Our morning in Wuxi began with a stark reminder of how weather can change even the best-laid plans. It was the final day of the Dragon Boat Festival public holiday, and our first stop was a park by a lake. We could see stalls set up and decorated, ready for bustling crowds, but the paths were eerily empty. The reason was the rain—a persistent, soaking downpour.
I donned my trusty plastic poncho, which I’d ironically picked up at Big W in Sydney a couple of weeks ago, noting its “Made in China” label. As I stepped off the bus, I immediately realised the ground was incredibly slippery. For me, every step was a calculated risk, and I was genuinely worried about falling over.
I took things very, very slowly and even took a photo out in the rain to document the moment. But as I watched the rest of the group head off in their rain gear, I had a moment of clarity and asked myself, “What in God’s name am I doing here in the rain?”
I decided the risk of falling was far too great. While the others went on to explore what they later said was a beautiful view of the lake, I remained on the small vehicle. I was perfectly happy and secure in my choice, content to enjoy the peace and quiet and, most importantly, stay upright. It was a clear reminder that sometimes the smartest decision is knowing your limits.
From that wet and challenging start, our next stop was an indoor one: a visit to a local Pearl Factory. The tour gave us an insight into China’s significant freshwater pearl industry and the cultural importance of these gems, which have been a cherished export since the Han dynasty. We learned all about the cultivation and intricate processing required to produce the lustrous pearls.
This was definitely one for the women of the trip. While the men showed genuine interest in the manufacturing process, our eyes collectively glazed over once we entered the sprawling showroom filled with finished jewellery. The tour guide took one look at me, and he smiled and pointed me directly towards the coffee stand—a suggestion I happily accepted. Meanwhile, many of the women were in their element. A number of them even ventured into the exclusive VIP room, where we saw some truly exquisite pieces, including one breathtaking pearl necklace with a price tag of around $200,000 AUD!
Following the factory visit, we settled in for the 200-kilometre coach journey to our next destination, Hangzhou, a city renowned for its stunning natural beauty and historical sites.
After a month of travelling back and forward between Sydney and Canberra (for work), it’s terrific to be back at home. Hotel rooms are lovely, but there’s nothing like the feeling of being in your own bed and having your own “stuff” around you.
Lots of signs around Canberra in support of marriage equality
For those who do it more regularly, it must be a difficult life. There was a moment a couple of weeks ago, as I looked around the breakfast room at one of the hotels I stayed at, and I looked at all of the single men sitting by themselves having breakfast, I realised how lonely that kind of life must be. Later in the day, you would see them sitting in the bar by themselves, having a beer.
Though I really enjoyed the opportunity to work between Sydney and Canberra, and I really loved working with the team at ABC Radio Canberra, I’m kinda pleased it was only for a month.
Regrettably, I didn’t spend enough time exploring Canberra. As I was combining a couple of jobs, and never strayed much beyond work and “home”, I never made it much beyond Civic, Dickson and Braddon. Entertainment-wise, I also never strayed much beyond Bar Rochford, King O’Malley’s and Red Chilli. Though I did attend a film, as part of the Italian Film Festival, and went to the opening night of the Wharf Review, both of which were very enjoyable.
Meats at Red Chilli in Canberra
And on top of all that, as in Sweden a couple of years ago, I’ve developed a case of Cold urticaria due to the combination of colder temperatures and 24×7 exposure (at work and in the accommodation I’ve been staying) to air-conditioning.
RUOK Day with the team at ABC Radio Canberra
So this weekend is hopefully a weekend of wearing shorts, getting my body a little exposed to fresh air and sunshine, and catching up with friends ahead of my next big adventure which is only two or three weeks ago. More to come.
Tonight I went to an event a Twitter in Sydney about the federal election, with an awesome panel including people from Fairfax (Tory Maguire), Sky (Laura Jayes), Nine (Chris Uhlman) , Buzzfeed (Alice Workman) and New York Times (Damien Cave). As well as awesome drinks, canapes and views, there was also an awesome discussion.
These are my raw notes from the night. A combination of interpretation and direct quotes. Hopefully I haven’t misquoted anyone. I was particularly taken by the observation about how lots of places are providing solutions to the problems the government isn’t introducing. What’s happening in your town/city which the rest of Australia could learn from?
TWITTER #AUSVOTES2019 LAUNCH
Fact: one quarter of the world’s population will go to an election this year, mostly in Asia.
A lot has happened since 2016, both in the media and politics, here and overseas. What’s the state of Australian political discource?
Laura – people don’t care about government debt, their own credit cards matter. Lots of journalists got it wrong in 2016. Don’t think polling is accurate. Focus groups don’t capture an accurate view.
Chris – change is the only constant, with media pitches to left and right have become more extreme. “Gated communities of the mind”. “Scream yourself hoarse discourse”.
Alice – is this a generational thing? Main users of Facebook in Australia are boomers. Clive Palmer’s online supporters are young trolls. All outside the AEC, and how normal political propaganda is authorised. Thinks those who enrolled in postal survey may change political engagement this time. Only three federal politicians are socially literate. Tim Watts, James McGrath, but mostly relying on the young political operatives. Liberal party logs all their doorknocking information, every issue for every house.
Damien – in the time since Trump’s election, what have journalists learned/done? Not convinced all of the media missed the story. NYT covered this, but not necessarily the most read items. How do they get to the audience they need to listen to? Too much reliance on data/polls. Lessons to be learned about how coverage can be too insular, and people don’t engage with coverage.
How do you stay in touch? How do you get outside the bubble?
Check out the bald guy on the left
Laura – doesn’t live in Canberra, family not engaged in politics at all, friendship also not engaged. Worked for Sky for 12 years and parents still don’t have Foxtel. Time where you have to stop, read fiction. You’ve got to go the places. Go to Warringah. Talk to people. It’s not an exact science. I make a million phone calls today to people outside politics. Getting perspective and having a life.
Chris – came to journalism quite late, was a security guard beforehand. During US election, went outside Washington to old coal town, Logan County. Learned from this the lesson you shouldn’t assume other people are stupid because they disagree with you. The more damage Trump does in Washington the more they (his supporters) sent him there to do.
Alice says Rob Harris knew Turnbull’s leadership over when he called a press conference during Ursain Bolt race.
Damien – spends a lot of time in small towns “where they’re finding solutions the rest of Australia can learn from”. There’s a risk for media in being so geographically concentrated in the cities.
Tory – spent two days in Port Macquarie after Oakeshot voted with Gillard, and couldn’t find any response who supported him in what he did. Spoke to hundreds.
Damien – interested in themes which speak to larger global issues eg: breakdown of major parties, inequality, climate change. NYT readers are curious about the world.
Alice says she doesn’t spend a lot of time online, except at work. Used to live in Canberra, moved back to Sydney. Only sitting weeks. Speaks to a lot of people not involved. “Engage with politics the level I need to”. Sits at work with people who report on entertainment. Says most Australians can only name five politicians. Buzzfeed audience is interested in politics, but other stuff too!
Damien – politics isn’t the only conversation people want to have in Australia. You learn a lot more about people outside of political conversations.
Tory – focus groups say they’re not interested in politics, but they are interested in political issues eg: health, transport.
Alice – people switch off because they feel their seat doesn’t matter.
Chris – the big issue is a loss of trust in all institutions that goes back to the enlightenment eg: royal commission into banks, churches. People want something and someone to believe in. Coalition’s economic narrative about economy growing – no one believes it. Labor’s message “Everything is going up except your wage”. People aren’t feeling the benefits of a growing economy. The government’s not doing things it should do eg: power. “The times will suit Bill Shorten”. Who can remember Abbot’s inquiry into the union movement, whereas everyone can remember the banking inquiry”. “People are driven by their emotions”. Shorten has a “Robin Hood argument going on”.
Laura – voters in 30s, 40s, 50s have never known a recession. Authenticity is one of the biggest things in this election. Lots of politicians out of touch on issues like climate change. She lives in Wentworth. Independents have an authenticity thing going on for them. Abbott – you love him or you hate him.
Tory – lots of independents who are straight out of central casting, except on the issue of climate change.
Alice – caro isn’t running, if you want to topple an incumbent, there’s got to be one clear candidate.
Tory – what is the mythical “middle Australia”?
Laura – hard to define, but elections are won in the middle. The liberal party has no idea who their base is.
Alice – internal liberal polling shows people hated turnbull, it’s power prices. The nationals want a scare campaign. The liberals won’t support it.
Laura – the nats will lose seats they’ve held forever.
Chris – we’re always in search of the middle. Compulsory voting forces people to the centre. The coalition has moved so far to the right it can no longer articulate the concerns of the centre. Howard picked the mood on climate change through drought, water restrictions in the city. People feel there’s something going on with the climate they believe is real.
Alice – when parliament resumes next week it will be a nightmare for the coalition.
Tory – given the structure of our parties, are we ever going to have an inspirational leader?
Damien – the middle can lead to a lack of innovation, but remains strong.
Chris – even if you think Shorten is a disappointment, he’s been constantly underestimated. Labor is taking the best articulated policy position since 1993, which includes radical changes to the economy. The two parties are a long way apart.
Laura – the best thing for Morrison is he’s grossly underestimated. Because everyone thinks Shorten will win, this helps Morrison. “Who is he really?” He’s shown so far he is a good campaigner.
Tory – on the ground, with normal people, he’s excellent, according to Fairfax reporters.
Alice – remember MT was older than Morrison.
Laura – Morrison has an evangelical belief in himself.
Damien – says Shorten is perhaps too cautious.
Does the media reflect view or is capable of changing views?
Laura – opinion is huge and what drives people to Sky. People are watching at night to have their own views re-enforced.
Chris – said strong things about Murdoch. Media has an effect, but increasingly people have made up their views and seeking re-enforcement. But there’s got to be room in the middle ground. 6Pm is still the biggest audience, though declining. What are the issues that are really biting is the question they ask every day at 9. Traffic, the price of petrol. People aren’t being selfish, they’re thinking about how they’ll bring up their family.
Damien – people do less searching for news, it’s more passive. Says there’s a dearth of independent data, eg; courts supression orders, selective leaks of data.
Chris – since the time of european settlement, the government has been suspicious of its people.
Laura – a good example of this is the lack of information coming out of defence, even in the language used.
Chris – Americans compile a monthly list of all the people killed in war, this doesn’t happen in Australia.
Does the media set an impossible standard for politicians?
Alice – politicians are afraid of a lot, including focus groups, scandals, but tony abbott first thing – we need to be boring, not interesting, shutting down the conversation. What we have to do as journalists is set the standard high.
Do we still have the bonk ban? :)
Laura – Andrew Broad: they set their own standards!!
Alice – does Tim Wilson pass the pub test? The political instinct is to lie.
Chris – married to a politician. Across the spectrum, the majority are well intentioned, trying to do the best they can. “They’re not a bad reflection of us”. Have seen good people destroyed by the media.
What is the challenge for the media?
Alice – to meet the audience where they are. In 2016 – Julie Bishop did a lot of snapchatting to an audience of 10!!!
Tory – Morrison did a Facebook live yesterday to 10,000 which would have been disappointing.
Alice – Facebook has changed, so it’s more family and friends than media interaction, unless your family/friends share. ALP is copying UK Labor eg: microtargetting football clubs. FM radio audience is dropping.
Campaign Predictions?
Chris – fight to the death, coalition will go after Shorten personally.
Alice – NSW will have a big impact in terms of money. NSW libs exhausted. Interested to see how it plays out in W/Syd. Have libs given up on W/Syd eg: lack of interest in Lindsay.
Daniel – after election, will embrace leadership unlike US/Trump.
Laura – anonymity of attackers is terrible in political debates. Things would improve if people had to include their names. After the election, the liberal parties will look very different. Loss of corporate knowledge for the liberals. Turnbull is still there!
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.
They’ve painted a rainbow pedestrian crossing at Sydney’s Taylor Square to celebrathe Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Apparently it cost a lot of money, and thus it’s been controversial according to the newspapers today. I have no idea if the story is true or not, and therefore have no valid opinions on the matter.
But I will say it was rather charming to walk across a rainbow pedestrian crossing tonight, and I rather enjoyed watching other people do the same thing, even if I did worry for a moment about the possibility of accidents, as people seemed to spend far too much time pausing and having their photograph taken, and not enough time crossing the street.
The reason I wandered to Oxford Street tonight was the hope for a brief glimpse of Swedish singer, Loreen. She won the Eurovision Song Contest last year, and is in Sydney for Mardi Gras. Late this afternoon I received an email indicating she would be at the Mardi Gras pop-up shop tonight, and would be signing autographs etc. On closer inspection, I noticed it was only possible if you had a ticket to the Mardi Gras Party.
Frankly, I’d rather poke a blunt stick in my own eye than go to Mardi Gras, these days. Although I was once an active participant in all the Mardi Gras festivities, and still support them strongly “in principle”, I feel that most of what’s on offer now is “just not my thing”. I find both the parade and party too crowded, and also dislike the party drug culture. It’s a decade since I’ve been to the party, and I only occasionally wander down to the parade now, so maybe things have changed? I suspect not.
Even tonight as I wandered down to Oxford Street, I was a little overwhelmed by the crowd. And it’s the night BEFORE Mardi Gras, not the actual night itself.
But the possibility of seeing a brief glimpse of Loreen tonight got me out of the house. I didn’t see her, because there’s absolutely no way I was going to pay a huge amount of money for a Mardi Gras ticket, even if I could have resold it later. Just too much effort, I thought, and at the end of the day I concluded I’d rather see her at Melodifestivalen in Stockholm next week. My flight leaves Monday at 9.00pm.
This, by the way, is my favourite all time performance by her at last year’s Gay Gala in Stockholm. This looks like much more my kind of scene…
My first attempt at “adult origami” was a bit of a disaster—a classic moment where I didn’t read the instructions properly, relying on my past knowledge to muddle through.
Fifty years after learning in primary school class, I have rediscovered the art / craft thanks to a former colleague, now retired, who visited me at the hospital. Unfortunately, it was half way through the COVID scare that led to my room being isolated, so the “no visitors” policy was already in place.
But she left a thoughtful gift : a wonderful book on origami with the necessary sheets of paper. to actually do it. Instantly, I saw this as an excellent way to pass the time and a potential activity to share with visitors during my stay. Moreover, I believe it could aid in my rehabilitation process by tapping into my own personal creativity, as well as some eye/hand co-ordination skills.
My first piece. Appropriately enough, an origami heart. Very simple, and with help from Youtube.
During the early weeks of my hospitalization, my mind felt like “mush.”
Michelle tells me there was concern about possible brain damage when I was brought into hospital, as I was in the midst of diabetic complications.
Even after coming out of the induced coma, in the wake of the three surgeries, I struggled to think clearly due to the impact of serious pain relief medication. I had difficulty concentrating. Simple emails and messages had to be read multiple times before attempting to respond.
It probably wasn’t until July 19 that I was able to write “properly” again, and even then, it was only a short blog post that took ages to write.
However, mentally and intellectually, I feel like I am gradually returning to my old self.
