It’s Sunday morning and it’s another beautiful day in Sydney. I’m just sitting at home listening to the 702 ABC Sydney, enjoying a terrific discussion about Indian food. It’s been so good I’m tempted to take a walk down the street to have lunch today at one of my favourite restaurants on Cleveland Street. Or I could go to the Italian Fair at Leichardt. Such a dilemma! It’s been a reasonably busy week since I last wrote.
On Monday night, Colin and I went to see a play, Strangers in Between, at The Stables. The play centres on the story of Shane, a teenager from Goulburn who moves to Kings Cross, played by the impossibly young, Sam Dunn. He’s experimenting with his sexuality and because of this gets to meet Will (Ben Stiller) and Peter (Tony Phelan). Meanwhile back home in Goulburn his older brother (also played by Ben Stiller) is coming to grips with his own demons, which Shane was either unaware of or had tried to supress his understanding of. The play is genuinely funny and the performances of all three actors were very good. Despite the subject matter, it’s not a “gay play” and wasn’t part of the Mardi Gras festival.
Actually last night Kate and I went along to watch the Mardi Gras, the first time I’ve been to watch the parade in maybe five years. Actually the last time I watched this it was with Damien, Kate and her son Tom. One of our strongest memories of the night, one that really made us laugh was the sight of someone peeing up against an ambulance. Well actually that wasn’t funny… it was the site of someone else going up to the ambulance straight afterwards looking for some moisture to “clean their mirror” (presumably for drug use)… and assuming the moisture on the side of the ambulance was mist or rainfall, gave their mirror a good clean with that guy’s pee. It’s a true story! Last night we both noticed how much smaller the crowds were. That said, they were also much better behaved and we saw little evidence of the yobbo crowds the parades were attracting for a while.
The number of overseas tourists also seemed be to lower. That said, there are some around. In fact, it’s been a busy week catching up with some ABBAMAIL friends, including a drink last night with visiting American, Jason Swann and drinks on Wednesday night at The Huntsbury.
Aside from all this socialising, it’s also been a reasonably busy week with work with one of the highlights being given the chance to meet June and Jim from “The Bill” with one of my tasks being to meet them and greet them when they arrived at the ABC. On walking out of the building towards their taxi cab, I honestly felt it was like meeting old friends, as I’ve regularly watched the program for ten maybe fifteen years now. The actor, Trudy Goodwin (who plays June), in particular seemed incredibly nice, confessing that she “was dying for a cigarette before we went inside”. The crowd inside really loved them and I understand both actors had a terrific time, too. My friend Sue, also a tragic fan of “The Bill” came up from Melbourne on Tuesday night to take part. It was one of those great, spontaneous things to do and I think she really enjoyed it.
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