Hallelujah Kenja

In Melbourne on Sunday night, strolling with Katie. We're invited to join in singing the Hallelujah Chorus by a lady standing on the street.

I enjoy singing and have contemplated rejoining a choir this year. It would be fun to have a vocal blast - it'll start in 1/2 hour I'm told.

The lady handed us a flyer and I read it while we have a coffee.

Kenja Communications are the ones running the night ..... 'Who are they?' we ask each other.

Katie Googles them, gasps and appears worried. She shows me - defined by cult, court case, Cornelia Rau, sexual misconduct, witch-hunt ..... Ummm, thanks, but no thanks!!

We stroll back again, the lady is busy arguing with a policeman about a car parked in a No Standing zone at their doorway, she doesn't notice us as we breeze by.

I'm humming the Hallelujah chorus as we stroll along, happy together in this beautiful and comfortable city.

All jokes aren't jokes -

In response to a FB repost by the enlightening Cathoel Jorss:

http://oforganon.tumblr.com/post/11150747104/to-all-those-men-who-dont-think-the-rape-jokes-are-a

I spent nearly two hours today sitting near the corner of Bourke and William Sts - reading, watching fashion and style, sunning myself like a lizard, observing a crank of cycle couriers coming and going at the gabble of their radios. It was really enjoyable.

How many of those people who were passing by, sitting near me, making eye contact, avoiding eye contact, would threaten or hurt me in different circumstances? I feel safe in the open, in daylight.

I'm male, I'm tall but as I age I feel more and more vulnerable. I have never felt, imagined or experienced the violently personal invasiveness of rape other than as represented in shockingly chilling disgust in some films. How can you joke about that, how could you laugh in response??

When I was much younger I was always uncomfortable with 'boys talk' and crass jokes but didn't have the guts to acknowledge that in front of my peer group.

Through my career as a schoolteacher I became confident in expressing myself and now, over 30 years later, I have no difficulty in conveying my disgust to people who demean, abuse or bully others, male or female.

But I'm worried, and Katie (forever my best friend) is scared, that one day the teen on the train who's swearing and abusing his girlfriend on the phone will turn on me with a knife, that the bombast at the barbecue will king hit me or the drunk in the row in front will 'glass' us both.

I'm prepared to continue to risk it.

The strings of Christmas

It's bustling in Melbourne, even for a Sunday afternoon. A caterpillar of families admiring Myer's Christmas windows, buskers performing- it's fun watching the world of excitement , it's so foreign to me now.
I'm suddenly snatched from my reverie by a man, younger than me, a neatly trimmed red beard. He's talking to me, fast and insistently, asking for money. 'You're hungry?', I ask in response to his request, 'Come with me and I'll buy you a meal at the Ghurka Institute, all you can eat, it's vegetarian' ..... 'No, no, no' he says, 'Accommodation, give me cash so I can sleep here in the city tonight, I don't have a job at the moment'.
'Ok', I say, 'How does this sound, I'll do this for you - I'll buy you a feed, I'll buy you a ticket to Mildura and call the labour exchange, they'll have a bed for you and you'll start work tomorrow picking fruit'.
He's aghast, irate, and tells me that 'Karma will get me', he points at Katie saying 'She'll have a rotten Christmas, you're mean and selfish, karma will get you'.
I sigh and begin to move off. He grabs my arm. I look down at his hand and he removes it.
'You cannot know how happy my wife is, how much she's been through, how often she thinks about life without me and how your call is far too late - it's far too late for your karma to 'get me'!'

Mo-vember 2011

I've decided to have a crack at Movember this year, to support men's health - in particular depression and prostate cancer.

I'll register today and then start chasing sponsorship from a few friends. Here I am on 2nd Nov with the beginnings of the grey-ghost on my lip.

Check for updates here.

Hey Ho, Hey Ho, I'm growing a Mo, for money to research some illness in men;
I know, I know, it may well be slow, and at the end of the month I'll be shaving again.

But in between times, I'll be chasing you round,
To get your donations, to put to the cause,
And if you choose not to, if you don't make a sound,
I damn well report you to old Santa Claus.

So get out your purses, your wallets and tins,
Donate your sweet hearts out, I'll forgive all your sins,
Watch my whiskers grow longer, in step with your dollars,
'Til the month is well finished and my mo's at my collars!!

(Tish-Boom!!!, hehe, Copyright Morrie, 2011)

PLEASE DONATE AT:
https://www.movember.com/au/donate/your-details/member_id/2095522/

Pasta, passion & a great picture too!

I went with Katie to Lucini's in the Old Macaroni Factory at Hepburn Springs for the opening evening of this year's Hepburn Swiss-Italian Festa.

Sitting next to a crackling log fire, and under stunning 130 year old frescoes, we had a homely and delicious pasta meal prepared by Maria Viola and her sons. This was then followed by the singing of Italian love songs and a screening of Love's Brother, a delightful production filmed at their restaurant in 2003.

Maria's great grandfather came to Australia and built the macaroni factory during the gold-rush in the 1860's and last night we also had some of her 18(?) grandchildren helping out - a wonderful testament to the ongoing tradition of family, inherent in Australian-Italian society.

We were home late (1am?) after groping our way through the fog across the highlands back to Ballarat. I can hardly move today - always a sign of a great night out!! :-)

Sunshine on toast

The sun warms our little blue planet, is responsible for many of our energy sources and drives our weather systems. As rain plop, plop, plopped from a grey sky in Ballarat today, I was thinking of the bees who made the honey I had at breakfast. Mr Speechly's bees' orange blossom honey is pure sunshine on toast!

A little test

To see if I can Blog from my phone. I'll even attach a pic and see if that works too.

Feel like I'm becoming quite the techno-man! What came first .... Hehe

My apologies for the naughty chicken-word, which roughly translates as "Cluck Pete, what happened to you?" (in chook the F and Cl always transpose).

Day 1: For want of a more exciting title!

I'm sitting here with Graham learning to build a blog.

Where am I? At BEST in Ballarat and (ha!) it's raining .

Cick here to find out about BEST