That Happy Feeling

Back to Normal

Or as normal as it gets.   OK World Youth Day is over.   Two years (I think) and its on again in Madrid.   To their credit, the State Government, and Government Bus, Ferry, and Train services ran as smooth as silk.  Inspectors, drivers and passengers were all happy and transport actually ran on time.   The Government is setting up a "Task Force" to see what lessons can be learnt to make good transport a more regular occurence.   We'll wait and see. 

A lot of the pilgrims have gone home and yes, the city seems to have lost a lot of its vibrance which it had over the past week or so.

My major problem with the event was its lack of ecuminism.   Had it been for World Youth of all faiths, and all religions, it would have been fantastic.   Can you imagine Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, Hindi, and even non believing youth getting the opportunity to come together to have fun, to share experiences and to party (safely).   That would be fantastic. 

My last post may have shown me to be cynical and uncaring, but I just didn't like the discrimination or prosletysing which occured.   That was the scarey thing.

Anyway, its back to the winter sniffles, cough, splutter, hack!

The Continuum's Shifting

OK, My last post heralded a sense of benefit of the doubt, and wait and see.   The continuum has shifted from benefit to doubt, and I don't want to wait any more.   I want my city back.

All week the newspapers, TV, politicians, and senior law enforcement people have been cheesy and welcoming about this scarey phenomenon that is World Youth Day 2008.   The puerile drivel is being spread as thickly as golden syrup.   

Friends are being criticised for wearing black "not enough colour sister" footpaths are crowded with groups of young people ranging from early teens to say mid 30's and whilst they don't seem to be drinking and carousing during the day, they are certainly doing so at night.      

So far we've had a boat-a-cade, a motorcade who's theme was "Faster Than a Speeding Popemobile" and it'll be bigger than Ben Hur this weekend, with a pilgrimage walk to Randwick Racecourse tomorrow, a sleepout midwinter, which is as near to scourging or an Inquisition as I can think of, and a Papal Mass for hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday.

I'll be wearing black (at least t-shirt) both days, in solidarity with slighted friends, and as a show of support for people who have been wronged by this religious fanaticism.

I have my own faith, my own religious faith, and my faith and thankfulness for health, family, friends, and a reasonable standard of living in a great country.   I have no faith in the religious leaders (Catholic and Anglican) of my state of NSW because I believe they practice a brand of Christianity that is far from Christian. 

For goodness sake, the politicians in this state tried to make it illegal to be discourteous to a visiting piligrim. or express a right to freedom of speech which is enshrined in State and Federal Constitutions.   Fortunately, the Court has overturned that madness, but the thought that our so called leaders tried to implement it is very scarey.   

I look forward to my afternoon tipple tomorrow, a fairly early night, and hopefully a weekend far from madding crowd.   

Hope you have a great weekend.  

The Benefit of The Doubt

The circus that is Word Youth Day 2008 has hit Sydney and will be here for the next week.   Pope Benedict XVI (I keep thinking his name is Leopold), arrived at Sydney's Richmond Air Force base , just to the west of Sydney, this afternoon at 3pm before being whisked away to a "retreat" at Kenthurst, where he'll get over his jetlag and prepare for a fairly hectic schedule over the next 7 days. 

I have to say I'm ambivalent about the visit.   I'm not Catholic, and there are issues with that religion, its priests, its views on women, celibacy, homosexuality and papal infallibilty with which I strongly disagree.   But at the same time I can't begrudge those people who will get joy and pleasure out of the visit.   I was on a bus going into Sydney this morning and 40 young people from South Dakota, got on, were polite, not rowdly, but clearly having a good time.   They were on their way to the zoo, and the young bloke who sat next to me couldn't wait to see a kangaroo.   I told him there were other native Aussie animals he should keep an eye out for, such as wombats, the platypus, the echidna, the koala etc, but the kangaroo was on the top of his must see list.   This young guy was about to become a Senior in High School, and most of the people with him were of a similar age, and they'd clearly saved for a long time to travel a long way for what they saw as a very special event. .   He was interested in our take on the whole visit.   I told him it was mixed, there were people who were opposed to the visit, and there were people who welcomed the visit.   

All these visitors, despite the transport chaos which is expected (and may not necessarily happen) bring an untold amount of money into the city's economy and for that factor alone Syndersiders should be thankful.

Whatever views we may have about this, hopefully the visit will be a memorable and safe one for the Pope and his retinue, and the international pilgrims will have a great time, and take home lots of wonderful memories. 

I'll probably write more about this through the week. 

St David's Day Revisited

Occasionally one is blessed to have friends, true friends, that one may not necessarily have had the chance to meet, if one kept within the "straight and narrow" or "staus quo" of one's existence.   Fifteen and a half years ago, I was fortunate to be spending a warm summer Saturday night in Sydney, watching an event that was already famous from the outside front of a small pub in a fairly nondescript part of  Sydney's suburb of Darlinghurs t. It was a fairly noisy and crowded evening.   You couldn't get in the door, the place was packed, but they had a portable bar setup outside for the the passer's by, and those not necessarily brave enough to venture inside.   I think I had a foot in both of those camps.   I wanted to watch the event, and I wanted to step inside, out of a sense of curiosity, and mystery, but it was not to be, not that night anyway.   Next week I ventured back, walked inside, grabbed a beer, mad smallchat to the barstaff, and through the course of that night, and over the next few weeks, made a whole new coterie of new and certainly different friends.   

It got to the stage where I was spending Thursday, Friday, Saturday and evening Sunday evenings with this eclectic coterie of wonderful people.   I discovered a lot of things about myself, my tolerance, and my friends during 10 years of regular attendance at that small pub. 

The ravages of a cruel epidemic, time, and people moving on have meant that I don'[t see all those wonderful people much anymore, but I'm still lucky enough to catch 4 or 5 of them every now and again, and that's always a treat.

One of those friends has decided its time to break the ties that bind, to a degree, and after owning a wonderful pub for 10 years, and helping his friends in another for another 10 years, has decided to take the time to snif the roses (or something similar).   

He's given stirling, lengthy and loyal service to his community and friends and like Kylie, deserves and OBE.   But in the current political climate, I don't think he'll get one.

I salute him tonight with glass No. 3 of a Vincent's Breeze, Haselgrove, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.   

Enjoy your retirement DIVA.   May it be long, prosperous, and absolutely fabulous.

Fade to Abba - Happy New Year!

Early Winter's Day

Sunday morning, 9.16am and its a beautiful day outside.   About 12 degrees C/ 54 Fahrenheit on Sydney's Northern Beaches.   Its forecast to get up to about 20C, so I'm out to enjoy it.   Yesterday was fairly quiet.   Slept in, into town for lunch, windowshop, and a couple of beers then home.   I might get a DVD today, and watch it tonight after dinner.   Nothing on TV of any interest on a Sunday night, apart from the news at 6pm.

Doing a bit of tidying up around the place before I step out.   There's an oak tree in the back yard and it sheds, regularly, so will clear the verandah, get rid of some of the paper waffle inside and head out into this great day.

No work this weekend, but tomorrow and the rest of the week will keep me moving.

Have a great day and a great week. 

All Gloss and Glitter

Sydney's first Apple store opens at 5pm this afternoon.   Unfortunately I'm working 3-11pm.   Will walk past and see how people are going just after lunch.   It looks sparse inside but I'm sure it'll be great.   I'll get a better look tomorrow if its not too crowded.   

To Tap Or Not to Tap

It had the potential to be a fairly early night.   I had a Choir Meeting in the city at 7pm, but it was short, so I headed to the busstop and took my place in the queue.   The bus arrived, it was already about half full, having travelled from the main railway station through the CBD to Wynyard, the last stop before crossing the Harbour Bridge and on to the Northern beaches.

I managed to get a seat not too far from the front and saw a youngish bloke lolled across the 3 seats up front, which can fold back onto the side of the bus and is the space used for prams and strollers (lock the brakes and face the pram forward please). 

The bus started to fill and people gave him a sidelong glance but kept moving.   A woman sitting near the front of the bus went forward and tapped him on the shoulder, no response.   She knelt down, and then said "Driver, you have a problem, the passenger has non-responsive pupils but is breathing".   

The buses radio wasn't working, so there was a game of telephone tag with a Mobile Phone, to the Emergency Services, and the Bus Control Room.   After a couple of minutes an ambulance arrived, they managed to rouse the passenger, who had been placed in the "half prone" position on the floor and escort him as he walked from the bus, and take him away in the ambulance.

The bus driver, and the Operations crew and ambulance crew all performed their tasks admirably but the real heroine on the night was the lady who intervened.   More about her shortly.   

While the passenger was being removed, the driver and the Operations crew found an electrical problem on our bus, so we were asked to catch another bus which had pulled up behind the original bus.   Most were able to get on that bus, but it was eventually full, and drove off.  So the remaining passengers traipsed back onto the broken bus, and patiently awaited our fate.   Another bus pulled up behind so we left the driver and Ops crew still trying to fix the first bus, and had a fairly uneventful trip back to the Northern beaches. 

Until a drunk got on the bus, and chided the Florence Nightingale sititng quietly next to him for not smiling.   She had no reason to smile, and the twerp was told that in no uncertain terms.

So how was your day?    

A Long Weekend

It's the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend in NSW. That's Queen Elizabeth II, or QE2, as she's affectionately known. Just to confuse the issue, its not actually her birthday, but its the weekend we celebrate her birthday. We get a Public Holiday on Monday. The celebration of Sovereign's birthdays is somewhat bizarre, and there have been countless articles written about it. Previous kings and queens, who've had their birthdays in the later months of the year, have had the celebrations moved to warmer months because the winter was deemed to be too cold. Even in Australia, in Western Australia, I think they celebrate her birthday in September. Then again, West Australians have always been a little different. Weatherwise, it'll probably be wet. Thats good for the dams, the gardens, the catchment areas, the farmers in the central west of the state and in drier parts of the country etc, but it stifles the opportunity for doing things outside. Then again, it might be OK, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm winding down on a Friday night with a glass or two of cab sauvignon, so just to keep the brain going, let's try some subliminal.lunanina.

1. Gossipping :: Grannies. 
2. Misplaced ::   Trust. 
3. Spaceship ::   Enterprise
4. Ignore ::        Don't worry about. 
5. Bodily ::         Functions. 
6. Tweezers ::     Splinter. 
7. Goodnight ::    Irene. 
8. Curls ::           Bicep. 
9. Faucet ::         Tap
10. Right? ::         Dress

The Coming Chill

It looks like this will be a cold winter down under.   The weather during the week has been in the low 60's F, low to mid teens C.   A bit of rain but not much.   Nothing much has been happening here since the funeral (see previous post).  I'm fighting off the lurgy, with a bit of a cough, but its nothing to complain about.   There are a lot of people with bigger problems than that.   I'm in an Internet cafe just before going next door for Saturday afternoon drinks (1 or 2) and the keyboard is clapped out on the PC so I might post again tomorrow afternoon, from home.   Have a great weekend folks.

Old Soldiers Passing

One of the things that becomes more and more apparent each year is that the number of "old soldiers" who attend/march/are driven at ANZAC Day celebrations becomes fewer and fewer each year. All our WWI veterans are gone and even the "youngies" of WW2 are now in their 80's. A lot of them are still marching, some are driven by cabs and the cabs lead the Parade each year, and others use walking frames, or motorised wheelchair/scooters to keep up with their mates. They're all truly amazing, as are those who followed, in the Army, Navy and Air Force, serving in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor, and the peacekeeping forces; men and women.

I was thinking about that today, after I received a text from my brother to say that my Uncle, Dad's brother, had passed away on Friday, at the age of 84. That's a pretty good innings. He served in New Guinea in World War 2, then was a manager at a concrete/cement truck plant (don't start me on the difference between concrete trucks and cement trucks) then retired about 25 years ago, and moved to the South Coast, about 3 hours drive from Sydney. He leaves a loving wife, four sons, I'm unsure how many grandchildren, and probably a couple of great grand children, and his passing will be felt dearly by those people, and my brothers and I.

Its been a few years since I've seen him. I'm not one who likes "visiting" people, even relatives and friends. That doesn't mean to say I don't care for them, or think about them. I just don't visit.

The funeral is on Friday. My brother and I will drive down, and return home later that afternoon. That's the plan.

Rest In Peace Old Soldier. Your duty done, your time has come. Farewell.