James O'Brien

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed seasonal change as much as I have in the last month.

A few weeks ago, as I traveled in Sweden, I watched with fascination the transition from winter to spring. Although if you’ve been reading Sandra’s blog lately, you’d have to wonder if maybe there was some kind of reversal going on. Today as I went for an afternoon walk around my neighbourhood, I noticed a more subtle transition than that which I experienced in Sweden. Sure, there are some distinct seasons in Sydney. Easter generally marks the transition towards winter. The week between Christmas and NY is usually hot and humid. But by and large, the changes are quite subtle.

In the same way that Sandra’s been writing about how odd it is to still have snow in Stockholm, people here are complaining about the unseasonably humid weather. We’ve had one “cold” morning, as I recall, and that’s about it. Even tonight, it’s warm, humid, and it’s been raining on and off, though hardly noticeably.

Aside from the afternoon walk, it’s been a bit of a do-nothing day for me. The most energetic thing I did was get a haircut. And an odd one too. I’ve never encountered the bloke who cut my hair before, even though he works in a salon I’ve gone to for a number of years. As we began our conversation he was finishing off a conversation with another. “He’s a gay guy who I flirt with. There’s lots of gay guys around here, eh?”, he said to me. “Yeah quite a few…” I told him. I let him generalize about the gays of Surry Hills for a few more minutes before telling him I was also gay. It was an odd conversation in many ways. “Am I really not that obvious?”, I asked myself as I walked out the door.