Mardi Gras and World Pride

Linking this pic with #WeekendReflections

I had to duck into the city to swap something over in Marrimekko - I already had my gorgeous Valentine's Day present, so I raced past David Jones and into Westfield.

The city is festooned for World Pride, and it made for a really cheerful expedition. 

Just outside Marrimeko in Westfield is this instalation. You go inside and listen to stories. I only popped in for a minute as I was pressed for time - you really need more - and heard the speaker saying that in the Religious Freedom Bill Campaign, the trans community was singled out and illogically attacked. They continued that if one of the LBGT community is under attack, they all are and they need to band together and not be divided. 

If you get a chance, it's worth checking out. We are going away so I'm afraid I won't get back in. 

Mardi Gras is usually a big deal in Sydney but with Covid it kind of went quiet. Or maybe I just didn't go to the shops at that time? Anyway, it's nice to see it back and the city come alive with colour and sparkles.

I believe you don't have to be part of the community to stand with them. It's easier for people with no skin in the game to defend the vulnerable in the face of bigotry than those personally under attack. As even Bob Katter said 'Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom' before seguing into his issue of crocodile attacks....(which I think was a fancy way of saying Live & Let Live).

For those interested, I got a new 'festival' bag. Just in time for Tiesto. Yip yip! Countdown is on!....(it's a Year of the rabbit outside pocket - cross body bag but with a handle too).

It's time for #Allseasons for another week.

All Seasons is open from Saturday through Wednesday 5pm, Sydney Time. 
2. Please link one  'seasonal' post a week. 

3. Make sure you link back to this  #AllSeasons post.

4. Please comment on the post before yours. Don't dump and run

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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State of the world, state of mind

I have hit the wall on the bad news in the News. I have actively avoided hearing about Syria and Turkiye, though I have donated to the White Helmets, MSF and am trying to find someone useful on the ground in Turkiye to donate to - I just can't get my head around the devastation and the thought of it all. Even the survivors will have PTSD. Everyone in the country will have lost someone, no matter where they live.

Over the weekend there was a dreadful murder in the UK in public in broad daylight. There is a total irrational persecution of trans people being played out on the internet and in the media over there and that's the result. Children killing children. It makes me sick. They tried it in Australia, it's a trick to distract you from the state of the economy and the hospital system (our medicare) being gutted. It's to get you worked up so you don't notice the real problems you should be angry about. The Austrailan public didn't fall for it, so it's very easy to see when it's being done elsewhere.

Yesterday, my feed was filled with the flooding in New Zealand and then the earthquake. It's just too much for me at the moment.

I woke this morning to this pink cloud. It is carefree and playful.

It is hope.

But really, it's just a cloud and if I look at my phone, all the dark troubles of the world will pour in. I'm not sure if I'm overly hormonal and fragile, or if it's just too horrible nowadays?  Last night I wondered if I could be the kind of person that didn't read the news. I've never understood how people live like that, but now I can see why.

I'm sorry for this outpouring of doom. Just focus on the cloud.

What do you do when your mood sinks for no personal reason? Any tips on keeping this stuff in perspective? 

Any tips on who to give to help people in Turkiye or New Zealand?

Linking with #Allseasons #WordlessWednesday #TheRandom #WeekendCoffeeShare #SkyWatch  #GaleriaHimmelsblick

Revelations from the lost years....

 I feel I've lost all sense of time over the last three years of Covid. I can't tell how long ago anything was or when it happened. Three years have been compressed into one in my head. I've been aware of this but it doesn't ease any confusion for me.

Last year I had to see a plastic surgeon to get some BCCs cut out of my head...I am sure I had a full body check while we were at it. I remember it clearly. I discovered another raised bump in Bali and on my return made an appointment to get it checked out. The receptionist asked if I needed a full body check and I said no, I had it last year. However, while with the dr, he looked at the notes and announced that while I had the surgery last year, the full body check was 2020. 

I keep discovering revelations from the lost years like this.

So, this is a short warning that any preventative tests you need to have regularly, you probably need to book it in now, because it was probably last done less recently than you think, if you live in Sydney or Melbourne where lockdowns dragged on for years.

Photos are from the magnificent production of Amadeus at the Opera House, but I feel they visually reflect my distorted concept of time and it's elasticity, folding into the present.

Linking with #WWOT #WordlessWednesday #WWandP #FriendshipFriday

Monkey Business

While at breakfast on the first morning in Bali, a little visitor came to snatch the food off the table while we ate....we were more prepared than the table next to us, and my squeals upset the little boy on the next table, who started crying. His sister, who lost her breakfast to the fast felon, was wide eyed in confusion and their mother, thankfully, was laughing at me and the chaos...however, having arrived close to midnight, it was a wake up call that we were indeed in another country.

For the rest of the trip I kept an eye out when in 'monkey territory', scared to lose my glasses like I have on a previous visit.

I was amused that a literal truckload of bananas was safe when coissants on the breakfast table weren't...

Linking with #SaturdayCritters #NaturesNotes #YourMoment #WWOAT #BlueMonday and #RubyTuesdayToo (truck photo) #AwwMonday #WordlessWednesday #KeithsRamblings #PictorialPotpourri

Only dead fish go with the flow - Andy Hunt

I need to say, the quote in the title seems to be very similar to the G K Chesterman one, so not sure entirely about the attributed author, blame the misinformation on the internet if I've got it wrong. The photos have nothing to do with the words, but just from a recent early morning walk...look at the pictures, read the words or do both, you're choice.

We were going to dinner before the theatre and only had an hour, so we just ordered a main. The food, however, came so quickly and the walk to the theatre was much less than the 15 minutes we'd initially thought, so we had plenty of time and decided to order dessert.

The desserts were minimal and three of us ordered the gelato just for the sake of it, rather than with much enthusiasm. Our fourth, however, said "I'm getting a starter". To the waitress he said, "I'll have the anchovies". She was a little confused so he pointed to it on the menu. "Oh, you're having an entree?" she questioned. "Yes" he affirmed confidently.

Now, I realised I should have done the same, as there were many more things in the entree menu that appealed to me than the desserts.

Why do we blindly follow these rules? There's no need, there's no harm to anyone if we buck the system in this case.  Yet we don't. We follow an unspoken path of behaviour. Even if we don't really want the dessert, most of it order it if still hungry. Just because that's what's meant to come next.

I am a person who will order two entrees instead of a main if I don't like the main, and one time, at a restaurant that had amazing entrees but very pedestrian mains, we said "We'll just order all the entrees, and not have any mains". The waiter said "Fine, which ones do you want?" To which we replied, a la Ron Swanson (but before he said it), "All of them. Just bring them out a few at a time". The waiter found this hilarious but enthusastically complied.

So why was I surprised when my friend ordered anchovies for dessert? I guess I've become more conforming and conservative in age without realising it. It's not so much I needed permission to do it, more it just never occured to me - I was bound by some arbitary rule about what to do in restauarants. Illogically unquestioning...What else do I do this with?

Linking with #TravelTuesday #WednesdayAoundtheWorld #MCoW #AnythingGoes #WeekendCoffeeShare #SkyWatch & #WWandP 

Wild bird

 

I loved the reflection of the clouds on the water in these early morning shots in the Hunter Valley. 

These funny banded birds didn't seem to mind me coming up close. Anyone know what they are?

Linking with #PictorialPotpurri  (Imaginings) #WWOT #NaturesNotes  #GardenAffair #SundayBest #Weekendreflections for the clouds in the water #SaturdayCritters #DND  #Wildbird Wednesday & 

 

Shame thrives on secrecy, silence, and judgment. Shame can’t survive being spoken. Brene Brown

Trigger warning on Miscarriage. Please consider if this will cause you distress. It's not anything personal nor particular interesting.

The Guardian Full Story had a feature this week called  "Medical misogyny and the government's plan to tackle it". This problem in medicine was also covered in depth in Dr Jen Gunter's The Menopause Manifesto, as a global and historical issue. 

When I was discussing some menopause problems with my GP, he said "I can recommend my colleague [a female GP] for you to see if you want to look at treatments". I pointed out that he was my doctor and I didn't want to have to see anyone else so he better get up to speed. He explained that she had better expertise and understanding. While I admired his honesty in his shortfall in knowledge and perhaps this is an improvement to the brush off women have experienced for years when they seek advice for perfectly natural complaints, I wonder how so many male doctors can historically be the care provider for pregnancy but not menopause? 

I am very late to the party but am listening to Clementine Ford's Fight Like a Girl on Audible. She raises the query as to why we are advised not to tell people we are pregnant before the 12 week mark. If a lot of us will experience miscarriage in that early stage, why expected to go through that on our own? It had never occurred to me before. This concept is putting shame on the miscarriage. A perfectly natural complication is something we 'should' keep secret. Surely this upsetting time is a time when our good friends should rally around and help us through? Not necessarily talking about it, but being there when we need it. Yes, your partner is there for you, and you for them, but they are going through the loss too. They may not be equipped to support you the way you need it while grappling with their own grief. And vice versa. Why, as women, have we gone along with this for centuries. I didn't tell people for 12 weeks, I thought you wouldn't want to have to tell everyone if you miscarried. It is what I'd been told to do. I never questioned it. If you did tell friends, surely in the process of showering you with love in your painful time, one of them would get on the blower and get everyone up to speed. The same way when you lose a parent, everyone gets told, not necessarily by you.

I have daughters, and I have decided I am not passing on this antiquated rule. Should they miscarry, I want them to be supported in the best way possible, not struggling alone. And I certainly don't want them to feel any shame on top of the grief.

I am old and I've had three children. It never occurred to me to question how illogical this 'advice' is. I am not wondering what else I've taken on without thinking. This stuff is wired into us from an early age and we just roll with it. It took me to reach perimenopause before I even realised that is a natural part of life that is shrouded in shame and secrecy. And just like 12 week rule, I don't think it's a good thing. 

However, the tide is shifting. My then primary school daughter talked freely about periods at the dinner table in front of the males. This is a far cry from my teens in a girls boarding school where we skulked around trying to hide the fact we were menstruating from each other every single month (which is ridiculous when I think probably all the girls in the dorm were synced with each other). I am talking openly  about menopause with anyone (should the need arise) regardless of gender, and definitely using the word, instead of those weird 'The big M' or other such nicknames it has. I am embarrassed to say it’s often because I’m astounded at hope little I knew about it as an educated, adult woman (I find it genuinely perplexing)....and I am very glad to see governments are becoming aware of the problem and trying to do something about it. 

This great educator, Mr Pink (well worth following) put this up on twitter. I was perplexed that he was embarrassed by his lack of knowledge when I didn't know anything until I started going through it!

I like this quote but I wish the book had a different title. These medical issues are just natural diversity rather than imperfection. 

“Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it- it can't survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.” 

― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection 

Linking wiht #FriendshipFriday