Yesterday’s adventure began with my announcing on FB:
And thanks to all those who sent good wishes as I hit the smartphone as the day went on.
Eventually I was able to announce:
And so ends today’s adventures at Wollongong Hospital as I await the taxi home. Tests were all excellent but there is one more they are booking me for later — I guess a CAT heart scan or something similar.
Cost to me: $0.00!
And thanks for all the good wishes, friends!
Yes, the taxi came and I am back in West Wollongong planning ham cheese and tomato sandwiches on wholemeal… In lieu of lunch. And I did have to pay for the taxi ($12.60)….
On Pride
So again later on and on Facebook last night I posted this news item from Channel 10:
I said and later modified my point…
What a NIGHTMARE for Vladimir Putin! Around 3 hours broadcast on the official publically owned TV Channel here in OZ of celebration of GLBTQI+ Nasties singing and dancing in the most brazen way, leading to Australia becoming a spectacle of vice and corruption in the eyes of invaders like his good self who is so kindly saving the world from such depravity by bombing the odd maternity hospital or school or opera house or private apartment building.
Do I feel shame? No. Will I watch it all and tomorrow night’s Mardi Gras Parade? Not necessarily. I am not hugely in love wiith Kylie Minogue…. But I am bloody glad we CAN watch these events. In peace.
ABC-TV tonight at 7.30. Watching now — that opening — Deborah Cheetham! Wow! And now 9.45 pm I can report that I have watched the whole bloody thing! Extraordinary! As was Kylie of course….
Much later the amazing Norrie — non-binary person extraordinaire from South Sydney — commented:
yes, i too took my disinterest in the singing budgie to flick over to follow the news on the Russian Ukraine War one year in. But Courtney was utterly brilliant, clever and talented as.
Now I will share Deborah Cheetham with you — more in a later post!
Deborah Joy Cheetham AO (born 24 November 1964), is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright. In February 2023 she was appointed a professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Cheetham is a member of the Stolen Generations; she was taken from her mother when she was three weeks old and was raised by a white baptist family. Jimmy Little was her uncle…
Wikipedia
On the whole show I commented:
Yes I am still watching — extraordinary really….. Live and unedited of necessity it nonetheless has had so many first-rate moments, and gets the balance of talk and performance better than most such thngs. Seriously, Australia should be proud of this.
On Putin, Russians and LGBTQIA+
Well, on some Russian friends at least. Denis in Vladivostok did a characteristically brave post — he is still in Russia — about the topic in which he clearly showed that at 23 he is no homophobe, but he also tried to explain why many Russians agree with Putin’s current rants on this. There was (to us) some rather odd stuff about Vikings in his explanation.
I took time to comment.
Since here even in Wollongong right now World Pride is openly being celebrated, and the famous Sydney Mardi Gras Parade is this weekend I find this post very interesting and it is actually very well done.
The first Mardi Gras in Sydney in 1978 was in fact a protest about the law discriminating against LGBTI people. I have since met some who were in that protest. Long story, but the law in NSW changed in 1984. Same sex marriage became legal in Australia in 2013 after a plebiscite in which the people voted 7,817,247 (61.6%) “Yes” responses and 4,873,987 (38.4%) “No” responses. Parliament then passed a law allowing same-sex marriage. I have seen many Mardi Gras Parades in Sydney between 1986 and 2010. They really are peaceful.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky would have loved them!
“In 2013, the Australian Defence Force approved its members to march in uniform at the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. A decade later, 60 ADF personnel and Defence public servants will march down Oxford Street in full ceremonials as part of the parade this month.” That is from the official ADF site. Police also march. This year Anthony Albanese will become the first sitting Prime Minister to march in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, but not the first to attend it. The country has not fallen apart.
I am happy to report that Denis has since hearted my comment!
I also know he now knows where my blog is and has visited so just in case:
And a view from Florida!
The day Roman the Russian strayed into a Pride March!
Three years ago…
Neil's Commonplace Book 
I hope you stay well, Neil. You’ve got me addicted for some time now to many of these Russian v loggers and I thank you for that. That was hands down the most fun video from Roman I’ve seen. Thanks for sharing it on or around Mardi Gras day.
I guess that was before Roman’s life was turned upside down….