The curse of the internet (and Tasmania)

Fuck.

I sound like a squirrel on a mixture of meth and nitrous oxide.

Mind you, it was a nice day to spend in Hobart.

Fabulously Meeting Finbar

Strange thing happened on the way to the opera, or might have, if I'd been going to the opera. I wasn't, but that didn't stop the strange thing happening. I got a Flickr mail from Sean, a former 365 day challenge comrade from Bracknell in the UK. Sean, aka misterpulcri*, and his lovely wife Paola, were in Melbourne following a flying visit to Wellington, and we arranged to catch up.

Tasting Will's rejected lemonade

We met and a beer or so in Victoria Street at the Aviary on Victoria Street with a plan to wander down and get something to eat, probably Vietnamese, later. We wandered down the street after a couple of beers, looking for somewhere to eat. By industrial-size coincidence, Sean and Paola had eaten at our fave, Thy Thy 1, it having been mentioned in the Rough Guide. They were happy to go back, so we did. Hilarity ensued.

Paola has wonderful and very Italian hands.

Cain in reflection

He'll always be Finbar to me

A perfect moment

The view from F's saucer

Anyway, the food was great, but that wasn't the point. The salted quail were fantastic; Singapore Noodles with Lotso-Omelet(tm), nice wine and Mr W was very well behaved. But it was really about meeting someone I felt I knew, putting a voice to a face; and a sense of timing to a sense of humour. I had a great time.

Family gone

My grandmother died last month, which although it was expected was still upsetting. Upsetting less because she'll no longer be with us, which I've long known was always going to happen, and more because it made me think of all the other family connections that I've allowed to fall into disrepair.



This photo was taken by my mother's uncle Ron, and family consensus has it that it was taken either the day before or immediately after Kim and Glenys's wedding, which collective memory says was in Hamilton in 1972.

I'm wearing the blue shorts, my sister Anita is in the glorious cape. My parents to the left (on screen), the groovy Kim and Glenys in the middle, grandparents to the right of centre (only in the photo), and Philip in the natty suit on the right.

When I was young Kim was my hero, and still today I suspect we have a lot in common. We're very different in many ways, but I still look up to him, perhaps as one of the first adults I felt I could communicate with (and let's face it - that's never going to be a parent (he says, as a parent)). I also felt close to Glenys - they were both creative and were the grooviest people I knew. They separated years later (I was in my teens), and I haven't really kept up with either Kim and his partner Maggie or with Glenys. I regret that on both counts.

And then, in the last five years, my own life became more complicated than I would have chosen. Except that I did choose it, because choosing simplicity meant choosing what was easy rather than what was right. I still agonise about my choices, and I assume I always will.

Food, in the other place

I posted about food, in the other place.

An educational film about drugs

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