The Waiting Man

Having made a kind of pledge to myself about doomscrolling & ranting about local & global politics here on my Journal, it's had the unexpected by-blow of leaving me without much drive to write about anything at all, really - a day-in, day-out diary of minutiae doesn't have much appeal to me &, as I experienced over on LiveJournal, not much appeal to anyone else either, so I've been lurking, posting comments occasionally, but nothing to really say...

The Pelican Daughters album we finished last year, is in Limbo, as our Label's distribution deal kind of fell apart & we've received occasional e-mails about what little progress there's been in finding an alternative, but so far... it may end up being 40 years since the last album before this one sees any light of day. Not that it's stopped us - we 2 Pelicans convened a couple of weeks ago to start a new track & found we're still full of ideas &, more importantly, still work well together in giving those ideas shape, form & identity. This one even has some guitar on it!!

Long-Suffering Partner & I have continued with our 'Year of doing Stuff' - 2 day car rallies every 2 months, night photography, concerts by Tommy Emmanuel, Max Richter & Damian Rice, the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show, 3 evenings at the Vivid Festival of Lights & Ideas (to give it its full, if slightly pretentious, title), with an upcoming roadtrip to the Compact Array at Narrabri, for an evening of astral photography with some hired lenses & possibly a couple of friends...

Caught up with some old school & work friends over the last few weeks, one of whom was in a local theatre production of Nikolai Erdman's 'The Suicide', which was a lot funnier than the play's title may suggest... & another who's as much of a whiskey aficionado/enthusiast as I am, with the resulting 2-day hangover being evidence of a great night of whiskey, conversation, music & day 2 of the 3rd Ashes Test in England

Work is... well, it's pretty mentally taxing actually. Even on days when I'm not driving around town, measuring & inspecting everything from slumlord apartments, to huge mansions, or half-built dream homes where the stairs haven't been installed, so inspecting the 1st floor is a challenge for my perfectly rational fear of unstable heights, especially the one the other day, where the entire scaffold I had to climb, was shaking & swaying like a 7.5 Richter earthquake. L-SP makes sure my Life Insurance is paid up every year... Otherwise, there are concerns about my Employer looking to expand the business in the middle of a bad year - interest rate rises spooking clients & inflation affecting the cost of absolutely everything!!!. This, of course, places stress on him, which he deals with by assigning me random tasks while I'm in the middle of what I'm actually employed for. I've recently discovered that I can do a lot of my paperwork at home, realising that since the office software is cloud-based, I can log in from here & not have to deal with trivial annoyances

I'm overdue a visit to my former guitar student, who has progressed well beyond the point of needing me for much, but seems to like my company & respect my opinions, so is keen to play me some of his more recent compositions... & I'm quite interested to hear them as well

Enough... Here are some photos taken on the morning of the Winter Solstice. Elizabeth Bay House in eastern Sydney is oriented so that the solstice sunrise shines directly through the front door - whether by accident or design is unknown & hotly debated, if the short presentation we attended on the day is anything to go by. As is so often the case, the original records & plans for the House were lost in a fire, so best to shelve the curiosity & just enjoy the phenomenon...


Clouds delayed the sunrise by a little...


But finally, the shortest day gets going...


And sure enough... the sun blazed straight through the door. Hard to get a clear shot of it, as everyone stood there... this will have to do

It's been a socialising week & it's not over yet...

It's also been a good week, work-wise & it's not over yet...

We've had dinners with friends twice this week so far, tonight & on Tuesday & catching up with long-time friend/cohort/confidante Reynardo tomorrow night at one of our favourite Shanghai dumpling places in the city - after which I think we'll go on a salad & water diet for the next week or so, though with a mini-roadtrip to Bombo Quarry about 2 & a bit hours south of Sydney planned for Saturday, a country pub meal is almost inevitable...

We also headed to our favourite, usually relatively deserted cinema multiplex the other day to see the latest Jurassic World movie & between us, couldn't figure out why everyone's complaining about it. Sure, it was a long movie, but I would have been happier if it went even longer, as there were some characters it would have been nice to flesh out a little... but otherwise, it had Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum & Laura Dern along for the ride, plenty of throwbacks to those original 3 films, cameo appearances galore & LOTS of dinosaurs. What more do you need for a Sunday afternoon matinee blockbuster?!?!

Arriving home tonight from the 2nd of the 3 dinners mentioned above, I walked into our loungeroom & was greeted by the sight of, what was left of, an obviously slow-moving butcherbird that Bella had managed to catch, bring inside &, by the looks of things, play with all over the loungeroom & hallway before it gave up its ghost & the patchy carcass was in front of the heater, which Bella was sitting on top of, yowling for it to be switched on as soon as she saw me. Unlike the times she's brought live playthings inside, she wasn't too upset when I bagged the birdy remains & gave the carpet a thorough vacuum & disinfecting spray. Unsurprisingly, she's not too interested in the dinner I put out for her, having been snacking on Dirty Bird all afternoon...

Anyone for tennis?



After dropping L-SP off at an appointment today, I had a little time to fill before picking her up again & found my way down to White City - not a Caucasian enclave, but the former Sydney international tennis centre, now mostly disused, apart from a couple of courts being used to teach tennis to under 10s. The centre court grandstand has certainly seen better days...



Dinner with friends tonight, now home & pottering around before bed...

Well, after a few days of increasing humidity, the rains are here... & will likely be hanging around all week

Dinner with an erstwhile colleague & her husband at their local Indian place last night. The pork vindaloo was pretty darned tangy, but when combined with the lamb & spinach dish, there was too much saltiness going on & I think I drank about 2 litres of water at the restaurant, then more when I got home. Otherwise, it was a good meal & catch-up with the couple whose house & hospitality L-SP & I enjoyed last New Year's Eve, when our area was under a few lockdown restrictions & we couldn't go too far - which therefore precluded seeing another friend's band playing at a pub that was a few suburbs too far away

So a stinking hot night gave way to steady rain at about 5am & a welcome drop in temperature & that's how it stayed all day. We went & found brunch at a place recommended by one of L-SP's Instagram friends & it turned out to be a winner... So many good cafés, so little time...

Afterwards, we headed over to the south side of town to see a little art exhibition of cartoonish portraits, all done on sponges & cleaning cloths. The prices ranged from $300-800 dollars or so & they were literally being plucked off the wall. The catalogue had 30 pieces in it, but there were only about 15 left when we got there & another 3 went in the 10 minutes we stayed. Not really our thing, but obviously strikes a chord with some people, for whom artiness is next to cleanliness

Then back home to put the finishing touches on a plan for the commercial rep, who's a bit fussy about plans, but I've just seen a text he sent earlier tonight, with the thumbs-up emoji on it, so at least he's happy... though I'm sure he'll find something to 'improve' when I speak with him this week

For anyone curious... on Day 11 of the road trip, we drove back to Sydney, had lunch with some family & went home

Total kilometres travelled: 4,100

Not much else to report this week, which is why I have missed a couple of days... I was sitting in front of the computer trying to come up with an entertaining way of saying "Not much happened" & just couldn't be bothered. Was notified of a couple of job application failures, applied for a couple more & have done my best to tolerate the situation I'm in. A birthday dinner with immediate family that only served to highlight the gulf between generations... we finally reached the end of the wonderful TV series Gotham & had dinner with another friend whom we haven't seen for most of the year

North Head - part of Sydney Harbour National Park & one of the famed 'Heads' at the entrance to the Harbour, had fire run through it last weekend, after a "controlled" hazard reduction burn jumped its containment lines & turned into quite the hazard for humans & animals alike. Seeing the fire & its orange glow from the end of our street on Saturday night, was hopefully not an augur of the Summer to come...

An end to part of the working week... well, a day off, anyway

Shamefully slept in 'til about midday today, putting paid to plans to have brunch at a (nearly) seaside café, meaning it will now be lunch instead, as I don't think you can call any food 'breakfast' after midday, can you? Unless you're on night shifts, but that's splitting hairs...

My only excuse is L-SP & I went to see Ben Folds at the Sydney Town Hall last night, in concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which makes it cultural, not just a pop concert... He's been working with orchestras for about 20 years now, so a) it's not some desperate attempt for credibility & b) he's really good at arrangements for them... as evidenced by the Rock This Bitch segment of the show, where he improvised a new song, wrote parts for strings, horns & percussion, then later gave 3-part harmonies to different sections of the audience... We've sung with Ben Folds!!

Like Tool the other week (though not as militantly), he discouraged photography & recording - 'til this song, not one of his, but dedicated to the bushfire recovery efforts urging us to share it & contribute as we can (We are... we are!!!). So here it is... filmed by someone else,but the only one I found on Youtube...



Now... shower & off to the (nearly) seaside...

... Well, maybe...

Last night we went out for dinner with 2 long-time friends. They're our burger/chicken/not-quite-fast-food-but-almost dining companions & Belle's Hot Chicken was the chosen venue. L-SP & I have been there before & enjoyed it, so were happy to recommend it for our fast-food foursome. Last time I was there, I had my chicken pieces 'Really Hot', which was one below the hottest level, appropriately named 'Really Fuckin' Hot' &, while it burned a little, it was quite tasty & certainly not the hottest thing I've ever eaten. But...

Last night, having been reminded by L-SP that I'd enjoyed the 'Really Hot', I went there again. My male counterpart ordered the 'Really Fuckin' Hot', as he's an enthusiastic chili hound. One difference was that there was now a higher heat level available, perplexingly named 'Sex Panther', after an off day in the Marketing Department, methinks.... Before too long, our chickens arrived. My friend got straight into his RFH & within 20 seconds was red-faced & starting to sweat at the eyebrows, but to his credit, kept going, with the aid of a nice 4 Pines ale. I picked up my first piece of RH...

... & within 20 seconds was red-faced, sweating from the eyebrows, had hiccuped from the heat & was further into my beer than my friend was. His wife took great delight in taking a photo of both of us, as evidence of our alpha male pretensions coming unstuck. Then my nose started bleeding...! This wasn't actually chili related, as it had bled earlier in the day, due to the headcold I've been nursing along for a few days... but it did provide an excuse to head to the bathroom & get the hell away from the devil bird for a few minutes. By the time I returned, our friend was onto his last piece &, while still red-faced & into a 2nd beer, was showing no signs of stopping. So I started my 2nd last & ordered another beer for myself too...

Some time around then, I had an epiphany... While wondering what the hell I was doing to myself, I realised I didn't actually have to do it at all & decided to finish the 2nd last piece & just... stop. To their credit, our friends didn't give me any grief for it (pretty sure one of them didn't have the breath, or lip/tongue co-ordination anyway!), so we paid the bill & made a beeline for the ice cream shop!!!

I had about 3 hours of good sleep, before heading for the toilet at about 2am, then again at 2.30, 3.15 & 3.45am. Around 4am, my nose started bleeding again, then by 5am Bella figured I was awake, so began her morning interruption schedule - wanting to be let out, wanting the heater turned on in the loungeroom, then wanting breakfast. My darling little cat has no idea how close she came to being put in the ground with her late sister... Off to work at 7.15am into the first day of school traffic...

The only way I can describe how I felt today was a food hangover... Nausea, headache, lethargy & the resultant impatience & extremely low bullshit threshold... with lots of water. LOTS of water... & more visits to the bathroom. L-SP reported that my friend who, let's remember, had the next heat level up from me, had suffered no lasting effects. I think I hate him a little right now...

Thinking about it, this isn't the first adverse reaction to hot food I've had recently... just the most extreme & memorable. So maybe it's time to retire my asbestos-coated digestion while there's still some coating left, as it's clearly wearing thin. No more chomping on chilis straight off the vine, no more hot sauces with death or disembowelment-related names proudly displayed on the kitchen shelves & dining table, no more beef or chicken vindaloos at the local Indian places... on 2nd thought, some of those aren't that hot, really... Maybe I can still have those...

Watch this space...

Just a short update... I met up with an old schoolfriend tonight, who turned out to live nearby & shares my passion for single malt scotch... which is why this will be more of a bookmarker entry than a detailed disclosure... hic...

An interesting evening's conversation, fuelled & probably helped by the first nice Speyside single malt I've ever had, washed down with my current favourite Highland malt, along with a triple cream brie, smoked cheddar, pepperoni, salami & crackers - you don't want to get too adventurous with food mixing with scotch... with a couple of misconceptions cleared up, some unexpected common ground discovered & some vague future plans mooted... more news next Tuesday, if we meet again as loosely scheduled

So the past comes back at you like...



And another kind of placemarker... Did I mention I saw Tommy Emmanuel at the Opera House the other week with help from dobro maestro Jerry Douglas??

A quiet evening in... so the music is loud, the backlog of photos is being addressed & here is the review of the last month or so...

My PC got sick in early March & kept blue-screen dying, so off it went to a PC-friendly friend, who diagnosed blocked air vents, overheating & Windows 10. He cleared the vents, checked the fans & couldn't do much about Windows 10 (Who can... really?!?!), other than offer to replace it with Windows 7, which he says is more reliable. I must have skipped 7, as I ran on XP for years & years without much trouble, so never upgraded until this new PC

Add to that, my phone decided to die as well. Working one minute, refusing to power up the next. Unfortunately, I hadn't backed up for a while, so I lost some nice photos, all my SMS activity, a whole bunch of phone contacts (If you're reading this & haven't heard from me in a while, it's nothing personal... probably. Give me a call & find out!!) & my preferred versions of Solitaire & Sudoku

While I was out of contact, it was time for L-SP & I to embark on our South Pacific cruise. We'd booked it a while ago & the departure date had been approaching like Halley's Comet - at one point it DID feel like it was 76 years away... until all of a sudden it was in 5 days time & we had to scramble to pack, prepare, board the cats, organise transport & remember where the 2nd suitcase was...

See you in a week, Sydney...



We were on the Royal Caribbean line's 'Explorer of the Seas' & it was like one of those modern shopping centres with the apartments built on top of it... with a couple of large propellers on the back. The sheer size of the thing was impressive from the outside, but once you hit the main central area inside the ship, the scale is nothing less than impressive... & probably a few words beyond that! We spent the first 2 hours finding our cabin, then exploring the 'Explorer'. We found the pool deck - with a few hundred of our fellow travellers already occupying the spas, lounges & poolside bars, showing little or no inclination to move from there. All fine by us, we weren't on board for the swimming - We also found the forward lounge, the shopping centre, the theatre, library, the 2 main dining areas, the 3 other restaurants, the Chapel, the lifeboats & the ice-skating rink (!!??). We didn't find the mini golf range until the 2nd last day, but no problem - a lot of other people had... There were also enough bars scattered over the decks to guarantee a mild case of cirrhosis before you could drink in all of them once. Again, no real problem - the additional cost of an alcoholic drinks package worked out at $75 per day & I doubted I could drink that much every day, so we decided to just pay as we went. I think I ended up only buying 3 drinks in 7 days... in between complimentary drinks, a wine-tasting & a beer bought for me by a friendly Karaoke-ist. Speaking of which, the reggae band playing Bob Marley's greatest hits found me as I was walking past on the first day & thrust a microphone at me during the chorus of 'Could You Be Loved'. I think the singer was impressed... or maybe just grateful I wasn't another half-drunk, tone-deaf white guy. Get used to them, fella

In short... 2 days at sea, a day in Noumea, New Caledonia, a day in Lifou, Loyalty Islands, then 2 days at sea & back to Sydney. A lot of trivia contests, a couple of art auctions, karaoke every night (including one night with a live band!), some group jigsaw solving, lots of great food, quite varied in origin, terrible coffee & the constant battle to remember that everything was priced in US dollars, so add around 40% before thinking something's a bargain!!

And, of course, the tropical clichés of crystal clear waters, white sands...



... & coconuts floating in the water. What more can you ask?!



The day on Lifou was my favourite... friendly natives, colonial architecture, a glass-bottom boat trip around the lagoon & reef (Coral! Turtles!! Home-made alcohol!!!). We returned to Sydney in the early hours of the morning in a torrential downpour, which made disembarking & finding our Über driver an adventure in itself. Home to our own bed, pillows & decent coffee - not necessarily in that order...

More to come in Part 2... despite popular demand...

Just returned from 'date night' with L-SP - who would argue that, since we don't have children, every night is date night... We had a buffet meal at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in the city - something that would normally cost $100 per person, but a voucher deal halved that for us & made it worthwhile indulging

Or did it? Arriving at 6.30pm to a quiet, 1/3 full restaurant, the first 2 trips to the seafood section were a definite highlight, though the crab selection really reminds you that those little sideways critters are a lot of hard work for not a lot of reward (certainly not a patch on the Alaskan King crab we had in a Shack in Augusta Georgia a few years ago, unlikely to be bettered!!), but the oysters, mussels & prawns were of superior quality, so plenty of those were eaten as well

By this time, the place had filled up considerably, so when the time came to investigate the hot foods, it was a bit of a zoo, trying to get around people & get to anything that looked appetising. This is where it all came unstuck, really... I don't know what it is about buffets that brings out the caveman in modern humans. People were stacking plates so high with food, things were sliding off, picking at things with their fingers, pushing in or through the semi-orderly lines... all for dishes that, sorry, weren't that great, really... Certainly not $100 per person great... & barely $50 if we're counting that way

And it's not as if there was any shortage of food - waiters & servers were constantly re-filling dishes, only for people to swoop down like seagulls & take waaay more than you'd consider polite & bugger anyone else...

So here's the rub - I'm all for social climbing, ambition & aspiration - hell, I've been doing it all my life - but whatever happened to the raising of standards as you go up in the world. I mean, here we were at one of the city's more expensive Hotels & there were people getting 'round in shorts, t-shirts, baseball cap & thongs - dressed more for the beachside pub than the Sheraton &, as mentioned, behaving like the seagulls you'd find in the beer garden there. L-SP & I had dressed 'up' slightly, for the occasion, but soon discovered we needn't have bothered, given the standards on display... And for god's sake, take your damn stupid cap off when you're indoors!!!!!!

Okay, so Australia prides itself on being egalitarian & 'classless' to a degree & I applaud that attitude to an extent... but whatever happened to the idea of being better, or at least seeming to be??? Or even just the notion that you put a little effort into your appearance if you're going somewhere a few pricepoints above the local RSL Club (in fact, I even dress smartly to visit the Club!). Just because we're a classless society, doesn't mean classlessness is acceptable...

... Or is it? Is this just another outdated aspect of my anachronism?

Things often go that way

Friday & Saturday were rollercoaster days at work. I landed a couple of projects, one of which I'd quoted on so long ago I'd forgotten about it, the other from a website enquiry that became a 'sale' within 10 minutes. Happy Boss...

It was also discovered that I had stuffed up the floorplan for another project currently underway, by missing a room when site-measuring, meaning we were short quite a bit of materials. I'd missed the bedroom that you could only enter via the bathroom - there's no other door. My excuse was that the day I'd been there, painters were on site & had their stuff everywhere, including the bathroom, which obscured any view I might have had of any room beyond it & who the hell puts the door to a bedroom inside a bathroom anyway??!! My work never involves bathrooms, so I'd cursorily marked the bathroom on my plan & moved on, not remotely suspecting what lay beyond it. Unhappy Boss...

Fortunately, the client was reasonably understanding about the error & agree to pay the cost of materials & labour, so at least we didn't lose money because of me. Slightly happier Boss...

Therefore, Saturday afternoon couldn't come fast enough &, once home from work, Long-Suffering Partner & I made vague plans to go & find a good old pub meal - steak, 2 veg & Guinness - it was St Patrick's Day, after all. It took 3 pubs in 3 suburbs to find what we wanted at a reasonable price & you wouldn't expect that place to be in Mosman - one of the better-heeled suburbs of Sydney, not usually associated with bargains or economy, however this pub not only had Guinness on tap, but their Bistro menu was amazingly cheap. We'll be back!

Over dinner, L-SP received notification that a friend of ours was hosting a Karaoke night in an iconic pub in the inner-western suburbs. Not having seen our friend this year, we decided to trek over & maybe sandblast the tonsils a bit, for the first time since my birthday last year. A small but very vocal crowd - probably a good thing for a Karaoke night - & the usual mix of good, great & bloody awful singers. I wondered if anyone would do the pub's theme song & sure enough, someone did... though if Slim Dusty were alive today, it would have killed him to hear it. My rendition of 'Ballroom Blitz' was well received &, after a couple of drinks, we wound our way back home through the after-midnight traffic - more than you'd expect, but far less than what I get stuck behind during my normal commutes

Today is expected to be the last blast of Summer, with temperatures in the high 30s, so it could be a good car wash day, after a slow start, leisurely breakfast & maybe some cat-bonding time... if I can find the little buggers

Tens of thousands of people...2 great support acts (Australia's The Preatures & Weezer), a Sydney Summer heatwave & a 3 hour show that, even at that length, didn't have all the songs you might want to hear. Only a minor quibble though - The Foo Fighters are still a great, straight-ahead rock show, ticking all the boxes - singalongs, name-checking the city, comparing audiences from other cities & how we were the best (until tomorrow night...), classic rock cover versions & the only good thing about mobile phones at gigs these days...



And a slight ringing in the ears on the walk back to the car park... A great night!

The least amount of travel, but the most fun so far...

( C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell )

Blerp... The morning after the night befpre...

Not hung over - didn't drink very much at all last night, but definitely emerging from a food coma. December is traditionally spent with various friends & colleagues, at various tables, having food plonked in front of you, which you plough through as you review the year that was... & last night was no exception

The last Wafflers meeting of the year is always a buffet affair & I've spent this past week organising numbers, doing seating arrangements & liasing with caterers, making sure that the 73 guests would all get something they like to eat. For such is the job of Dinner Secretary in the Club & I've been doing it for nearly 2 years... & boy, does it take a toll

Most months we have somewhere between 30-40 people & even that can be a bit tricky, 'cause everyone has their preference as to who they sit with, what they can & can't eat... L-SP & I have dubbed the 3rd week of the month 'Wafflers Week' & have learned that any disagreements we have, about anything, can be put down to the stress of dealing with that finicky bunch & are not to be seen as anything other than pressure relief, So finagling with almost twice the usual number means that this week, it's probably been best for L-SP to not talk to me at all... except that, because of the aforementioned social nature of December, we've probably talked more than usual. No black eyes, or divorce lawyers though... I'd say we've come through rather well... fed !!

Can't wait for April 2015's AGM, when my term on the Committee is up & they'll have to find a new Dinner Secretary... Boy, will we give 'em hell with our requests...

An 11th hour reprieve might be at hand for my career too. I got a call just as we were heading out last night, from an immediate past colleague, with news of a job opportunity with a much larger & much more reputable company than the one I'm starting with on Monday... & in the same product range that I've been working with over the last 2 years. Which is good, because I wasn't looking forward to emptying my head of all the technical info I've gathered on it, so that there'll be room for the new stuff I'll be flogging. Anyway, hopefully off to see a man about a horse this morning. What does one wear on a Saturday when going to see a potential employer, but it's not actually an 'interview' as such, more just an introduction & fact-finding field trip?

Tuesday... & the week gathers momentum

Getting busy at work & also looking further into the week where there are two days spent in another branch office on the other side of town, acoustic sessions on another side of town, an informal family dinner in the middle of town, then seeing Tool for the first time in a while

So a quiet night in for tonight...Deep breath & off we go

To bed