Recent movies

The flight to and from Europe allowed me to catch up on a whole bunch of movies that I had wanted to see (but never managed the time).

The shit-talker

I hate people who talk shit. I hate even more people who talk shit with authority. Take the young man who shared my flight from Frankfurt to Melbourne. Mid 20s. Spent a year in Germany. Coming back home. Still a year to go on his VCE. Talkative. I don't know his name but, for the sake of convenience, let's call him Shit talker (ST for short).

At the gate in Frankfurt, whilst we were waiting to board, ST struck up conversation with fellow passengers. He tells them that he went to Galipoli for Anzac Day in January. One of the fellow passenger looked perplexed and asks "Do you mean Australia Day?" The shit talker replied, "No. Australia Day is in February"....Cringe.

It gets worse. ST decides to talk about politics. Apparently, "Howard was the best prime minister we've ever had" (probably because ST isn't old enough to remember any other). On the topic of immigration, ST turns to an American guy and says "There are no Australians left in Melbourne. There is a suburb called Springvale. It's full of Vietnamese people and none of them speak any english. I went there once and I was the only Aussie in the whole street."... Double cringe.

Back from Berlin

I'm back from my whirlwind trip. Had a great time but I don't think I ever got into the European time zone (had a hard time sleeping and was waking up at weird hours of the morning). The conference went well. The food was fantastic...the Germans seem to really love their pork and cabbage. Hunted down and devoured a bratwurst (and a currywurst too).

Berlin was beautiful, just as friends had said. Lots of museums. Architecture was outstanding. Spent a whole day wandering the streets and taking in the city.

Notable trip highlights include:

1. Listening to the flight attendants bitching about vegetarian passengers and exchanging tips on how best to keep unwanted leg and armpit hair at bay.
2. Eating a hotdog purchased from a Christmas night market at Unter den Linden.
3. Picking out postcards from a street side vendor.
4. Shopping at H & M (bought a hat and scarf for me and a shirt for Nathan).
5. Checking out quirky carboard farm animals and dinosaurs at an exhibition called Shitrospective at Contemporary Fine Arts near the museum island (see installation view below).
6. Meandering through the Jewish memorial.
7. Devouring the best breakfast ever on an airplane (sausage, scrambled eggs, hashbrown, mushroom, tomato).

At last...

The exit row seats for my trip have finally been secured. Am now pretty much ready to go. Yay!

Bratwurst in Berlin

Less than a week to go. My talk for the conference is pretty much done. I'll practise it today and try and get some feedback.

It's going to be a ridiculously short trip. Fly out Saturday. Arrive Sunday (German time). Conference is from Monday til Wednesday. I have half a day to explore the city on Thursday (and look for a bratwurst hotdog stand). Then it's homeward bound on Thursday night. By the following Saturday, I would have gone half way around the world and back.

Seat pitch

As far as long-haul travel is concerned, I am one of those people who always turns up extra early at the airport in an attempt to secure an exit row seat. At 197 cm tall (yes, I know I am a freak), such a seat is a necessity rather than a luxury.

Qantas has started charging for the privilege of this extra leg room. That's $160 bucks a pop each way from Australia to Europe.

In truth, I don't mind paying if it lessens the anxiety of potentially missing out (especially if it's actually my work that pays). However, the whole process has turned out to be quite tedious. First up, it doesn't seem like travel agents, or indeed Qantas staff, have much of a clue as to how the whole process works (judging by the long, awkward silences and the 'umms' and 'ahhs'). Second, if you do manage to find out how it all works (and eventually, I did), it would appear that (1) booking an exit seat online involves the use of a fickle online booking system which may not work, and (2) booking over the phone is only good during regular business hours. On top of it all, no one can actually access the system until one week before departure (that's next Saturday for me).

So...in the long run, I probably haven't really lessened the anxiety after all...just moved it forward by about a week before departure. The question remains: will I get my exit row seats to Germany or not? I guess I'll know tomorrow (if the computer system works) or Monday (if I have to call the 1300 number).

As a postscript, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article today bitching about airlines charging extra costs onto the price of the ticket. One of the things they discussed was, of course, Qantas' decision to charge for exit row seats.

Man on train...

...pacing back and forth, moving between carriages. Occassionally his head jerks back and forth involuntarily. I wonder what's his story.

Different version of the same event

A few weeks ago, Nate and I went to the Greyhound and met up with one of his mates who is a regular there. We later heard that he had been bashed when he left the nightclub.

Anyhoo.I was speaking to one of my students today who works at the nightclub as a barman and he tells me that, contrary to what they had also been told, Nate's friend wasn't bashed after all.... He actually fell over and hurt himself when he was in a drunken stupor. I guess being set upon by a couple of thugs sounds a lot more impressive than falling over and breaking your own nose.

Art for art's sake

I spent my morning marking exams in a coffee shop in the city yesterday. After I was done, I went for lunch in Chinatown before catching a tram out to Richmond to pick up the painting I had bought a couple of weeks ago.

Nate hadn't previously seen the painting and his reaction, upon viewing the canvas, was one of surprise and utter disbelief manifested, rather irritatingly, in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Nate (between bouts of laughter): "Jesus Christ. I could have painted that."
Me: "That's not the point. Look at the colours and the brush strokes."
Nate (still laughing): "It's shit"

By now, I felt like I was the National Gallery of Australia in the 1970s, just after it had bought Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles for a cool $1.3 million. Like Nathan, the Australian public just didn't get it. But look at the value of Blue poles now! It's worth hundreds of millions. Nathan found my over-the-top anology most amusing. So, feeling defeated, I crawled off to bed.

The ultimate sea urchin experience

Sea urchins are spiky echinoderms that creep around on the seafloor on tiny, retractable tube feet. Unfortunately for them, they are also very tasty.

Took my dad and one of my sisters to Shoya on saturday night. They had the degustation; I opted for sushi.

Being the greedy pig that I am, I also ordered a side of 'uni', or sea urchin roe. The delicate slivers of yummy softness were presented inside the halved, spiky exoskeleton of an urchin that sat on top a leaf perched on a block of ice. It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. The roe was soft and sweet and delicious....Heaven from a bottom feeder.

The health check up

Had to go to the doctor yesterday to get a health check before my trip to Berlin (a condition of international work travel). Was hoping to get all my immunisations in the one hit but, of course, it is not such a simple process...I was going to need blood tests, another appointment with the nurse blah blah blah. On top of it all, I hadn't realised (until I was standing in front of the receptionist) that my medicare card had expired. Sigh. It was one of those days.

The woman with the bags

I was waiting at the train station yesterday afternoon minding my own business when a woman approaches the bench where I am sitting and asks me for help. I look up and notice she has three large bags next to her on the platform. She explained that some guy at the previous station had been putting his bags onto the train when the door suddenly closed, shutting out the bags' owner and stranding him at the previous station. Apparently, as the train was leaving, the woman shouted to the man through the glass doors to tell him to meet her at the next station (i.e. mine) but, after two trains had come and gone, she was starting to panic. I helped her with the bags onto the next city bound train. She needed to get off at the next station. I told her to speak to the customer services people where she was getting off. I helped her get the bags off the train. I felt bad for the lady (who was obviously trying to do the right thing herself) but I'm not sure what more I could have done to help...it was late and I needed to get home.

The email that made me smile

It hasn't been a very good start to the week. The ARC, Australia's national competitive research scheme, released their list of successful grant applicants on Monday. Unfortunately, neither of the research proposals I submitted for consideration got funded.

My disappointment, however, was tempered somewhat by an email from a colleague from Finland who will be visiting Melbourne in the new year. I offered for my friend and her youngish daughter to stay at my place. She emailed me today to tell me that she had told her daughter that I am living with a man. The daughter and I have interacted in the past (when I was working in Finland) and she remarked to her mother that I 'seem so normal' (I guess even kids have stereotypes). Still, my colleague told me that her daughter was very accepting in the knowledge that her mum won't be getting any attention from me and Nathan when they come to stay.

The surprisingly pleasant weekend

I must admit that I had pretty much written off this weekend. It's honours thesis deadline for one of my students and I thought I'd be stuck at home all weekend correcting drafts before the due date on Monday. Fortunately, the student sent me a draft on Friday night which I proceeded to edit that evening (and again on Saturday morning) and that was that. Finished! The rest of the weekend pretty much still ahead of me.

I decided to reward myself with a visit to a gallery in Richmond to see an exhibition of aboriginal art. I had gone to the same gallery a couple of weeks ago with Nathan where we shown the works sitting at the back. The spunky chick who worked at the gallery showed us two paintings that had already been reserved for the National Gallery of Victoria. One was a huge collaborative work comprising multicoloured circles. Another was a smaller, more abstract piece with paint smeared over the canvas in blocks of rich plum and straw yellow. Most of the rest of the paintings were rather average. Some looked like crap.

Anyhoo...on my return visit, the exhibition was up. The spunky chick had hung all the paintings and did an amazing job grouping the pieces together that even the crap ones looked absolutely superb. She tells me that the NGV had decided not to take the smaller canvas because they already had some good works by that artist in the collection. After much deliberation, I decided to buy the painting for myself.

Evening was spent with friends of Nathan's at a vietnamese restaurant that wasn't Minh Minh's. This was most unexpected as it seems that Minh Minh's had been THE venue of choice everytime we go out with these people. The food at the new place was good but very westernised.The dinner was a birthday celebration for the ex of one of Nathan's friend, Ad. The ex is a lovely man...italian, beautiful and a really decent guy (and I suspect most of us actually like him more than Ad). Still, all the people at the dinner were friends of Ad. This I found a little odd. Either the ex has no other friends of his own or the birthday was really just an excuse for Ad to get together with his friends. Regardless, with the exception of Nathan's singing (they had a karaoke), I had a really great time. And no, I didn't kiss the birthday boy.

Newtown

Been chasing reptiles in Newtown in Sydney the last couple of days. The collecting site is an old cemetery just off King Street. At first, it felt a little disconcerting clambering over old graves and flipping over broken tomb stones to get at the lizards but by day 3, we had become quite accomplished at grabbing lizards (whilst avoiding disused syringes). It's amazing how many people use the cemetery, either as a quiet place to sit and read or to walk their dogs.

Just got back to the motel with our quota of lizards. Reptiles are all happily feasting on baby crickets (purchased from the petshop at the Broadway Shopping Centre). Lizard catchers are happily resting up after three days of intensive fieldwork.

Daylesford

Nate and I took a couple of days off work and headed up to Daylesford with some interstate friends. We stayed at a lovely B&B owned by a couple who decided on a seachange and had purchased the building on a whim after falling in love withit during a weekend visit nine years earlier. The building has since been lovingly restored. By far the highlight was the fireplace in the reading room which was a welcomed retreat after a wet and cold drive up from Melbourne. During a brief break in the weather, we decided to leave the warmth of the reading room and ventured outside for a stroll around the main streets. Among the purchases during our foray into town was a gollywog from an antique store (whom we later decided to name "Bob"). In the evening, we took a short drive to the Lakehouse, a restaurant that was highly recommended by colleagues back in Melbourne. We were not disappointed. The food was amazing.

The next day, we went for a stroll up to the Botanic Gardens and then took a drive to nearby Hepburn Springs. A brief visit to the Convant gallery was followed by a drive up to Castlemaine for lunch, afternoon tea in Bendigo and an evening stroll on Mount Macedon before getting back into Melbourne in time for dinner last night at my favourite restaurant, The Waterfront (try the snapper curry...it is absolutely amazing).

Chasing reptiles in Sydney over the next few days around Newtown for work. Should be fun!

The art gallery...

Had a rather busy Saturday yesterday. It began with brunch with some friends at a restaurant by the banks of the Yarra and ended with a night out at the Greyhound watching some weird-ass tropical-themed drag finale.

Perhaps the thing that stuck out the most for me yesterday came from a visit to an aboriginal art gallery that is about to put on a show of artworks from one of my favourite (and also one of the newest) art communities located in Western Australia. The NGV had bought half a dozen paintings from their first sellout show a couple of years ago (some of which are currently hanging on the walls at the Ian Potter Centre at Fed Square). It will be a much anticipated show. Several of the paintings have already been purchased even before the show began (including two pieces for the NGV). What struck me, however, was the quality of the works. Some were beautiful but there were also some that were real shockers. Yes, I know...art is subjective and what may be a shocker to one person may be seen as a masterpiece to another but some of the pieces were of genuinely poor quality (even the person working at the gallery was amazed that they had made their way out of the studio). I guess even the best artists occassionally produce crap. However, whereas most non-indigenous artists would be self-selecting, Aboriginal artists may not necessarily share (or understand) the aesthetics of hungry art consumers and, in the aboriginal art world, there is a greater role for the mangers of the community art centres to impose quality control and to ensure only the 'best' works go out to market. The pressure and demand for aboriginal works, however, is intense and poor quality works routinely appear for sale. At the end of the day, I think it does a huge injustic to the artists.

The week after the conference

It's been a week of playing 'catch-ups' at work after the conference in Canberra. It's amazing how much stuff can acculmulate on your desk when you're away. This was also the week that two of my friends decided to come to Melbourne for a last minute sojourn before packing up their belongings (including two dogs) and moving to San Francisco. I will miss them both very much. D and I have been friends since the 4th grade. We hung out a lot and he knew my colleagues very well (even though he was working as a computer games animator andwas therefore outside of science). Funnily, back in the closeted days before he knew I was gay, he used to tell everyone that I was his 'heterosexual life partner'. Thinking back, his comment still makes me chuckle....the poor guy.

Beautiful Canberra (and a bollywood twist)

My visit to Canberra is almost coming to an end. And what a fantastic visit it has been. I caught up with a bunch of friends and colleagues at the conference last week, including several whom I haven't seen for many, many years.

Took some colleagues sight seeing on Friday which saw us visiting most of Canberra's major tourist offerings (old and new parliament house, the National Gallery, High Court and War memorial).

Nathan came up from Melbourne yesterday to join me at the wedding celebration of one of my oldest friends (whom I've known since primary school). It was a backyard affair, celebrated under a huge marquis with giant japanese laterns and cherry blossoms (pilfered from the streets of suburban Canberra the night before). The bride was so beautiful and my friend looked absolutely dashing in his suit. The ceremony was one of the best I have ever attended. The speeches were amazing, sad at times, but also funny and touching. The bride even quoted Shakira.

After the wedding, Nate and I caught up with some other friends in town for yummy indian food at the Blu Ginger. I also had indian food the night before at a restaurant called Bollywood Dimensions which is owned by a Bollwood dance instructor. The restaurant had a TV playing bollywood video clips. The people in those clips always seem so happy. I've always wondered what they might be singing about. Perhaps this...

Ooops...

The conference ended today but not before I managed to embarrass myself by going into the women's toilets by accident. You'd think the lack of a urinal would have been a give away. No. I only realized I was in the wrong toilet when I was mid way through my piss and noticed that there was a sanitary napkin disposal unit next to the toilet bowl. It still took me a split second before reality dawned on me. Fortunately, no one walked in.

Myer catalogue

Hmmm...I wonder if this guy in the Myer catalogue is the same guy who works as a back up dancer at the Greyhound on a Saturday night?

Am loving...

...the political works of artist, Adam Hill.

My next work purchase...

After a rather hectic week trying to get all my shit together for the trip to Canberra, it was nice to receive a letter in my pigeon hole telling my that my promotions application has been successful. So...starting from January next year, I'll have the word 'senior' added to my title.

Hmmm....I wonder if I should use the salary increase to buy some new leather elbow patches? Every academic should own at least one jacket with leather elbow patches right?

...or, better still, maybe I can get a new pair of nerdy scientist glasses. This pair looks pretty intellectual dont you think?

...Ohhh...what about a new lab coat? I don't actually own a lab coat. A lab coat adds instant credibility and will make me look 'learned'. Hmmm...lab coat...

Back in Canberra

Am back in Canberra for a week or so to attend a work conference and a wedding. Had to make my flight booking through the work travel provider who seem to go out of their way to make the reservation experience as expensive, time consuming and frustrating as possible. Neither my reservation number nor my name was registering at the Virgin Blue checkin kiosk. I was already frustrated by the same travel provider earlier this week trying to book flights for Berlin (they gave me a quote to Frankfurt instead). I did, eventually, manage to get myself checked in and after a harrowing descent into Canberra (I sat next to a nervous passenger), I was met by family and was wisked away for lunch.

The timing of the conference and the wedding this week was sheer coincidence ...a close friend announced his wedding plans at very short notice (hmmm...I wonder if they are 'with child'). The ceremony is to take place at their house. The dress code is 'lounge suit/garden party'. Not sure what 'garden party' means and, unfortunately for me, the suit I bought in Europe a few years ago is a bit tight after a winter spent wallowing in excessive feast (damn those carbs, hearty soups, and spicy curries). I doubt I'll be able to whip myself back into shape before the wedding, especially with plans to catch up with friends and colleagues almost every night I am here. Sigh.

Being the social butterfly that I am, I've already caught up with two other friends since my arrival early this morning. I met up with two of my best friends, Dan and Amy, for a coffee at the National Gallery. The brutalist building is undergoing major rennovations at the moment. It's all a bit of a mess. I found out that Dan and Amy are soon to leave Canberra to head over to the US where Dan will be working as a computer games animator. Don't think Amy (originally from the US) is terribly keen to head back across the Pacific but, alas, she is playing the supportive wife. I'll miss them dearly. Both were hung over from Dan's farewell drinks last night so, after only a brief catch up, I told them to go home for a siesta. After parting ways, I went around for a quick look at the national collection. I really liked this new acquisition in the Asian section...


Apart from catching up today with Dan and Amy, I think I'm going to try to keep a relatively low profile so I can chill out before the conference and spend more time with the family.

Back to the Future

I just received a piece of mail with these unusual stamps stuck to the front. Australia withdrew 1 and 2 cent coins in the early 90s. These stamps were first issued in 1973!

Blog reflections

I stumbled across a blog today written by someone on the otherside of the world, a faceless person who, like some many other bloggers, writes about her life and vents about the things that frustrate her. As I was reading the blog, it soon became apparent that I knew a lot more about her than what the blogger had intended the rest of the world to know. The boss she is bitching about is someone I have met. The friends I know probably know her too. Despite being in the public domain, I do not intend to tell these mutual acquaintances. Somehow I feel that it would be a betrayal of privacy.

A different perspective

A friend from Sydney was in town and she introduced Nathan and me to one of her dearest friends, a remarkable 66 year old gay man who lived in Fitzroy. He invited us to his home yesterday afternoon for tea. I had such a great time that I ended up dragging Nathan over again today. R is a man who is immensely proud of his two sons. One is an architect; the other owns his own business. R shows us old photos and recounts early memories of his two boys. When he is speaking about his kids, R's eyes sparkle. Unfortunately, these memories are all that he has at the moment because R's sons are no longer speaking to their father. In fact, they haven't spoken to him for 14 years; not since R came out to his family. What a tragedy.

Worst brunch ever

Caught up with a friend for brunch on Sunday. We ended up walking over to Waterfront City at the northern end of the Docklands to an italian place. Given that I had another lunch gathering at 1.30pm, I decided to be a lesser pig than usual and settled on the banana porridge (instead of my usual greasy fry up). Big mistake. I've never ordered porridge at a restaurant before but I had expected it to be rich and creamy and gooey and delicious. The porridge I ended up getting was none of these things. It was dry, and coarse and sickly sweet (much like some people I know). It looked like it would be better utilised as a facial mask than something you should attempt to swallow for nutritional gain. Next time, I'm going to stick with the greasier breakfast options.

On the wish list...

Nate and I went for lunch on Victoria Street on Saturday. We checked out an aquarium store that had a tank full of these tiny red shrimp. Now Nathan wants to get some as pets (he spent the whole weekend coming up with names for the shrimp).

Overheard...

Hospital maternity ward, room 4A. Angry man says to the hysterical woman who had just given birth to his baby: "I'd better be getting my fucking share of the baby bonus". Very sad.

The smouldering trailer

I was walking back from lunch and saw a woman get out of her car at the traffic lights. At first, I thought it was an impending road rage incident about to unfurl. However, it soon became apparent that the woman was actually telling the driver of the car in front that her trailer was on fire. The good samaritan even had a bottle of water handy to douse the flames.

Auction

There was an oceanic art auction last night in Sydney. I submitted a form for a telephone bid on several of the lots. I've never been to an art auction before so the idea of placing bids over the phone made the whole experience doubly daunting. The way it works seems straightforward enough. Someone from the auction house rings you up a few lots ahead of the items that you are interested in. The catch is that you have to communicate your bid to the sales rep whilst, at the same time, trying to battle the bad phone reception and the voice of the auctioneer in the background. The pace is also scarily fast...the auctioneer gets through approximately 80-100 lots per hour. The sound made by the fall of the hammer is pretty unequivocal though. So...for my first auction experience, I ended up with this:

...and this...

Perfect breakfast pairing

This

and this

at Amici Bakery in Prahran. The so called "Italian breakfast".

Extended weekend

Took a couple of days off work to recharge the batteries (and to use up some of my annual leave).

The city on a weekday is a very different beast. I walk behind men in dark suits, past police officers being trained to direct traffic. I check out a few book shops at lunch time, stroll through the Carlton Gardens in the afternoon, and go for a wander up and down Brunswick Street. Relaxing.

The September Issue

Today's indulgence...

Orchids, Thai food and the lebanese lesbian

Went to an orchid show with my friend, T, yesterday. It was all the way down in Keysborough and it took us over an hour to get there. Touted as the largest orchid show in Australia, the venue was a large hall divided equally between plant vendors on one side and the show proper on the other. We started at the sales section where I had to exercise extreme restraint with my wallet. I only bought three plants which, given my obsessive compulsive nature (and past fanaticism with orchids) was quite a feat. One of the purchases was an exotic-looking, mottle-leaved plant from the limestone cliffs of Yunnan in China which has a large flower that looks like an inflated green bubblegum and smells like raspberries. As an apartment-dweller, I deliberately avoided the purchase of another intriguing species which, when in flower, was meant to smell like "a herd of dead elephants".

I caught up with some other friends in the evening for Thai food. Z and S are getting married next month and had come down from the south coast of NSW with Z's American parents. Z's mum is a delightfully warm hippy who grows pot for a living back in California. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Z's dad who is a champion poker player and had decided to visit the Casino instead of joining us for dinner (but if Z's mum is anything to go by, Z's dad would be quite an interesting person also).

We caught the train up to Anstey Station and made a first stop at the huge converted warehouse where Z used to live before he moved to NSW. There, I got to see the completed dome that I had started building with Z and his friends last year (which eventually turned into Z's bed room). The warehouse looked amazing and had been completely transformed since my first visit. It is occupied by a bunch of arty types...graphic designers, silk-screen printers and the like. The kitchen and dining area was beautifully wall-papered on the inside with a huge black and white image of a desert island on one side and an understorey rainforest scene on another. An intricate black stencil covered the painted yellow floor. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating a beautiful old wooden table set with candles and potted palms and philodendrons. After some snacks (strawberries, dark chocolate and cocao beans), we ventured onto Sydney road and made our way to another large cavernous space, Warwick Thai Restaurant, where we were served the most generous-sized meals I have ever eaten (at ridiculously low prices).

After dinner, I bid farewell to the group and hopped onto a tram to get back to Flinders Street. I ended up sitting next to a middle eastern couple who were speaking so loud that it was impossible not to eavesdrop on their conversation. The girl, it turns out, is a lesbian and the two of them were off to go clubbing at Crown. The girl, who had long, dark hair, was asking the guy whether she could pull off the butch lesbian look. Her friend insisted that she would not get away with having too short hair because it would make her nose look even bigger than it already was. "Shut up!," the lesbian retorts (in her woggy-aussie accent), "You can talk. What about your fuckin' nose". I bite my lip hard and try not to laugh, for the lesbian was right. Her travelling companion had the most protrusive nose I have ever seen on a face.

The tram makes it final stop at Elizabeth Street. The man asks me how long it would take to get to Crown. I tell them it's a short walk. I then turn to the girl and tell her to ask the guy to take her to The Glass House instead. "No fucking way", the man quips, "That place is so gay." I smile, wish them a good night, and make my way across the street.

The tackle shop

We have some of the worst designed toilets here in my building. Due to inappropriate placement of mirrors at the wash basin, it is virtually impossible not to catch a view of a penis if you ever happen to walk into the loo when there is someone already standing at the urinal.

Il Gambero no more

I was perusing The Age website earlier and saw a headline about a fire destroying a Lygon Street landmark. The header was ominous. It read "Late-night crowd watches as blaze destroys iconic restaurant". Alas, the iconic restaurant happened to also be one of my favourites: Il Gambero.

Il Gambero holds a special place in my heart. My first introduction to italian food on Lygon Street was at Il Gambero's and I shared the experience with one of my closest friends, Pete, who was visiting from the US. This is the very first meal I ever ate there.



Il Gambero is the restaurant I always take visitors... I love going there because there are no aggressive waiters trying to solicit customers from the street (unlike some of the other restaurants nearby). The restaurant does a fabulous grilled whole flounder and, much to Nathan's delight, you can even earn Qantas frequent flyer points there!

I guess they will eventually rebuild but the thing I am going to miss the most is the giant stuffed fish that hung over the kitchen counter.

Life lesson

I learnt an important lesson last night...Cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts are potent vegetables in their own right but combining them in a meal is just asking for it. The consequences of last night's dinner were near lethal. Nathan and I almost asphyxiated in the night.

Wedding gowns, the ancestral spirit, and pork rolls

Mum and one of my sisters are in town. Sis is getting married next year in Melbourne and was busy over the weekend shopping around for her wedding gown and looking into possible venues for the wedding reception. I made the mistake of meeting up with them on Friday after work for a wedding gown appointment in the city. Boring!!! I didn't know how long it would take (the answer is 'very') and I didn't want to stray too far so I found myself sitting on the steps of the GPO reading the MX newspaper and gawping at people as they walked along Elizabeth Street for an hour and a half.

I was a lot wiser on Saturday and decided to leave the chaperoning duties to the future-brother-in law. I ended up at an auction preview of early aboriginal and oceanic art in South Yarra. The auction is going to be held in Sydney in a couple of weeks and I am considering putting in a telephone bid on the night for a couple of pieces (one of which is a rather well endowed image of an ancestral spirit carving from PNG). From there, I made my way to a gallery in Richmond where I ended up chatting to the young gallery manager who is refreshingly unpretentious, brutally honest ("I think the painting is shit"), and in the midst of separating from her partner. I was intending to only go into the gallery for a few minutes but ended up staying two hours!

Saturday evening was another Shoya degustation experience (by years end, I would have gone there no less than four times!). The price of the degustation is obscene but I enjoyed my first exoperience so much, I feel like I need to share it with as many people as possible. Thereafter, Nate and I bought the family up to the Sofitel for coffee and a view of the city skyline from their rather breath-taking toilets (if you haven't been, you have to check it out).

Sunday was a miserable day in Melbourne...wet and windy. I went with Nate to the Swinburne Uni open day then, after lunch, took mum and Nate to see the well-endowed ancestral spirit (I needed a second and third opinion). Mum thought it was ugly. Nate loved it.

Today I took the day off. Nate wasn't scheduled to start work until the arvo so we took mum to Footscray for spicy beef noodle soup (bun bo hue), followed by a visit to Williamstown and, finally, pork rolls in Richmond (as you do).

I think I'm re-invigorated and ready to get back to work tomorrow.

15 minutes of fame

The article in the London Times was published a day after the interview. Nice article but the journo managed to misspell my name. The research was also picked up by the ABC and has since spread through news services in Asia and Africa.

London calling

I was just about to settle into the couch to watch disgruntled passengers bitch and whine on the new reality program 'Air Ways' when my mobile started ringing. God dammit. I assumed that the caller (who registered as a private number) was Nathan ringing up from work (he should know better), but the voice on the other end of the line was definitely a young female with a clear British accent. It turned out to be a journo from The Times newspaper wanting to speak to me about a research paper due to come out today on female mate preferences in fish. The first thing I told her was that I was in my pyjamas which, in hindsight, was a rather odd thing to say to someone you don't really know (I hope she doesn't try to weave that into her article).

Following the somewhat awkward introductions, I started giving the journalist a mini lecture on Charles Darwin, evolution and sexual selection. She seemed interested (or, at the very least, was good at feining interest) but inevitably she did what all good journalists would do and asks a most predictable question: "So...what can your research tell us about humans?". Aha! It always has to come back to humans. Channeling another reality TV programme, I reply, "Timeless beauty is a myth". Streams of verbage then spewed forth from my mouth, which will no doubt provide plenty of opportunity for embarrasing misquotations and make me come across as a complete weirdo scientist who sits around in his PJs watching bad reality TV when he is not researching sex.

St Kilda and the homoerotic portrait

The weather here in Melbourne has been really crappy over the past few weeks so Nate and I decided to make the best of a break in the weather on Saturday with a little outing to St Kilda. We started off with a nice lunch at Beachcombers, a seafood restaurant near the St Kilda pier. Observing the waiters at the restaurant made me wonder about their staffing policy. Don't get me wrong, the service was excellent but it did seem that the restaurant only hired overseas students/travellers as waiters. Are they cheaper?

After polishing off our fisherman's baskets, we wandered along Acland Street and made our way to one of my favourite second hand furniture shops aptly named, "The Bitch is Back" followed by a stop over at a nearby gallery that was holding an exhibition of homoerotic paintings. I include one of the (tamer) images below and leave the art crtique to the readers of the blog.

I must admit that I thought this one was quite nice. Cheekily, I turned to Nate and suggested we should get it. Nate recoiled and threatened to leave me if I ever bought something like that home (I guess Nate was never much into bears). I smiled. Nate and I were both a little bemused to see that one of the most obscene of the canvases - a naked guy with a bright yellow (erect) penis - had already been sold. I wonder what sort of a collector would buy such a piece? Surely not someone ultra-conservative. In my mind, I pictured a flamboyant elderly gentleman who lives in an expensive penthouse apartment on St Kilda Road. What do you think?

Berlin bound

I still need to finalize a few things but, assuming all goes well, I should be heading to Berlin later in the year. I've tentatively agreed to present at an international symposium (so much for vowing not to do any international work travel this year).

Shoya...again

I wonder how many times one can sample the Shoya degustation menu before it begins to look decadent and obscene. I took my friend Louise last night. She was visiting from Canberra and loves japanese food. The dessert was more palatable this time...instead of the sea urchin cheesecake, we had a black sesame seed panacotta. Yum!

Surprises

On Saturday, I was contacted out of the blue by a friend who had just arrived in Australia from Europe. She was stuck in Melbourne airport after her flight to Canberra was cancelled due to early morning fog. I suggested we meet up so she caught the bus into town and we had a nice catch up over brekky before her rescheduled flight in the early afternoon. It was a pleasant and unexpected catch up and it really lifted my day. Surprises, however, didn't end there. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Nate receives a surprise of his own in the form of a very cryptic text message at 5am from one of his childhood (supposedly straight) friends. A phone call ensued and, during the course of the conversation, the friend not only revealed a fetish for high heels but, more surprisingly, was on his way home after a debaucherous evening involving a tranny and at least one other guy (the details of which left Nate and I completely and utterly speechless). I guess the friend is probably not straight after all.

The guy who held up the train

A train pulls up at platform 7 at Flinders Street Station this morning. All the passengers get off the train. The screen on the platform monitor says that the train is not taking any passengers. I stand on the platform waiting for the next train that is suppose to take me into work. I see a guy running along the length of the platform, gets to the last carriage and tried to get in. He looks desperate. He then tries to flag down a cleaner to help him get into the carriage. No luck. He then decides to run to the front end of the train and manages to get the train driver out. They walk all the way to the back of the train. The driver opens the carriage door. The guy goes in and emerges with a plastic bag....containing his fu&*ing lunch! He held up the train and caused delays for his lunch! Because of the idiot, our train couldn't get to the platform. We all had to go to another one and I ended up getting to work 15 mins late. Well done Mr. lunch man. Hope you enjoy your sandwhich.

Im hoping it's just a pimple

I'm suppose to be going to an animal research facility on Monday. It's been lined up for weeks now; a very important meeting to discuss use of the facility for my student's research. The monkeys housed at the facility are highly susceptible to cold sores. Apparently, it can be fatal for them. I've never had a cold sore on my lip before so I don't know what one is suppose to look like. But you can imagine my horror this morning when I looked into the bathroom mirror and noticed a small, red bump on my upper lip. Am I being a hypochondriac? Could this really be happening? Surely it's just a pimple? I'm not taking any risks. Straight to the pharmacy for ointment (which has been plastered liberally over the offending bump). I've also got myself a couple of lemons for topical application (apparently an effective home remedy). Crap. Crap. Crap.

The yakitori incident

A young guy is sitting on the train eating yakitori chicken. The train pulls up at Southern Cross Station. I get up to leave. The young guy stops me and asks "Excuse me. Can you put my rubbish in the bin for me?" I say "No". WTF?

Out with the old and in with the new

The city of Melbourne has a new logo. This is the old one which was designed in the 90s. According to our Lord Mayor, it is 'daggy'.

This is the new logo, all $240,000 worth (that's how much it cost to carry out preliminary research on the new brand and the cost of the actual design).

What do you think?

State of design

Melbourne is abuzz with all-things design at the moment as part of the 2009 'State of Design' Festival. Nathan and I were hoping to go on some of the open house tours of historic buildings around the city on Sunday but the queues were unbelievable. Instead, we went to a design market in a derelict building near Docklands, followed by a self-guided tour of some interesting (and easily overlooked) graphical and architectural details in some of the laneways and building facades in the CBD (based on info contained in the festival Guide).

Detective work

I found a VCE visual art diary on the train yesterday belonging to a year 11 student. Unfortunately, apart from her name (which was quite a common one) and her artistic talent, I knew nothing else about the owner. I decided to take the visual diary to the office to do some detective work to see if I could return it to the rightful owner.

I tried facebook first. There were 13 people with the same name. Two were from Melbourne. Unfortunately they were both older ladies and couldn't possibly be the right person. An attempt to search for the owner on myspace was equally disappointing.

I then turned to google. Two school girls matched the name and city. I called the school of the first girl. Yes there was a girl by that name at the school but she was not in year 11. I then tried the school of the next girl, someone who had two years ago won some accolaide for dancing. Bingo! It was her! Am dropping the diary off to lost property tonight and she is going to pick it up tomorrow.

Sex scandal

The Canberra Times on the weekend published yet another article about my former school, this time with accusations that it might have harboured a paedophile ring. I've written before about one of the teachers at the school being convicted for indecent assault but looks like the predatory activities may have been much broader in reach. I was, of course, completely oblivious to it all but it does make me think back on incidents which, although innocent at the time, might have had more sinister undertones (e.g. on year 6 camp when we had to strip down and have quick showers in a makeshift facility in the middle of the bush with the brothers watching us the whole time.)

Sunday Shopping

Guy to friend: This is Target. It's like Myers but for delinquents.

Pho, bimbo and the iraqi

Went to Footscray yesterday morning with Nate to meet a couple of friends. Just three gays and a lesbian out for brunch. One of the friends (here after referred to as 'goldfish guy) arrived at the meeting place carrying a bag of goldfish which we named once we got to the restaurant...Trinny, Suzanna, Steve and Michael Jackson (the one with the white face).

Anyhoo...brunch in Footscray was, of course, pho (vietnamese noodle soup). Nate was most disappointed. Only a week earlier, he had vowed never to eat vietnamese food again (he is definitely not a fan). Fortunately, it was out of my hands because the friends had decided the venue well in advance. So...I ordered a large bowl of special beef combination pho (which, in hindsight, was a tad ambitious), while Nate settled for spring rolls with vermicelli.

After some yummy fresh-out-of-the-oven custard tarts from a nearby bakery and a convoluted trip in search of coffee (we ended up in a huge mall), we got caught up in footy traffic heading back into the city. We abandoned Nathan somewhere on Swan street (he had to go to work) and decided to take a few back roads to get away from all the cars. We made a detour to the goldfish guy's house so he could drop off one of his fish (the other three were apparently destined for a newly constructed pond) before making our way to Brunswick street to meet a friend of the lesbian at Bimbo.

Bimbo...the bar with the giant cupie doll perched on the facade of the building. I know the bar is a bit of an institution, but oh what a dump. It smelt like BO and the interior reminded me of that psychopath's house in Silence of the Lambs (the only thing missing were the moths). The company was most interesting though. The lesbian friend's friend is an Iraqi Assyrian orthodox christian. He is a very handsome guy with a very international look (he could easily pass himself off as south american, continental european, indian or even aboriginal). Most fascinating of all (to me, at least)...he has a pet scorpion.

After drinkies, we dropped goldfish guy at the train station (with his three remaining goldfish) and, somehow, the rest of us (lesbian, iraqi and me) ended up back in Footscray for dinner before coming back to my apt for tea. Definitely NOT a conventional Saturday for me.

Fancy fast food

I think this is a great idea.

Christmas in July

Everybody seems to be doing it now...Christmas in July. I decided to hop on the bandwagon and bought a turkey yesterday. It was a last minute decision when I was sitting on the train on the way back into the city after work ("Hmmm...I think I will roast a turkey for dinner"). This was at 7pm. So...instead of heading straight home, I took a detour to the local Safeway (where I last saw whole turkeys) and bought one on special (today would have been it's use by date). Ok. Back home, I realised that the turkey was going to take two hours to cook. Normally I am a bit of risk taker when it comes to the consumption of poultry but the imminent use-by date on the packaging suggested I should actually take heed of the cooking instructions and cook the hell out of the beast (just in case). I am a terribly impatient cook so while I was waiting for the oven to do its thing, I ended up eating all the side dishes (i.e. vegetables). Eventually, at 9.30pm, I sliced myself a generous portion (it was only a baby turkey) and celebrated Christmas in July while Nate was still at work.

The beautifully mundane

I had such an extraordinarily ordinary weekend. There were no visitors to chaperone, no work to catch up on and nothing that required urgent attention. I cancelled all my social engagements (on the grounds tha I was starting to get a sore throat). I spent Saturday shopping for groceries and contemplating the week's menu. I went for a stroll down Chapel Street, then headed off to Brunswick street to get some flowers for home. I ended up buying kale (a purple ornamental cabbage). Got home, plonked it into the vase and relaxed.

On Sunday, I went to the NGV International on a whim and took home a book on Oceanic art. I decided to have fish for lunch so I hopped onto a city circle tram in the late morning, made my way up to the fishmonger, bought myself a swordfish steak, took the tram down to Elizabeth street just in time to intercept the same city circle tram on Flinders street, which I caught back to the apartment. After lunch, I started making dinner (as you do)...a nice beef vindaloo using beef ribs that required gentle, slow cooking. I cleaned the house, drank chai all afternoon in my pjs and settled onto the couch to read my new book. I feel completely refreshed.

Why I love my job

I had been feeling a bit disillusioned a few months ago about the politics of work in terms of what some of my colleagues will do to advance their careers (and what I hope I can successfully avoid). Last night, I got an unexpected affirmation that vindicated my decisions to concentrate on doing my job to the best of my abilities and leaving the smooching, nest-lining and brown-nosing to others.

The affirmation occcurred at the most unlikely of places...The Greyhound hotel. Nate and I decided to take one of my research collaborators there last night after finding out that he, too, is gay. Anyhoo...we got there early and there was (as expected) a tribute to Michael Jackson being played out on the big screens and monitors in the form of back to back video clips before the start of the drag shows. After watching 'thriller' (which, by the way, is a bad choice considering that Jackson plays a dancing corpse in the clip), I walk up to the bar and order my drinks from a cute bar tender with unusual lip piercings. He gave me my drinks and when I took out my money to pay, he signalled for me to put the cash away. He turned to me and said..."You gave the bast lectures. These are on me."

The visual diary that never was

Was inspired by Evolkween's visual diary and wanted to compile one of my own. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the office over the weekend. So here is the story of my weekend told using other people's pictures.

Saturday
8am: Relaxing with chinese tea freshly made using my bodum teapot.

11am: Lunch at the Grand BBQ in the Target Centre in the city

12pm: Wandering around Gertrude and Smiths Streets with Nathan, checking out galleries, clothes shops and cafes.

2pm: Carrying this back on tram.

6pm: home-made dinner of garlic prawns and rice


Sunday
10am: Brekky - cheese plate

11am: Sifting through other people's junk at the Camberwell flea markets

2pm: Scoffing down the best sticky date pudding I've ever eaten (at Globe cafe on Chapel Street)

4pm: Checking out the make-shift Florence Broadhurst shop at Docklands

6pm: Eating lamb stew with mashed potato

Overheard on the train

Took off from work early yesterday with a colleague who was also heading back into the city. We were sitting in the carriage minding our own business when we hear an altercation taking place. One of the offenders left at the next stop leaving the two other guys behind. One of them turns to the other and says, "Did you hear what he said? He said to me...with a body like yours, I'm surprised you didn't get fucked in prison". I bit my lower lip trying not to laugh.

Sho sho

The decor was amazing and rather theatrica,l with packets of noodles and baskets of tea leaves beautifully arranged around the open kitchen. Even the roast duck and char siu hanging on the racks seemed to have been arranged like an art installation, the whole effect enhanced by strategic lighting against a backdrop of red tiles that look like the scales of a dragon. Without a doubt, this has to be one of the most beautiful chinese restaurants I have ever seen.

The food, on the other hand, was reasonable but nothing to really rant and rave about. Nathan loved his Char Kway Teow with prawns and chinese sausage butit's almost double the price of what you'd expect to pay at a more modest-looking restaurant. I really wanted to order a noodle dish but was rather surprised by their modest offerings, especially considering how much the restaurant had been spruking the noodle-making powers of the head chef. Most of the noodles I saw on the menu were of the commercial - rather than the freshly hand-made - variety (e.g. rice vermicelli, rice noodles). I settled for an Assam snapper curry instead. This was served with tomato, ochra and mint. It was suppose to have tamarind in it but I couldn't really taste the pungent sourness. I must go back, however, to try their impressive selection of chinese teas.

Sho Noodle Bar

Nathan and I were suppose to go out for dinner last night. Unfortunately, I forgot and had dinner prepared by the time Nathan came home so we decided to reschedule for tonight. The plan is to go to the Sho Noodle Bar which is located within the main gaming area of Crown Casino. Not really a fan of the casino but I am easily swayed by the promise of food.

Facebook

I seem to be rather recalcitrant when it comes to facebook. Yes, I have signed up for facebook but my motives are not so much about social networking but, rather, to keep in touch with family. And yet, every few months, I get friend requests from people (usually friends) who are facebook junkies. It always takes me a couple of months before I get motivated enough to log on and answer their friend requests. Several friends have now started to organize social activities via facebook. I am on there so infrequently that I find myself either missing anouncements about the important get-togethers or getting in trouble for not checking or replying to my messages. It's all terribly frustrating. I find that I am being dragged into this sweeping phenomenon against my will.

But today I had my first insight into just how nice facebook ca actually make someone feel. Sitting in my email inbox was a message from a guy I had not seen for over twenty years! We were in the fifth grade together. He had seen me on TV a year ago and wondered if it was the same person that he had gone to school with. I've thought about the guy over the years and it was nice to see that he has been doing well (and, incidentally, has grown up to be a total hunk too). The message he sent was extremely nice, recounting the memory of someone who he remembered as being kind. What a lovely message. Totally made my day.

My first meme...

...was inspired by Fletcher Beaver.

1. When was the last time you cried?
When I saw my grandmother in hospital after she had her stroke. She died two weeks later.

2. Have you ever faked sick?
Yes...to get out of swimming carnival when I was a kid.

3. What was the last lie you told?
I can't remember but it was probably a white lie ;-)

4. Have you ever cried during a movie?
Yes. I cried during Life is Beautiful, an italian film about the holocaust.

5. Who was the last person you couldn't take your eyes off of?
My partner of course!

6. Have you ever danced in the rain?
Nope. I've stood outside in the rain but never danced around.

7. Have you ever been drunk?
It depends who you ask. I say 'no' but my colleagues beg to differ. I'm not a drinker but made an exception during my PhD party. I drank a lot but I wasn't the one who ended up spewing up my guts in the wee hours of the morning.

8. Have you ever tried drugs?
No. Nothing elicit. Eaten plenty of endangered species but never tried drugs.

9. Do you smoke?
No. I can't stand cigarettes.

10. What’s the farthest you've ever gone on a dare?
I'm a bit of a chicken so I generally try not get myself in situations where I would have to do anything too daring.

11. What is your full name?
Sorry, it'll have to be Adaptive radiation....I'd prefer not to have my students stumble upon my blog and constrain my ability to use this forum. If you really want to know, drop me an email and I might devulge my first name.

12. What is your blood-type?
B+

13. Have you ever been in a car accident?
Yes but nothing serious. A car crashed into the bus I was on a few weeks ago. The driver looked pretty pissed but then he saw our bus driver...a big burly Moari bloke with imposing tattoos.

14. How old were you when you had your first kiss?
Thirty! Let's put this in perspective though. I only came out when I was 28.

15. Who was your first kiss?
His name was Mick.

16. Have you ever had an online relationship?
No. Well, kind of. Nate and I actually met online but we dated and got to know one another the old fashion way. The first date lasted 3 days.

17. Have you ever had phone sex?
No. I'm more of a visual person.

18. Have you ever been rejected by a crush?
No. I generally don't reveal my feelings to the people with whom I have crushes.

19. What is your favourite sport to play?
I like walking but not sure if that counts. I played volley ball (badly) at uni.

20. Have you ever made a prank phone call?
When I was a kid (this would have been way back when I was less than six years old). I dialled some random number and told the woman who answered not to bother cooking dinner because I had dinner plans already.

21. What’s your favourite childhood memory?
Playing with lanterns during chinese new year in Hong Kong. The good part of the memory didn't last long because the lantern went up in flames and I bawled my eyes out.

22. Is there anything that you have done that you regret?
Yes. I was quite a horrible brother to my two younger sisters and teased them incessantly.

23. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. I've always loved animals (and fish in particular) so I'm pretty much living my dream job working as a scientist.

24. What is your political persuasion?
I have left-leaning tendencies.

25. Have you ever had cybersex?
I'm picturing avatars and high tech sensory equipment so I will say 'no'.

26. Do you believe in god?
This is not an easy one for me to answer. I used to believe in God. I went to a catholic boys school and attended church every sunday. I would pray at night before I went to bed and wished for the world to be a better place. And then I grew up. I still follow some residual traditions though, like not eating meat on Good Friday. Heaven knows why ;-)

27. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Absolutely. Though it has never happened to me.

28. Do you believe in karma?
Yes.

29. Who was your first crush?
My fourth grade teacher, Mr. Morwich (he had that spiky mullet look going on!).

30. Who do you have a crush on? No one.

31. How would you describe yourself? A good person.

32. What are you afraid of? Bad things happening to good people.

33. Are you religious? No. Didn't we have this question already?

34. What does your screen name mean? I assume this question relates to the name of my blog. Adaptive radiation has nothing to do with the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. If you want to know what it means, do a google search.

35. Which person do you trust the most? Can't split it...Nathan and my family.

36. Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend? Knowing now what I know (and keeping in mind that I only came out when I was 28), I guess I would say that Nathan is my first boyfriend.

37. What is the best compliment you have ever received?
You are a person of high integrity.

38. What is the meanest thing anyone has said about you?
My PE teacher in high school told me that I had a big head. I believe he meant it literally. I'm not sure I agree. My head is proportionate to my height (I'm 196 cm tall).

39. What is the longest crush/relationship you have had?
That would be Nathan. Almost two and a half years now!

40. What is your greatest strength?
Resiliance.

41. What is your greatest weakness?
Stubborness.

42. What is your perfect pizza? Anything with artichokes, goats cheese and/or prosciutto.

43. What is your first thought when waking up in the morning? Got to get out of bed.

44. What is your last thought before you go to bed?
What will I cook for dinner tomorrow.

45. What university do you want to go to?
Hmmm....I'm pretty content with where I'm at now.

46. Do you get along with your family? Yes. We are very close. I talk to mum every night!

47. Do you play any instruments?
No. I am musically challenged.

48. What kind of music do you like?
Bad 90's dance music (I guess 'bad' is redundant when it comes to 90's dance music).

49. Do you think you’re attractive? I never used to but Nathan makes me feel attractive.

50. Would you ever get a tattoo? I like tattoos but I think I'm too fickle to be able to live with the permanence of any designs I might pick.

51. How many piercings do you have? None.

52. Who makes you laugh?
My friends.

53. Who would you want to be tied to for 24hours?
Nobody.

54. Have you ever seen a dead body?
Yes. When my uncle died of a heart attack, I had to take my family to the morgue to look at the body.

55. Do you have a celebrity crush?
Clive Owen.

56. What is one thing scientists should invent?
Time machine.

57. Have you ever broken a bone?
No

58. What happens after you die?
The world continues to spin.

59. Do you watch or read the news?
Yes. I'm a news freak.

60. What stereotype would you label yourself as being?
I don't think I mold to any stereotype. People can't usually tell I'm gay and I hate discussing science outside of work.

61. Would your friends agree with that stereotypic label?
Yes...in the sense that I don't fit stereotypes.

62. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I wouldn't.

63. If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I'd probably go back to my childhood. Things were less complicated then. Nevertheless, I think I am a much better person now than I've ever been in the past so I am quite content with the present me.

64. If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change?
Nothing really. It's all a part of who I am (it's all good as far as I'm concerned).

65. Have you ever gone skinny dipping?
No. The closest I've come is standing on the jetty testing the water with my toes (it was way too cold). I have been in a hot tub with 12 naked women, an experience that was totally wasted on me.

66. Have you ever played strip poker?
No. Can't play poker.

67. Would you ever lie to someone to make them feel good about themselves?
It would depend on circumstances but, in principle, 'Yes'.

68. What do you want your friends to think about you?
To think and to know are very different things. I would hope my friends KNOW who I am.

69. What’s the biggest argument you've ever gotten into?
I don't think I've ever been in a truly serious argument.

70. Have you ever bitten someone?
Yes...a family friend when I was young. I got in trouble.

71. When’s your birthday?
27 April.

72. Have you ever stolen anything?
Yes...cuttings from the Botanic Gardens.

73. Do you make wishes on shooting stars?
No. I've never seen a shooting star.

74. What’s the most you've ever eaten in one sitting?
I once ate so much meat at an all-you-can-eat korean bbq that I actually turned vegetarian for a whole week!

75. If you could go back and change one day, what would it be?
I don't think I would change any day for myself.

76. Do you remember your dreams?
I used to dream a lot about being chased by things (animals, dinosaurs). More recently, I seem to have lots of flying dreams.

77. Have you ever been in love?
Yes. Right now.

78. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Definitely morning. I'm one of those people that wakes up smiling. Nate hates it.

79. Do you have any phobias?
Spiders. I can't stand them. This is a problem given that I am a biologist. I remember doing fieldwork in a forest in south-eastern Queensland. There were orb weaver webs everywhere. And everytime I'd walk into a web, I'd scream like a crazy woman and wave my arms about like a lunatic. I think virtual spiders are even worse (i.e. when you think there is still a spider somewhere on your body AFTER you've walked into a web).

80. What’s the meanest thing you've ever done to someone?
Accidentally breaking the bedroom door and blaming it on one of my sisters.

81. Have you ever been to the hospital (other than birth)?
Yes, to get an angiogram. Not pleasant. Everything checked out ok though.

82. How many screen names do you have?
Just the one.

83. Do any medical problems run in your family?
Heart disease.

84. Has anyone ever been disowned from your family?
No.

85. Have you ever had a nightmare?
Yes. Being chased by scary things or missing my exams.

86. Do you say meaner things to your friends or your enemies?
I don't have any enemies that I'm aware of. Not even a nemesis. I try to be diplomatic to my friends but I'm not afraid of stripping back and making harsh statements if I think the person needs to hear it.

87. Would you ever participate in a threesome?
No. See...not stereotyped.

88. Would you ever pay for a prostitute?
No.

89. Have you ever mooned or flashed someone?
Never

90. Have you ever cheated on your bf/gf?
No.

91. Have you ever laughed so hard you peed in your pants?
No, but a few times I've laughed so hard that I've farted (but thankfully never sharted).

92. Have you ever written a love letter?
No. Just cards.

93. Have you ever attempted suicide?
No.

94. Do you prefer boxers or briefs?
Boxer briefs.

95. Have you ever been in a fistfight?
Nope...the best I could manage was repeated bitch slapping of a kid at school who squirted orange juice on my sock for no apparent reason.

96. Do you have any hidden talents?
I can debone a chicken wing in 16 secs with my tongue. True.

97. What is one thing you want me to know about you?
I love (to eat) chicken but never order it at restaurants.

98. What is one question you wouldn't want me to ask?
Hmmm...having got this far, it's hard to think of any.

99. What do you think of this meme?
A bit too long. My neck hurts.

Depressing Friday

I have a routine when I get to work: Switch on my laptop, feed the fish, check out my favourite bloggers, and then read the news websites. Was greeted this morning with a string of depressing 'doom and gloom' headlines on theage.com.au, as follows:

1. Swine flu 'unstoppable'
2. Taser death: man dies in handcuffs (breaking news)
3. Dragged from fire, but woman dies

But the most depressing one of all:

Connex may run Melbourne trams, too

Noooooooooooooo...........

Gay beats and urban planning

I was talking to a colleague yesterday who had just returned from a trip up to Queensland. The guy's brother is an urban planner and is about to embark on some research into park use. Evidently, as part of the research, he will also be investigating the use of parks as beats. It will be intersting to compare areas that are used as beats versus areas that are not, how they differ physically, and their popularity with other users within the community (families etc). I suspect there would be a strong historical element to the park use too.

The odd one out

Was heading into work later than usual this morning because I had to wait around for the electrician to fix the bathroom light switch (which was making disconcerting zapping noises). When the train got to Flinders Street I noticed a young man in the next carriage wearing a surgical face mask. I surmised that he must be wearing the mask to avoid catching swine flu. This was the first time I had seen anyone wearing a face mask outside of a hospital or a dental clinic and he looked a bit strange doing so. I guess he must have felt quite self conscious about it. A few stops later, the young man had taken off the mask.