Hyde Park Sydney

Last night's dinner at a smart Thai restaurant in Mosman was memorable in many ways, not the least for the excellent tasty food all ordered with great knowledge by our host for the evening John who was recently bereaved. We did not talk of his partner, with whom we had dined many years earlier in happier times but we talked about his Renaissance holiday tours in Europe and other similar pleasant and safe subjects. The evening went fast and J and R downed a nice bottle of red and W and I quaffed our tap water. 

John is fully immersed now  in his newly single life and although lonely he has many friends to spend time and money with. I would like to see him again but it would be on my terms but finally I feel he is not quite on my wave length so things will rest for the time being.

Returned from Mosman with two quick bus rides I was home by teno'clock to watch Australia Socceroos beat Oman in the Asia football cup on Mike's big screen. It is only with sporting events I miss the Television Experience.

Hyde Park in summer

Sun bathing...

A less than memorable coffee..

At the St James Cafe

Today I am meeting very old friend Helen, going back over fifty years, we are still good friends and have met in Germany a few years ago when H. sas visiting her brilliant son Steve, studying for his Doctorate at Freiberg University. I was best man at her brother's wedding; that brother, and another, one of Australia's pre-eminent playrights and producers, are both deceased. How time makes minions of us all. So Helen and I have some memories to peruse. After morning tea I am then on to meet A at Bondi Junction  and accompany her home to dinner tonight prepared by bro Mike. A big event.

Sydney is feeling really good and I am already looking forward to my return, at least to its environs, like the Opera House. I sit here in Hyde Park and hear the many languages spoken around me and realise only too fully how I feel good in a very cosmopolitan atmosphere, although the word last night was sadly that Sydney may well be the next target for the ISIS extremists to attack. As if the Lindt Chocolate event in Martin Plaza wasn't enough, but that was by a mad loner. So with that in mind I will be totally aware that my presence in Sydney may well have another dimension...

After dinner jam session with Annie

The ukulele came out for an essential post prandial experience with bro using his new instrument giving

some return for us to help digest out lamb and ratatouille dinner. The weather was warm and sultry but the cool breeze made it a perfect late afternoon.

Typical Sydney summer's day

I have come out to try to catch up with Brazilian friend H but  find interestingly that Positive Life NSW has restructured and H has decided not to re-apply, seeing the writing on the wall obviously. H. always  said it as he saw it and no doubt he saw it was time to leave. I happen across the new CEO and the person in  H's job and catch up with the latest over their lunch time. The AIDS industry is so big and the wages so lucrative now the people who have these jobs are very well qualified and actually live ina relatively   stress-free situation, in nice offices in downtown Sydney, Darlinghurst, right in the centre of gay Sydney. I am very glad I am no longer part of this scene which I suppose I was, but forty years ago and the world was a different place.

Coffee on Elizabeth St

Strollers in  the sun...

A quick hit...

...in Strawberry Hills

It is sublime weather today, not humid, but perfect, and certainly a seductive way to experience Sydney. The coffee was great too and I have drunk more than enough caffeine for today.

I see the life that this beautiful but crowded city has to offer and why the people are flocking here in spite of its expense, but it is cheaper than Wellington btw. and the coffee is just as good, so I won't have to travel too far to get my fix although I doubt Gosford has the same baristas.

So as with so many things in life, the French have said it before, 'Plus ca change, plus ca reste pareil', i.e. Things always stay the same, even if in Paris today they think their worlds have collided with the latest news of four Jewish French dying in a Kosher Supermarket killing by Islam extremists.

The Jews are always suffering and they are certainly used to it, not meaning that it is just or right, that's just the way it is.

Dinner with the family is now locked in for tomorrow night, with the ever-welcome Annie coming to leaven the atmosphere which can be somewhat charged with the two elders being on opposite sides of the political and religious spectrum. It may be an interesting dinner, who knows?

Circular Quay Sydney

After a good sleep at my brother's comfy home in Sydney's south eastern rim, not far from the Brighton Le Sands Hotel where I spent the weekend, I am into the hustle and bustle of the the Sydney Summer Festival, but first a visit to City Extra Cafe on the Quay, one of my favourite places to hang out. After a forty five-minute bus ride from Matraville, I arrive at the Quay and see a cruise ship docked with the iconic Harbour Bridge right behind it, you couldn't get a better image of the Sydney scene.  I am meeting PK to visit his sister later today but first I have to get a local sim-card to facilitate my mobile communications while in town. 

Sydney's quay

Cood coffee...

A happy customer...

With entertainment at my front door

Just outside the cafe is a performance artist, a man of a certain age, besuited and smart looking with a Fedora, who is pulling a wheelie luggage bag. He strikes a pose every few minutes to accentuate the fact he is on his way somewhere, the 'wind' is blowing his tie, which is an inflated snake-balloon sweeping up behind him. Kids stop and he shows them how to blow up a snake balloon, others also stop to take a photo, he is patience incarnate, with a ready smile and a great desire to entertain and please his public.

I see here the Golden Tongued Wisdom from yesterday's final talk by our visitor from Alaska...there is Soul, Spirit, God, whatever you may like to call it, anywhere you care to look. This man, who would receive a pittance for his art, gets so much more just from the appreciation of the public. He is doubtless a show biz veteran who now strikes a pose each day reminding people that although he seems to be in a hurry, the wind blowing his tie and all, he is actually frozen in time, where nothing means anything. He has a constant smile on his face as though he habours a secret that no-one else knows about, except me that is, 'cos I share with him the delight of being alive in this free country of Australia and New Zealand, in the face of all the turbulence wrought by religious extremists around the globe. The newspapers are full of more murders in Paris in the name of Islam and  what a travesty this is of a religious teaching.

I finish my large and excellent mug of hot coffee, well espressed, and now move on to the next moment of my Sydney stay. Each time I do something in the next few days I am aware that in eight months time I will be a resident near to this throbbing metropolis. 

City Extra news in the toilets 1931!

Vivo!

Late brekkie...

With a stroke of 'luck' I found such a helpful young Chines mam in the Optus shop to give me a new prepaid $20 sim card and even more good advice. So I am now officially in Sydney, and connected.

I feel I want to sit and write so I call into Vivio, ('I Am Alive') on George St., for  some protein, as I have been eating too many carbs and must cut down. Then on to Tempe to meet PK and sister.

 Sydney is alive and buzzing!

At  Cafe Vivo on George

Last day of seminar

It is raining today, a change from the many hot Sydney days, but I have forgotten how we do get rain here in Sydney. I have left room-mate Mehdi in his bed while I shower and shave, then fly down to the cafe below for a quick coffee fix before the day starts.

Sleeping Mehdi

Coffee below...

It has been another very full Seminar day, but today, as well as hosting, I manage to sit in the from row with my NBF Demeter, to listen carefully to the amazing stories emanating from the mouth of Michelle, our Alaskan fisherwoman and Spiritual traveller. Today, her final story is rivetting, imparting a final lesson in surrendering fully to the higher force, the God, or the Sugmad, when in mortal danger. In this instance, she and her husband and Border Collie named Sugar were caught in an enormous snow and rain storm on the top of a ravine, and only escaped with their lives with the miracle of the HU allowing them to see the way ahead. When one surrenders to Spirit, it is necessary to put no conditions on it, as Spirit always knows the best result, however it happens. 

That is what I will take away with me from this Seminar: surrender, and be sure you will get what you need, not necessarily what you desire. 

I say my many good-byes, especially to Mehdi, and know that we will meet again. 

On to the bus and train to go see my brother and begin the next part of my Sydney trip, it will be different, but exciting I know that.

Seminar day two

The day starts sunny and beautiful, with a healthy HU sung with Mehdi whilst still in bed.

 He is a beautiful Soul and totally open to his new and exciting first ECK Seminar experience. He skypes his beautiful wife Mehri and son Ryan, in Melbourne and we have a short chat.

At the seminar I volunteer for the Hosting jobs and so see everyone who has come for the Seminar, friends  from all over Australia. I feel totally welcomed and the first question from M who is the Sydney ECK leader, is 'When are you coming home?' This is all I need to confirm my decision to leave beautiful New Zealand, sad but true. 

The Seminar unfolds with the guest speaker from Alaska Michelle telling her stories of untold adventure and excitement, including one about the Exxon Oil spill with which she was intimately involved. She is unassuming and very pretty, with long dark hair like a young co-ed, but is in reality in her fifties with grown-up children  and is a also widow.

Like so many things in Eckankar many things are illusory and we see through them into the reality.

At the end of the second day I meet in the hotel foyer a man called Demeter, who wants to talk about things spiritual and metaphysical. I take him upstairs to the  party going on at the end of day two.There is karaoke happening, a cacophony of awful sound but it doesn't hurt him, he is truly interested so I give him an ECK CD of the HU and invite him to come tomorrow. I hope he does. It Is turning out to be the exciting seminar I had expected. 

On the street..

Morning mist

Viva Uber!

It is Friday morning and my nervous nature has been well and truly put to rest with the prompt arrival of Fijian driver Aseri, right on the doorstep at eight minutes past five, for an airport arrival at twenty past and a bill of $16 less ten discount only $6! To be picked up by a charming driver and dropped right at the Departure lounge at the airport is fantastic, and at a cheap price. Then quickly through the Customs and still time to sip a long black ordered from co DSW swimmer Hamish, who is serendipitously now working at the departure lounge coffee shop, and all is sweet. 

This is a good beginning to my Sydney trip, and I am sure the Seminar will be great. Things have been excellent in spite of my unfounded worries about Uber, it is just great. I am an undoubted convert, thank you Sonny!

Now for Sydney and the Seminar!

Hamish at the counter...

All is well,

Waiting for long black....

Still asleep!

View from Novotel Brighton le Sands

Am now resting in my double room waiting for Iranian roomate Mehdi to arrive. The full day of Seminar activities was exciting and exhausting a la fois, and I caught up with many old and good friends in Eckankar, a few of whom are now privy to my plans for a move later this year to Oz. They all appear very happy about the news.

Thursday before Sydney

It is amazing that I have given myself a full relaxation day before my departure to Sydney early Friday morning. I even caught a popular movie at the city Cinemaplex Readings last night. It was a mildly entertaining comedy full of cameo roles by English and American stars, the subject being the New York Museum of Natural History coming to life after midnight ie all the ancient artefacts are (digitally) brought to life in a comedic rendition of farcical history which only the Americans could do. A few actors have sold out to appear in this B-grade movie. Two stars.

More sex stories to be aired...

Stephen Fry finds his true love!

More comedic talent in Wellington