365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 181 : More Zara, More of the Time!

When is too much of my gorgeous niece, Zara, well, too much? NEVER! So here are some more photos of my sweet, adorable niece looking happy, enjoying quality time with a paper towel roll, covered in Oatbrits, checking out bathroom products, and hitting the courtyard on her birthday trike!

I am going to see her in about 2 1/2 weeks and can't wait!

Then there shall be even more photos!! Be afraid...be very afraid :)

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 180 (Tuesday 29 June 2010) : Sushi Hijack!

Yes crime is rampant all across Sydney's streets and now I am a victim!

Well not really but I love using tabloid-like headlines to spin the mundane into a frenzy of frothing-at-the mouth sensationalism!

What actually happened, dear reader, is that my lovely gal pal from wirk, Sammi, and I had a much delayed catch up gossip at Sushi Train on Bathurst Street and while I waited patiently for the Takoyage Balls (octopus) and Karaage Chicken pieces to reach us, two gossiping women next to me grabbed the only plates of both items! The horror! The outrage!

Leaving aside the fact that they were sitting slightly earlier on the conveyor belt, and as paying customers had every right to take them, it was damn near hilarious that they somehow psychically managed to know which dishes I was expectantly waiting for and grab them before I could! Again, the horror! The.....

Seriously it was easily rectified by ordering them from the waitress and Sammi and I managed to eat to our heart's content, but things were much better when the two women left and we could go back to picking sushi plates to our heart's content. We ate quickly though and were out in an hour! So clearly we weren't grievously set back or delayed by the two ladies chowing down on our grub (oh I do love some ocker speak in a blog posting!) but when has the truth got in the way of a lurid headline?

Right Today Tonight?

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 179 : I Got a Fan!

No, I am not being celebrity stalked.

Mainly because I am not a celebrity, but also because why stalk when there is a perfectly good blog chock full of my life's comings and goings, and assorted inanities?

While I may have a dearth of stalkers, what I do have is an actual fan. An electrical one to cool a room with....

Why, you ask wearily, would I mention that I own a piece of common place electrical hardware that is well near useless in Winter when you don't need cooling but you need to be warmed? Well because, starting back in uni days when I needed to sleep in noisy dorm rooms, I have used the white noise from a fan to shut out all the variable external noise so I could sleep soundly.

Alas, with few exceptions (when my boyfriend stays over normally), I need to have it on even during Winter, which means that I need to rug up snugly indeed so as to avoid frostbite. I have tried to wean myself off my long standing white noise addiction but to no avail, and so one Winter day soon you may hear media reports of a man found frozen to death in his apartment.....with the fan on.

Or not.... what would be the fun of a melodramatic fan-induced death if I am not alive to witness it? All that aside, I have a fan.

Good thing I like the cold......

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 178 (Sunday 27 June 2010) : My Crossaint Il Fait Froid!

I lie.

Not about the cold. We (my gorgeous,me and our close friend, Fahmi) ate outside in Winter on the sunless side of the street - ignoring the warm, cosy deli cafe just around the corner alas - at a French patisserie in Stanmore. I ddin't have a croissant but a nice warm yummy meat and mushroom pie followed by a pecan tart but the croissants looked d-d-delish and no doubt if I had had one, it would have frozen it's soft buttery flakes off!

Fahmi and I then de-camped to Marrickville Markets, which was somewhat warmer what with being in the sun and all, where we bumped into our good friend, replete with her lovely twins, Ben and Sophie. We didn't end up having lunch since we were still full from brunch but we had a relaxed wander though all the stalls, I bought another Smurf (yes I know I need a 12 step addiction recovery programme and I need it now! Perahps I can buy Counsellor Smurf and .... what am I saying?!) and giggled as Ben pointed at anything and everything using his word-of-the-week, "Look!"

After a deligthfully chilled morning - both literally and experientially - I decided a nap was in order (all that relaxing is exhausting don't you know) along with lots of re-organising of my bookcases and my bedroom before my gorgeous guy came over for a spot of Dr Who and dinner.

While I adored the last weekend in Melbourne, it was wonderful having a deconstructed, take-it-as-it-comes weekend following and recharging my depleted batteries.....

I know Battery Smurf..... then I can buy..... yes, yes I know, dial a counsellor now....sigh

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 177 (Saturday 26 June 2010) : Kate Kicks Insides Buzz and Woody

Right that sounds enormously debauched and kinky doesn't it?

Alas it isn't really. But in the tradition of totally thematically-misleading tabloid headlines, I decided to go with it and douse myself in the rancid cologne that is Rupert Murdoch for one brief moment.

Of course I will now need to go and have a cleansing shower.

Not so much because of the day itself, which was delightful, but impersonating Murdoch, even if only virtually and for a brief moment in time.

Today was actually one of the lovely Winter days where it was cold but not freezing, that involved a lovely long sleep in with my guy, a spot of shopping on King Street while he got his hair styled (with the obligatory visit to my favourite music store, HUM; I joked with my gorgeous guy on Sunday that the gift for an 18 month anniversary, which is what we've reached, is a HUM gift voucher and he joked that in that case I had been practising spending it the whole time he'd known me...true, oh so true), and a light lunch (after a ham and cheese croissant on the run pre-haircut) at a great nook-occupying cafe called The Kick Inside (title of a Kate Bush album) on Erskineville Road, Erskineville.

The owners, two very discerning, funky gay guys, have fitted out the cafe with retro furniture, cutlery, plates etc to create a cosy one-of-a-kind cosy ambience, and populated the menu with light, easy to serve fare including quiches and pies from Blackstar Bakery. I had never heard of the bakery before, but the goats cheese and leek quiche I had was melt-in-the-mouth divine as was my gorgeous guy's beef and red wine pie. It was just the right amount of food in the loveliest location. We will definitely be back!

The afternoon was wonderfully chilled - for me at least; my poor guy had to work on some projects he has due - and then we headed into the City for a delightful night out watching Toy Story 3 - the most wonderful instalment in the franchise I think, and brimming with sadness, joy, and laugh out loud humour (full review to follow next week in a media round up in the blog) - and then munching down on some yummy tapas at Cafe Asturianna in the Spanish Quarter in Sydney.

And no, I doubt there will be  Kate Bush/Toy Story crossover any time soon....

I LIKE SMITING IN THE SPRINGTIME....

The following was sent to me by a very special friend, and while it resonated strongly with me because I am gay man who grew up in the Church as the son of a Baptist pastor (while having some admirable beliefs, Christianity far too judgemental much of the time, with no critical thinking going into why certain outdated tenets are adhered to) and struggled for years to reconcile my sexuality (real) with my faith (seriously flawed as it turns out), it also made me laugh so hard I was in danger of peeing my pants. No doubt there is a verse prohibiting this too!!

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

Some enlightening Biblical guidelines for modern living:



In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlessinger said that, as an observant
Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus
18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.


The following response is an open letter to Dr Laura, penned by a US
resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as
informative:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dear Dr Laura:


Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I
have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with
as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual
lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22
clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate.


I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements
of God's Laws and how to follow them.


1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine
claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you
clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus
21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for
her?


3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19-24. The problem is how do
I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.


4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They
claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?


5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill
him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.
I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
Should I smite him?


7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have
a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does
my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?


8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.
19:27. How should they die?


9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different
crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of
two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to
curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the
trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16.
Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we
do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)


I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy
considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and
unchanging.


Your adoring fan.


James M. Kauffman, Ed.D.


Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction and Special
Education University of Virginia


P.S. It would be a damn shame if we can't own a Canadian.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 176 : ..... and so the Vox Pop Goes into Overdrive

It doesn't take people long to get going with witty reflections on the big events of our day, and the removel of the Ruddbot and installation of La Julia is no exception. Here are some of the things I have been sent or managed to stumble across just this morning alone....

Following are some of the ads that ran in the Telegraph the day after the dethroning of the Ruddbot and they were wonderfully inspired pieces of work!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 175 : The Times They Are A-Changin'

What a day!

It started early when I had just got back in from walking, and I broke my sacred vow to ignore the Cup - sworn before a gathering of gay men in a secret club somewhere - and watched the last 5 minutes of the Australia v Serbia match. I quietly cheered along - my housemate was still sound asleep at 6.15 this morning, an eminently sensible strategy - and threw in an Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi for good measure (it's not so impactful when whispered) and while I wouldn't say I enjoyed the match, it was certainly fun to watch and I could at least talk football with some conviction this morning at work... well for the two minutes I could be bothered doing that at least!

I was not happy to find out, after investing 5 precious minutes of my time, that while we won this match - yay team! - it ultimately meant nothing as it wasn't an emphatic enough win to get us to the next round, thanks to Germany only barely beating Ghana instead of annihilating them. Still at least I did my patriotic duty and all that.....Oi Oi Oi! No, still sounds odd....

The BIG event of the day though was Julia Gillard rolling Kevin Rudd aka Rudbot aka K-Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia. While it is an historic day, and I have no doubt Julia will do a wonderful job as P.M., the farce of kicking out a largely successful, popular P.M. (enduring a temporary dip in the poles) just 6 months before an election was breath taking to behold. The uncanny thing was that Australian Story (a bio programme on the ABC on Monday nights at 8 p.m.) featured an updated profile of Julia this week, and my gorgeous guy has joked that these pieces are usually run as a pseudo PR piece when a politician is getting ready to tilt for the leadership. I laughed and said that wasn't really likely this week was it, when three days later it happens and in spectacularly fast fashion!

Whether it will aid the Labour Party in hanging onto power is another issue entirely and you have to wonder if Australians won't see Julia as the ultimate traitor, but the fact is that K-Rudd was on the nose, seemed unable to follow through on anything, had the convictions of a fair weather friend, and was a major disappointment to many people, including me, over his shelving of an ETS, treatment of refugees etc. I wish Julia well, but can't help but think that historic though her ascension may be, that it may well be short shelved unless she pulls an entire fur farm of rabbits out of her hat.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 174 (Wednesday 23 June 2010) : Fashion is His Passion

So we're in the midst of the World Cup (Football/Soccer) and while I am trying to ignore it, and largely succeeding - I am not a sports lover of any description although I don't mind watching basketball thanks to its speed and fun - my darling man isn't so fortunate when he's working in Bathurst since many of the pubs that he has dinner in are showing the Cup on massive screens 24/7.

Tonight, while having dinner with some work colleagues, he not only failed spectacularly to ignore the Cup, but ended up completely absorbed into it when he scratched a ticket in a Hahn Dry Ice promotion and won a Soccerroos scarf. So lovely is he that the lady handling the promotion gave him the beanie as well, and so somewhere around 8.30 tonight I got this photo MMS'd to me....

Apparently he has generously said I can wear this scarf and beanie this weekend when he returns to Sydney, and while I deeply appreciate his generosity is letting me the ludicrously coloured artificial fabric articles of clothing, I may suddenly find a pressing need to leave the country or something till the World Cup is over.

Babe, don't take it personally...... it's the clothes, not you......

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 173 : Why You Put That Mag in My Paper Willis?

I always buy the Sydney Morning Herald at St Peters station before I catch my train so I have something to read while my iPod pours my favourite tracks into my brain.

Some days like today it is suspiciously larger than normal, partly due to some Bigger-Than-Texas inserts the Herald is overly fond of - the idea that old media is dying isn't borne out by the thickness of the advertisments - but also partly due to the fact that the news agent, a lovely Chinese gentleman with a ready smile, has decided that all the free music magazines that you can choose to collect if you'd like to, are in fact mandatory and should be part of the newspaper you buy whether you like it or not.

I don't mind on one level since I like music a lot - I don't sleep with my iPod but is that such a bad idea? It makes way more sense that my teddy bear! (which by the way I have not slept with I was 8 ) - but I'd like to have a choice on whether I take it or not.

But given that he shows no sign of stopping the practice, it seems my working knowledge of hip-hop is only bound to increase, dawgs.....

A Sign of the Times!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 172 : Back to the Hum Drum....

Waking up early after a bad night of sleep deprivation and sickness - is there a good night featuring those two lovely things? - and a wonderful weekend is bad enough. Knowing that I have to leave the side of my beautiful guy is even worse. That it all takes place on the most evil day of the week, Monday, is the crowning piece of this nasty cake.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 171 (Sunday 20 June 2010) : St Kilda Be Praised!

We were up bright and early this morning.

Well early-ish.....

We'd arranged to have my gorgeous guy's lovely sister, Carolyn, collect us at 9.30 just hear our hotel, and managed to wake up, snuggle, pack, and get checked out and down to the corner of Little Collins Street in time. Unlike Saturday, which had been cold but clear, today was overcast with rain coming down in spit and spurts. Unfortunately it was also the day that we'd arranged to go to St Kilda to check out the outdoor markets on The Esplanade and have brunch. We momentarily thought about heading for the markets at Southbank instead which are under cover but figured we'd try our luck with the weather and see if we'd couldn't get it to stay fine just long enough for some market perousing.

We arrived in St Kilda just in time for a torrential-ish downpour but refusing to let me glass hlaf-full be sullied by mere precipitation, we headed into St Kilda, stopped briefly outside The Esplanade Hotel where Rockwiz is filmed, then we walked along Acland Street (some great art on the shop awnings - see above) - with its fabulous bakeries, all of which I managed to avoid buying something at; a fortuitous decision given what happened to me later that night back in Sydney (more of that later) - to the corner of Barkly Street and came upon a cool cafe called Big Mouth (right up there with Gutz that we saw the night before on Brunswick Street) where the waiter was in shorts, tie and vest with a wickedly long goatee, and the food was d-d-d-d-delish! YUM! I had a maple stack of pancakes with quite possibly an entire pig's worth of bacon on it - yes maple syrup and bacon go together fabulously as any Canadian worth their salt will tell you! - while my gorgeous guy and Carolyn stuck to a good ol' BLT.

Filled with vittels once again, we headed to the Markets, where I bought nothing - a sign of the apocalypse mark my word! - but Carolyn got a great bag with very clever artwork on it. My homage to St Kilda complete, we headed to East Kew where my guy's brother Darren lives with his wife Melissa and their two kids in a beautifully restored Californain bungalow, stopping on the way to collect a chocolate & raspberry cheesecake in Kew.

Melissa, the only member of the family I hadn't met, was just delightful, plying me with wine and food, asking all my family, life etc while we waited for my guy's mum and Dad, and other sibling Brian to arrive with his family. The conversation flowed smoothly with everyone, I admired the wonderful artwork hanging on the walls that Darren had done himself, ate far too much (the rissoles, sausages and hot beans were yummo!), drank lots and had such a wonderful time with everyone - did I mention how absolutely wonderful they all are! Yes I believe I am in love with my guy's family too - that we left 1/2 hour late for the airport, arriving 5 minutes before boarding time with no pre check in done (we made it just but had to sit in separate middle seats in row 11 alas; I ended next to an arrogrant jerk who refused to switched his mobile phone off initially and ignored instructions from the flight attendantcs).

Melissa, Carolyn, Darren, Kath & Ken (Mum and Dad), my gorgeous guy

The loveliest part of a stratospherically lovely day was when I was leaving the house for the airport. Melissa leaned in close and said "They are really a lovely family aren't they?" I absolutely agreed and loved the fact that Melissa and Sue, the two other 'outsiders' were so supportive and understanding of what I was going through. I had nothing less than the most wonderful time with every single last member of the family - including his delightful nieces and nephews - and even as I lay in bed that night with my guy beside me feeling sick from far too much gloriously good food and wine, the glow of happiness from becoming part of my guy's family was not even slightly diminished and I find myself more in love with him than ever.

It's going to be a wonderful life with him.....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 170 (Saturday 19 June 2010) : Can You Hear the Shrill Excitement in Andrew's Voice, Fernando?

After our awfully big adventure the night before, and a 1 a.m. shut eye, my lovely guy and I slept in some what, only making it our for brunch around 10 or so. But what a gorgeous brunch it was. Steve took me through some of the wonderful arcades such as The Block (see above) that intersect the buildings of Melbourne, and up and down many of the alleyways that Melbourne is justifiably famous for. Some of them are well polished, full of glitzy cafes and shops; others, like Centre Place, where we ended up, are chaotic, full of people, garage doors covered with very colourful, beautifully rendered graffiti art that is everywhere in the City, with hole in the wall cafes in every nook and cranny.

The one we ended up at, Lorca, was Spanish influenced, the staff were friendly (and cute it has to be said), and the food was delicious. We were chomping on down on the yummy food when Steve's lovely sister Carolyn turned up to join us - her hot chocolate took forever to arrive, the only flaw in a perfect brunch - and we hit it off immediately. We share a love of books, Glee, music - one of the stops later on was to JB HiFi to buy the new Glee CD - and her easy charm and sense of humour meant that once again any nerves vapourised as quickly as Kevin Rudd's commitment to an ETS. Hanging out with her was easy and we spent the time looking for a gift for my guy's nephew, Noah - TechDeck anyone? - buying Smurfs (I found a store that sold them!), and laughing and really enjoying each other's company.

The nascent relationship reached a whole new stratospheric height when we reached Federation Square (Fed Square) and found out, after a wander inside it, that we could get tickets to ABBAWorld!!! Excited does not begin to describe it. I was beside myself with excitement, and voicing said excitement at the of pitches only dogs and enebriated pixies can hear. The exhibition was fantasically interactive, starting with getting our photo taken and picking which ABBA member we wanted to be for the tour - I picked Bjorn; Steve picked Benny although he wanted to be Agnetha...think Benny was the better pick since Bjorn and Agnetha eventually divorced, not something I wanted hanging over us, even for a brief tour! - and moving onto geting our faces inserted on ABBA's album covers, singing Money Money Money in a karaoke booth, and even sitting in the Arrival helicopter! Inbetween all this was jam-packed exhibit after jam-packed exhibit, showing off ABBA's studio, tailor's work area, their costumes, the cottage Bjorn and Benny worked in writing their songs and giving us all sorts of insights into ABBA's career. Every time you interacted with an exhibit, you ahd to swipe your ticket, and everything you did was put on the ABBAWorld site where you have 7 days to download all the content you created! So cool, and SOOOO much fun! All three of us had an absolute ball... it was like I was 10 years old again and back buying ABBA bubblegum cards at the corner milk bar. I naturally bought tons of stuff at the souvenir shop, and will have to go back for 2 towels and some glasses in October, when we're back in Melbourne.

Absolutely on cloud nine after that unexpected joy of reliving my love of ABBA all over again, and getting to spend some quality time with Carolyn and my gorgeous guy, I didn't feel a single shot of nerves as Carolyn drove us to my guy's parents' place in Ashwood, where he grew up. They were, as expected, simply delightful, with my yummy guy's Mum laying a delicious afternoon tea spread (she even made a lovely pumpkin and pesto bite-sized nibbles dish based on a recipe on a book Steve gave her) which we ate with Steve's other brother Briand & his wife Sue and two of their three kids, who unexpectedly dropped in. Sue brought a yummy apple flan with her so we ended up eating quite a bit in their warm loungeroom, while drinking something like three glasses of wine. It was a lazy, fun afternoon, getting along famously with his mum & dad, and brother & sister in law - do you sense a pattern here? They are such wonderful people, every last one of them! - and seeing more of what my guy the sweet, beautiful man that has captured my heart. It worried them not one bit that I was a guy going out with their son - as far as they were concerned, I was Stephen's partner and that's all that mattered. I felt so much a part of the family.

After warm farewells, we headed back to the City by taxi with quite possibly the most monosyllablic, unresponsive taxi driver I have ever been with. But nothing could quench my joy, exhausted though I was, and after changing quickly, we jumped into another taxi which took us to Brunswick Street, Fitzroy for dinner at a restaurant called Blue Chillies (Malaysian fusion food). Yes this weekend had a definite Asian flavour!). We were seated at a private table against the window, and as a constant parade of people passed by on what is a very funky street (much like King Street but with way more bars; there are so many bars in Melbourne!), we talked constantly, and affectionately, and ate a whole snapper in a delicious sauce, and Ayam Kapitan, which is like a rendang but with succulent soft chicken in place of the beef. Couple all that with a bottle of Pepper Tree Verdelho, and we had a delightful night that was augmented by a friendly service, and capped off by a lovely long walk up and down both sides of the strip so we could walk off all the yummy food.

We were going to try one of the bars, but after lots of walking, we were both too tired, and we headed back to the hotel for a sort of earlier night. Even though I was bone tired, I ddin't want to sleep on what was, so far, one of the loveliest weekends of my life.

I am so lucky to be with the wonderful man I am...what a gift he is.