Gold I say, GOLD!

It's not every day you get to meet a superhero, but this weekend I got lucky. Sitting at my right hand side at an intimate dinner party was no less than Matthew Mitcham, who claimed the 10m platform diving Gold in Beijing - as mentioned in my earlier post here. 

The whole experience felt surreal, and the rest of the dinner party was equally engaging, great food, great host, fantastic venue. Matthew is a true delight. Often the reality of meeting someone doesn't meet expectation when there's been so much hype, but in this case - the reality was well beyond expectation. Oh and he speaks fluent French, which just puts mine to shame. 

I see great things ahead for this man and I think he can see them too. 

Trevor the Goldfish?

I have a goldfish named after me!

And no it's not mine.

I arrived for my regular Friday breakfast at diggies at the beach and the manager tapped me on the arm to tell me that they now had a goldfish at the cafe, and that it was named after me! What do you say when you have a goldfish named after you? I was quite surprised, and pleasantly so. When I thought a little more about it I wondered if it was something to do with swimming relentlessly (almost all my posts have a swimming reference, as a reader has pointed out to me recently) or perhaps it's a short term memory thing? But that's not me. I don't quite know how I was chosen, but regardless, it was a nice start to my day, sure it's not a national library, or an Aquatic Centre but it's a living thing, and that can't be all bad.

I also ran into an old high school colleague while at work Thursday night. Mind you I'm not sure his wife was too happy with the introduction whilst in the middle of her delivering their second child, but it was quite nice to be there for them, in a most unexpected turn of events. It was a girl! All healthy and well in the end.

Oh, and for the compulsory swimming reference, for my morning swim the weather and the pool were both excellent, while I was feeling absolutely weak in the water today. But what is most striking is the increasing cuteness of my fellow swimmers and the increasing number of gaydar pings happening all around. Given my lack of form in the pool, I was happy to have some pleasant distraction.

The weekend is looking to be quite an eventful one. I hope yours is a great one.

Jay Brannan in Sydney

I just discovered that Jay Brannan is performing in Sydney on October 30th. I also just discovered that October 30th is a Thursday and I have 2 work commitments I can't change for that date, which is typical. I don't see a lot of live musical performances, but if I could I would see Jay live - damn it. 

So your job, superchilled readers, is to make sure the first performance is a sell out and that way they might be inclined to offer more performances! That's my vain hope anyway. You can see an example of a performance below for Half Boyfriend. You may recall him from the highly recommended film, Shortbus.

4min 20sec

More details of Jay's concert schedule and how to book online here.

I should be so lucky this Wild Wednesday

lucky lucky lucky

I'm too nice. Nice people are boring. I don't get into enough strife, I don't have enough things go wrong, and I don't complain enough. Boring as hell. 

But hey, I'm lucky, insanely lucky. Life has delivered everything to me on a platter, not had to work for a thing at all, ever. Things just mysteriously go well for me. How lucky is that!? I'm lucky I live somewhere nice, I'm lucky I have The Frenchman, lucky I have a great family - if we exclude those members who aren't. Lucky I drive a nice car, lucky I have a few jobs that I really enjoy and where I'm out and accepted, and sometimes even valued. Very lucky with that. I'm lucky that I'm fit and healthy. Lucky I can take a reasonable photo or two, or perhaps that's more that I'm lucky I have a good camera, because after all, it's the camera you have that makes the photos good ones. Im lucky that I get to travel as often as I do. I'm lucky that I have some great people in my world, people who are always there if I need them, even though I'm so lucky I never actually do need them, but they're there anyway, waiting for the call. Except those who aren't. 

It is after all wild wednesday and the challenge today is to try to figure out what things in your life are really all about luck, good or bad, and what are all about the things you actually make happen yourself (or not happen as the case may be) that result in you being where you are now.

Go on have a think about it. 

Your time starts now.

Lazy Active Retro

A lazy weekend of activity. Impromptu dinner parties, slow cooked breakfasts, trips to the beach, to the Italian deli, hikes in the bush. Close friends visiting, some planned, some spontaneous. Animated conversation flowing from relationships to politics to family planning. Chance meetings of friends at the pool and on the street, and long conversations that follow. Strengthening new and old bonds that will last a lifetime. 

There's nothing quite so refreshing as the freedom from being in the company of people with whom you have the knowledge that you're at home, that you can say and express what you feel, and you're going to be accepted, and listened to, and sometimes challenged. People you know you can trust, who make you feel a warm glow from within.

I was playing this song at one of these slow breakfast mornings on Sunday, and it has the lazy, active, retro feel of the summer I am planning to have.

Paper Aeroplane : Angus & Julia Stone

3min 38s

Shuffle

Random thoughts and events in this superchilled life...

I posted a few weeks ago about dozens of strange Chinese women calling me. Today I got another call. This time they hung up on me.

Our house didn't sell at auction. Well the auction itself didn't happen. Of course a whole financial system melt down right in the middle of our marketing campaign had nothing to do with it. But it's still on the market - and we're still optimistic. 

I had a quiet night at the hospital last night - got to bed at 1am - earlier than most weeks - and despite it all couldn't get to sleep until after 3am... If only they had a lap pool at the hospital. Hmmm perhaps I should speak to the CEO. 

My affinity for water now includes those high pressure water jets at car wash places where you do-it-yourself. I don't think it's an obsessive compulsive cleaning thing, but I don't mind a bit of shine either. 

Dinner this evening was a retirement dinner for a dear secretary at the public hospital. At said dinner one of the nurses decided that my hair needed to be cut, as she played with it forming pony-tails of sorts in front of everyone present. I guess it is getting a bit long now, and I'm kind of flattered that she was playing with my hair - but I'm not good at following orders. So expect no shaven head here any time soon.

At same dinner while the Frenchman was absent, it was pleasant to have all of the people there ask after him. 

London Preppy's activating the ejector-seat on his blog last week made me rethink my own blogging again. I've had so much happening in my world, much of which I've not posted about - not yet anyway - that it's been hard to make time to write here, let alone get everything else done. But I'm not ready to stop, there are more words in these fingers yet. 

While I was washing my car at the hydrophilic car wash station, the music on late night radio was courtesy of a Dance music DJ and I realised how long it is since I've been out dancing the night away. I was dancing around in the remoteness of the late night, water jet in hand, and it was a lot of fun. I think I'm going to have to gather a few revellers together to make an event of it very soon. 

And finally, we have an international blogger visiting us Saturday - and I'm very much looking forward to it. O Canada!

The Frenchman Celebrates

There are a few classic features/favourites of The Frenchman in this photo, and hence my choice of it for this birthday post. Can anyone figure out what they are?

Have a great day babe.

Modelling Opinion

What is our fascination with celebrities? In the US presidential campaign there are endless celebrities supporting one or other candidate, but very few other more educated / experienced people promoted as supporting candidates. Why is it we are  more interested and more swayed by a celebrity's opinion than someone who really does know better?

Sure there are some celebrities who know their stuff and whose opinion is well respected, but the others? Why do they get the limelight? Why do we buy the magazines they fill and follow their relationships / pregnancies / diets so avidly? If a supermodel votes for one party - why should that make me want to vote for them? If a rock star calls their child 'Cherry-pie' should I call mine the same too?

It's not just about elections, it's life in general. We select the beautiful people all too often to be the ones who choose our directions. 

I guess we all want to look beautiful. We see the Abercrombie models looking great in (and out of) various clothes and we want to buy that lifestyle. The clothes are a step towards that, and perhaps following what they do will make us more like them... or at least the image of them. We want to be liked in the way it seems the celebrities are liked, and so we emulate them, do what they do, or at least what they say they do.

Of course if we look at the paths of celebrities, shown in detail in the popular press and the reality TV, we see that the image of them is frequently not the reality. Perhaps we take comfort in that, relish the fall of these 'gods', to see that we're all human after all. So why do we bother following their lives in the first place? Let's lead our own lives. Find our own paths, and be directed by those who can better guide us than the winner of the latest MTV music video award.

Life is the people we spend it with. It's talking about things that are important and funny, and mean something to us. Embarking on new adventures, sharing times and meals, of arguing the point and realising we're wrong. Being the person we want to be, in the clothes we feel comfortable in. Determining our goals and making our way towards them. Helping out the people who need us when we least can afford them the time. Above all it's about being who we are and sharing more of ourselves with those in our own worlds. 

Models and movies stars may be good for styling cues, but it's time for a wider diversity of guidance for the important parts of our lives. 

Thursday Friday

Let's go back to Thursday, where I wake up and it's morning - I've not overslept on my morning off for a change. They predict 33 degrees today and I feel that they're going to be right. I want to take advantage of this weather and not sleep it away, so after about 6 hours rest I'm up, breakfasting, and getting ready to go to the beach. I'm not a big fan of the sun, but I love the water and the energy and at the same time the relaxed feel I have being somewhere without electronic communication. Reading things written on paper, listening to the waves in the dappled shade behind the beach. Life is good, and the men are getting cuter. I wonder how they'll be looking after 6 months of warmth and exercise. The future is looking good. I'm chilled out and a world away. 

Work in the afternoon at the surgery is a lot of fun, and I get fantastic feedback about my photos hanging there, though nobody has bought anything yet. At the hospital I arrive and within minutes am at the delivery of twin boys. Then there are a further 4 deliveries that follow where I am required. The dads faces expressing emotions from extreme excitement to shock and disbelief - I think one is about to cry or fall over or something, but he seems to remain in complete shock well after the baby's wrapped and given to him. I wonder if he knows how to change a nappy. He soon will.

The father of twins now has 5 kids. He looks like he knows how it all works. But he's still thrilled. 

Breakfast Friday at diggies and there is a new menu. I think I prefer the old menu, but they've brought back an old fave, so it's not all bad. The day is again superb, sunny, way too hot for spring and it gets to 39 degrees (102.2F) at various points in my travels. I really don't feel like working, and all the homes I visit with air-conditioning have it turned off, but it's a dry heat and they're a lot sicker than I am. They're saving the planet even if they are killing themselves to do it. 

My last house call is to a patient I've seen a few times now - relatively young and dying from melanoma. He and his wife are coming to terms with the whole process of dying, and it hits me harder than most patients I see because I relate to them more than most. At times during the consultation I wonder if I'm really any good at this job, but they surprise me by telling me at the end how many and varied sources have told them how good I am, and I'm quite frankly surprised. My eyes start to tear a little, just a little, and I know that I've actually helped them today by the time I leave. I spent about 30 min more than I had planned, but it was worth it, they needed it. The compliments are icing. The reward is in knowing they feel secure in what they're doing.

I head back to the pool after work. It's too hot to go running, and I swim so fast it's like I've actually had a proper sleep and haven't worked all day. I'm happy about this. And then just to go for complete exhaustion I go to gym, and before I know it, it's the weekend, and I'm hungry. 

Wild Wednesday

Get your creative boots on, today is the day to be artistic. How you choose to create is up to you. Take some unusual photographs with your mobile phone's camera, draw a sketch of a work colleague, paint a picture, redecorate a room. I decided to do some artwork a friend asked me to do for his coaching sessions. One of which is below. 

Take a minute or 10 out of your day and take yourself away from it all.

Surf's Up

I live by the beach here in Coalcliff but on Sunday, almost 2 hours away, I go surfing at Palm Beach in Sydney's far north with friends. It's a 35 degree day (95F) and being in the water feels just perfect. The fact that the men in the water distract me from catching a few waves is just icing. I'm surfing on a friend's malibu board, and it's so much fun I don't want to get out. The Frenchman is out in the water too catching some waves. When we do eventually pack up, a southerly change (ie cold wind) storms in and blows most people off the beach anyway. It's the formula of our perfect summer day - and this is early spring. I'm so looking forward to summer I can feel it pulsing though my veins already. 

Earlier in the day we're at a birthday party, and it's a sports themed birthday so the name of the game is being active (in this 35 degree heat remember). What do we have to do? Well, thankfully it's the 5th birthday of our niece and so it's the kids who are being active, the adults are standing by. Some dads are quite competitive though and they're giving their sons technique tips for the tug-of-war, and high fiving them when they lose "you gotta make him feel good". There are 2 boys who didn't get such support - and when their team loses, they're crying on the grass and don't want to play any more.

I'm glad I'm not 5 yrs old, although I will take the high fiving dad, he's gorgeous. 

The Narcissist

Friday evening is theatre time. We're off to see The Narcissist playing at the Sydney Opera House. I'm running ahead of time for once and phone those who are coming to schedule meeting up for dinner. Five minutes later I'm stuck in traffic - bloody rugby semi-finals! So after ordering over the phone I finally arrive to my first course sitting waiting for me. Dinner is good I think - but we have so much to catch up on that the conversation is the main meal.

The stage is bright - there's loads of images of our main character - a lot camper in the artwork than he is in character. Actually - there are way too many images of this character and I feel like getting up there and decluttering. A barrage of one-liners make us laugh out loud, a lot, but the delivery seems a little forced and I know these are actors playing their characters, for the most part. I'm enjoying the play with its decidedly gay themes and unpredictability, but I have to work on it too. I'm a little tired from a restless night at the hospital, but mostly unrelated to work, so I don't want to have to work on my evening's entertainment. Mind you - it's not incredibly cerebral. Not even close really - but perhaps I'm too demanding in wanting seamlessness. I want to be completely absorbed, but I'm not quite. I could actually spend more time chatting with the people we've come with as I really like them and we never get enough time together. But afterwards we're all too tired from big work weeks to do coffee/dessert, and the chat on the walk along the harbour will have to do for now. 

A fun night out.

The play wasn't too bad either. 

Telephone Spam

Saturday morning early I get a phone call that wakes me. I'm not sure if I'm on call or not, so I answer, and the woman at the other end says something like "wei" , I say "hello?" she repeats the same "wei?" with a little more questioning. "Can I help you?" I offer, but after a short delay she repeats the "wei??" and the conversation kinda loses me. It's the wrong number and I'm not going to get anywhere trying to sort it out so I hang up. She calls again and the same conversation repeats with a few additional Chinese words thrown in. I think she must have got it by the time I hang up this time. Shortly after though, I'm called again and a near identical conversation starts, but I have less patience and end it earlier. After 15 min or so I get another call. It looks like the same number, but I answer. The conversation starts the same - but then English is offered. Something about a sales job. But not a lot of detail. The next call is definitely a different number and more detail - it seems my phone number has been mistakenly given in an ad for a sales job in an Australian Chinese newspaper. 

I feel a little sorry for the women calling, they are all women, but it's early Saturday morning and on this Saturday morning I'm going to work - and with my phone on silent vibrating endlessly away in my pocket I'm distracted, so I give it to my secretary who is quite entertained by the idea of this, and insists that she will answer the calls and explain to the callers that it's a mistake. She's cute, and I'm glad she has the patience for it all. After 20 calls I figure a way to divert the calls I don't want and the rest of the day is filled with women applying for a job they're not going to get, calling a phone that will never answer. 

Somewhere in Chinatown a store owner is wondering if they should be offering more money, or perhaps better working conditions as they sit silently by their phone, checking to see if it is working properly from time to time. Checking the reception, checking the time, looking back at the phone that will never ring...

Wild Wednesday

Last week Superchilled readers were asked if they'd be prepared to sell themselves for sex, and an overwhelming 73%  said yes they would. 

A fantastic Wild Wednesday today would be to suggest that 73% of you actually (well, at least hypothetically) put yourselves on the market. But in order to do that we need a marketing strategy. 

Now there are a few options.

Walk up and down the street (or just jig around a bit) wearing a sandwich board that says something like "for a great meal, eat me. Fresh and delicious. Lunchtime special price of...". Ideally you will be wearing nothing underneath to entice those with an appetite.

Get yourself to a Gala Ball or similar, dress up to the nines, a tux might be nice, perhaps driving in in an Aston Martin might look the part too. Select wealthy fellow attendees to schmooze and leave with your calling card. Leave them wanting more... I'm guessing this is more the go if you're striving for the millions alluded to last week.

Perhaps an ad in your local rag... but what would you write?  How would you put into words your best marketing strategy? Or would you do it with pictures?

So today as your wild wednesday challenge I'm asking you to tell us your own personal marketing strategy. Or perhaps a suggestion of one for someone else. 

Get a little hot under the collar. See what you can come up with.

Got a tag line?

Getting ready for the start of the week

I've had a busy weekend. It's been a good one. Too much to do to find time to post now though - so here is my thousand words for today.

My first photographic exhibition goes live today - there's no big fanfare, but it's very exciting. At least for me.

One day I'll get more sleep. But not today.

I do... but I don't

The Good things about weddings:

• You get to meet people you haven't seen in ages.
  
• Seeing a couple in love making a commitment to each other.
  

The Bad things about weddings:

• You get stuck with people you haven't seen in ages, for ages.
  
• Sermons about "A man and a woman".
  
• Hours and hours and hours indoors when it's a fab day outside and you want to go swimming.
  
• When people suggest that you get married too.
  
• Catch a garter? Oh puhleeease. 
  
• Terrible DJ's and songs that only grandma, in her wheelchair, wants to dance to.
  
• Speeches by people who started drinking way too many hours ago.
  
• Having to go resuscitate the father of the groom or similar (this one happened to me today).
  
• Wedding gift registries.
  
• Gay guys can't officially get married here in Australia. Or is that a good thing?
  

Today's wedding was great though - even though I did have to work a little. There was no ceremony (that was something they sorted out earlier) it was informal - an afternoon tea, there were kids out & about having fun and no-one minded, and I got chat with people I really wanted to chat to. I missed the speeches while I was doing my thing. And I did manage to go swimming afterwards - 

Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool is OPEN!! 

I'd say bring on summer but at 35 C (95F) today, it's already here!!

Wild Emotion Wednesday

Don't let anything stop you expressing your emotion this wild wednesday.

What price sex?

You're out and about and you bump into someone who likes the essence of you - so much so they offer to pay to have an up close and personal experience with you.

It can be now, it can be later. 

What would you do?

Now before you answer, imagine they offer you a thousand dollars, perhaps more, 10 thousand... a million dollars? Would you categorically say no? If not - at what price would you accept the invitation?

If you chose to have sex without any money involved - it's a complete different story to if there is money exchanging hands. 

But why?

Who really cares? 

Ask a thousand gay men if they'd accept money for sex and what would they say?

Well let's find out - take the poll top right, and see.

Would you make the deal?

Sleep Surplus and Albino Killers

So I finally listened to my own advice, and I slept. I slept a few hours on the couch, I looked at my blog at the Wild Wednesday post and rather than posting again, you got it, I slept. I slept at the hospital, hell I even slept over at some friends',  I did a whole 9 hours worth of sleeping there. In one go. And when you wake up in a luxurious bed in a gourmet apartment with birds singing in the trees and muted sun trickling through the leafy canopy, it really is like being on a tropical holiday. Sleep isn't something I typically do a whole lot of, just ask all my friends and family who routinely get emails sent at 3am. So if there was a sleep deficit, there is now a surplus. I think I can probably go a few months now on this recharge. 

And now it's Saturday night - or technically early Sunday morning. But as far as I'm concerned it's still Saturday until I go to sleep and wake up and then it's Sunday.

And on this Saturday after waking in this tropical holiday, I get up and have hair that looks like I just woke up, and because my hair is quite long now, it's a magnified version of me having just woken up which scares me a little as I catch myself in the huge mirror hanging there, but I also kind of like it. And I pick up 'The Great Gatsby' from the bookshelf because I studied it at school and I enjoyed it yet I can't remember who I most identified with. It kind of fits the environment I'm in right now. I hated the movie because it just wasn't as good as the one I had in my head. On reflection I think the part of the book I remember the best was the graphic description of a character's (Tom Buchanan's)  muscularity. Described more than once. Maybe that's what made that book resonate. Who knows, I was in high school back then and didn't know anything. 

And then someone comes into the room, the book is put down, and before I know it we're off to breakfast. 

Today is the day of our first 'Open House' - if you're not up to speed we're selling up - and a car crash, not us, means we're about 40 minutes late home to do the final touches on our already show home, which means we have enough time to grab the dog, remove a few things that will declutter, and find that the doors the builder fixed yesterday - weren't actually fixed. My finger is on the 'dial' button to said builder but now is perhaps not the time to call. The day is otherwise perfect, sunny, 30 degrees, gentle breeze and makes you want to live by the beach. We hope the people who arrive are intoxicated by this sense. They bloody well should be.

Dinner is prepared for friends including someone who has so many food intolerances you have to cross check the individual ingredients of the ingredients. And it hits the spot, although soon after we discover that something must have not been filtered out and marinated artichoke hearts are under suspicion. 

And then I finally get to the imac to write a post. Half way through I discover that the 'photo booth' application takes xrays. So I take one or two of me and this is what I look like right now. It seems I'm not really that transparent. Can anyone see through me? 

It makes me look like some murderous albino movie character. And today I'm quite happy with that, because tomorrow is a whole new day and maybe it's time to be a little more

Anti-Wild Wednesday

I'm not sure about the rest of the world but I'm thoroughly exhausted. I have been going non stop at everything of late. I have a to-do list that extends for miles and days, and am adding more tasks to it as fast as I cross things off it. I do love it all - but on Tuesday I was developing a tendency to road rage, and a tightening in my chest en route to some of my tasks... too many things - too little time... even though I'd cut a few things off my plans already. 

Today is hence a day for rest. Not Sunday - because it isn't a religious thing in any way. It's an anti- wild wednesday to sleep and laze about in bed, on the couch or wherever it feels best. Alone, with a book , or with a friend so long as it's stress free and rest filled.

I'm going to enjoy this one.