Since 2002, I’ve been writing here about life, the universe, and everything. My interests include genealogy, history, and the arts. More recently, since July 2023 I’ve been writing about my experiences as a below-the-right-knee amputee.
“We’ve got to go to the Opera House”, I said to my friends Sue and Heather tonight. Although I’d seen my friend Sue (from Melbourne) the week previously, I hadn’t seen Heather for about seventeen years. She’s been living in the “middle of nowhere” and overseas a while. But as they were both from elsewhere, somewhere that featured a view of the Opera House just seemed logical for a 20 year catchup. Although “Opera Bar”…
“It’s more Swedish than Sweden” was the text message I sent to my friend Grant who was originally going to join me at the Swedish Church in Sydney fete held today. Unfortunately, he was ill and couldn’t make it, but that didn’t stop us texting each other in Swedish throughout the day. When it came to a real-life conversation in Swedish with some real-life Swedes I experienced a little bit of stage fright today. When…
The first was a lunchtime celebration for just our part of the organisation at the AB Hotel in Glebe which was excellent. The food was very good. The service friendly. And despite the rain, many of us spent the afternoon in the comfortable outdoors courtyard. The second was the annual bash at Ultimo. “You’re a real trooper on the dance floor”, one of the DJ’s said to me at one point during the night. He…
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…
“How do you go at traffic lights?” is one of the questions that really shits me when I mention to someone that I’m colour-blind. “Oh no, it’s fine”, I say politely, when what I really mean to say is “do you think I’m a total idiot who can’t pick the difference between top, middle and bottom?” I never actually knew I was colour-blind until about twenty years ago when I had to go and have…