James, any significant alumni, even if it’s just locally famous?
Oh, look, some of the names that people would know pretty well locally. In my year at school, Tracy Bowen was in my year from Bowen’s Cake Shop in South Lismore. Lynne Youngbury, the well-known real estate agent, she was in my year at school. The year below us is a guy called Adam Worling. Now, Adam’s really interesting. He helped a couple of years ago. All the flood kids get clothes, and he waits for their year to all fall. But he’s also, I think, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney now. He’s certainly part of the Clover Moore team, and I reckon he could end up replacing Clover in a couple of years’ time. So yeah, they were all famous alumni. But, you know, I remember all the kids really well. I was looking at some class photographs last night, and I could name every one of them.
Second from the left in the front row, Third Class at South Lismore Public School in 1974
And how does it feel knowing that kids will continue to go to this school site, even though it is on the floodplain, and the school culture and history will continue?
Yeah, well, I really like… you know, I was born in South Lismore, raised in South Lismore, and until, you know, my sister got the buyback a couple of years ago, was a proud Southie all the way, and I used to walk to school. I remember walking up and down Casino Street to get to the school. Two of my sisters, who are no longer with us, both went to South Lismore Public School back in the ’40s and ’50s. Their children, who were born in the ’70s, went to South Lismore Public School. The grandchildren also went to South Lismore Public School, and one is still in Fifth Class, I think, years in now. And in a couple of years’ time, probably another great-grandchild, whoever it is, will also be going to South Lismore. So, you know, I stay very close to South Lismore Public School.
Quite a strong family connection. Do you remember what your uniform used to be?
Yeah, I vaguely do. It was a grey shirt and grey shorts, and I’m sure the girls’ uniform was a green check sort of uniform. Gee, you’re making me go back now. And we wore desert boots. All the boys wore desert boots.
Desert boots? What are those?
Look, this kind of suede shoe. You know, they were the popular shoe at the time.
Impressions of the new school were released last week.
“Shall we stay for the second half?”, I whispered into my friend Graeme’s ear as we stood in the queue for the bar at “High School Musical” tonight at the Capitol Theatre. “No, we’re staying”, he said, adding, “I figure if you’ve bought tickets for the Titanic, you should go down with it”.
His comments sparked a big smile from the woman in front of us who was queuing with her daughter for an ice-cream. There were kids, everywhere by the way. And a huge number of middle-aged gay men. In fact, in our row, we were book-ended by gay men.
Even the show itself was a little bit camp, as one of the obviously gay characters identifies himself as such by bursting into song with Peter Allen’s “I Go To Rio” at one point.
Although I was a little bored with the first half, the second half was much better. I guess it took a while to get into the rhythm of it all. And by the end I thought it was actually alright.
I mean it’s highly derivative. At least two of the songs and dance sequences looked and sounded like they were lifted straight out of the songbook for “Grease”.
There’s also little in the way of a plot. “It makes Mamma Mia look like good”, Graeme commented at one point. And unfortunately none of the songs are all that memorable.
But the show has lots of energy and I guess that’s what makes it worth it.
A particular favourite moment right at the end was watching the little boy in front of us who danced like he’d never danced before to the finale. “He was like a little Billy Elliott”, I said to the bloke next to me, who responded by saying, “He’s the best dancer we’ve seen all night”.
I loved the absolute joy in how he danced. And I loved how his mum and dad were looking at each other as if to say “where did that come from?”. All of those with kids who were there said how much their kids absolutely loved the show, by the way.
After the show, we popped into the nearby Irish pub. While Graeme went to the toilet I chatted briefly to an Irish backpacker. She had only just arrived and I could only understand about three words she said. She had one of those impossibly thick Irish accents that I remember struggling with when I visited Ireland almost ten years ago. She told me I looked “very Irish” (which is probably true).
And then when Graeme returned we headed out the back to watch the karaoke. Of all the singers, the funniest of all was a bloke called Mike who sang a variety of Australian country songs, some of them quite obscure. Still, I knew all the songs very well, but still found it sometimes difficult to pick the tune, because he sang them all with exactly the same tune and intonation. Bloody hillarious.
Aside from this night out, I had some time this morning at the hospital, and in popping over to get some underpants and stuff for Colin, and then I went into work for most of the afternoon. That was my day…
For a moment this morning I reflected on how busy the traffic on Crown Street was when I first moved to Sydney in 1995. Before the Eastern Distributor was built, Crown and Bourke were extremely busy double-lane one-way streets. Although I don’t remember exactly how they went about it, they changed the traffic on both streets soon around the time the toll road was opened, sparking a large public outcry. Both streets eventually became two way.
A few years ago when the bike lanes were established, Bourke Street underwent a further transformation with traffic calming measures. I quite enjoy a weekend bike-ride up and down Bourke Street, with its quieter traffic and leafy visage.
At the same time, Crown Street has remained busy. It never ceases to amaze me how many people continue to drive down Crown Street, when they could find a much less busy route via neighbouring streets, Bourke and Riley. If I’m running late and I need to be quickly at Taylor Square, I’ll instruct the driver to take me there via Bourke Street. Or if I want to quickly get to Oxford Street, I’ll instruct the driver to take me via Riley.
I can’t begin to imagine the traffic hell that will occur over the next few months, as they calm the traffic and widen the footpath in my part of Crown Street, located between Cleveland and Devonshire. They’re removing a fair few car parks, and they’re consolidating the two local bus shelters into one, and locating it out on the street.
In the longer term, I think this is a good strategy, and it’s one I really support, though I note in the short term, there’s going to be pain. “It’s going to be hell to take deliveries”, one shop-keeper said to me this afternoon.
Crown Street, Surry Hills
Like this:
LikeLoading…
Related
2 Comments
Visited the Shaun Gladwell yesterday at lunch time and (a little to my surprise) adored it – I especially delighted in the capoeira at the Woolloomooloo servo.
There was barely anyone there – so it was really peaceful and I could appreciate the scale of the works.
Will definitely go back.
It’s amazing working down the “good” end of the city for the first time – so much to do and see at lunchtimes, it almost feels like being on holiday (if you discount the work bit).
Visited the Shaun Gladwell yesterday at lunch time and (a little to my surprise) adored it – I especially delighted in the capoeira at the Woolloomooloo servo.
There was barely anyone there – so it was really peaceful and I could appreciate the scale of the works.
Will definitely go back.
It’s amazing working down the “good” end of the city for the first time – so much to do and see at lunchtimes, it almost feels like being on holiday (if you discount the work bit).
Absolutely. It’s also why I go to 10am weekend movie screenings. You have the theatre to yourself!