I haven’t been feeling the best over the last few weeks.
I was home in Lismore a few weeks ago for some family activities and barely left the house. According to my niece, a nurse, it was a chest infection that kept me in bed and without an appetite for at least three days. Even a couple of weeks later, I still have the remnants of the infection with an occasional cough. We checked, and it wasn’t COVID.
On returning to Sydney, aside from the sing-along night I mentioned here previously, I’ve been staying home, resting, and have been going to bed most nights about 7:30 or 8:00 pm. Whatever happened to the night owl I used to be?
But on the weekend, I thought it was time to get out and about and do some things.
On Saturday, for the first time, I visited Qtopia, the LGBTQIA+ museum in Sydney.
I was really impressed with the museum, located in a building that was previously the Darlinghurst Police Station, the site where many people were incarcerated (and bashed) after the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras in 1978. It was a surreal experience to see the walls of the police cells adorned with posters, clippings, and artifacts from that time. And to stand there in silence and try to imagine what people who were there on the night experienced was mind-blowing.
The exhibition features videos (archives and oral history), newspaper clippings, costumes, and even a motorbike, commemorating the significance of Dykes on Bikes.
There were a couple of things that impressed me, including a newspaper editorial from Wagga’s Daily Advertiser (I was living in Wagga during the midst of an anti-gay campaign by the newspaper), and a reflection on Aboriginality and queerness by Daniel Browning. Daniel comes from Northern NSW, and his piece talks about Bundjalung words relating to, but not always clearly defining, queerness, thus posing questions about visibility and identity.
It’s $15 to enter, and I spent maybe 90 minutes there. I could have spent longer.
Also on the weekend, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art and enjoyed some works at the Sydney Biennale. To be honest, there wasn’t a lot that impressed me, but there were some items that I enjoyed nonetheless.
On the way there, I ran into a former colleague who I haven’t seen in decades. It was such a delight to see her and to chat, especially as we both had near-death experiences last year.
And yesterday I went shopping for a fitness mat to continue my daily physiotherapy exercises.
“You could get a Pilates mat, but they’re often too thin. You could get one of these mats from somewhere like Rebel Sport, but they cost a lot of money, and you’re better off with the one from K-Mart that costs only $26,” my physiotherapist advised.
And so yesterday that’s what I did, setting out on the 352 to K-Mart at Bondi Junction where something quite odd happened.
I was sitting in the disabled spot on the bus, and opposite me, someone was staring at me, as if to say “you shouldn’t be sitting there”. Clearly, it wasn’t obvious to them I have had an amputation and therefore a disability.
For several months, I’ve been struggling to get my skinny-legged pants over my prosthetic leg, so mostly one stays rolled up.
That’s when I noticed one had rolled down, and therefore my prosthetic leg wasn’t instantly visible.
It really makes a difference to be “seen”, so I rolled it back up!!!
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