Project 289 - Day 167 : Sad Day Yes But Love Reaffirmed Definitely

Today I was in my home town of Alstonville for my Auntie Liz's funeral.

After a night of fractured sleep, I woke up with a knot in my stomach dreading what was to come. But the morning turned out to be this bright wonderful affirmation of life in the midst of great sadness as the family including my lovely cousin, Rebecca and my Uncle and Aunt drew together and reminisced about Auntie Liz, tried on her collection of fun glasses, gave homes to her teddy bear collection (I took home two since you can't split teddy bears apart as you would know!), and caught up on lots of family news and holding of gorgeous niece, Zara -see below). Despite the looming funeral, we celebrated all the things that make our family special, and I even tried on my Great Aunt Lizzie's fur coat, the photos of which shall remain locked away in a hidden vault forever!

The first official part of the day was the crematorium at Goonellabah. In a sense the usual order of things was turned on it's head as we held the crematorium service ahead of the memorial service - caused by availability at the crematorium and not in an attempt to mess with tradition - something my Nanna couldn't quite understand, poor thing. I felt for her as Auntie Liz was her last surviving relative (her sister) and she is in effect now "marooned in history". The service itself was conducted by a good friend of Mum and Dad's, and was wonderfully informal, with all of encouraged to get up and recount what we loved about Auntie Liz (I am pictured during my recounting of my memories) and it resulted in lots of funny stories of a wonderful lady with a larger than life approach to life. The most touching part was sprinkling pink rose petals on her coffin, which proved hardest for my Nanna who struggled through with the help of my Mum.

After what turned out to be a wonderfully affirming time, we went to The House With No Steps' cafe situated on a property just outside Alstonville and largely staffed by people with mild intellectual disabilities. The food is not fancy but it is delicious, the staff are wonderfully friendly, and the lunch was a restful, fun interlude in an emotionally intense day, where we also found time to get photos of all five of the great nieces and nephews in attendance in Auntie Liz's glasses. She would have loved the fun we had with that, and laughed in her infectious way watching it all happen. It was a tribute that perfectly captured Auntie Liz's sense of silly fun.

The official part of the day finished with a beautifully orchestrated 40 minute service at the Nursing Home where Auntie Liz used to live, and it was touching to realise how much the staff, the chaplain (a lovely, warm hearted lady called Beth) and everyone loved Auntie Liz, and with a Life Sketch by my Aunt Helen and Uncle Gary, and a couple of Auntie Liz's favourite hymns was a fitting send off to a remarkable lady who we will all greatly miss....

..... then I had a mad dash to Ballina/Byron airport for my flight back to Sydney (thanks Stephen!!) and an arrival back in Sydney where I had this weird feeling that the previous 24 hours had all happened so quickly that they felt like a weird surreal dream. It took some time to emotionally acclimatise back to Sydney but I was glad I gto a chance to say goodbye to my lovely Auntie Liz and spend what turned out to be a remarkable 24 hours with my family.

Project 289 - Day 166 (Sunday 30 August 2009): Back to the Airport Once More

Today before I left for the flight back to Mum and Dad's for my Great Aunt Lizzie's funeral (The arrival home that night was warm and wonderful as always and Mum had me feeding on her delectable chicken & veges soup and sticky date pudding before I'd barely walked in the door!; I also had a delightful time talking to Mum and my lovely cousin Rebecca), I continued the carpark theme of Friday night and Saturday with cheesy carpark shots - well Kerry and I anyway do our best Japanese tourist poses! Ichiban! - and didn't the crowds love it!

We did get one or two weird stares from people (Odd really.... I mean who doesn't want holiday snaps taken in the airport car park?! Doesn't everyone do that?!) but I am used to that, as is Kerry and my beautiful guy (none of us are particularly enamoured of doing the 'done thing' just for the sake of it!)

Lest you think we spent the entire day in airport carparks - we were tempted to trust me, so beautiful and architecturally inspiring are they! LOL - Kerry managed to catch up finally with her friend Carla for brunch at Berkelouw's Bookshop in Newtown while my beautiful guy and I ran some errands at K-Mart.... yes I know! Do I live the high life or what?! K-Mart and an airport car park in the same day? I know how envious you must be... I can see the irridescent green glow from here.....

On a more serious note, it was a tough day. I was trying so hard to behave as if it was business as usual but the emotional stress of that got to me and I broke down at one point. Thankfully my beautiful guy especially was enormously warm, caring and supportive, and I made it through what felt like a very dark day in some respects. Thank goodness for the most wonderful partner in the world and my dear friend Kerry.

Project 289 - Day 165 (Saturday 29 August 2009) : Carparks, Opera and a Voice That Would Not

Yes we look like complete tourists here! Well being from Briz Vegas Kerry technically is so I just joined in, threw on a very abd American accent and off we went!

Kerry and Steve ponder the nature of life, the universe and where on earth do we go now we have eaten Yum Cha (all very delicious and in great quantities, naturally!) and shopped at DJs (for a gourmet food gift for Fahmi who stayed up till 1 a.m. to babysit Kerry... a wonderful gesture for any friend to make and worthy of a small gifty or two hundred!)... we eventually opted for a walk back to the car park (just for fun we drove to the top of it and back all the way down again in homage to P!NK the night before.... Kerry has a fabulous sense of humour and made the suggestion, and naturally my beautiful guy and I agreed straight away..who wouldn't ?! LOL) and a long relaxed nap-saturated afternoon before heading to see "Fidelio" (Beethoven's only opera... yes it's frightening the things I know) at the Opera House where we drove into yet another car park!

The opera production itself was marked byhigh drama (and not just in the story line!) when the lead singer did her vocal chords in 1/2 hour before curtain and they had to recruit a subsitute at very short notice (the understudy was in Melbourne naturally!)... so at 8.15pm we finally sat down for the 7.30pm start of the performance and experienced the surreal sight of Anke Hoeppner singing while the original lead spoke and acted... I had no idea where to look but like a subtitled movie, my eyes eventually focussed on the original lead and tried not to focus on the Milli-Vanilli-ness of it all!! High art Milli-Vanilli-ness true but Milli-Vanilli-ness nonetheless... man I need to stop writing that!!

... and oh yes if there was any doubt I am a screaming queen... doubtful but you never know!... then the photo above that includes the front of my fridge covered in hunky semi-naked men should put paid to that!! Yes, outed by my fridge!! LOL

Project 289 - Day 164 (Friday 28 August 2009) : Seeing Life Thru P!NK Coloured Glasses

What an amazing performance!

I went to her last concert in 2007 and found her to be a warm, engaging, real performer who laid on a spectacularly entertaining show that kept you engaged from the moment she walked off stage till the end of the inevitable encores. She was much the same this time around at ACER arena.... and then some! She is one of those performers who manages to make a massive arena feel like a small room, and who fully engages with her audience, even those of us in the 'nose bleed' section (thankfully row A so the bleeding was minimal!).

This time around, her outfits were sensational (including the shoes - I had a tip they'd be fab, and they were!) , the choreography brilliant (didn't hurt that the two male dancers in the troupe were handsome and well-built!), and her voice pure and powerful. She made very impressive use of video screens behind her, that showed all sorts of quirky funhouse, carnival images (in keeping with the Funhouse Tour theme), and like last time, took the ropes above the stages for the sorts of acrobatic stunts that must make her parents worry! Her dad and stepmom were in the audience - yes I know I used the Amercian shortening for mother but that's the word she uses so I figure it culturally appropriate!) - and her tribute to the longevity and love in their marriage provided one of the lovelier moments of the concert, as did the accoustic set she performed at the end of the runway attached to the stage.

But did the fun end when she walked off stage? No sirree bob! Why we reached the roof of the car park to find that everyone in the concert was leaving at once - what happened to stopping for a coffee or drink post concert? LOL We couldn't because we had to rush back to pick up my friend Kerry from my friend Fahmi's (she'd arrived on a flight from Briz Vegas while we were at the concert) - and it took us 25 minutes to inch half way out of our parking spot! We naturally, being the good hosts we are, kept Kerry and Fahmi updated every time we moved and at one point when it looked like we'd be spending the night on the roof, I gave in to hysterical laughter and Kerry etc followed suit. I wouldn't say it was fun being in post-concert gridlock (do I look masochistic? OK let me rephrase that!), but we certainly tried to make it entertaining, even taking some very goofy photos of the line up of cars, and our reactions to being entombed at ACER Arena's carpark.

Thankfully we were released eventually and made it to Kerry at 12.45 a.m. before driving home and sleeping in till 10 a.m. the next morning!

Project 289 - Day 163 : It Feels Odd After Yesterday That Life Just Goes On

It's strange how life goes on while the life of someone you love has just stopped....

It's an age-old truism I know that 'life goes on' but even still, it's jarring that the world around me keeps happily spinning around in all it's usual colour and chaos, when I don't feel much like joining in. It illustrates that you can know something in your head, but it won't necessarily affect your heart.... my heart may be at the game but it doesn't want to play ball really...

Today's photo is of the road outside my window at work - the visitors carpark is full, carpacks are zipping along the road, the sun is shining on what has been universally declared a perfect day - and everything is normal. In some ways it's enormously comforting but I also feel a darkness and a sadness over everything which likely won't shift till after the funeral next Monday....

Project 289 - Day 162 : One Less Candle Burning - Goodbye Auntie Liz (1908- 2009)

It's a very sad day.

My darling Great Aunt Liz passed away today at about 11 a.m.

She was born on May 13, 1908 and outlived her husband by 40 years, with a mix of verve, tenacity, fun, and enjoyment of life. She lived an amazing life, setting up a salon business in the 1930s (doubly impressive given the fact that women didn't usually do that in those days but especially in the midst of the Great Depression!), marrying a man 20 + years older than her that she met on a cruise, mixing with the creme de la creme of Sydney society, living in suburbs like Darling Point and Point Piper.... but most of all being the exotic fun Aunt we'd go to visit in Sydney, far removed from our world up on the far North Coast of NSW.

She was renowned for telling the same stories over and over, especially about life with her beloved George, and her trip through Europe in the early 1950s staying at all the best hotels and buying couture in Paris, but while it may have occasionally got repetitive, what it evidenced was a life lived in a world that she had largely crafted for herself, in an age when women didn't do that. She was more adventurous and daring that I realised when I was younger.

Most of all, though, she was like a second grandmother to me, and where we got to know her best as we grew up was on our special trips to Sydney where Mum & Dad would put us on the Kirklands bus, either alone or with a sibling, for what we felt was an amazingly exotic week in Sydney. We'd get dressed up, she'd take us to lunch at David Jones (high end dept store), to the movies, we'd go shopping for things you simply couldn't buy in Alstonville, and best of all, we'd get to spend time with a woman who knew how to have fun, and laugh.

These are some of the snapshot memories I have of her:

* Dancing in her night dress with my sister and I when I was 13 or so, to disco music in our kitchen on Ballina Road. She even hitched the night dress up so she could dance more freely, and she was in her 70s at the time!! I have this fabulous photo of her with her nightdress hitched up, leaning against the wall, and doing her best disco diva impression.

* Coming back from the City one day and telling the taxi driver to take "Moaning Road" (real name : Mona Road), which started her laughing in that insanely infectious laugh of hers, which naturally, got the rest of us laughing so hard we couldn't barely get the rest of the directions out or get out of the taxi!

* Watching "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Killing Fields" in the early 80s in Sydney, and her response being "Well they were 'interesting' ".

* She wore the brightest-coloured owl-shaped glasses in the 70s and 80s - lurid red, bright green, and shimmering blue. I loved the colours and the exotic look it gave her.

* Running to catch a plane with her on our way to my Granpa's funeral in 1999, when she refused to get a wheelchair and at 91, was limited in her movement to walking with a cane. We made the flight with two minutes to spare! I was stressed out of my brain but impressed that she wanted to do this under hew own steam!

* Trying to explain what a Compact Disc was and eventually giving up!

* Dragging her with her limited mobility to buy some funky stationery at Grace Bros in the 1980s, not realising how far she'd have to walk. She stoically soldiered on across Hyde Park, but kept loudly wondering how far the 'ruddy' shop was.

* Buying me my first proper hair brush - a Mason Pearson from David Jones. It was lovely and I used it for years and years thus confirming her assertion that that sort of quality will always endure. She loved David Jones, even buying all her groceries there.

* Having her confuse Mum and I as brother and sister on a shopping trip to Coles in Edgecliff in 2004 when we were readying her to move to a nursing home in Alstonville, and not having her believe we were mother and son for pretty much the entire outing!

* Taking her to see the first "Lord of the Rings" movie, and laughing at the stunned silence that followed. But she loved the movies and going out and so she came with me and Mum.... that was the year I drove her up for Christmas and we just made it back into Sydney before the bush fires sealed off the highway... and I only stayed awake on the drive up by power-popping marshmallows till we reached the motel in Coffs Harbour on Christmas Eve.

* Taking her to the yacht club at Double Bay, which she loved, and having her forget repeatedly that (a) she'd ordered at all, and (b) what she'd ordered. I have never been so glad to have food turn up in my life!

* Laughing at a joke with her, till it became a giggle, then a guffaw then rolling around on the floor silliness. No one could ever quite remember what we were laughing at!

* Living with her for 3 months in 1989 before I went overseas, and often sitting in her bedroom at night talking to her before I went to watch TV or sleep, and realising that she was very lonely after a life time spent living in the social whirlwind.

* Sitting in her sun room looking out onto people coming and going from the apartment block across the street, listening to her critique how they walked, looked, gestured. She was bitchier than lots of gay men I know, and an absolute riot! I loved those times, rocking back and forth in one of the rocking chairs, watching the sun go down over the glimpses of water we could see between the buildings.

* Waiting an eternity for her to unlock the multiple locks on her door in Eastbourne Road whenever you went to visit (and when you stayed there being afraid you'd never remember which ones to unlock first to let yourself in!), and listening to her complaints about the latest bunch of young troublemakers in the building.

>>> I am sure there is so much more I will remember as time goes by but most of all dear Auntie Liz, I will miss you being a part of my life, laughing till I hurt with you, hearing the story for the 1000th time about the Australian young man you met in France by the side of the road proudly proclaiming "This sir is the Australian flag!" when asked what he was holding, watching you enjoy being with the ones you love, the irrepressible sly glimmer in your eyes that hinted at a more envelope-pushing woman than you might have assumed you were, and most of all, having you as a rich beautiful part of the tapestry that is my life.

You will be missed.

Much love,

Andrew

(Both the photos are taken from Auntie Liz's 100th birthday celebrations in 2008 - the top one is me, my sister Helen and cousin Rebecca around Auntie Liz; the second is the whole extended family in my parents' family room)

Project 289 - Day 161 : Back to Swimming - Ahoy!

I made it to the pool for a 3rd time in a week and swam 800m.

I was frankly exhausted after someone joined me in my lane and had to swam a great deal faster than I really wanted to.

But I felt great afterwards, and promised to remind myself of this great feeling every time I am coming home on the train and trying to justify a night of sloth and indolence.

Hopefully I can keep it up, and restore some fitness to a body beset by sore backs etc of late....

(By the way the photo was taken was taken quickly on my iPhone (I felt silly taking a photo of the lanes with people in the gym next door) and doesn't reflect my chlorine blurred vision of the world!

Project 289 - Day 160 : More Good Karma Than an Indian City Full of Holy Cows

I went back to MYER today.

Now that is hardly ground breaking news that will have people uttering "ooh" and "aah" in wonder and amazement. But I went back to pay for something that I had taken from the store last Sunday, with the full support of the MYER person on the register.

Now lest you think I have started on a rocky road to a life of nefarious crime, aided and abetted by corrupt MYER staff (of which there are naturally, none, of course), I bought two Crumpler bags - a large messenger style one and a smaller one for my camcorder - and when I went to pay and the money orders I had were deducted, the leftover amount was much less than it should have been. Despite me mentioning this twice, the register assistant insisted he had put both through, and I must just have a 'special deal'. I didn't quibble further since we were in a hurry to see the new Harry Potter movie with friends, but when I checked the docket the next morning, he hadn't put the smaller of the two bags through.

So being an honest boy, and raised well (thanks Mum and Dad!), I trooped back to the store yesterday to pay for the smaller bag and do the right thing. Now, I write all this it seems very much like I am blowing my own trumpet but the intent is more to say that I am now wallowing in so much good karma, you can likely have something amazing happen just by looking at me... or an effigy of me (please don't burn it!) or a photo.... your choice....

I am just hoping that trumpeting my good karma doesn't cancel it all out.... hmm.... that is a philosophical question for a wizened mystic somewhere in a cave above Jalalabad.....

Project 289 - Day 159 : Finally Made a Date With Harry P

I went to the movies to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with my beautiful guy, and good friends Fahmi, Stephen and Esther. The movie was dark and narratively inconclusive, but I enjoyed it, and we followed all that pop culture wallowing with steak dinners at TheOaks pub in Neutral Bay. Great night with great friends!

In other news, I managed to get a parking spot on the street right at the top of my beautiful guy's apartment complex, rather than so far down the street, I am closer to Melbourne than Sydney (OK that's a slight exaggeration but it's in an in demand street!).... so to mark the moment I snapped a pic, and my beautiful guy displayed the requisite amount of gob-smacked surprise.....

Project 289 - Day 158 : More Walking on a Saturday Morning

For dubious reasons locked somewhere deep in my fractured psyche, I decided to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed at 7.30 this morning, and head over to Sydney Park across the road for 45 minutes of furious fat-burning exercise with my friend, Fahmi. It was an early start but the rewards were great conversation with a very good friend, fantastic weather (warm-ish with a Spring-like hint of cold), a friendly vibe in a park full of families, couples etc, and great views such as the one looking out to Sydney City )above, a fabulous reward up slogging up the vertiginous Hill of Death!)

Then back home via the street my apartment block sits on, Mitchell Road (see below) and the company of my beautiful boyfriend. Bliss.

Project 289 - Day 157 : My Man is BACK! Yeehaa!

My lovely man, who I haven't seen for a week is back in town after his foray to the ski fields, and I can't wait to see him....

That's it today folks - just breathless anticipation...

Oh and two fire alarms twenty minutes apart....two... count 'em... oh and I swam 800m and finally cleaned up my walk in wardrobe, which was accruing all the industrial chic of a slum.... OK, maybe not that bad, but it needed some organising and it got it...

Did I mention my stunningly gorgeous guy is back from outta town..... I did? Well frankly it does bear repeating and repeating till angry mobs, driven mad by my incessant comments about how happy I am to have him back with me, attack me with pitchforks, burning torches, and DVDs of old "Big Brother" seasons.....

Project 289 - Day 156 : Chai with Matoush

Matoush is a fellow Exec Assistant at work and he and I met early on since there aren't many male EAs period in most companies, and it made sense to get to know each other and see if we could help each other out in our jobs. In the process we became very good friends (it helped that on our first meeting 2 years ago I spilled hot chocolate all my pants, which broke the ice magnificently well!), sharing a love of sci-fi (and the yummy men of the Stargate universe in particular!), strange humour, and sexuality. 

Catching up is a great chance to step away from our desks (a rare event for just about any EA where lunch at the desk is pretty much de rigeur), grab some sanity back in insanely busy days, and throw a little humanity and friendship into the unforgiving corporate mix....

Project 289 - Day 155 : Slather Me in German Blue and Turkish Pink

This is how exciting today was...

I raced around like a psychotic peacock on acid (I am sure it happens in nature; David Attenborough just hasn't seen it yet!) at work, left at 5pm to go shopping for....... basic male cosmetic consumables from my favourite range NIVEA, Panadeine just in case I get a migraine (thankfully rare, and getting rarer....just need to watch the stress! Hmm, maybe I need a new job?!) , and everyone's favourite walking-home-buggered-from-a-long-day-at-work pick-me-up ....the chocolate bar, which I actually forgot to eat....

Yes I forgot to eat it...... man I must haev been tired!!

Going Batty In My Older Age

Project 289 - Day 154 : Tick Tock Tick Tock.... Zzzzzz

It was a very long day.

Started at 7.30 a.m. when I got on the train to work.

Ended, after much running around, Outlook tampering, and stress, and an eternally long management meeting, at 8.10 p.m. when I got in the door, Indian curry take away in hand.

(Photo, above, shows the time I walked away from my desk)

Very tired.

Did a few low key things and then went to bed.

What an exciting day.

Woohoo....

Project 289 - Day 153 : Passport to Happiness

I can legally leave the country now! Yippee!

Well I have to wait till 25 October for my flight, and my photo, which precludes me smiling or showing any facial expression whatsoever, does make me look like a socially mal adept career criminal, and I need to pay off some debt first BUT then I can leave the country....

Yep so close I can taste it... yep just seconds to go...yep... any moment now..... sigh....

Project 289 - Day 152 (Sunday 16 August 2009) : All About Zara - Part 2

Project 289 - Day 151 (Saturday 15 August 2009) : All About Zara - Part 1

Project 289 - Day 150 : A Star is Born...Sort of

I won an award today for my star turn in the silent movie filmed last Monday!

As I mentioned in Monday's blog, because it's a silent movie and not reliant on dialogue, you need to OVER ACT! Now being the shy retiring wall flower that I am - hahahahahaha! Ha! - I found this an enormous NON challenge and just acted like I normally would... plus a litle more. Naturally this meant I stood like a sore thumb and Gained the best actor award for the movie.

I am ready for my close up Mr De Mille......

Project 289 - Day 149 : Rip That Funky Music, White Boy

Project 289 - Day 148 : All That Glitters is a Fake Lamington

Tonight I did not paint fake lamingtons.

Instead I slathered them in glue, and covered them - all 10 of them! - in silver and white shredded paper cut into itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot.... no wait, there were no bikinis involved if I recall..... anyway, I covered them in incredibly small faux coconut-like pieces that amazingly made cardboard boxes painted in lamington-esque brown and pink look like lamingtons.

Thankfully, and my digestive system is forever grateful, I resisted the urge to chomp on down, and instead admired them, and posed before them. Then it being late at night, and exhausted from bending over bright fake lamingtons for 3 hours plus, I headed home, perchance to not dream of iconic Australian baked goods.....

Project 289 - Day 147 : I See a Pink Light... Rise of the Fake Lamingtons

Tonight I painted pink fake lamingtons made of polystyrene (not Greenpeace compliant!).

Tonight I also painted brown fake polystyrene lamingtons.

I also inadvertently painted my knee partially brown, my hands mostly brown, and also a number of cardboard boxes that will, when folded in some bizarre gay origami, end up as very large fake lamingtons.

Yes, folks, lamingtons, lamingtons everywhere, and not an Australian culinary icon to eat.
(With apologies to The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner for a bizarre paraphrase.)

Project 289 - Day 146 : Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet...We're Filming a Silent Movie

I am movie star.

It's true. Today I was filmed for a presentation to be shown at my Division's big quarterly wrap-up this Friday - it will be rendered as a silent movie with slightly-too-fast walking, grainy film etc - and I am fairly confident that my two scenes, small though they are, will steal the show.

No more anonymous trips to work. Hell, I won't even come to work! Instead, my days will be spent sunning myself on my yacht in Monaco, avoiding pesky papparazzi photographers, attending black tie functions with Brangelina, and signing so many autographs, and sending so many tweets, that I shall simply have to retire to a spa in the south of France for days, weeks, or even, yes darlings, months.....

Naturally I shall also find time to lose weight, gain weight, and lose it all over again, break up with/reunite with/breakup with/reunite with my partner, go into rehab for a drug/alcohol addiction, campaign for homeless penguins in Patagonia using my massive celebrity profile, and accept award after award thanking my parents, my pet goat, Oki, and professing fale humility for my acting ability while knowing damn well I am a god in acting circles...

Or..... it will go straight to video after a limited run at the Divisional this Friday and I shall catch the bus back to the City and a life of glorious anonymity.... think I prefer that really......

Well maybe throw in the yacht and I'll prefer that.....

Project 289 : Day 145 - I See a White Light.....Wait, No. It's Just an Undercoat

Today I painted lots and lots of lamingtons.

No, I didn't ice them. I didn't even bake them first. I painted them. Yes you read right - painted.

Why on the gods' green earth, and in their fabulously well stocked pantry, was I painting food items? Well they are actually fake lamingtons being constructed, painted and covered in fake coconut (paper shreds and styrofoam fluff) for a party at Gay Ski Week that has the theme "Iconic". Along with a large foam cutout of Dame Edna Everidge's glasses (no possums were harmed in the cutting out of these spectacles) , the fake lamingtons (or super real ones, depending on how you view them!) will become part of the decorations for the party, which is rumoured to be being attended by Jackie O, Marilyn Monroe and Joan Crawford circa "Mommie Dearest".

Tomorrow night I get to paint them in fabulous shades of pink and brown, but for now, they are covered in white undercoat, and gleaming brightly in my beautiful guy's loungeroom, atop newspaper and coversheets.....

Project 289 - Day 144 : James the Bookend Finds a Home

It sounds like the title to a heart-warming, if slightly odd, midday telemovie doesn't it?

A bookend, lost and alone ever since it's creation in a small factory in China.... OK a freaking large towering monstrosity that would have made a Dickensian industrial facility look like a grandfather's backyard workshop..... is bought in a funky home wares store in Newtown, entombed.... I mean, lovingly wrapped in red cellophane.... in a beautiful guy's birthday present box, finally is released, and put on display in a bookcase delivered by the furniture maker, early on a Saturday morning (and carried upstairs without major back injury or the ruptruing of significant arteries), while all around it the books, newly liberated from their packing boxes cheer wildly and cry with happiness....

.....now that last bit is just silly isn't it? I mean, everyone knows that books seldom display amy emotional at all.... I mean, really.... everyone knows that.....

Project 289 : Day 143 : Coffee, Me and Ana.. and the Dinner Thereafter

Fridays are traditionally a little quieter for me.

Not always but generally, and thankfully after a hellacious week in which I was 'abused' by three people for moving meetings (like I take some perverse pleasure in the random reordering of peoples' schedules!"Oh yes, yes, yes! I love when you move the 3pm Monday meeting to 11am Tuesday...oh YESSSSS!") and had more work than a council cleaner on Oxford Street after the Mardi Gras parade, today has become a typical Friday. Normally I loathe typical but this TGIF, I embrace it, caress it and offer to have it's babies....

A lovely part of today was sitting now with one of the other Executive Assistants (EAs) who look after a Managing Director, Ana (pictured above) who is witty, sweet, feisty, and a fabulous person to spend any amount of time with - she's not just a colleague anymore but a friend, and I always look forward to our lovely coffee meet-ups.

It looks like the day will keep it's "Just Chill, Mon" vibe with a very relaxed dinner tonight with my beautiful guy, Steve, and good friend, Fahmi, at this delightfully eccentric Pakistani restaurant in Dulwich Hill. The food, service and prices are all excellent but the restaurant's decor is basically photo scrapbooking meets posters on a teenager's wall meets Santa vomiting in random directions.... it's not chic by any means, but wonderfully one-off, and fun to be in, and surprisingly, the sort of place you're happy to spend a lot of time in....

Ah it's good to have you Friday....be as typical as your slovenly heart wants!

*************************************************

Work done and dusted, I headed home, threw myself into something fabulous... oh all right, I wore the same thing I'd had on all day but dammit I looked good!.... and went to dinner with my beautiful guy, and our friends, Fahmi, David and Andrew (another one.... trust me if I was going to have a split personality, I wouldn't use the same name again now would I? Hmm would I?) to a wonderfully kitsch-looking Pakistani restaurant in Dulwich Hill called "Jinnah's". The decor is a sublime mix of Christmas decorations, party lights, Pakistani press clippings, historical photos with Bollywood playing on the in-house video system, and is so OTT that Top is just a distant fading memory of good taste, but somehow it all works, and coupled with great food, and prices, it's a great place to eat.... 

Usually the service is top notch too, but last night our waitress, with all the social inter-actability of Beaker (from "The Muppets"), timidly delivered our food and withdrew, averting her eyes as if staring into our eyes would turn her to stone, or a pillar of salt.... I am fairly sure that even on our worst days we don't have that effect on people but I can't say with a 100% certainty that we haven't created some stone-like garden statuery in our time... all that aside, she seemed rather relieved when we left, and I think she probably needs to see her guidance counsellor for a referral to a secluded basement somewhere with minimum social contact, and maximum data entry.....

Still, the night was a lovely one and we mightily enjoyed ourselves over delicious food, much wine, and all the funky kitsch that money can buy (see the photos - Andrew & David below; myself, my beautiful guy and Fahmi above)....

Project 289 - Day 142 : Turn That Frown Upside Down and Have a ....

Doris Day!

I found this card tonight in a funky art supplies store on King Street, Newtown, while shopping and eating yummy Indian food, with my beautiful guy after an incredibly stressful day. Yes, it's cheesy and fun, but most importantly it made me laugh, and that was priceless. (Without a MasterCard in sight too!!)

Project 289 - Day 141 : A Desk With a Fist is Better Than None

I had an enormously stressful crappy day, and really this fist neatly encapsulates what I wanted to do one colleague too many who decided to shook the Outlook messenger.

My day involves a lot of use of Outlook, as you no doubt may have noticed from my blogs. I don't hate the system as such (although liking Microsoft is akin to sleeping with Satan so take it as a given that I don't adore, love and want to have Outlook's children) but familiarity breeds great oceans of contempt, and I have plenty of opportunities for familiarity to creep in. 

In any given day, I can move multiple meetings, usually because of a request from our executive level, or a major stakeholder (WARNING : Corporate jargon : all users of intelligible English are requested to stand clear!), and the knock on effect on everyones' calendars can be considerable. Usually people are understanding, and know that you aren't moving meetings out of some bizarre sprite-like desire to wreak havoc and mayhem for the hell of it.

Not so today. Not 1, not 2, but 3 people, who should know better, got more than a little angsty when I moved meetings that had to be moved. I didn't want to move them. I would've been joyously happy to leave basking in their fabulously neat coloured calendar slots, but greater forces than I decreed they be moved, and it was so....

Usually I can shrug it off, but today I took it all a little too personally by the end of things, and came back from the final encounter with an ungrateful (albeit stressed) jerk of a colleague, and banged my desk hard with both fists instead of telling him exactly what I thought of him, which would have broken all sorts of rules on office decorum, HR policy, and quite possibly, his face. (Unlikely as I have never struck anyone in my life, but I was sorely tempted!)

Thankfully only my desk suffered, an act so loud it got noticed, and I was offered chocolate (which I declined- what a good, or stupid, boy am I!) and consolation and I calmed down. At least I had the bus and train trip home to chill and now I am waiting for my beautiful guy to arrive with dinner, and a kiss.

So at least the day is ending with love, not war.....

Project 289 - Day 140 : Twas a Dark and Blurry Morning Walk

Back to the walking today at the oh-so-desirable time of 5 a.m.

On a whim, I took a photo of Fahmi walking along one of the dark, deserted back streets of Erskineville, where we court mugging and attacks and bodily dismemberment daily (according to some of our friends, and yet we emerge completely unscathed from each and every walk). It was taken in a hurry, while still walking myself and I was going to delete it, thinking it's too blurry to be any good for anyone.

But upon reflection (this happened, as usual, in the shower after the walk), I thought that the photo in all its skewed light, blurred-lines glory accurately reflected what the world often feels like at 5 a.m. Yes, I am awake, and walking, and fully able to distinguish each and every shape, but I think deep down, or possibly just below the jaunty surface, there is a very tired person wishing he was still curled up under the doona, wistful for the days when every mouthful of food didn't seem to hurry on the sort of weight gains that the walking is now required to keep in check.

So the photo, in all it's messiness stays, an accurate reflection of a body and soul, that wants to be fit and healthy, but really wishes it could be done in the warmth and security of a bedroom, from the cold, dark lines of early morning Winter-clad suburbia.
 

Project 289 - Day 139 : Passport to Gangstahood

This is the photo for my new passport.

I look like a gangster/street thug/drug dealer... and not like the clean cut innocent boy next door I really am. OK I am not that innocent really, but I certainly don't go around roughing up neighbourhood shop keepers for protection money, or tossing Jimmy No Eyes into the drink with cee-ment shoes, but you wouldn't know that from the photo!

The new rules for passport photos are to be blame for this. To keep the biometric face profiling systems happy, and whirring away in their Big Brother-esque digital world, your passport photo is not allowed to show so much as a hint of personality. No glimmer of happiness. No vestige of anything approaching humanity. Terminator has come among us already it seems....

I guess that when I reach the USA and then Canadian Immigration authorities in 11 weeks time, I will need to smile my ever-loving ass off to convince them I will bring only joy and sunshine to their lovely countries, rather than crime-ridden apocalypse my thug-like passport mugshot is promising.

Of course it is nice to know that should the Executive Assistant gig dry up, and I enter the police force as an undercover infilitrator, that won't have any trouble fitting in with the boys on the darker side of life.....

Project 289 - Day 138 : Brunch with Fahmi and the iPhone

It was a very relaxing Sunday.

What with an extended sleeping in, picking up of my Friday bargain shopping binge goodies from Sammi late morning, slow picking through the second hand gems of Reverse Garbage at Marrickville, and a friendly dinner with my beautiful guy's Gay Ski Week buddies at The Clarence Hotel, nothing was really done on a desperately strict schedule, and I made like a contented cow (hmm, is that really the image I want to project of myself? Perhaps I should re-think this imagery!) moseying through the Outlook-free hours of the day...

... and in the middle of all this slow moving reverie was lunch at Cafe Sofia in Erskineville, with my very good friend, and walking buddy, Fahmi, who's love affair with his iPhone (pictured above in Fahmi's hands, with my beautiful guy next door) knows no bounds. He has downloaded more apps than there are sands on a beach (trust me, he is largely responsible for Apple reaching the 1 billion download mark!), and happily texts, plays with apps, whenever he can..... including brunch/lunch/dinner/whatever it may be.....here is a man who truly loves his Apple gear....

Project 289 - Day 137 : Laugh Kookaburra Laugh! I Said Laugh Dammit!

Kookaburra sits on the balcony

Merry merry queen of Sydney Park (Gay) Village is he

Laugh, Kookaburra laugh!

Kookaburra Gay Your Life Must Be!

This is a complete and utter paraphrase of an old Australian childrens' rhyme that I learnt as a I child - in which case, it's not really old at all; more like not as young as it was! - and is in honour of the Kookaburra in the photos, who alighted onto the neighbour's balcony railing, and let loose several times with his (or her) distinctive bird call. 

It certainly beat seeing the ugly feral Mynah birds that normally frequent the balcony, and a wonderful sign to my Irish house mate, Aiden, that his Permanent Residency will be granted. I mean, short of a kangaroo bouncing up onto the sixth floor balcony (they're good but not that good!), this is as Australian sign as you'd want to get!