Summer Storm

An intense start to the working week sees me taking a break Tuesday afternoon and I walk in to the beach to chill out in the summer warmth. As I'm walking in there are cracks of thunder overhead but it's still hot and sunny, and from the cliff top I see a rain cloud hovering over a perfectly blue ocean. I wish I had my camera for this because it's spectacular, but instead imprint it in my mind. I keep walking, the rain seems quite localised and I can cope with a passing shower. I get to the beach and the water is vibrant - it's like a photoshopped postcard. Blue-green waves fringed with white froth and a sky of various shades of blue with prominent white and grey clouds. There's a very cute guy (who preceded me on the path) and a handful of others scattered over this postcard and I'm glad now that I pushed past the thunder. I deposit my backpack, towel, and most of my clothes in the shade and wander the beach, contemplating a swim and enjoying the scenery.

Right when I think things just can't get better, I feel spot of rain, and another, and then someone opens the trapdoor and all the water falls out of the sky. Instantly drenching. It's suddenly dark, there's even hail, the cute guy has bolted and I see no one else on the beach. I cover my head in case the hail gets bigger, which it doesn't, and I rush to my gear which is already saturated by the time I get there. I've turned off my mobile on the way because my shorts are already wet, and soon it will be too, and throw it into a seemingly dry section of the bag. I stuff everything I have under a rock and a bush and try to form some kind of water management plan which seems futile anyway in this rain. I leave my shorts too and stand there naked in the rain. The ocean has a matte finish from the rain and the clouds make it feel inviting and cosy, like the summer lake we used to camp at as a kid. So I decide it's time for a swim, there's nothing better than swimming naked in the rain anyway is there? And there isn't. As I swim I see this guy standing naked back from the beach, bulging out from under an umbrella. It seems absurd. I laugh and dive back into the water. I feel like a kid again and dolphin dive around in the waves watching the huge drops of water rising out from where others have fallen.

Eventually I get out, and it's still raining. I stand on a rock overlooking the beach looking back at the waves. It's still warm, spectacular and then it starts to hail - again - I just stand there and laugh uncontrollably. The beach is all mine now and I think it would be the perfect time to be making love here now in this rain, but alas as I have already said I'm alone on the beach - so I just keep laughing - surely that will ensure no one will make it happen anyway. The rain fades and the sun edges out from the clouds. The water is cool on my skin, but the sun is hot, all at once. I retrieve my gear and find my phone dipping in a shallow pool of water within it. I hang my clothes on bushes and rocks and wring out my towel which now weighs a tonne. My backpack contents scattered, I head for the water again - it's now glassy, crystal clear and even more spectacular with waves perfect for bodysurfing, so I oblige.

Eventually I emerge, shivering in the hot sun. I have no idea of the time, and it feels like I'm on summer holiday. Work, what's that?

Notes to self : Always take waterproof camera to the beach. Novels and water don't mix. Consider better backpack. Take The Frenchman (or equivalent) for next beach rainstorm.

Todays Wild Wednesday activity is anything with the theme: naked, wet, stormy and hot.

The Weekend in Pictures

Here are a few photos from the weekend. Brighton Beach with all the colourful sheds and sunset over the ocean a little farther south on the Melbourne Coast.

Melbourne 1

The Frenchman gets home from a work Christmas party at 1.30am Friday Night - we have to leave home at 6.45am for the airport and he's grey from a very well enjoyed party... We rest well - but way too short and in the morning he's still looking ill and I (unusually) drive us to the airport. Thankfully he is a Qantas Club member and we check in, snack and download The Chaser's War on Everything before I collapse onto the plane and sleep for much of the flight.

Melbourne is sunny and warmish on arrival, and our hire car is upgraded about 4 levels from 2 door runabout to an impressive Toyota Aurion (think family sedan) in which we explore the coast south to Brighton Beach. There a party of brightly painted beach huts iconicise the place and entice me to take loads of photos because one just must. We head to St Kilda and eat our third breakfast in the open air at a funky cafe, vacating our table to celebrity Andrew G and his dad. He's very cute - Andrew, not his dad. So we shop Chapel street for things we don't really need - and manage to find surprisingly little. Is 80's memorabilia today's fashion? I'm not really too keen to wear flouro t-shirts again but they're ubiquitous, and the Frenchman and I argue about how everyone is looking gay - I say they are gay - he say's they're straight but in what they're wearing - I'd be very surprised. So from what I'm lead to believe, straight guys are looking and behaving gayer than gay men these days. It's a pity as I used to like the look of straight guys...

We catch up with our good friend Michelle who takes us to ever fashionable locations where we catch up on bits we've missed since last we were here, and then head deep into the suburbs where Mr & Mr Suburbia have established a little gay haven in an otherwise dessert. A sunset swim with them at the beach closes the day perfectly (it has turned into a very warm one) with dinner at theirs afterwards. The day has been full, I'm going to rest well, still out here in the quietness of this oasis.

Thanks Anon. for your recommendations for here in Melbourne - Tomorrow I'll see if we can check them out.

Melbourne Here We Come

Up up and away.... We're off to Melbourne early Saturday am. Saturday mornings are for sleeping in as far as I'm concerned, but alas we're still headed south at the behest of the Frenchman (and because its been an eternity since we were last there). I guess we can do brunch somewhere in the southern city Saturday. Sunday as well perhaps. Does anyone have any recommended places that do a good breakfast / brunch? We will have a car so we can go anywhere!

Having done absolutely no planning for the weekend I have no idea if anything else special is happening in Melbourne this weekend that we shouldn't miss. We have very little booked, save for dinner Saturday night. A spot of shopping on Chapel street I expect, the Frenchman will seek out a good macchiato or three and we'll need to swim somewhere...

Suggestions are very welcomed for all the above. Any particularly good art / photography exhibitions? Any great new clothes stores? Places rife with gorgeous men? Pools to die for? Coffee havens?

Wild Wednesday in Perspective

Sometimes it's good to take a different perspective, to look at the world from another point of view. Sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, but always with feeling ;) . Taking someone new to your town on a tour of it can allow you to see it in a new way through their eyes, it may take you to places you rarely go. It certainly has for me over the years. In an argument, taking the opposite side to which you believe and arguing as if it were your own can be liberating. Stopping to photograph something that you'd normally pass by without pause. Taking the point of view of someone who is complaining about something you've done. Sitting in that park you walk past each day, and just watching the world go by for a few minutes, rather than being that world passing by...

The above photograph is taken at the uni pool where I swim - it's taken looking up at the sky through the water, there every time I swim but not a perspective I usually see.

See if you can find a new perspective on things this wild wednesday.

Gym buddy for a day

My good friend, who we'll call The Canadian, arrives this afternoon for a visit while on a break from his work out on the mine fields. We plan to head to the beach, but the rain has other ideas, so instead we head to a place nearby that I've never been to before - he'd found a state park on a map - and so there we head - sure it is raining - but underneath it all we're all waterproof, and it turns out to be a whole lot of fun. The place is empty, as who'd be silly enough to be out in this weather? but we focus on the waterfall signposted at the car park and dodge the puddles on the way. Coming here in the rain is actually a good idea as the waterfall is in full force and even the plants growing around it are being battered in the water flow. We discover hundreds of tadpoles in pools above the falls - one false move and they're gone - but the frogs about seem to have made it through the hazards.

I take The Canadian off to my pool & gym and despite a sense of fatigue he soldiers on and both swims and gyms (though I don't see him in the pool at all as my squad training session is so intense I even forgot to follow the cute ST George / Illawarra League players who have also dived in.) Despite my exhaustion, at gym I have a gym buddy for day - and it's great. I don't feel like I'm stuck in my own world as I move about today, I have someone to chat to, to hassle and do some new abdominal exercises with. I have missed that. We order Vietnamese take away and eat it at home with The Frenchman after which everyone collapses exhausted onto the couch.

A perfect rainy day.

The Race Returns

Update: bonus clue below It's been some months since the last leg of The Race, where you're challenged to identify where the photo I've shot is taken... Here we were in a place which is bitterly cold but stunning. This was taken on the way to a swimming pool which was a whole cultural experience on its own (you can see the building in the distance behind the trees). Steam rooms filled with naked men ( I mean FILLED) some of them not unattractive... but no - not that kind of steam room... And a whole different pool etiquette.

Prizes to the first to identify correctly the location and to the most elaborate story to explain the picture.

The race starts now.

Bonus Clue: It seems this location is a bit tricky - so I'm adding a landmark from this same city below to help...

The Race continues...

Into the Wild - movie review

We saw an advanced screening of the film Into The Wild Sunday night, and it certainly is a movie that makes you think. It's equally insightful as it is visually stunning, and certainly moving. It follows a young man's journey to find himself, and to escape the world of his parents who have caused him much unspoken grief. There are a lot of stars in small roles who certainly pack depth and meaning into a powerful overall film. It will get you thinking - it might even change the way you look at various aspects of life. Highly worth a viewing, it opens this Thursday. Those of you in the States may have already seen it - as it's been out there since September - if not, seek it out. Written and directed by Sean Penn, an increasing force in cinema.

Howard's End

So it seems we have a new Federal Government. Our conservative Prime Minister John Howard looks like he hasn't even made it into the parliament, losing his seat to former television journalist Maxine McKew.

We'll need to get used to "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd". It's a weekend of change in this end of the world. There was ample French Champagne flowing in a house filled with gay men here tonight accompanying the sense that we will have less oppression with this new government. Hopefully it will mean a lot of changes for the better in the future. Only time will tell.

Rainy Saturdays

It's a rainy day here this election Saturday. Perfect.

Things I like about rainy Saturdays:
Sleeping in is guaranteed.
A lazy wake up usually follows.
I'm not in a rush to get out and about - so I'll laze and read and potter about.
I feel good about not going anywhere.
When I do go out to a local cafe or similar I enjoy being closed in with the elements raging outside.
The garden can take care of itself.

These are the exact opposite of a sunny Saturday...

Friday

I'm woken at 3.50am to a fire alarm. I lie in bed, where just a short time ago I fell asleep... to see if it goes off on its own. (There was a false alarm last night here at the hospital, and these things are ALWAYS false alarms). It switches off and I don't hear the next false alarm at 4 something because by then my body doesn't care about fire any more - it just wants sleep. At 7 I hand over to the next doctor and go back to bed - swimming is off - my body still needs sleep, and I'm happy to oblige.

Today's breakfast special at the beach is a mix of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, semi dried tomatoes and fetta cheese all melted into a huge mass on top of some now invisible gourmet toast. Washed down with a banana pineapple strawberry smoothie I feel like I should have swum, but regret nothing. A regular breakfast buddy leaves early and my coach texts from his New Zealand triathlon camp, I think he's missing breakfast at diggies. I read the paper which tells me mixed signals about the election tomorrow, and skim through the October Details magazine which has a lot of style but no discernible substance. A light rain blows onto me from time to time, they worry at the cafe about a cocktail function there that evening.

Finally I get to work and it all goes smoothly. My afternoon swim is just right, but at gym the ipod chooses all the wrong music. Slow when I need upbeat, upbeat when I want slow, and too loud when I need... you get the picture. I might need a new gym buddy soon, or to download something more to the ipod. I decide downloading will be easier. I'm in the change room when I get a call from a friend who can tell I'm somewhere waterproof by the echo, and asks if there's anyone hot there... I think of London Preppy's Gym Tour and realise that I am completely alone in the newly renovated white and stainless steel space. I report same and he's disappointed, as am I, but I manage to cope.

I leave in a burnt tangerine shirt for the first and largest (270 people) of many various work Christmas parties. The Frenchman makes a guest appearance and we get told the following: 1. I thought you two split up? which is news to us. 2. I can't decide who of you two is the cutest. which we're both happy with. 3. We like working with you because you never lose your cool. to which I definitely don't get upset, and finally 4. when asked my age: I thought you were (about ten years) younger. So I feel all my Christmases have come at once and we go home early, happy with that stash of gifts thank you very much. Though we had to return the first one, it just didn't fit.

Federal Election Tomorrow

I've been chatting with some friends this week - and I'm stunned by how many people don't know much about the political happenings in this country at the moment...

The main thing that worries me is that there are a lot of gay guys & girls out there who don't seem to realise that the Greens and Democrats are the only political parties (as far as I can tell) who actively support and fight for gay rights in this country. The Liberal party seems vehemently anti-gay, based on about a thousand things they've done in the past 11 years, not least of which was to force the ACT government to withdraw same sex partnership legislation. The Labor party says it cares - but I'm not really very aware of whether their heart is in it as there has not been a lot of movement from state governments of recent with this, but at least they sound better.

I'm going to go all out and recommend that at least for the upper house (senate) you consider voting green / democrat and then preference who you wish after that, because I'd much rather them have a bigger say in controlling my life than say the Christian democrat or Family First parties, because they'd have us all sent to an island and shot if the real truth were to be told.

Many of you reading this won't be in a position to vote - being foreigners and all, but do feel free to ask your Aussie friends what they're thinking and encourage them to be gay friendly in their voting.

Please feel free to debate any of this here.

Multi-tasking Mania

From the time I was doing my higher school certificate, I learnt to do a thousand things at once. At university, studying medicine, it was just expected that you had to be able to multi-task. 9 exams in 4 days? - sure I can do that. My parents instilled the practice in me, and it seems I've exponentially increased the activity. I'm not sure there aren't many minutes in my day that don't have something planned for them. Even then I'll usually add more things to do in the time I have. Mostly I'll get it done. At work it can be a challenge though to keep up the pace given that people do need time to absorb things; you can't always rush a discussion about a terminal illness for example, but you can make it the most holistic event in a patient's life, and so I try to encompass everything conceivably possible and beneficial into the time I have, at the same time ensuring I'm not rushing them. Its the whole thing of making something complex seem effortless. The busier I am, the more efficient I get, and it seems the easier it is to do the things I want to do. 

It means that at the end of the day - I sleep very well.
And tonight I will sleep very well indeed.

Aboriginal dancing goes Zorba the Greek

A friend sent me this video - and I love it - very unexpected.
3min 14sec

Team Wild Wednesday

This week it's time to get a team together to make it a really wild Wednesday. Your task is to arrange something with a group of people (at least three, yourself included) for either today - or later in the week. It might be a hike, a mountain bike trek, a dance party, an election party (which is what I'm contemplating), a slumber party, a kayaking trip, a dinner, a trip to the beach... you name it - just do it as a team. There are no limits, just arrange it today (which may well be Tuesday for you guys in the Americas). Let me know what you're planning - it should be fun, it may be risque. The wilder the better, it is after all Wild Wednesday. If you're planning something sexual... be sure to be safe.

Today's photo by Justin Monroe Photography

Interview Panel: Blogging

There has been talk of blogger flux of late and this question asked of the superchilled panel might answer some questions about the art of blogging...

How long have you been blogging and what has been the best thing you’ve gotten out of it?

Aussielicious: About to have my second blogging anniversary. I get some great emails from people saying my blog has helped them. I've also met some amazing people who've become good friends. (Superchilled note: he's just now passed 2 years)

Gay Banker: Since February 2005 and it's been my therapy through difficult times.

London Preppy: About 9 months. Family Guy series 1 in the post.

Single in the City: I started blogging in January 2006 (it was my new year's resolution) and have kept going with over 100,000 hits (a lot for a gay blog without naked pictures). The best thing is the amazing friendships I've made through the blog!

Superchilled: Since March 2007 (though I started a few blogs for friends before this). Some fantastic connection with people I least expected from all kinds of places.

The Green Light at the end of the Dock: I have been blogging about 9 months. Two bests – the fact that it acts as a Diary, I have always wanted to keep one but never have, the second is some of the people I have gotten to know.

What are your experiences / thoughts on blogging?

I'm living with a black man.

I arrive home from work on Saturday and am confronted with this man who seems to have replaced The Frenchman. He looks a lot like him, but is caked in blackness that I am not familiar with. Norten seems a little frightened too. Once he is attacked with a garden hose The Frenchman returns and I discover he has been cleaning the guttering on the house (why he's managed to get this black I don't quite understand, but he seems to be revelling in it, so I make appreciative comments and collapse in a heap on the couch).

A little later in the evening we attend an opening. The hosts are immaculate in their attention to detail and we manage to catch up with a number of friends we have not really spent time with for a while. On to the next late-night social event and we find ourselves with buddies from our Croatia Cruise earlier in the year, some of whom are staying over at ours. More catching up on Sunday is in order and the day is again perfect.

Here we are spotting migrating whales...

A trip to the beach finds me chasing stingrays in the surf, as you will see below and then the late afternoon brings even more interesting people into our world, so we chat ceaselessly into the sunset. I'm just getting into this weekend thing, and it seems it's all over. But I've managed to connect with some fantastic people and life feels not entirely unreasonable.

Chasing a stingray

Friday

I wake up at the hospital and the day is overcast but warm. I have slept 5 hours but feel exhausted and as I plunge into the pool for my morning laps I feel as energetic as a cat fallen off a skyscraper balcony for the 10th time... But I manage to swim up and back a few times and feel more awake by the time I sit down at diggies for breakfast by the beach with my good friend Janet.

While there's not a lot of direct sunlight there is a hell of a lot of sparkle coming from the ring glued to her finger. The cluster of pink and white diamonds announcing She's Engaged!! (Note, I never really take notice of these things and she probably waved it around for hours and had to actually point it out before I noticed it - the classic gay best friend it would seem I am not...). Despite my slow uptake I'm quite thrilled. She's a real catch and why it's taken this long for the straight men in this world to notice I simply don't understand. Finally I've also moved to second place in her mum's books which a whole lot healthier place for me to be. While I'm there not noticing the ring, I am noticing the incredibly hunky guy wandering around dressed just in a towel and surfboard, he has a chest and back to die for and the rest ain't so bad either, so in those few minutes I think we must have been discussing wedding plans - because I don't recall any.

Then I head to work for the day where the most remarkable experience is standing in a hospital room for a palliative care consultation while an entire family piles into the room, surrounding me. There must have been a dozen people entering the small room. Why some of them didn't pass out I'm not sure, but I felt like it myself at one point as I didn't really feel for euthanasia talks right there and then, but such is life, and death. And everyone seemed happy in the end. If you really can in such circumstances.

So after work I head back to the pool and gym. I'm still feeling like that cat in the pool from this morning, so get out early and take my weary body to the gym. I remember to take the ipod which has become my gym buddy and it energises me with a random selection it chooses perfectly. I lose count of how many abdominal exercises I do and feel happy moving about the gym as if in another world, oblivious to everyone around me. Somehow this makes me feel mysterious and interesting, even though right now I'm neither mysterious nor interesting. I'm introduced to a cute guy called 'Hussein' and all I can think of is how I really shouldn't say anything related to his name as it would be inappropriate, but he has the cutest smile and still I have Saddam and Iraq and 'The War on Terror' going through my head and say nothing much because I can't think of anything else right now and I'm so fatigued and it really doesn't matter - this is the gym and I'm being mysterious anyway.

And so on my way home I realise I've left my work shoes at the pool, my head somewhere in the clouds, and tomorrow morning (yes Saturday) I have to work again...

if this is religion...

Maybe I should rethink... take a look at the new mormon's cute misionsary men calendar!

Sculpture by the Sea

When in Sydney my favourite beach is Tamarama. It's a small beach with a tongue of sand upon which quite a glamorous crowd congregates, but it's the beach itself that is the most spectacular. So The Frenchman and I head there Tuesday afternoon prior to meeting up with our friend Matt who is visiting from London. This time of year it features the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition which winds from here to Bondi beach along the coastal walk (a must do if you're visiting Sydney). I take my camera for a fun exploration of the very creative exhibits. It's the perfect afternoon for it - and when I tire of the sculptures (which I don't) - there's always the sculpted bodies of men who frequent the walk - and the beaches - and they are plentiful also, so it's a full on feast for the eyes. It's a pity you can't touch most of the exhibits because sculpture is such a tactile artform, but regardless of instructions, the penis on a very much larger than life man is touched upon by many a shrieking young girl...

So as we walk about staring at all these beautiful things and enjoying the summery warmth of the evening, we contemplate buying a house just near the beach, because wouldn't this be the perfect environment to have at your doorstep?

Here you'll see some photos of my favourite sculptures - you can, of course, enlarge them by clicking on them.

The glass layers in this are mesmerising - best live.

It really feels like they're going to lift off !

Lots of ways to interpret this one...

This moves with the wind - and in so many axes it's awesome to watch. You'll have to trust me on this.

Revenge of the killer car-eating ants?

The writing's in the sand...?