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?
As I’d estimate the crowd was about thirty percent Swedish expats or backpackers, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when the audience replaced the usual “more” with “en gang till”.
Still, I got a little bit teary as the crowd shouted the Swedish equivalent to “one more song”. I also found myself listening in to the conversations in Swedish and feeling a little nostalgic.
If you’ve never heard of “Oh Laura”, I’d recommend having a listen. Their songs are folky-inspired pop. The lead singer is wonderful. She has that instantly recognisable, almost breathy quality, that you often associate Swedish female vocalists with. She’s also “so terribly a Swedish woman” in that she plays guitar, harmonica and sings. It’s all so terribly “gender equal”, which I love. Very listenable.
Earlier in the night I went to the NSW Finals for Australian Of The Year. Glenn McGrath was named NSW Australian Of The Year, and there was a tangible sense in the room of it being the right choice.
Also earlier in the day I also went to a function to commemorate 100 Years of The Bureau of Meterology.
“I love some good old-fashioned drag”, I whispered in the ear of my friend, Michaela, one of the friends I attended the First Nations Supreme Drag Queen Event at Carriageworks last night, as part of World Pride.
One of the drag queens had just lip-synched to the awesome Whitney Houston song, “I Have Nothing” from “The Bodyguard”. Another lip-synched to Donna Summer’s “Macarthur Park”. In the midst of the more modern tunes, it was great to hear some old-school drag as well.
There was such joy in the room last night, as people sang along, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the performances.
“One of the best nights of my life”, a friend messaged me today.
Michaela, who co-produced the “Blak Divaz” documentary about the very first “Miss First Nations” event noted how far they have come since the early days of 2017.First Nation Supreme QueenFirst Nation Supreme QueenFirst Nation Supreme QueenFirst Nation Supreme Queen
It was such a great night and a welcome diversion from the commemoration of the anniversary of the catastrophic flood in Lismore 12 months ago.
Though I’ve written a fair bit (maybe too much?) about the flood https://thelimbshift.com/2022-lismore-flood/, I’d highly recommend this piece written by an ABC colleague, Leah White who is from Lismore, and who experienced the flood both from a professional and personal perspective.
I was terrified I might not have a mum at the end of the day, terrified of being on the other end of the phone — unable to help — as she slowly drowned in flood water.
I didn’t think I would become emotional about the first anniversary. but by mid-afternoon, after seeing, reading and hearing so many reports in the media throughout the day, I shed a few tears.
Leah’s piece has articulated so beautifully the same anguish I felt on the night, being a long way away, talking to my family, and desperately being on the phone to police / SES for someone to come and save them. I also felt the pain of knowing they could have drowned. Even when they were rescued, I was terrified, as they stood on the Ballina Street bridge it would wash away. And then an hour or so later, I got a message from the son of our next-door neighbour asking “Do you know where mum is”? and, at the time, we didn’t.
I didn’t know what to expect from Lorna Luft who played last night in Sydney. I mean, I’d heard her CD, and I’d heard two radio interviews. I was expecting a kind of old fashioned broadway show, but beyond that I didn’t know what else to expect. I must admit, though, I thought the first half was a little mixed. There were moments of sheer joy, where she was totally in her element on stage, singing wonderfully and connecting strongly with the audience. And there were other moments when she sometimes struggled with the material. Sometimes the phrasing wasn’t quite right, and other times the key wasn’t really suited to her. But even when that was the case, she was able to save each song with a tremendous final note. “She’s great at those big notes”, I whispered to my friend Graeme who came along with me last night.
Lorna Luft in Sydney
In the second half, she re-emerged to re-create the stage show, “Songs My Mother Taught Me”, which, in her own words was about coming to grips with her tremendous musical legacy. As she related, at one point, you can’t go into a library and ask for a self-help book about how to behave as the daughter of a musical legend. For a long time she rebelled, telling us “I died my hair purple and hung out at Studio 54”. I also read somewhere the other day she performed as a backing vocalist on one of Blondie’s early albums. As her own children began to ask questions about their grandmother, Judy Garland, Lorna explained she began to come to grips with her demons.
The second half of the show recounts the story of Judy Garland, and along the way touches on three other important influences in her life, Dean Martin (Dean’s daughter is Lorna’s best friend), Sammy Davis Junior and Frank Sinatra (her godfather). There were some genuinely touching moments, and some wonderful anecdotes. My favourite anecdote was about when the family was living at the Savoy, and, arriving home one night she asked her mother why everyone placed their shoes outside their rooms at night. When Judy explained it was so they could be shined for the following day, Judy then had the idea of swapping the shoes. Lorna explained they swapped shoes over three floors. “But mamma, don’t you think we’ll get caught”, Lorna remembered. “Do you honestly think they’ll believe Judy Garland would do this?”, Lorna remembers her saying.
Clearly though, she has her mother in perspective. While there were no tales of the alcohol and drug abuse in the show, Lorna said. “Mamma spent money even when there was none”, with a tinge of sadness in her voice and on her face.
The second half of the show was tight, entertaining, and a really entertaining show.
It was an old-fashioned kind of entertainment in some ways. In stark contrast to some of the more introspective, almost shy peformances you often see on stage these days, Lorna (like Judy and Liza) really knows how to put on a show. Big, ballsy, brassy. It was no wonder the crowd jumped to its feet on more than one occasion, quite spontaneously.
Before the show we were told there was to be no flash photography due to the program being taped for replay on “Ovation” later this year. I can’t wait to see it back.
After the show, we caught the bus up the street to “The Sly Fox”, a mixed gay-straight-lesbian bar on Enmore Road. Last night it was mostly a lesbian crowd, and it was also karaoke night. Ironically, with about 15 lesbian women on stage preparing to sing Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman”, it was only the gay men in the bar (and some older women) who seemed to know the song word for word, with the younger women having to use the cheat sheet.
A similar situation happened when a group of young men got up to sing “Macho Man”. I loved the look on their faces when they suddenly realised they had to sing verses as well as choruses. Have you ever read the lyrics to the verses of “Macho Man”? Totally obscure and very difficult to sing along with. “They should have tried YMCA”, I said to Graeme at one point, “At least you can sing along to the verses too”.
After a couple of beers, we headed off home, having enjoyed our night of Lorna and Lesbians.
I had a really terrific Australia Day: the weather was great, I was invited to a couple of really terrific events, and I spent it with two really great, close friends. Unlike most public holidays, including Anzac Day, Christmas Day and New Years´ Eve/Day, there are fewer ¨expectations¨ with Australia Day.
Itś a day you can just do exactly what you want. If it means you want to spend it with friends having a BBQ at home, you can do that. It means if you want to go Darling Harbour to watch the fireworks, you can do that.
If it means you want to go to acknowledge the day as a day of invasion, occupation and imperialism, you can do that. No one judges you on Australia Day for how you choose to commemorate the day. You can do whatever you bloody well want.
For me, Australia Day started off meeting my friend Kate at about nine o´clock at Circular Quay. With a breakfast table strewn with coffee, pancakes, toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and some newspapers, we enjoyed the sunshine, had a good chat, and were just close enough to watch the end of the Wheelchair Marathon race.
From there we headed to Wharf 6, as I was lucky enough to be invited onto a three-hour cruise associated with the annual Sydney Festival Ferrython.
¨Do you remember the year one of the ferries sank?¨, I asked Kate as we walked on board at about ten oćlock. With virtually no expectation about what the next three hours had in store, Kate and I quickly found ourselves a space on a table in one of the end rooms on the middle deck. ¨Mind if we join you?¨, Kate said to a big boofy bloke with an English accent sitting alone at a table, before his Australian-born wife and cute children joined him.
As we sipped our first glass of champagne and orange juice, we realised how lucky we were. Within an hour or so, we were eating prawns, coleslaw and potato salad, and had moved on to beer.
Sorry – Australia Day 2008
Ferry Race
Sydney Harbour Ferrython
Australia Day at Darling Harbour
Overall it was a great way to spend three hours. An ice-cream followed, and then a walk around the Museum of Contemporary of Art. In the afternoon I returned home with every intention of heading to the anti-homophobia vigil, calling for a greater police presence on Oxford Street. But I had an afternoon nap instead, and slept through the alarm I´d set for 3.30pm.
Instead, I woke at about 6pm. I better hurry, I thought to myself, as I´d been invited to the Darling Harbour Convention Centre from 7pm, to watch the fireworks in a little more luxury than at the same time last year. The food was great, the wine and champagne were great, and the company was excellent.
At one point, Damien observed, ¨this is probably the most multicultural Australia Day event I´ve seen¨. As I looked around the room, I noticed it was true, with a truly representative cross section of people from a range of different cultural groups.
Earlier in the day, I had noticed a couple of Aboriginal blokes wearing Australian flags on their backs. Looking down from the balcony of the Convention Centre I noticed a veiled Muslim woman wearing one on her back. It went beautifully with her veil, by the way.
It was then I reflected on how some aspects of Australia Day which have come to represent intolerance in recent years have been once again re-appropriated as symbols for all Australians.
And of course, one of the great highlights of the day, cruising around the harbour, was looking up to see the word sorry appear in the sky.
“I’m not your first customer, am I?”, I said to one of the bar staff at the pub in Lismore. It was 11.45am, and even by my standards that was a little early. But I figured after five weeks lockdown in Lismore, I was doing my bit for the local economy by popping in for a ginger beer. “Oh no”, she said, “We’ve had plenty of customers, already”.
Though the lockdown here hasn’t been anywhere near as severe as in other parts of Australia, and in many parts of the world, there was still a sense of relief/elation as I walked around town this morning. You could feel it too, in the the general vibe of the place. The streets were reasonably busy, there was tai chi in The Quad, and there were also people in the pubs and restaurants.
On the radio this morning, ABC North Coast, Angela Catterns interviewed someone from a nail salon who declared she had taken her first customer at midnight, only minutes/seconds after the lockdown lifted. As I walked around town, I noticed most of the hairdressers were booked out. As you’ll see in the video, my beard is looking very scrappy, to say the least.
Though there’s part of me which feels the lockdown has been lifted too early, there’s also a feeling of elation.
“Hopefully we won’t have some idiot come up from Sydney and force us back into lockdown again”, Pat said to me earlier. “We’ve got plenty of our own idiots up here”, I said to her in reply.
The Weather Bureau is currently predicting a 7.2 metre flood peak at Lismore (my home town) tomorrow at 3.00pm. With all the heavy rain still forecast, it will probably go higher.
Thought these pics might be useful to know what a 7m flood peak means. They were from January last year.
2011 LISMORE FLOOD PHOTOGRAPHS
LISMORE FLOOD SIGNAGE
A sign from the record breaking 1974 flood with a family member’s house in the background.
Most of my family lives in the flood-prone areas, so hoping all will be okay.
MINOR TO MODERATE FLOOD WARNING FOR THE WILSONS RIVER AT LISMORE Issued at 8:31 pm EDT on Sunday 27 January 2013 Flood Warning Number: 1 An average of 140 millimetres of rain has fallen during the past 48 hours to 6pm today [27/01/2013]. However, the rain intensity has increased during the past 6 hours, with 50 millimetres falling during this period. Further heavy rain is forecast for the next 24 hours. At this stage it is not possible to predict the flood peak because of uncertainty over how much more rain will fall. A flood watch remains current for moderate to major flooding for the Richmond and Wilsons River Valley. Predicted River Heights/Flows: Lismore – Exceed minor flood level (4.2 metres) around 6am Monday morning – Reach moderate flood level (7.2 metres) around 3 pm Monday afternoon.
