My physio cheered me on with a simple ‘Yeah, you can do it!’ as we aced our second pass at the Mardi Gras parade route after my right-leg amputation last year.
We did the entire 1.7km route in about 30 minutes – faster than the stop-and-go reality of the night.
There’s a few dodgy potholes along the way, which I’ll be writing to Clove Moore about :)
Oh, and I now have experience with the rain, just in case. I’ve just got to combine the walking with the dance moves 
For just a brief moment last night I thought we might have seen the start of “flood rain” here in Lismore. “Flood rain” is the phrase used in my family to describe sustained, heavy rainfall that, as you might expect, eventually leads to flooding. You don’t necessarily identify it by the volume of rain that falls. No it’s more the sound of the rain that identifies it as flood rain.
Just like they have dozens of words for “snow” in Iceland – or is that just an urban myth? – we have lots of words and phrases for rain and flooding in my family. “Is it as big as 74? No it’s more like 87” and “It’s up to AGR’s corner” are the kinds of phrases we use.
That’s what happens when you grow up in a flood-prone area. While the capital city media is declaring the area “at risk of major flooding”, ask my sister and she’ll say, “the river’s up a bit”. Ask her if she wants help moving up some of the many things stored under the house, she’ll say “oh no, it’s alright, they’ll wash away and we’ll replace them”.
Anyway, we’ve had some periods of quite heavy rain – mostly at night over the last few days – and then tonight, there was a story on the local news tonight about how the area can higher than average rainfall over the next few months. We shall see, I guess.
The last time I was home there was the risk of flooding in Lismore, and for an afternoon I found myself on the radio giving out flood warnings. I “worked” a fair bit on that holiday. In contrast, this would have to be the most relaxed holiday I’ve had in quite a while.
When I think about my holidays last year – four weeks in Europe and two weeks in China – they were both fairly hectic. Even though they were “holidays” I was still pretty active with lots of activity from day to day.
Even when I was home at Christmas time, I still worked for a couple of days and was pretty much “on call”. It’s the same this time, but somehow it’s been more relaxing and the phone hasn’t run nearly so much. My sister noticed this on the day I arrived home, harking back to the day when I flew home at Christmas and the phone had rung half a dozen times on the drive between Ballina and Lismore. This time it’s been much, much more relaxed which is a blessing.
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon doing some “internet training” with some older family members – the sister and brother-in-law or my brother-in-law. They’re developing a bit of an interest in family history, and so I was in a good position to put them in the right direction. In particular, they’re trying to track down a family member who hasn’t been seen since the mid 1980s. Although they have a reasonably unusual name in Australia – it’s a German name – I still found it difficult to track him down, though I think I’ve given them a few hints in the right direction.
And then tonight, it’s been another evening for dinner and chatting around the television set.
Even though I spent last night complaining about how there was already too much about the Royal Wedding, that didn’t stop me from watching two documentaries on the ABC (6.00pm and 8.30pm) and then hopping over to watch “The Queen” on Channel 7 (or Prime, as I should say up here on the North Coast).
The Queen is such a good movie, eh? Although much has been made of the outstanding role played by Dame Helen Mirren, I thought all of the actors played their roles well without resorting to caricature and cliche. Even the Duke of Edinburgh who is a bit of a cliche and caricature in the way he is portrayed in the media, came across as a highly believable character.
I’m back to work tomorrow – working from the office up here – and then back to Sydney and back to work proper on Thursday and Friday. Still, it’s been nice having a holiday with only a few phone calls to answer.
After a couple of days visiting San Sebastian and Bilbao, we’re on the train headed back to Madrid. In common with the trip from Barcelona to San Sebastian, the trip takes about five hours, and once again, we’re passing through the vast countryside of Spain.
At first, the landscape from Barcelona to San Sebastian was largely flat. In some respects it resembled those parts of Western NSW (around Broken Hill), across the border into South Australia. The closer we got to San Sebastian, the more mountainous it became. Slowly, as we approached San Sebastian, it began to feel less like “Northern Spain” and more like “Southern France”. The border between the two countries is only a short distance away. The train, which had reached high speeds, slowed dramatically, as we travelled through gorgeous small mountain townships until, eventually, when approaching San Sebastian, it became snail like.
My first impression of San Sebastian was one of slight disappointment. Though there were some lovely older buildings, and in the distance, a statue of Jesus overlooked the city, there were too many tourists for my liking. And yes, I’m aware of the irony of being a tourist and not liking tourists. Though initially I said it was like the Gold Coast (which Sue chastised me about), it’s most definitely a tourist town with lots of up-market shops.
On Sunday morning, we caught the bus to nearby Bilbao, where we met a lovely man who Sue knew from the University of NSW. He’s from a nearby town (forty-five minutes by car from Bilbao), who had spent six months studying in Sydney, and was now back in his home town, studying, and hoping to start a new job. He was an excellent tour guide and guest for our six hour visit to the city. It was also fun to hear his reflections on living in Australia including the initial struggles he had with “university mealtimes” being closer to 6.00pm, compared with the much later times he was more familiar with in Spain.
Bilbao is home to the world famous Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry. As we walked around the museum, the audio tour explained the building was designed to be “as interesting as the artworks themselves”. Outside there were two major works by Jeff Koons – “Puppy” and “Tulips” – which were wonderful, and which attracted a lot of attention. Inside, there were some terrific works by De Kooning and Basquiat, as well as a rather timesome exhibit of folk-art. Yawn. Had we more time to wander around, I’m sure there would have been more to see.
Wandering around the city, we took in various historical sights, had an awesome lunch at a place which translate as “Mammas”, and had some gelato at a local place, known for experimentation eg: squid-in and cod flavoured. An awesome day. I really liked Bilbao. It had a “university town” feel about the place.
As I was starting to feel the effects of non-stop travelling, I slept for most of the bus trip back to San Sebastian. Last night, while Sue wandered into the old part of San Sebastian for dinner, I stayed in my room, napped, read a few things, and just “relaxed”. My feet were also a little sore, as we’re generally clocking up fifteen to twenty-thousand steps daily.
One of the other disconcerting things about visiting Spain at the time of the year is waking early and discovering it’s still dark. Sunrise is about eight in the morning.
And so after waking and having breakfast, this morning, we put our bags in lockers at the bus station, and caught the hop-on-hop-off bus, taking us eventually to Mount Urgull. At the top of a fairly steep “mini mountain” (I needed to take a rest halfway up), there’s a statue of Jesus (yes, another one), overlooking the city. There isn’t however, a church in sight. At the top of the mountain, Jesus overlooks spectacular views of the city, surrounded by eighteenth century cannons.
Tomorrow, we’ll spend the day travelling to and from Toledo. For me, that’s the end of this wonderful trip. I’m catching a plane tomorrow night, with an overnight stay in Delhi, before arriving back in Sydney later in the week.
It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s another glorious day in Sydney. In fact it’s been glorious all week. Winter is really holding out this year. It’s the first of May and I’m sitting here in just shorts. And this time last year, I can remember being in Melbourne and almost being frozen to death.
It was even nice for Anzac Day this week and, as usual, I worked. But after work I caught up for lunch with my friend John who has spent some time travelling in Thailand and Laos which he said were both terrific. We had lunch in the Spanish quarter which was greatand then wandered through the city ending up in Hyde Park which was a really nice way to spend the public holiday.
I’ve been reasonably social this week having attended a few concerts, have gone out for drinks and have attended the opening of a new gallery and a new exhibition.
On Tuesday night, for example, Michaela, Mel and I went to the “Media Launch” of Il Divo, an “opera boy band” put together by Simon Cowell from American Idol fame. They sang just five songs but the show seemed to last for hours. Most interesting was an Italian version of Toni Braxton’s “Unchain My Heart” and most controversial was a version of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. They look good and they sing well. However, they can’t move – it was like watching a black and white fashion ad – and there wasn’t all that much passion in their performance. That’s why I thought they were a little boring.
And then on Friday night, Colin, Grant and I went to see Tim Draxl perform live. I’d first heard of Tim Draxl about four or five years ago when, under the tutelage of Les Solomon, he was proclaimed as “the next big thing” following in the footsteps of David Campbell. I actually interviewed him at the time. We spoke in particular about his interesting upbringing as one of four songs of Austrian-Australian ski instructors and of his career ambitions in music, but more significantly in acting. I got the impression at the time acting was more of an interest for him than was cabaret. I’ve since seen him in a couple of movies, including “Swimming Upstream” and “The Shark Net” (which were both good), but also in the telemovie about the television series, which was maybe not so good.
As to why he has returned to music, I don’t know, and he didn’t really say in the show either other than what I thought was a fairly trite line about singing his favourite songs and playing in a venue that the likes of Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra had played. Actually, quite a bit of the show featured strong versions of standards, including “A Foggy Day In London Town” and “Night & Day”. But as a performer I thought he really came to life with more contemporary numbers, including a song by Billy Joel, and in the more obscure musical theatre numbers he chose. I think it was really then that he became authentic as a performer. He sings like an angel and with such control, but to be honest, I thought his ability to bring new life to standards was limited. A bit like Harry Connick Junior and Michael Buble doing the classics… nice… but nothing new.
Likewise, I thought the patter in between tracks was often contrived and a little disingenous. When he spoke it was very clearly tightly scripted and lacked that authenticity I mentioned earlier. However when he sang a three item tribute to a broken relationship he really came to life as a person. One song, “I’m Alright Now” in particular, made me pretty weepy as it allowed me to reflect on my own relationship breakup.
And then in stark contrast, last night I went to see Combat Wombat, a reggae-flavoured hip hop band from Melbourne featuring DJ Wasabi aka Tom Jones. No, it’s not the boring aged Welsh singer, it’s Tom Jones, formerly of Matong, Wagga Wagga, Newcastle and now Melbourne, son of my friend Kate. Their music is both political and danceable in that “Jabiluka” kind of way. By this I mean the kind of sounds that I first came across at the Jabiluka protests of the late 90s in the Northern Territory. Most of those attending had a strong commitment to envirionmentalism and social justice, but unlike their parents whose artistic representation of that was folk music, these kids had grown up with dance beats and technology.
Amongst the group of us who attended last night’s concert – the group of old people – was a member of a legendary Australian rock band. Peter said he’d been chatting with another “old muso”, a very well known bass player who just couldn’t believe that Combat Wombat’s range of instruments included only samplers and turntables. “I can’t believe they plug in all those leads” was the incredulous comment his friend made.
But drawing upon earlier traditions – Midnight Oil, David Bridie – their show also included background video footage focussing on issues of peace, environmentalism and national identity with The “Irish dancing John Howards” being a highlight.
The music was also terrific. I thought Tom – aka Wasabi – was just amazing. I also thought one of the vocalists – the female one whose name I don’t know – sang with such a huge amount of passion and authenticity.
In between time, I also had the opportunity to visit the opening of the new Damien Minton Gallery and the Salon des Refuses exhibition at National Trust-SH Ervin Gallery, which featured “rejects” from the Archibald Prize.
Work continues to go well although I’m desperately needing a holiday. It’s been an amazingly busy 12 months with work and I haven’t really had a holiday for eighteen months to two years. I’m working towards a good holiday in the next month or so…
In an otherwise busy, busy day at work – one where I barely spent five minutes looking away from my computer – I looked briefly out my window. And there, to my surprise, was a rather spectacular Sydney skyline.
Within minutes, I had a group of colleagues in my office taking advantage of the view, and desperately trying to remember the names for different cloud formations we learned during primary and high school.
Pretty quickly, though, we were all back at work, since Fridays are usually a fairly busy day in my particular part of the second floor. We don’t “wind down” on the weekends, we get busy.
And for me, it was an especially busy day as I had a deadline to meet. The deadline wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t already had two days at home sick in bed. Thanks to the wonderful help of a colleague, I was able to meet that deadline. Still. I ended up at the office far too late on a day when I probably should have stayed home.
It’s been a funny illness. I thought it was just some hay-fever. And then it became a bit bronchial. Sick enough to stay at home, but well enough not to be totally incapacitated. I didn’t worry about going to the doctor, since I know if I had he or she would have just said, “go home and rest”.
In fact, despite the rather bronchial cough, I felt quite okay about going back to work. I guess it’s just the hours I worked today were too long, and so when I came home tonight I was feeling pretty stuffed.
But on the positive, it meant I got to see a colleague who works nights and who I never see all that much these days, so that was really nice.
And then on the negative again, I was both too busy and not feeling well enough to catch up with my friend Andrew who had invited me for a late-afternoon beer. We have made plans to catch-up next Friday instead when I’m sure I’ll be much healthier and without any looming deadlines. That said, the last time we caught up for a late-afternoon beer, there was an earthquake and tsunami which provided a bit of a work-related distraction.
So even though I’ve had two days off work, I’m still looking forward to resting up on the weekend as a time for doing not much at all.
Tomorrow, of course it’s election day, so I’m looking forward to voting, and looking forward even more to the Bourke Street Public School’s sausage sizzle. And then around lunchtime, I’m planning to head to a lunch-time talk by the artist, Ray Cook at the Australia Centre for Photography.
And then on Sunday, I’m somewhat intrigued and may attend a “Fag Tag” event at the nearby Ray Hughes Gallery. “Fag Tag” is a flash-mob approach to creating “gay spaces” at places all over Sydney, not just gay bars. The fact that it’s about a 90 second walk from home makes it even more appealing. Anyone wanna join me?
It’s Monday afternoon and it’s a public holiday in Sydney. , although I’ve just spent a few hours at work. I also really enjoyed having a beer at the pub on the way home, since it’s a stinking hot day in Sydney. At the time of writing, I think it’s already in the 30s, meaning that summer is well on the way, as typified by the emergence of the leaves on the Plane Trees in my street. The last week or so has been quite busy and quite social. But to other things first…
Do you know how hard it is to be removed from an email list? Last year in Perth, I joined a couple of organisations which had an email distribution list. 11 months after leaving Perth, I’m still getting their crap.
And so on Thursday night, I wrote to them saying I know it can be hard running an email list… but honestly… I am writing to you once again asking you to remove me from your distribution list.
The first time I wrote was in January, soon after leaving Perth. I have used the unsubscribe function and I have written to this address on three or four occasions now, asking for my address to be removed from your list. And still I receive them…
As a result of your inaction, I have added you to my ISP’s list of Spam Providers. If I receive any more emails, I will write to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman detailing the correspondence. How’s that? By the way, I haven’t received an email to acknowledge this, so I’m just wondering if next month I’ll still be receiving their rubbish.
Over the last week, I’ve been out for a meal or two and a drink or two, but probably the biggest highlight was this weekend when my friend Patrick drove up from Canberra. On Saturday night we went to see Elaine Paige at the Sydney Opera House. And of course, she started with an encore! Yes, Elaine Paige came to the stage of the Sydney Opera House with the kind of song she’d normally be asked to come back to perform. In fact, when I think about it, most of the night’s songs were the kind of song you’d perform as an ecore.
This week will also be reasonably busy with theSydney Bloggers Meetup on Tuesday and the Andrew Olle Media Lecture on Friday. Not much else to report.
We’ve had a series of warm nights in Sydney. You know? Those nights where you wake up in the middle of the night, look at your phone, and can’t possibly believe it’s 27 degrees. It was one of those nights last night, and so when I woke in the middle of the night, I hopped online for a while, chatted with an overseas friend, and found myself unable to get back to sleep. So I went for an early morning walk down to Circular Quay. Just as hot and sticky as at home, but with hardly anyone around, it was a really lovely place to look around. Gorgeous views, of course.
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