D-Day for Body Positive

A visit to BP this morning confirmed the sad news that the centre is scheduled to close in four weeks, a very short window to end a two year stint which had, by and large, been very successful from the clients' point of view.  But not financially as the BP chairman took pains to point out in the cyber media GayNZ. I placed a support post to one from Auckland to say the closure was a sad event, and in response received a stern riposte from the chairman saying please remove this post. 

Well, apart from not knowing how to remove a post form FB I had to stand by my support so on careful thought I wrote a strongly worded but polite letter suggesting that my words were valid and should stay there.

We'll now see what happens. Ron has already signed out, he feels there is no future without the Auckland support and I suppose he is right. But there were problems from day one when the Chairman and the former ED were not on the same page. This new ED was the chair's personal choice, and so is a 'yes' man and getting rid of Wellington was high on his agenda. And now he has got his wish but has far fewer friends than ever. Needless to say I will be 'unfriended' as soon as he reads my email, lol!

Savoury muffin with versato

Example of enormous overspending on travel post Christchurch earthquake

What is this slant from Australia?It's all about money, not about ethics or one's health

Hoping to see and hear, Renée in a few weeks at the Michael Fowler Centre

Dear Oliver Sacks, he led a great if tortured life, helpingothers see themselves as worthy people in spite of perceived differences and sometimes brain damage. Lived till 82 though, and finally found himself a lover!

Breaking news: a phone call from Karen Ritchie confirms the fight to keep Wellington BP Centre open is on. I may now well do the interview requested by Jay for GayNZ. It will be interesting to see what eventuates in the next few days, social media is a fast mover.

Return to Memphis

Am home! With a vengeance....lol! It didn't take long to get back to my routine. The two  housemates sill there, will be gone, both of them in two weeks, and the third one is in America. Things change and you roll with the blows. I will later today get my Trade Me  ads on the go to find good replacements for both Koroi and Fir who is off to the South Island with a new job and a new life. I wish her the best. After After a talk this morning with Koroi I realise he was never the person I thought he was. I gave him his gift of a little writing pad for his poetry, which he wil probably never use, but on the other hand the rainbow bonnet I gave Fir she wore immediately with great panache. I will be sad to see her go but not too sad to see the departure of the complex but fascinating Koroi. He will have a big life ahead of him, with or without his four kids in the Solomons. My tip is they will not come over her  as the culture shock would be too great. Perhaps later when he becomes wealthier, perhaps and wiser...

My own cup of versato with a pain au chocolat to celebrate my return.

Memphis the same as ever...

Jonah Lomuh..a rugby god now on dialysis

The 'Belle Community

It is so nice be part of this community which is rich and giving, offering a quality of life which surpasses most others. I feel privileged to be here and enjoying it. After my regular coffee then a visit to Body Positive and home to talk with Fir and start the ball rolling for new housemates. My return is in effect.

Young kiwi scientistsmaking waves with natural water purifying methods. This country is full of innovation, especially with young people at the helm.

Kiwi flag worth consideringthe Black Jack

The PM and the captain of the ABsRichie McCaw, arguably the two most important men in the country. 

The ABs, reasy to leave to win the World Cupin Great Britain later this year - they are the hot favourites so have a lot to live up to.

Tonight was a great welcome back to Tiwhanawhana who had been invited to give waiata at the Wellington Medical School which we did with great aplomb led by Kevin. The fourth year students had been well prepared by their teacher/mentor who had invited us to perform and have korero with them as part of their ongoing studies to acquaint them with the world of takataapui. I met some charming intelligent young people and it was a most enjoyable intellectual and cultural interchange.

What a way to spend my first night back in this wonderful city.

Brother's 80th birthday and flight to Wellington

Sun dawns bright and warm on this day of departure. The airport trip is done successfully and we await the arrival of the returned birthday man from the US after he has checked into his monastery at Waverly. Old family friend Annie is also coming and will provide some light relief from family seriousness - a welcome diversion.

Sun on veranda...

Yellow pansies and blooming orchids, a gift from Suemany years ago...my memories of Sue are not in this house but in a bayside cottage on Lake Macquarie where we spent five fruitful and enjoyable years of sharing the ECK love and creating a life together for as short for her as it was. 

Sue's translation on August  3 marked a seminal moment in my life and it all began from there. A move to Newcastle, a resumption of my University degree where I won a scholarship with Honours and a trip to France, and on return from France I took over the caring of my my aging Mum for eight years until we decided it was time for her to be cared for in a Sydney hostel, where she reigned supreme for two years before holding to her contract and translating two days after her ninety-seventh birthday, allowing me to travel to my beloved Melbourne. There I spent two interesting years catching up with my old life  but realising that my former sort of life was over. Hobart then beckoned and lasted for three very busy years while I tried, albeit with much difficulty, to bring back the ECK flow to that recalcitrant isle.

The translation of my beloved cat Mr. Ralph then gave me the opportunity to emigrate to New Zealand, a decison which I had previously made on my visit there in 2006. My reconnaissance trip to Wellington in 2013 was marked by a marvellous ECK seminar which began the first of what will be many fruitful years in this wonderful and windy city. I didn't realise how much I appreciated it until this recent trip over here and back to Hobart. How lucky I am to have discovered this jewel, this vibrant, exciting and most friendly town, where I have already made some very good friends. Tonight I am returning to that city and will resume my life with much enthusiasm and a great deal of love for all my friends. 

Who knows what the next year will bring as the auguries are excellent for the Geminis.

Well the big bro arrived on time

Raising glasses with Annie

The luncheon went well as I knew it would in spite of the grim forebodings of bro No.2. The beef stew was adequate and we, or they, sipped on champagne and quaffed a nice bottle of red brought by the priest bro. who appreciates a glass. He also brought a very large bottle of Chivas Regal for bro No.2 who ungraciously said it was only $45 at the local supermarket! It was in this moon the lunch was begun, but with the spice of Annie's addition it all turned out OK with a gift DVD of the 1935s, the year of big bro's birth, being an entertaining adjunct to the afternoon. And then the pièce de résistance was his AFL team, the Swans, playing my team The Saints, in Melbourne on tellie. Peter had endureda whole three months sans Aussie Rules and he needed a fix like rhis. I joined them for the first half hour but seeing the Swans were going to win I unreluctantly took my leave before four o'clock and was joined by Annie who felt it was time for her to rejoin her Harrison at home. Two good bus rides and a quick entrée  through Security found me alive and well and waiting nice and early for my Air New Zealand flight home to Wellington. 

I have been waiting for this moment for quite a while and it all goes well. A spray of Givenchy Gentleman is all I take from the predatory duty free stores filling to bursting point this awful Sydney airport and I smell good, have all my luggage, or nearly all, as I had to leave some at bro's as I hadno space in carry-on luggage. Anyway i'll be be back for a few days in December on my way home from my much anticipated visit to Melbourne. 

The day was as I thought it would be, halfarsed but well intentioned, but what can you expect from a family which really has nothing in common with each other but common blood strains? And that is for sure, we don't have anything in common, and it became supremely evident on this short encounter today.

Waiting at Sydney International Airport

Eighty years young...

Sisterly affection  and The Birthday Cake...one made from carrots.

Quiet day before departure

Having decided to forego any activity today, I make it quite clear it is a layday for me. A leisurely breakfast and lovely morning tea with a custard tart brought home by a diligent sister turns a sunny morning into a pleasant relaxing discussion about the welcome home birthday party for Peter.

As always the intransigent brother reigns supreme. His domain, and his routine, are not to be interrupted and the final result is sister's suggestion to bake a casserole and have the lunch as originally planned with Annie, and perhaps his colleague Austin, being the only guests. Sis is a great cook and has no problem with preparing a meal for six, and I will do the hors d'oevres for the beginning of the day's celebrations. Peter's arrival is scheduled at sometime around seven-thirty in the morning and luncheon will be at about midday. The two siblings have still not decided what to do today and it seems like the day, sunny as it is, is fast disappearing. 

Hopefully Australia's next PM,Antony Albanese, or 'Albo'.

Power of social media...thousands of young demonstrators at Flinders Station after Twitter postings that morning.

Seminal moment of Indigenous pride...Adam Goodes bares his colour to all at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Great Australian Ballet being prepared. I must see Swan Lake in December when I am here again for a few days after my Melbourne visit.

Morning tea with sis on veranda..

There is now shopping to be done at Maroubra so bro and sis take car to buy beef for stew and return to take bus to city for a walk along the harbour front, on the West side where the new casino complex owned by magnate Jame Packer is taking place. Jamie's new squeeze, according to the tabloids, is non other than singing sensation Mariah Carey, a Las Vegas star who may soon be in his stable. That is if they both make a lot of money out of it. She is a good cover for Jamie while he builds more casinos and sells his father's favourite property and prize collection of Polo stallions - all this is a fitting retribution from a very angry son who hated his father but still inherited all his enormous fortune. A son's revenge!

I decide it is time to buy some Philadelphia cream cheese for the smoked salmon tomorrow, and go to the local shop and belatedly discover there is a Post Office which was open till eleven o'clock.I realise  I would have been able to use it if I had gone out earlier with sis for her shopping. Oh well, I will just have to post Therese's gift from Wellington and it will arrive later, much later,

It is fine and sunny so I pop down below the shops to see if Gail is at home. She may even have a coffee with me at the local cafè conveniently situated opposite her on the corner with a beautiful view over Malabar Beach. This is a rare asset in Sydney and one not to underestimate. I sit in the shade next to a Kiwi couple who are eating a great lunch which is to too much for them and they take home a large doggie box for later. Here, it seems, one meal is worth two. It would have been a great place for us all to have had lunch, close by and exquisite views, with excellent food. C'est la vie... my brother just doesn't like to eat out.

View from Café on Malabar Beach

Indigenous Aussie success story....Joel Edgerton directs and stars in a new movie, called 'The Gift'.

Sitting next to young Kiwi man with family..another success story no doubt.

I ended up by speaking to them and they are indeed from Hawke's Bay and would love to return there to bring up their little daughter. They know the value of less stress and clean healthy living which is afforded to all who live in that wonderful country which is New Zealand - interesting chat.

Cappuccino arrives in the form of a Spoodle

..he is very well behaved and his owners are an American couple who are very appreciative of this café and the life in Malabar..It is indeed, one of the great secrets of Sydney, soon to be discovered I am afraid.

I have been reading the Weekend Australianand now I remember how much I used to love reading it when living in OZ. it has great literature reviews and great film critics and just a great read altogether. I now plan to find this Saturday newspaper gem somewhere in New Zealand, probably in the city the library a week later!

The ballet for December in Sydneywhom willI I take?

I get a text from Gail - she is home and wants a visit. Time to finish up on this beautiful Malabar beach and visit the home where the baby is about to make her appearance.  It is a propitious visit as both grandmothers are there to assist the mother when the birth is imminent. Mari, Darrell's Mum, is a Maori elder and happens to share the same birthday as me. We get on very will and share a few stories. I show her my Marae photos and the Kaumatua Kapahaka at Te Papa. She is a larger than life lady and tells the story of the latest conquest she has had, who happens to be twenty years her junior. She shows me his photo - strapping and charming and a musician to boot. Things are looking very good for her and she says she is taking it very slowly but who knows where it will go. I don't share with her my story of also meeting someone who is much younger and who is very interested in me. Is this an astrological coincidence or a validation of it? I think the latter, as it the time things are happening in a big way for Geminis born on June 19.

Mari sings me parting Karakia which is a fitting end to a lovely encounter. Lots of hugs all around and I leave to return to an empty house with time to pack for tomorrow's flight.

My tummy is still upset from or the food poisoning of earlier this week in Oatlands, so tonight I am having some toast to try and settle it down. On scrolling through the many TV channels in Sydney I fall across the sixties classic of 'Designing Woman' with Gregeory Peck and Lauren Bacall. It is highly politically incorrect, racist and stylised, but a mindless amusing return to a Hollywood where everyone had chaste lives and perfect wardrobes.

Soon after the siblings return from their stimulating walk from Central Station to the Quay and we turn on the ABC program of  Garden Australia, another watchable, program but in a different world. Now for the big day tomorrow...

Mari with son Darrell, and Gail, waiting for the birth

Day one of 'The Visit'

This morning was bike ride day and Mike's three mates arrived arrived with bushy tails for their regular twenty kilometre ride. Harry, Ray and Michael joined bro to keep their bodies fit and well, combined with a lot of man-chat...

Harry, the professional bike rider

Ray, the keen follower...

Smiling sister...

My brother's life is in start contrast to mine, but equally full and rich in his chosen way. Always the crusty bachelor, he has inherited from his wife, who was the original networker, a varied group of thinking people who have made it their agenda to age as disgracefully as possible. They have great lives being very active in a number of facets, not the least in my brother's case, being his recently formed love-affair with the ukelele and song. In doing so they succeed in returning to society some of the riches they have been given during their quite long and very diverse lives.

Returned from the ride...

On the schedule today was a visit to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Archibald Prize finalists and winners. Sis and I were ready earlier than tired bro who came later to meet us there. The exhibition was exceedingly talented and interesting, and afterwards we sauntered through the Botanical Gardens to walk by the Opera House and them catch a bus directly home.

It was enough for me to say for tomorrow I need to have a lay-day and as Sunday is a very big day with the unknown  quotient of big bro arriving from the US and some sort of 80th Birthday luncheon to be prepared. It looks like it will be a takeaway now, as Michael feels we don't know how well he’ll be, jet-lagged and all that, not that this has much to do with his birthday lunch. 

It seems we are just playing it by ear.  Peter is not a party person anyway, so mainly it is a birthday cake, of course having been prepared by sis and brought over in secret packaging from Perth.

I will really be happy when I eventually arrive safe and sound in Wellington on Sunday night, as things aren't particularly easy here with three individual histories coming to the fore and the pecking order of family being much in evidence. I am now staying quiet but not giving in.

A portrait I liked a lot...

Interested spectators, with a lot of style!

Following the siblings....

...towards the Opera House...

Holding the Man

I am at City Extra on Circular Quay and just had a wake-up call at the Customs House.

I dropped in there to have a look at the newspapers, the New Zealand one especially, and when I was about to leave I put my hand in my pocket and felt no cell phone. Disaster had struck -  the worst thing that one can experience today is losing one's phone. In my case, unlocked and full of all my essential materials of course, credit cards etc.  I quickly looked around to see where I had been and immediately a woman saw me and said 'Is this yours?'

 She had my blue phone and had just called Gail, the last person to call me with a 'missed call'. The lady was a Maori and we chatted and I spoke to her of the Living ECK Master whose photo is in my i-phone, protecting me and it, but only as far as my responsibility goes. It was a salutary experience and one that I will learn from. Thank you again Mahanata for this timely lesson.

Tony Abbott, hiding behind these beautiful souls, his arms folded in a gesture of intransigence. He is a bad PM and should be replaced asap.

Michael Kelly's fabulous bookon being gay and a Catholic

How FaceBook can be used for good purposesin Spain, where a neighbourhood gets together because of it.

My movie of today...which I will be seeing on its first day of release at the Dendy Quay, a harrowing and true tale of society's failings in recognising homosexuality. 

This movie is going to win awards in Australia at least. Beautifully acted by the two protagonists, Tim Conigrave's poignant coming of age story and subsequent sad death, along with his lover of fifteen years John Caleo, is accurately rendered and shows the hypocrisy of the Church in all its vain glory in the heart of Jesuit land, Xavier College in Melbourne. It was sometimes hard for me to watch as it showed the awful human wreckage brought about by the AIDS epidemic in the early eighties in Melbourne and Sydney. 

One of my colleagues made a cameo appearance as an AIDS patient, showing his wasted legs and pallid face, he too, still suffering collateral damage from all the medications which were distributed in the early ignorant years of the epidemic. I emerged from the cinema in a quiet state of recollection, as were many of the other cinema visitors. It was a sad era and moment in this ongoing war against AIDS.  

The regular scene at the Quaytoday with the Elephant God holding court.

This evening my bro and I are to meet sister Paddy at the airport, a somewhat fraught situation as things never seem to be simple with her. I must remember to HU all the afternoon on the way to the airport and all will be OK. One miracle today has happened, perhaps another will also come my way.

Another classic poster at the Dendy

A Day in the Country - NSW Southern Highlands

Am away early this morning with the weather forecast good at nine a.m. After doing a load of washing and allowing my dutiful bro to hang it out on this sunfilled day, I meet at the bus-stop a young lady who willingly shows me a new app for my i-phone which I immediately download. It is 'Get there', an app to show you exactly when the buses arrive. Having that, I then check the timetable for the Southern Highlands as I am to meet Terry at beautiful Bowral at 12.30.

 All is in order and I have time to buy an excellent small coffee at the station kiosk from the good Polish barista. I spoil myself also with an almond croissant, which is inadvisable as I am about to have a pub lunch with Terry. Altogether too much food on this trip, and I was to learn my lesson in sensible eating. Ah, well, one day,

The train arrives, early I thought, but I take it as it goes to Campelltown where I have to change trains for Bowral and it is here that I am to meet Terry for lunch and a big catch-up as it is over two years since I have seen him.

I will leave thoughts of meeting my dear sis tomorrow in the background and allow the ECK to look after her. She will be OK, I know that, but I haven't bought any presents for her. Perhaps I will find something in Bowral.

A half-hour wait at Campbelltown...on the phone!

On way home..

The day was grey and wet and the fog had settled over Bowral. Terry met me with his big umbrella and showed me the main drag on the way to his favourite healthy restaurant, called interestingly, the Raw and Wild, rather like a gay men's club.

We both ordered a lasagna, me vegetarian, he beef. It was a regrettable choice as It came out hard like  a board with a salad like a green bush, most of which in Terry's case, was left on the plate. We decided against a coffee and walked back in the light rain with wet footpaths to his Kenilworth Residence, about a twenty five minute walk.  He has a delightful home, furnished as always with consummate taste. But finally he is in the land of the old and frail, God's waiting-room they cruelly call it, and it is just that. I was anxious to get away but delayed my departure by one hour for politeness.

Bowral was in its full cold and wet glory, and I'm afraid may stay like that a long time without my presence. I am sure it is delightful in summer, when it does arrive, but today was a tad depressing. The town is full of retirees and there is little life to be seen except in the pubs, which is always the case in any country town in Australia. I wished him good luck and I wended my way back to the station to return to civilisation as I know it. 

Luckily on my way back I found a little gift of a Pashmina copy for my sister. She loves scarves and it was quite pretty.

I wonder if I can still catch that movie at the Verona?

More phone business...

My interesting neighbours....?

Terry at home...

In Bowral...

..where it is very cold and wet,

like this at Bowral station, very foggy.