Computer problems...

My computer class yesterday was a veritable waste of time and the teacher agreed that I was not in the right class. It appears I need to go to see Apple Service, in Hornsby, to get my iMac house-cleaned. Perhaps I will return to attend an i-Pad class after that.

Progress being made with HIV meds -  hopefully we will see the end of their necessity, one day.

Politics is crooked, and ex Premier Baird is now working with the big bank NAB only six weeksafter resigning from the top job in the State. He even doesn't bother to shave now he is out of public office. Good riddance to him I say.

Finally the knowlege of the Indigneous people is being recognised and is a deep area we need to learn from.

Australia Post CEO tries to be squeaky-clean, but walks off with five million dollars for his perky job.

This referendum for which I returned to be a part of, is all-important for the future of our country.

Is this a 'Pirate World' we are still living in? I think so

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Being gay now is in the realm of 'everyone knows and doesn't care'.

Yes Vickerman committed suicide, but he was so popular with his mates they wanted to fly home for the funeral. This Black Dog so prevalent in big sport, has to be addressed.

Big weekend

It was a packed weekend for me with the annual Scottish Dance in Gosford, a cake to bake for supper and losts of dances to remember. However all went well and I survived with the added bonus of seeing a wonderful Italian movie at rhe Cinema Paradiso. It was called 'Perfect Strangers' and won lots of European film awards and in my opinion, could easily have won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.

And it was about the risk of sharing mobile phone information with your spouse. Comedic and sharp, it even ended up with a happy twist after three couples who agreed to open their phones were betrayed by them. This Italian director has made a big winner, tour de force acting by the small but excellent cast.

More concussions in footy, and more law suits, this may open the flood gates.

Australia pleads guilty to Iraq irresponsibility and invasion.

Aladdin being a miracle for Autism...

Great Aussie story of success and service by the Nicholas family.

Well the Oscars happened and resulted in the worst blooper in the history of the Awards. Price Waterhouse Cooper, the accounting firm for the awards, always boasted of its impeccable record but it is now smashed to pieces. The delivery of the wrong, yes wrong, envelope in the final, and most important award of Best Film, is something from which it will not recover. However for me it was the right movie 'Moonlight', my special favourite, which won the Best Film award over the much hyped 'LaLa Land'.

It was in everyone's opinon, a gaffe which was more  in the domain of a High School mistake, but on this night of Awards it was an unforgivable error made by the accounting firm, as one of its two reps was busy texting when he gave out the wrong envelope! Yes it was the old 'mobile phone' obsession which created the downfall of Price Waterhouse. Justly applauded, 'Moonlight', an all-black, low budget production about a young gay black boy coming to grips with his homosexuality, was just the perfect antidote to throw back to Trump for his facist attitude towards race and creed.

'Bravo Moonlight!'

Politicians!

Well if this woman represents us in Parliament I fear the worst, and it seeems it has come pass. Although she has been let go, albeit in an obfuscatory fashion. She was passed over by the new NSW Premier and has now resigned in a huff, leaving with an $18,000  bill to the taxpayeres to let them all know just how much she (didn't) do!

Jillian Skinner purses her lips in departure....

Evidence of her skills.....

Tony Abbott resumes his narcissistic approach to politics. Thank God he is gone, nearly!

What my generation is now doing, but I am not one of them I am happy to say... not yet anyway.

Gardening....

Back to a morning at the Community Gardens with about nine other volunteers, much more experienced than I. However I managed a couple of hours in the heat of the morning sun and came back and collapsed. It takes a bit of getting used to and I will just take it bit by bit. But it was good and enjoyable when I look back. I need a rest now before my train trip to Sydney for the choir tonight.

This columnist is keeping us honest by criticising Trump's ever-changing podium and how he could easily adversely affect world outcome because of his rash and ill-informed tweets. They are indeed dangerous times we are living  in.

Interesting snippet that Australia has attracted eleven thousand millionaire migrants last year, topping the US with ten thousand. Millionaires, of course, get accepted anywhere, as money buys them immunity and entrance into the most desirable countries which Australia and also New Zealand, clearly represent.

Peter FitzSimons writes of Dan Vickerman's untimely death, still hedging that it was by his own hand.

Pictures say it all, Aussie PM glad-handing the back of Israel's Netanyahu who is playing us all for suckers here 'down-under', also using the frailities of good friend Aussie billionaire James Packer in his own interests. Something smells here, and it will eventually come out, I am sure.

Redfern taking shape, this time under the auspices of the Aboriginal Housing Commission, where new housing plans hopefully will be used to help some young Aboriginal students as well. It is after all, their education which will see them taking their rightful place in their own country.

Another piece of theatre by Netanyahu. They are dressed in identical blue suits with blue ties to match. Both are mega-wealthy and talk the same lingo. Money speaks to everyone, but not to their poorer Palestine neighbours I fear. Turnbull doesn't care, he just wants to be good friends with his powerful mate.

Surprise meeting.

A phone call from an old friend made the Ruby's coffee visit all the more interesting today. Scott brought his new dog, a girl called Tinker, along so I had an early 'dog-hit' this week. He gave me news of his family all grown-up and left home and he is now alone with his English-born wife Sharon. He seems very happy but no longer singing HU. You never know he may decide to try out again if I invite him one day.

Moir with Trump's idea of the many faceted truth coming to the microphone. What will come out next? No-one has any idea, least of all 'the Donald'.

Some sense finally coming out of the Royal Commision, and this time it is from an Asian Bishop who says it as it is, and incidentally was also abused when he was a young refugee, so he knows exactly what he is talking about. Let's hope they listen to him - the problem lies heavily with the Catholic hierarchy.

Scott holding a well-secured Tinker under the table outside Ruby's.

At the Basement this is the sort of music I would love to hear live, uplifting and exciting, infused with love and Afro-cuban history.

Again this crazy fall from the sky raises many questions about pilots and their skills and their 'use-by' date.

Life goes on....

 Back at Woy woy where the weather has normalised a little and it is quite bearable. It is actually the same temperature as Wellington NZ I hear from Tom on a call last night. Summer has finally arrived there I am glad to hear, and it may well still be there when I arrive for my visit in a few weeks. Am looking forward very much to seeing my Kiwi friends.

The Pilger family certainly made a mark and had very humble origins, albeit with a mother who went to University. It does a make a difference on your children and how they lead their lives, as is well shown in film-maker John Pilger's obituary of his very high achieving and much loved bother, Graham.

Another trenchant observation of the hypocrisy and weakness of the our present Prime Minister.

Two vastly different views of Palestine and Israel, it will always be such I'm afraid.

Thai Buddhist monks following a money-making guru results in a possible lawsuit if they can find the hiding 'guru'. Buddhism has its problems too.

This case of Gordon Woods is now re-aired as he was wrongfully gaoled for his girlfriend's murder, but will the truth be revealed? He had a lot of detractors as he was such a high flyer, but now he is seeking his revenge. More money for the legal eagles. 

Aussie Ballet being the saviour for this young America dancer where the Australian health system came to his aid in a spectacular fashion. Ballet needs such good medicine and here it seems, we have it.

Full Weekend

This weekend was the end of four consecutive days in the busy scene of summer Sydney and although enjoyable, it had its drawbacks. The erratic steamy weather for one, which effected a train delay of hours because of an electrical outing, and the resultant non-communication by the NSW transport was as always, extraordinary.

But I survived, and managed to catch this amazing movie by Marin Scorsese, which I went to with some misgivings 'but it turned out to be worth the near- three hours of its screening.

Mainly because it intriguingly treated the plight of Jesuit missionary priests in Japan in the 1700s and how their zeal was not welcomed by the local inhabitants who violently resisted their ways and beliefs. However one of them, after much torture, apostasised, turned in his beliefs and followed their ancient Japaneses teachings of Zen and re-incarnation, which I fully share. The final scene however showed the 'converted' monk, Lliam Neeson, being burned on his death in true Buddhist fashion while the camera zoomed in to see in his grasp a small wooden crucifix. He had, deep down, never lost his Christian faith, Scorsese thus perhaps revealing his own personal beliefs.

However violent some of the torture scenes were, it was still an accurate representation of the mad missionary zeal of these early Christians, as well as the vicious brutaliy of the early Japanese. For me it  reminded me that even today my brother was one of these missionaries in New Guinea for fifty years. I always wonder as to the efficacy of forcefully 'educating' people with totally different beliefs to come over to the Western system which is really one of guilt and suffering. This was only too well illustrated by Scorsese in a very interesting  film, however much I disagreed with its final premise of 'Christianly wins after all'. Or was he just showing the fatuity of zealotry?

A great movie, well acted with excellent minor stars in Garfield and Driver. Ironically entitled 'Silence' which is the great sin of today's Catholic Church regarding the endemic unacknowledged sexual abuse by their priests and brothers in the twentieth century.

The critics seems to have loved it, but is is not for everyone.

The colourful Gay Fair heralding the beginning of two weeks of Sydney Mardi Gras celebrations, which I attended at Newtown where everyone came out in their finest....

Here was really a great Australian, Catholic educated, who worked for social justice all his life, an exemplary man.

The gastric band idea seems to the only effective treatment for some cases of obesity but it is highly   expensive.

This picture of Trump leaving on Air Force One going to his luxury retreat shows what he really wants, that is, luxury and power. Will he survive, I can't believe for too long.

Sounds like this is THE play to see over the Mardi Gras period.

Another football great, South African born Vickerman, dies at only thirty-seven, leaving a wife and small children. Everyone loved him but did he suffer from depression after a life as a sporting star? No-one seems to be commenting on this.

After the storm

After a violent electrical storm last nigh and an hour's wait for a train home I finally made it.

The Rainbow Flag was undraped inside the Town Hall, Clover made a gracious speech and many others were asked to speak too. It was quite a feeling of euphoria in this large high-ceilinged room on the first floor of our venerable Town Hall where Clover was fitted out in a mauve suit just for the occasion. 

It's amazing just how well she's travelled through the years but there is no doubt her gay following has had a positve effect on her personal presentation. She has so done much good and the occasion was celebrated to the full, with delicious canapés served along with glasses of champers. There were a few of my new-found friends there, including an old one whom I expected to see. But it was a night where I may have said my farewell to the gay scene as I am not such a political animal. Tomorrow at the Gay Fair it will be my final appearance I feel, the Mardi Gras thing is now just too big and commercial, and anyway, I have done it a long time ago and things change, and I've changed too.

The country regions of OZ have evolved throughout the years as this photo attests to....

Trumpisms have become a daily event now  also adding a new word to our lexicon for 'inanities'.

Anniversary of the group's arrival which was virtually launched in Australia to a mad music, toe-tapping public of all ages.

This mad man Neil Gaiman, a genius it is obvious, is now a million dollar sales figure with his various   adventures in literature and other media. Will I read him? Probably not.

Caroline Baum, an excellent writer whom I have often read, has now penned an autobiography and it is quite a juicy one, talking of her dominating Austrian Jewish father and obsessive and beautiful French mother who brought her up to have quite an enviable, in some ways, life.

This privileged upbringing does bring with it some baggage, which it seems, Caroline has been a long time in letting go.

Sydney Rehearsals...

Back to Sydney Choir rehearsals tonight and am still getting used to the late return at night. I'll have to see how it goes as rehearsals are getting more frequent closer to the concert day and it will be tough to fit them all in. Again I may have over-committed, but I'll just give it a go and see how it turns out. If it is too much, I'll just drop it and at least I tried it out.

I may well see this epic movie although at 166 minutes it's a long haul although for Martin Scorsese's sake I will be patient. He is one of the most brilliant directors of film and deserves a place in the pantheon of modern cinema. Filmed in Japan it sounds like a cinematographer's dream. 

Aussie film 'Tanna' up for the best foreign film at the Oscars, this will be a  must-see  when it appears eventually on our shores.

Another Aussie writer bites the dust after forty years of smoking. What a career he had, finally living in Canada for most of his life and having a great effect on many of the great rock'n roll stars of the era. Wow!

Aussie Sport is such a religion it even leaves disasters like this in its wake. How poor Grant Hackett will get through this is now up to him and his will-power in getting through what is a huge quagmire of depression and addiction. I feel sorry for him.