“It’s pretty confronting”, a friend and I concluded about our (separate) experiences of visiting the red-light area of Amsterdam. As you walk around Amsterdam there are half-dressed women in shop-fronts offering themselves to (often) groups of men. I don’t have an issue, at all, with sex work as a legitimate form of employment, but sex work doesn’t come without its problems, including drug abuse, exploitation, and (sometimes) slavery.… Read the rest “On The Street”
Even on a Friday night, it can be hard to find somewhere to eat in Sydney after nine o’clock.
This is not a new thing, but it seems to have worsened since COVID, with many restaurants closed.
I remember arriving in Rome a few years ago, and the incredulity of the waiter to my assumption that at 9.30pm I was already “too late” for a meal.… Read the rest “9.00pm Friday in Sydney”
There were two thirty-something guys walking down a street in Darlinghurst this morning. As I watched them walk, and then stop for a cuddle and a kiss, and then walk again, I remember once being like them.
There was a moment in my relationship with Damien when we hadn’t seen each other for a couple of weeks and we embraced and kissed quite publicly outside a local pub in Surry Hills.… Read the rest “Fresh Views”
After catching up with a mate last night at my “local” pub, I caught the bus to Darlinghurst for what I thought might have been the return of Harbour City Bears. The regular Friday night gathering doesn’t appear to have returned yet. Instead, there was a mixed crowd of people, and boy was it packed.… Read the rest “Open for business”
“You had a big night”, one of my friends said to me over lunch on the weekend, remarking that we’d corresponded a few times by messenger. “You were at The Bears, and then you were at Palms”, he said. I remember texting him about a song I’d heard at Harbour City Bears at Kinsela’s.… Read the rest “Big Friday Night”
I got excited yesterday morning. I heard on the radio there were going to be a bunch of late night parties around Sydney to celebrate the end of the “lock-out”.
The lock-out was introduced six years ago, in response to a series of alcohol-related violent attacks. As I recall, those attacks occured much earlier in the night, but the response was to restrict alcohol and trading hours around the city.… Read the rest “Sydney’s Lockout”
Though I know Jacaranda trees are considered a “pest” in many parts of Australia, because they’re an introduced species, I love them. Maybe it’s because I’m originally from the NSW North Coast, and nearby Grafton is considered the “Jacaranda Capital of Australia”? The purple flowers are, in my view, quite beautiful, and as I stopped and admired them tonight on Riley Street, Darlinghurst, there was another person taking in their view, and taking photographs of them, so I can’t be alone.… Read the rest “Thursday Night On oxford Street”
Though it can sometimes be cold, wet and miserable in Sydney during winter, it can also be totally awesome. And yesterday, in the midst of our visit to the NAIDOC Week Arts Festival, I took a brief walk out in the sunshine. I sat down, I closed my eyes, and just enjoyed the awesomeness of a clear winter day.… Read the rest “Recent Views”
