Body Parts

Do you know where your prostate is? or if you're that way inclined, your cervix? Know what it looks like? what it does? 

Today I was chatting with friends about various anatomical and physiological bits & pieces and was quite surprised with the lack of knowledge about their own bodies.

Having studied medicine and practised in the field for some years I've become very familiar with both the anatomical and pathological versions of people's bodies. I guess to me it's second nature to know what's happening and where. And while my knowledge is expected, it still astounds me the lack of knowledge most people have about their anatomy. People usually know where their heart is, though not always, but ask about the prostate, epididymis, cervix, liver... and wide eyes are often the response. 

Surely, I think to myself, people will have an interest in parts of their bodies, especially parts intimately involved in things like sexual activity. But it seems I'm wrong about that one too. Though, I think knowledge in this area is certainly a sexual advantage. 

With the world at our fingertips it's so easy to find out what everything is and does - for example if you type "epididymis" in google and click ' I'm feeling lucky ' this is what you will find. Easy. A few minutes later you'll know about a part of you you probably didn't even know existed, though you've probably felt it a thousand times. 

Perhaps as kids we should be taught not just "point to your nose... now point to your lips..." but also "point to your liver, your kidneys... now point to your prostate, your spleen...." it might look a bit odd, but what an enlightened new generation we might have. Who knows, it might even make my job easier.

Save Me

Movie preview : 2min 3sec

"Save Me" is an independent movie opening in US cinemas in September. It is the first production from Mythgarden, the production house started by openly gay actors Chad Allen and Robert Gant.
see full review by Jeff Walsh here.

Wild Hot Wednesday

It's the No Undies Wild Wednesday.

The trend for a while now has been to wear pants down low and underwear up high. While I don't mind it - it's not nearly as hot as pants down low and underwear no-wear as you can see above. 

To start the trend, today is the day to leave your underwear at home and be free. 

Make yourself even hotter this wild Wednesday.

Hang around a bit if you like - as demonstrated above. 

Olympic Challenge Gold

Monty sent in this photo of Alain Bernard at the beginning of the Superchilled Olympic Challenge, and has now been voted by Superchilled Readers as your favourite. It won by a narrow 1 vote.

But as 1/100th of a second can make an Olympic gold medallist, Monty WINS the Superchilled Olympic Challenge. 

Congratulations.

Thanks everyone who sent in images and those who voted for the winners.

Change of plans

What do you do when you find yourself at the end of a cancelled dinner party invitation on a Saturday night? You take other guests who are also left hanging and go do a progressive dinner, at various eateries, why limit it to just one?

So at 6.30pm on Saturday we find ourselves at Longrain in Surry Hills, Sydney. The last time I was here was a few years ago, but the wait was so long that we disappeared off somewhere else. Hunger wins. Tonight though we are greeted by a well dressed woman who opens the door and sends us in the direction of the restaurant NOT the bar. We're seated at the very long table (it's a trademark of Longrain) where we're fitted in between other diners. The ambience is great though it's a little loud and hearing my fellow diners opposite me at the table is, at times, a lip reading experience. The food is delicious, upmarket Thai - we go straight to mains - and there's little left on our shared plates when a very loud Englishman sits down beside me. He's not loud to me but my fellow diners sitting opposite can't hear themselves think, so we decide it's time to head out - the desserts look great but not tonight dear, we're getting a headache.

Next stop is IVY - the new watering hole with various restaurants and bars on multiple open air levels. It's quite glam, though if it's called IVY can they please have real ivy on the columns? There is more security than cute men, but the main guy - we'll call him the concierge - is drop dead gorgeous. He makes our brief visit here worth it, but they're not serving dessert unless you order the whole set  menu - so we leave. 

We wander towards Circular Quay and head up to Cafe Sydney. I give ourselves a 40% chance of getting a table the others are more optimistic ranging from 62% to 94%, and while we're initially offered the low low bar area where my knees rest at eye level, we're rapidly whisked away to a table on the deck which overlooks the finest Sydney Harbour has to offer (you get an idea in the link). We sit back, relax and enjoy the ambience that is unbeatable. It really is one of my favourite spaces anywhere in the world and we spend hours chatting away with the only distraction our waitress who calls our bill some kind of account, pours water like it's a bad child who needs to be disciplined and otherwise makes us pause conversation for fear of laughing. I really could have stayed on, the combination of conversation and ambience intoxicating - but at midnight we agree to move on. 

We decide we're going to do it again - next time with entree, main and dessert each at different locations. Already contemplating potential venues, I can hardly wait.

13 Years Later

In gay years The Frenchman and I have been together something like 91 years, today. But for simplicity we'll stick with 13.

I know we're both aging, but I think he looks more handsome all the time. And as time goes on I realise how great it is to have him in my world and to be a part of his. 

Today, being our anniversary I'd like to thank my mum for introducing us, our family and friends who have supported us, and particularly those who have made an effort to keep in touch and keep on interacting despite distances and hardships. 

The year ahead is going to be a completely different one for us. I'm excited and just a tad nervous, but in the grand scheme of things I can only see things getting better and grander. 

Happy Anniversary babe.

Raw Emotion

There's this image embedded in my brain. It's incredibly emotive. There is a couple, on the left sits the wife, early 60's, a few missing teeth and overweight, slumped forward in a plain lounge chair, her husband embracing her from her left side.  They're both lit by a radiant heater at the far left of the image - which warmly highlights their emotions and the tears embarrassingly rolling down her cheeks. 

The wife is dying from an acute form of leukaemia. She's tough and jovial, but the intensity of the discussion has broken her. And the tears flow. It seems like a classic theatre production, but it's real. I have asked the questions, initiated the discussion that has lead to this breakdown. It's entirely appropriate that she's crying. And as I sit there watching, I feel an intruder into a world that is not mine. The questions needed to be asked, the situation discussed, and a plan for her ongoing care constructed. And so I sit there, this poignant image burning silently and deeply into my retinas, and I say nothing. There is nothing to be said. It's sad, but it's beautiful. Life is beautiful even when it seems the complete opposite. 

Interview Panel: Saturday August 30th

reminder: last days to vote for your favourite Olympic Bod Photo - see earlier posts below...

Superchilled asks a selection of people, who also blog, questions about life the universe and everything. 

Today's question:

What is your best ever holiday memory?

The Green Light at the end of the Dock

Martin: There are so many - what normally makes for a good memory is anything involving my sister who lives abroad and I hardly ever see. One must be flying low over the Okavango Delta and seeing the spectacular patterns in the swamps. The other is speeding down the Okavango river in a low boat as the sun sets. Another is running giggling like little children through the mist surrounding Victoria Falls, and more recently pretending to do gymnastics with my sister in a Gay bar in London and skipping all the way to the pantomime to her step-children’s disgust and embarrassment. Anything that involves laughing so hard my stomach hurts and getting strange stares from the locals…

Just Beautiful Men

Eric : Visiting Geneva as a child was probably the most lasting experience I still remember to this day. It was just so different and exciting compared to what I was used to at the time (I think I must have been around 7 or 8 at the time). Traveling when you're young sometimes leads to a type of simplistic euphoria that just can't be matched as easily as an adult :-)

Geoff & Terry

Geoff:  Independently: Kenya to Australia via Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Germany whilst trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Memories of travelling on the roof of a truck through frontier country of southern Ethiopia. Surreal scenery and environs with a sense of being somewhere on the edge of nowhere. Trekking in the mountains of Ethiopia. Brain melting heat and boredom on the coast of the Red Sea waiting for a ferry. Hanging out in cafes in Berlin and running through autumn leaves in Potsdam with my walkman blasting “You Are My World” by Jimmy Sommerville.

With Terry: All of them (ahhhh).

Terry: There are a lot of great memories, but two stick out at this time:

-When I was living in Japan I had a 10 day break in the spring and went to Sabah (via Brunei) on the island of Borneo. I spent one week, snorkelling, swimming, climbing Mount Kinabalu, and trekking through the forests in Sepilok (orang-utan sanctuary). On my way back to Japan I met my just-about-to-be married Canadian friend in Hong Kong and treated him to a three day stag party.

-Sitting in the open doorway of the train that goes from Colombo to the hill country in central Sri Lanka. It was amazing to go from the heat and humidity of the coast to the lush, cool tea plantations at 2000m...both on a three week holiday with Geoff in 1998 and while I was living there in 2007.

London Preppy

LP: I have no memories, there is no past, I don't have a future.

the naked drag queen

Bruce: One of my best holiday memories is sitting around a big campfire in the Okavango swamps with my amazing family telling stories and then listening to the lion in the area talk to one another and make the earth vibrate under our tents.

Along the Way...

Lynnette: Toss up between:

Day spent in a village near Manali in India, teaching kids how to take photographs with my extra camera, and just chilling with them and eating yummy food and drinking killer chai

Private salsa and son lessons at the home of the guy standing in front of us waiting for pizzas at an outdoor street stall in Havana, Cuba (despite top notch teachers I still am inept :( )

The adrenalin rush of being on top of an active volcano in Guatemala, seeing the lava turning beneath my feet, and having a storm charge in with lightening hitting all around us just as we reached the summet...

...there are too many amazing memories to choose....

What's your best holiday memory??

For Sale

It's a little unsettling, the prospect of selling your own home. But we're doing it. We've signed on the dotted line, it's on the market, and we're on our way to saying goodbye to our home of 9 years.  I love living here, so it's going to be a little sad to say goodbye, but it's time to move on. Time for change. 

We're going to have to keep it clean and tidy relentlessly for the next 5 weeks or so.

It's a bit exciting, a bit scary and even a little sad, having spent these years developing it into a  home that is very much us.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a roller-coaster ride. 

Wild Rock & Roll Wednesday

Today is Wild Wednesday and the challenge is this: when you get home, turn up the volume - dress down - and do what Tom Cruise does in this 1 minute clip from Risky Business. It can be a lot of fun - but it's best done when you're home alone. Make sure it's loud, and so are you.

And then when you're cooling down - remember to vote for the best of the olympic bods below.

Superchilled Olympic Challenge: Voting

It's time to vote for your favourite photo from the Superchilled Olympic Challenge.

Find the one you like most below and tick the appropriate box in the top right poll. 

You can go to the original post by clicking the link beneath each photo.

 

Photo # 1

Photo #2

Photo #3

Photo #4

Photo #5

Photo #6

Photo #7

Photo #8

Photo #9

Photo #10

Photo #11

Olympic Challenge #11

Bob M sends these images of Australian Steven Hooker, Gold medallist Pole Vaulter at the 2008 Olympic Games, and becomes the final entrant (unless I get new images before posting the final vote list) for the Superchilled Olympic Challenge.

The final voting list will be up soon. 

For more competition details click here.

Matthew Mitcham: Superchilled Superstar

I have never been as proud of an Australian athlete as I was today watching Matthew Mitcham win gold in the 10m platform diving final in Beijing. A spectacular performance made even greater given the pressure that was on him. Obviously he thrived, and made it through, beating the favourites (China) to the Gold. He's made a big point of the fact that he's an elite athlete who happens to be gay. Being gay hasn't been a huge announcement it's just been a part of who he is, which may be the case for a lot of other olympians - but none of the other men are out. So extra credit to him for not hiding, for being who he is , and for being fantastic at that. 

What a spectacular final dive. 

I hope we get to see as much of him as we have of our other winning athletes. I'm curious how they're going to portray him in the press. And how they're going to treat his partner who was sponsored to go to see him compete as they couldn't afford to pay his way.

He has his own Matthew Mitcham Website here, and is sponsored by purple.oranges - who I know nothing much about - but that I like them. 

Cheers to Superchilled's first Superchilled Superstar Matthew Mitcham (yeah loads of superlatives, but I can, it's my blog ;-) and he deserves them).

Olympic Challenge #10

Peter von Amsterdam sends these images of fellow countryman, Maarten van der Weijden, competing (and winning) for the Netherlands in the 10km open water swim in Beijing. Peter has been very patriotic - I think he should also enter some good photos of Hockey Player Jeroen HERTZBERGER who is sizzling hot. 

Send someone who's caught your eye from the Olympics before it's too late, to superchilledtrevor@gmail.com

It's the photo we're looking for - so you find a better photo of someone already entered - and you can still enter and win!

For more competition details click here.

Who's Leading? China or USA

I was a little surprised during the week when I encountered a medal tally for the Olympics on a Boston newspaper website which showed the USA as the leading country. I'd though China was well ahead and wondered what the USA had done to break into the lead... 

But when I looked at the actual numbers - China had the highest number of gold medals, and the USA had most medals overall, though significantly fewer of them gold... 

So I did some research, and in my rapid global newspaper study, most newspapers tally the medals according to the most number of gold medals won per country, and where that number equals another, the number of silver and then bronze defines the leader. There are a few exceptions with some online newspapers in Canada and the UK who follow their US counterparts who uniformly give the highest marks to the country with the most medals overall. 

Oh, and that happens to be the USA.

So does this technically mean that if a country were to win solely 200 Bronze medals and another 199 Gold - the winner would be the 200 Bronze?

The official Olympic website defines it according to the highest number of Gold medals won.

Here are some examples from my research...

The New York Times

USA Today

Globe and Mail (Toronto)

The New Zealand Herald

The Times Online (London)

Le Monde (Paris)

Jornal Brasileiro (Brazil)

The Australian 

The Olympics Official site

Call me a cynic - but does everyone in the USA not cope with coming 2nd to China?

Is reportage in the USA a little biased, or has the rest of the world got it wrong?

Olympic Challenge #9

Monty of Much Ado about Monty found this image of Sam McGregor from Australia's Waterpolo Team. One good reason to start playing waterpolo perhaps? I do note he's a tall lad too. 

Time is running out to send a photo of someone who's caught your eye from the Olympics to enter the Superchilled Olympic Challenge. After the games are over I'll post all the entries and you will all get a chance to vote for the winner.

Send your last minute entry to superchilledtrevor@gmail.com

For more competition details click here.

By now there are plenty of photos out there. So send 'em in!

Wild Hands-On Wednesday

The pictures say it all.

This is what you need to strive to do on this Olympic-Inspired Wild Hands-On Wednesday. 

Good luck, and may you find a great place to place your hands.

Best of the Best

Even Olympians check out other Olympians

Enter the Superchilled Olympic Challenge and be like the world's best. Find your favourite Olympic photo and send it in. The final gold medal will be decided by superchilled readers who will vote for the best of the best. (Details here)

Email: superchilledtrevor@gmail.com

Interview Panel: Tuesday August 19th

Superchilled asks a selection of people, who also blog, questions about life the universe and everything. 

Today's scenario:

You're sitting down to dinner at the love of your life's parents' home for the first time. You're served a meal that has taken your hosts days to prepare but it's something you almost gag at the sight of. What do you do?

The Green Light at the end of the Dock

Martin: Being the person I am I would grin and bear it – my partner’s mom will assume I love it, and proceed to make it for me every time I visit.

Just Beautiful Men

Eric :I think this would be an excellent case where breaking out the old 'I ate before I got here and I'm still sorta full' routine would come in handy. Either that or feign stomach issues... whatever could get me through dinner eating only a small portion of the meal (without actually appearing insulting) would be the ideal way to deal with this situation.

Geoff & Terry

Geoff: This actually happened...! I was visiting my boyfriend at the times family in Brussels and was served “moule and frites”. I said nothing and accompanied each mussel with a french fry heavily dosed in hot mustard.

Terry: I would eat the food, and thank the hosts for spending so much time putting together such a nice meal (there’s not much I can’t eat).

London Preppy

LP: If they were decent hosts they would have asked what I do and do not eat beforehand

the naked drag queen

Bruce: I would try my best to eat it. I would taste it and try and think of something else as I chewed. If that didn't work I would pretend to feel very sick and once I knew them better confess that I cannot eat that dish. Truth be told I eat most things anyway.

Along the Way...

Lynnette: I've become quite adept at swallowing sans chewing so that you don't taste the food-- and I'm pretty sure that's the tactic I'd employ. Small bite, large gulp of water, wait a second, repeat. I'm not into lying but I'd deffinitely express appreciation for the effort.

What would you do?

A Gold Rush or a DQ?

Being quite an Olympics fan myself, the past week has been quite distressing for me. It's not because Australia hasn't won enough Gold medals (we haven't but we're doing okay), not that there hasn't been enough good sportsmanship (apart from a notable bronze medal throwing event I don't recall too much evil happening) and not because there hasn't been enough eye candy (did anyone notice Andrew Lauterstein in the Australia medley relay team on Sunday?). It's because there is no TV reception for the official Olympic broadcaster, Channel 7,  where I live. Not even with satellite TV. 

And before you suggest it - the internet coverage here is nowhere near satisfying enough. Live streaming? Not on your life. Perhaps 3 minute bytes some hours after the events. 

Now it's not ALL bad - there is coverage by SBS - the 'complementary broadcaster' but if you want swimming, diving, gymnastics or any of the major athletics (and I SO do) then forget it.

I've managed to see the swimming finals at least which aired around lunchtime in all manner of places - from the waiting room at work - to a selection of pubs along the coast here as well as various events at home with some very accommodating family and friends. It's 'One World Many Television Screens' for me. 

But I know I'm a little more obsessive than most. So I have a poll running - up there on the top right - what do the olympics do for you?

Go on - tick a box.

And if you tick the third box specifically - you may want to scroll down to check out the olympic challenge entries. (More entries are heavily welcomed).

After the 1500m swim final today we went for our own planned swim and The Frenchman surprised me by not stopping when he usually does... He was doing his own 1500m. Very cute.