Every little while Comes surreptitious smile Whilst looking at a girl’s pretty toes A leaf whirls from the sky A bike goes whizzing by Towards the city’s night time neon glows
The matrix may be woken The nightmare briefly broken When the moonlit water shimmers A coffee cup of thoughts Sees a pumpkin on the porch And hopes to hold on to the glimmers
So tired. Only had about 5 or 6 hours sleep again but had to get up and go to meet Hayden and Bronwyn for breakfast and though I’m tired I still have energy reserves probably from all the food I’ve been eating.
Today I’m grateful for:
The guy from the AEC who helped us skip the hour-long queue because I told him we weren’t sure if we were registered. Neat trick. Got to the Yum Cha quicker for lunch.
The best thing about today was:
Walking around the park parts of Barangaroo and under the bridge, past the Rocks and to Circular Quay was pretty nice this morning. Even though the visage is familiar and I have many similar photos it’s pretty hard to resist taking new ones.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
My sleep is still totally out of control. The funny thing is that when I woke up at 8 am Sydney time and sent a message to one of my students, where it was 4 am, they replied wondering why I was still awake. I asked them the same thing! I tried to nap at 4 pm but that was useless too. I’m just out of whack.
Something I learned today?
Our friends Mei and Haken were in a car crash last night though luckily neither were seriously hurt. Mei was supposed to be a bridesmaid at the wedding today but unfortunately was still a little sore and shaken up for those duties.
What is something I look forward to every day?
Coffee. I’ve gotten used to the coffee in Chiang Rai now though and these Aussie coffees are not so tastily satisfying for me anymore. I managed to stick with just two today though, which is good.
Bronwyn took this picture because she wanted another shot of Hayden and me together. We looked at each other laughing and shaking our heads at her. I like this picture a lot.
S: I thought you’d be really into this. What do you suggest we could do instead?
T: I hope you’re not mad, sad or upset that i thought we should do something else. It was really sweet of you to think of. I just thought we may be able to get more excitement for longer at the same price – maybe we could shop around.
S: I really wanted to surprise you with it. I’m not mad, sad or upset (I just miss you baby!!!). So you would like me to spend the same amount of money on us then, but do something else!! How could life get any more exciting than when we are around each other anyway! That is priceless and cost-effective.
T: I’m wearing an olive top today – it’s Sandie’s. I really, really love the colour.
S: Come show me. Where you going after work?
T: Anyway, di and them want to take a day off work so we can get away for 3 days sometime in March – but I’m not going to take the day off I told them. Proud of me?
S: Always. What did you say to them though?
T: anyway, seems they’ve been planning this for quite a while – and the bridge walk – totally without me, and they take it that I’m coming along even if I haven’t heard anything about it yet (well, that’s the impression that I get).
S: That’s because you are one of THEM (in their eyes)! It’s nice that they include you but I guess it would be nicer if they asked you. Actually, you’ve snubbed them a few times – maybe they’ll get pissed off with asking you? Anyway – come do something more exciting with me.
T: your groupie, tlj
S: Your zucchini shaun PS thanks for being my groupie!
Well, there’s only one place to go on New Year’s Eve and that’s the big city, so we end up at Libby and Dougie’s via Hornsby where P_ is looking after Ben and James (not that Ben needs looking after) and then on train to Cathy’s (remember you have to be mad to drive in Sydney and we don’t feel like it today which will be one of the busiest days of the year).
Cathy’s mad though and drives us into the city where we all settle into a long night of drinking cocktails, beer and champagne and smoking cones, playing party games and being too drunk to be coherent.
At nine or so I manage to convince everyone who can to come up the road to see the fireworks that go off in the harbour and on the bridge. They last for about half an hour and though our view is obscured slightly by a big gum tree they look magnificent in the dry night sky. The bridge we can see clearly though and that goes off with magnificent cascades and fountains of sparks imitating the previous storms.
We stumble back drunk and happy, high on life, chatting furiously and continue with party games and more merriment ’til time comes to wish each other a happy new year and we’re into 1995.
And the first thing I can remember of this new year is a glorious hangover.
Back up the train lines, bright and sunny day over the pollution, block our minds and see only wonder, there’s still a lot to wonder at, the sun and the people drive us barmy at Circular Quay and the Rocks Market, we watch jugglers juggle fire and tell jokes and poor aborigines sit on the concrete, painted up in ritualistic spots and dress and would we know what it meant, could be just some piss take aborigine joke on the tourist influx, Nippon camera’s flashing. There’s an advert on TV of a Japanese women giving birth and as the baby comes out it takes a photo! I don’t know what it advertises, cool huh?
We get on the ferry to Manly, up the river past the north and south head with it’s view out to the open sea and where the boat starts to feel the pull and tug of ocean waves. As we set off we video the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and we’re amazed that there’s all these tall ships in the harbour and then recall something about the Endeavour making a special journey into Sydney for some celebration of Captain Cook’s landing, or something like that, I’m not much cop on history.
So anyway, we’re here by accident videoing these magnificent ships as they sail past the Opera House and wonder at how we could ever have timed things this perfectly, people would be killing themselves for shots like these, though at the time it all seemed quite insignificant, busy taking in the beautiful breeze across the water, watching the whitewash trail behind us.
And past the ocean pull to dock at Manly and walk one block until you reach another beach that stretches onto the horizon (nearly) with waves tumbling in, knocking over all and sundry stood in anticipation, yes, it’s fun and i wanted to be there but we walked around a path at the end of the beach where sand turned into rocks that fell into the water and then round the corner turned back into rocks and some sand and here was our destination, to see Scott and Lynette and their two daughters, Grace and Sophie, who entertained us with their cheekiness.
We did get to go to the beach but only the small one out the front with gentle rocking waves and seaweed. I had a go at snorkling but didn’t quite get the hang of it, though I’ll try it again in future cos I don’t give up that easily these days.
Anyway, before we know it we’ve had tea and the kids are off to bed and it’s time for us to leave and, get this, Scott says he’ll lend me his surfboard, the one that he practiced on when he was young, free and single and now doesn’t have time at all due to other obligations and more important ones too let’s face it, so I figure I’d better get some practice in too before time runs out for me and, shit, I can just carry it to the beach from where we’ll be living! cool!
Sometimes I can’t believe how well things are going for me and other times I don’t appreciate how well things are going for me. We catch the Jetcat back, which is high speed hydrofoil and hang on to yer hats as evening descends on the city as we approach and head home with keen dreams and high hopes.
Pic: First passenger train to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge – I love finding old photos like this online.
Today we went up to the north of the city, getting a train over the Harbour Bridge, up to see Cathy in Artarmon, again up to the north the views from the train are a bit more pretty than our usual journey.
Her friend Robert comes round and we head off in the car, this time back into the city to go to St Mary’s church to see a friend of theirs get married, not officially invited we just sit at the back.
We watched the big limo pull up and the bride had to faff around waiting for photos to be taken of her and her bridesmaids, then she walked up the steps and into the church and then a few minutes later down the aisle. It felt really voyeuristic to watch and it was odd seeing Japanese tourists come and go while the priest was mumbling away.
The echo was awful (remember how I described how big this place is?) and they set up a microphone and a couple of speakers for the priest which may help in some parts of the building but at the back it just turned into an echoey mumble, we left about halfway through, slightly disappointed that such a magnificent building didn’t seem to make for a good ceremony. We got a few ideas from it in that it showed us a few things that we don’t want at our wedding.
Kathy drove us all the way home and it was good to have someone else in the house for a change. It was teatime* by the time they left and we realised we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so whipped up some food and alcohol and lazed away the evening watching crumby TV and playing games on the computer, which Broni was proud to win.
17th Mar 2021: It’s funny seeing the word teatime now. Definitely a hold over from English culture and something I no longer use.
Last night we drove back from Bathurst, over the beautiful mountains, unfortunately covered in a dense fog, scary for me to drive through, up those tight turn tracks with ten ton trucks overtaking in their haste and knowledge of the roads (poor little scared foreigner I am) straight into the city like an arrow from the mountains.
We quickly stop off at the flat to dump a car full of Broni’s stuff (more clothes, workbooks and electric piano(yeh, brush her up on her ivory work because she’s great when she gets her act together on the piano)) and then we’re off again, we don’t ever stop, to Marrickville for a family and friends meeting on mental illness.
Broni’s brother G_ suffers from schizophrenia, he was there with his elder triplet brother C_. (the triplets, C_ is the one who made good, so to speak, and has a job, wife and five kids, A_, the middle trip started the mega famous band Icehouse and could be described as on the rock and roll journey of experience and has been known to go off the rails from time to time, married and divorced and a child by someone else and then there’s G_, born tiny and recognisable in boyhood photos as the not so happy chappie, now 37 and coping with his illness)
For someone who sometimes loses control he’s quite together and the meeting tonight helped me understand a little bit about mental illness plus I get to see a bit more of G_, like all the rest of the brothers and sisters of this Smith generation are fairly simple to work out, you know where they are coming from, G_ needs a bit more time to consider.
So, the meeting’s cool and there’s more to be covered over the next three Wednesdays, so we promise to go to them for our own interest as much as for G_’s comfort. We give G_ a lift home, not far up the road and drop C_ off at the train station but we end up driving him all the way up the north of the city home cos hell, we feel like it and he promises us some food and drink, something we’ve forgotten in our long day.
We drive for miles and miles eventually reaching his place, where the promised goods are delivered, we also pick up Broni’s piano music which their kids had been using while Broni had been in England, so after this short relaxing break we trek back across the city, on the harbour bridge at midnight, wow what a sight, the city’s lights tiny beacons of life, parties happening, people working late, lights for no good reason, and then we get lost and then we get found and then we get home and get ourselves tucked up in the security of our luxurious double bed, spoonlike.
We get up early to take the hire car back, which we do with no hassle and stop off for breakfast in a beautiful vibrant but secluded cafe. The waiter is a charmer, sweet french accent, soft tone, looks intelligent and moody, the waitress, his girlfriend or wife, beautifully sexy, all in black, moody and sultry, they’re both running around like crazy at this crazy hour of the morning, their french friends sat at the end of the cafe sneaking quick snatches of conversation. The food is delicious. Betty blue sits on the wall in posterol glory no spelling error, the very definition of France and its beauty.
A cold whisper of darkness came over me as I stood waiting for service in the post office. Both doors were wide open as normal, outside blue sky and sunshine. When I’d finished and stepped outside onto the wide clean sidewalk I saw the reason for my cold shudder. Up in the heavens something was a-brewing. The sky had divided into two, one side bright blue the other a steely grey, like the rumbling of oncoming evil and bad tidings, a low bubbling cloud so unlike the beautiful clear sky that it was now taking over.
The building on the left is the 24 hour pub, conveniently located opposite the station and usually occupied when I was catching the train at 7am.
I ran home excited and at the turn at the top of the street I saw out into the distance the enormity of the storm as it came in across the ocean. As my eyes flicked across the long horizon a bolt of lightning shot down to earth about a mile away. The wind was whipping the tall eucalyptus trees into a frenzy of excited rustling noise, deafening the low mellow tone of thunder in the distance.
Blue circle – our apartment was around here. Red circle – the 24 hour pub Botany Bay is directly south just a couple more blocks
I dragged Broni out to see, she’d promised me storms and here they were, and we ran back up the street, over the road and up to the train station for a better view. Things were now very grey, but still visible a line across the sky where this storm was invading our beloved sunshine. Cracks of thunder and shots of lightning whizzed around in the distance as gradually the drops of rain became harder, heavier and more numerous. We stood in the eye of the storm, getting wet in the delicious rain, soaking our bones and then ran home to dry off in the shelter of our flat.
This photo from the station bridge is the same spot we were observing the storm.
1994ever 