I slept in until about ten o’clock this morning, partly because of the daylight saving change, which always takes my body a few days to adjust to, and partly because I had a late night. Well, not that late—I was in bed by about 12:30 and asleep half an hour later—after I enjoyed a night of Bingay with some of my ABBA fan friends from Sydney.
Bingay, like bingo, involves crossing off numbers on a sheet of paper, but with a twist: the music was all ABBA, and the host was a drag queen. Supported by the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), there were lots of members of the LGBTQIA+ community attending, including five out of the seven in our group.
Charisma BelleCharisma Belle
The event was part of Sydney Fringe, and was held in a pop-up venue at Darling Harbour. Although I’d contacted the festival and they said they would make the event staff aware of my needs as a wheelchair user, the staff last night said they weren’t aware. Nonetheless, they acted quickly to make a space for me and my friends in the front row.
“It’s actually not that bad”, a friend and I agreed about the alcohol-free beers we drank.
Being in the front row meant lots of audience participation, and we even won a few prizes. The prize I won was for a movie preview of the new documentary film, “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.” “This is for you, because you’ve been gorgeous all night,” the drag queen, Charisma told me. Along with partner, Naomi, they put on a terrific show, full of humour and lots of humanity.
“I felt a little teary”, I told my friend who came to my house, and escorted me throughout the night. “It means I CAN get out and about again.
As I came home tonight I wandered through Hyde Park.
I know people say you shouldn’t walk through Hyde Park at night, but I’m reasonably okay with things. My feeling is that if you’re a bit drunk you should probably avoid it, because you’re generally speaking, a little distracted. But if you’re sober, and keep your eyes about you, you’re okay.
That said, I could be completely wrong, and sorry to have given you a bum steer.
I had a lovely night attending a function in respect of the forthcoming Sydney Festival. Unfortunately I missed the same event last year due to overseas travel, but it was a good event and a welcome change from the rest of the day.
Although my job is usually quite glamorous it’s sometimes kinda boring too. It’s like any job I guess.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to stuff envelopes”, I sometimes tell colleagues. It’s something you have to do, and often it helps you put everything in perspective about how most of the world lives.
Recently though, I read a rather interesting article about work, and have been trying to see how it might apply in my own life.
According to the Founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, he tries to divide his days up according to the type of task he needs to achieve.
In his recent blog post, he talks about dividing up his tasks according to being in the zone. He mentions coding as an example of where you need to really concentrate on something.
So I’ve been experimenting with dividing up my days and weeks into the different tasks I need to do. When I need to think about creative stuff, I try to block off some time just for that. When I need to do “people stuff”, I try to get all of my “people stuff” done at once.
It’s been another day of television catchups for me.
Most significantly, I’ve watched a few episodes of Underbelly (the second series).
I didn’t really see the first series, although I’m not sure why, though I suspect it’s the advertisements that turned me off.
Thanks to internet downloads all the ads are removed, and thus commercial television becomes emminently more watchable.
I’m not convinced by Matthew Newtown portraying a major drug dealer, though I do love the bloke who plays Bob Trimbole. He really looks the part, and you have a real sense that’s probably what Bob Trimbole was like.
The whole Donald Mackay murder thing has fascinated me for many years. I remember hearing about the story as a child, and for whatever reason I was quite enthralled by the story.
And then when I lived in the Riverina for a few years in the early 1990s, I learned a little more about the story, and in particular the impact all of this had on the town of Griffith.
I think Griffith is a great town, by the way. Every time I’ve been there I’ve had a great time. The people are very warm. The food and wine the town offers is excellent. And there’s just a good lively buzz about the place.
Sadly for the years the town has had to live with a “reputation” for what happened back then. Every time something appears in the media you just know a lot of people hang their heads low, hoping this part of their history could just disappear.
But it is part of the town’s history and there’s three or four family names which continue to be associated with the drug trade, and interestingly enough they’re all buried close to each other in Griffith’s cemetery. It’s well worth a look if you ever visit the town, thanks to the large headstones and mausolea.
Having some knowledge of the town and the people, it’s been interesting to watch this series of Underbelly.
So yeah, Bob Trimbole believable, but some of the others not.
I also watched a bit of the Little Britain in the USA marathon on Foxtel, and a few episodes of The Simpsons.
Although I’m not sure exactly what kind of desk I’m after, I’m looking for a new desk at the moment, something larger than the one I currently have. I’m finding that with a scanner, and a printer, and an external hard drive, and digital set-top box, and other assorted paraphernalia, I’m running out of room. I want something as big as the discarded desk I saw in my back lane-way on the weekend, though obviously not as ugly.
I’ve got a great desk at work: one of the great advantages of taking a leading role in last year’s office make-over. Plenty of room to spread out, though not so much room that it ends up cluttered. And as people come into my office I’m able to face them directly.
Here at home when I’m at my desk, I can either look straight out the window to my beautiful tree-lined street or look sideways towards the television. But at the moment everything is all very cramped in one of those small computer-tower style desks. I’ve seen a couple of replacement ideas in catalogues over the last few months, but nothing’s really grabbed me yet. I want something solid, without being too heavy. I’m more interested in surfaces than drawers – drawers just get filled up with rubbish, though I wouldn’t mind some storage for business-type files. I’m prepared to pay $200-300. Any suggestions?
I was tired after work today and so didn’t go to Swedish class. I’m a little exhausted after the last two days at work which I’ve found a little boring and bureaucratic. So I came home, bought a pizza, bought a bottle of wine, and did absolutely nothing, as I consumed both while watching television.
Twelve months ago in Sydney we were recovering from the dust storm. Twelve months later it remains a topic for conversation in Sydney. And it’s an event which has influenced two of the photographs in this year’s Sydney Life art exhibition in Hyde Park.
One is a reasonably straightforward representation of the storm taken on the north side just near the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The other is more interesting, and my favourite in this year’s exhibition.
Mikhail and the Dust Storm by Christopher Lawrie. It’s obviously been photoshopped in some way, as it features a young man with striking dark features (and a hint of redness in his eyes) against a background of the storm taken in the southern suburbs of Sydney.
Twelve months ago this weekend, Kate and I were on an art crawl, visiting a number of galleries, including the rather fantastic White Rabbit. Today I went on an art crawl of my own, taking part in a guided tour of Art and About.
Art and About has expanded quite significantly this year. This year in Hyde Park there’s a fair bit more than Sydney Life, with art and craft workshops and a rather spectacular idea which has involved dressing up various statues around the city in a variety of interesting and sometimes outrageous clothing and adornment.
Although much of the focus in the media and on blogs has been on Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Captain Cook, I was rather taken with the William Bede Dalley statue in Hyde Park and the wild boar statue, Il Porcellino.
The Dalley statue was interesting because a) I’d never noticed the statue before and b) I loved the way they gave him sunglasses and a “green” theme. And I loved the wild boar statue simply because a) it’s a great statue anyway and b) the idea of putting wings on a pig is simple and effective.
As I wandered back through the city I jumped on a bus which I assumed would take me further back up George Street to Railway Square. Wrong. Before I knew it, I was half way over the Anzac Bridge. With a deep breath, I figured there was little to lose and it gave me an opportunity to wander – without plans – around Balmain. The one opportunistic discovery I thought I might made was visit/trespass on the White Bay re-development site which Carol mentioned. Although I was tempted and tried to trespass today, I couldn’t find a suitable entrance, and got scared at all the signs about not trespassing.
It was interesting to walk around some of the back streets of Balmain, though, especially since I only really know the main drag. I discovered, for example, a little laneway called Datchett Street which has wonderful houses, wonderful views, and is so tiny and intriguing, I couldn’t help but think I’d like to live there sometime.
Catching the ferry back to Darling Harbour, I attempted to purchase an ice-cream, but with lengthy queues – as bad as those at Sydney Ariport today – I ended up with a slurpee.
As I wandered back through the city I came across an unexpected parade which had closed off much of George Street.
If there was ever such a thing as the “Sydney Straight Mardi Gras” this was it. Lots of “golden oldies” rugby union players from Australia, NZ and the Pacific have gathered on George Street in a range of costumes. Lots of Aussie flags, kangaroo outfits, etc.
When I thought the day was just about over a mate invited me out for a drink and to listen to some old style disco tunes at The Midnight Shift.
Quite a diverse Sunday you might say. And a day with absolutely beautiful weather here.
“What happened on the twenty-eighth of February was not a flood. I’ve lived through over 40 years of floods, all of us have in Lismore and the Northern Rivers. This was like an inland tsunami. It was utter devastation, and it was a humanitarian disaster. And that’s why I want to make sure that we’re not forgotten.”, Janelle Saffin, the NSW Member for Lismore, told me as I interviewed her about the exhibition “Through the heart… a flood of fears and tears”, currently on display at the NSW Parliament.
In the weeks and months after the floods in February/March, “retired” Lismore photographer, Jacklyn Wagner knocked on the doors of people in parts of town where there were “signs of life”. These were the houses where people, despite the devastation, people had chosen to return “home”.
She knocked on the door of a number of my own family members and took their photographs.
Jack Bobbin, featured in the flood survivors exhibition at the NSW Parliament
Of the roughly 100 people she spoke to and photographed, only two said no. “And it wasn’t was never aggressively”, Jacklyn told me. “One person said I want to but I just can’t at the moment. I just don’t feel right. And the other one eventually got back to me., and they’re part of they’re part of it”.
Along with local politicians, Ben Franklin (National Party) and Janelle Saffin (Labor), some of the people from Lismore featured in the exhibition.
I first became aware of Jacklyn’s photography work in the exhibition “Southies”, a wonderful black and white photographic collection of the community, where I grew up, and where most of my family still lives, South Lismore. https://thelimbshift.com/2019/12/art-in-lismore/
The photographer, Jacklyn Wagner with myself, and Sydney Morning Herald journalists, Heath Gilmore and Catherine Naylor. Heath grew up in Lismore, and Catherine worked for a while at Lismore’s “Northern Star” newspaper. Their reporting on the flood and the aftermath has been with great local insight, and concern for the community.
At the launch and dinner afterwards, I chatted (sometimes quite emotionally) with a number of people from South Lismore. It didn’t take long to find the connectors. You just had to know a more specific address, a cross street. There were “only one or two degrees of separation, not six when it comes to people in Lismore”, a few of us joked.
“It was beautiful”, Katie said, adding “It was not what I was expecting to see. When you look at the photos… everybody looks so lost.”.
“I think everybody wants a little bit more clarity. I think they want a little bit more security. Because would you seem to be going round and round in circles, and no one’s giving us proper feedback. And you still today when it rains? We panic. And no person should live like that.”
The current exhibition of 25 photographs is at the NSW Parliament until November 24, and the complete exhibition of 100 photographs opens in May 2023.
Launch of Lismore flood exhibition at the NSW Parliament
When will it go on display in Lismore?
“We don’t have a gallery at the moment. I’ve thought about it quite a bit. I don’t know whether it’s actually the right time. It may not be for a couple of years. And it’s probably something I would actually consult with all those people who are in my project as to how they feel about that. I’m sure in time it will be but that’s the way I would approach it. I would want it to be somewhere beautiful for them in Lismore, too”, Jacklyn said.
Wonderful 😍❤❤❤❤❤
That sounds like a fun night out and a step above our own gay bingo. I’ve not heard of this Rock Hudson film. Interesting.