World Pride in Sydney
08 March 2023
For the first time in a few years, we went into the Summer without significant restrictions related to COVID. Even though there are still substantial case numbers and mortality, both work at the hospital and general activities felt much more normal.
Work started winding down from mid-December with low activity over the Christmas and New Year period. We went to the Popsicle event at The Laird and saw James and Ian Buckley-Walker who were visiting family for Christmas before the arrival of their first child. I made it to a number of social rows as my hamstring had recovered from the strain in October. The rowing club has been particularly active with a lot of younger members.
The NGV had an exhibit of Alexander McQueen dresses and we went to the opening weekend. The headpieces which had been commissioned from Michael Schmidt for the exhibit were as exciting as the dresses themselves.
Christmas we spent with my mother and sister, having seen Jay’s family in November for the wedding. Lunch was roast turkey which Jay prepared. The high point for me was pulling the crackers when a “prize” flew out and stuck in my mother’s hair.
After Christmas we went to Sorrento until New Year. Derek came to visit from the US and stayed with us until after New Year. We had great weather at the beach; on the only day that wasn’t hot we went to the hot springs instead. Ivan, Tats and Dimi also came to stay for a day or two. On New Year’s Eve we had lunch with Will Caldwell at the new degustation restaurant at Sorrento: Audrey’s.
From the wedding at the start of November to World Pride in Sydney at the end of February we had decided to make a particular effort with gym work and diet. My trainer Jay Kennedy did a great job of guiding us through that without it being too disruptive to Christmas and Summer holidays.
I was due to return work on January 6th. Just like last year I managed to catch COVID at the perfect time to get another week off. Once again I didn’t have significant symptoms: some fever and a runny nose, so I was well enough to do work in the house, looking for a leak in the box gutter in the light well.
The Midsumma Festival provided a number of events for us to attend. This year we contributed to the running of the Carnival and so were invited to the Art Show and a number of other events. Carnival was very successful, with a bigger crowd than any in recent years. I was on the rowing club booth for a few hours and made the mistake of participating in the “Queerlympics” tug of war competition with other sporting clubs. I tore my hamstring properly in the final and was limping for a couple of weeks afterwards.
Once again I was on call during the Midsumma Pool party and again I was lucky in that I was not called, so was able to stay for the duration of the party. Shows we saw in the first months of the year were “Ziegfeld Boy” as part of Midsumma, Alan Cuming and David Sedaris. We were also pleased to have James Norman and then Brad Keogh as dinner guests.
February 2nd was our twentieth anniversary of first meeting. This still feels like more of a milestone to mark than the wedding in November. We went to dinner at Tonka on the day and then to the Royal Mail at Dunkeld on the weekend for an overnight stay and degustation meal at Wickens. The following morning we climbed up one of the lower summits in the nearby Grampians.
For the second year in a row, there was a Pride event in Collingwood as well as St Kilda this year and we walked down there for a few hours. It was well-attended and another very successful event. I hope it continues in the future.
The last weekend before we went to Sydney for World Pride we had some fun photos taken by Damien Hinds. Jay wasn’t sure about it at first, but joined in and we were both pleased with the results. The plan for cutting body fat before going to Sydney was very effective and we won’t be back in as good shape for quite some time.
World Pride in Sydney seemed to be a huge success. There were many events run over a few weeks and almost everything seemed to go very well. We went for two weekend trips, attending four out of the dozens of parties put on for the festival. It was fun to go dancing with friends from Melbourne, Sydney and from further away as many people made the trip from the US or elsewhere in the world to come for the events. Like many other people, we returned to Melbourne exhausted with a few days to rest before returning to work. It was particularly pleasing to see many of the specialist medical colleges, including ANZCA and RACS represented in the Mardi Gras parade.
We have started to make a few plans for the rest of the year. Jay will be going to a conference in San Francisco in a few weeks and I will go to Sydney in May for the ANZCA ASM. We are planning a holiday in Europe in August/September and then Christmas with Jay’s family, but the detail of those plans are yet to be determined.
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Work started winding down from mid-December with low activity over the Christmas and New Year period. We went to the Popsicle event at The Laird and saw James and Ian Buckley-Walker who were visiting family for Christmas before the arrival of their first child. I made it to a number of social rows as my hamstring had recovered from the strain in October. The rowing club has been particularly active with a lot of younger members.
The NGV had an exhibit of Alexander McQueen dresses and we went to the opening weekend. The headpieces which had been commissioned from Michael Schmidt for the exhibit were as exciting as the dresses themselves.
Christmas we spent with my mother and sister, having seen Jay’s family in November for the wedding. Lunch was roast turkey which Jay prepared. The high point for me was pulling the crackers when a “prize” flew out and stuck in my mother’s hair.
After Christmas we went to Sorrento until New Year. Derek came to visit from the US and stayed with us until after New Year. We had great weather at the beach; on the only day that wasn’t hot we went to the hot springs instead. Ivan, Tats and Dimi also came to stay for a day or two. On New Year’s Eve we had lunch with Will Caldwell at the new degustation restaurant at Sorrento: Audrey’s.
From the wedding at the start of November to World Pride in Sydney at the end of February we had decided to make a particular effort with gym work and diet. My trainer Jay Kennedy did a great job of guiding us through that without it being too disruptive to Christmas and Summer holidays.
I was due to return work on January 6th. Just like last year I managed to catch COVID at the perfect time to get another week off. Once again I didn’t have significant symptoms: some fever and a runny nose, so I was well enough to do work in the house, looking for a leak in the box gutter in the light well.
The Midsumma Festival provided a number of events for us to attend. This year we contributed to the running of the Carnival and so were invited to the Art Show and a number of other events. Carnival was very successful, with a bigger crowd than any in recent years. I was on the rowing club booth for a few hours and made the mistake of participating in the “Queerlympics” tug of war competition with other sporting clubs. I tore my hamstring properly in the final and was limping for a couple of weeks afterwards.
Once again I was on call during the Midsumma Pool party and again I was lucky in that I was not called, so was able to stay for the duration of the party. Shows we saw in the first months of the year were “Ziegfeld Boy” as part of Midsumma, Alan Cuming and David Sedaris. We were also pleased to have James Norman and then Brad Keogh as dinner guests.
February 2nd was our twentieth anniversary of first meeting. This still feels like more of a milestone to mark than the wedding in November. We went to dinner at Tonka on the day and then to the Royal Mail at Dunkeld on the weekend for an overnight stay and degustation meal at Wickens. The following morning we climbed up one of the lower summits in the nearby Grampians.
For the second year in a row, there was a Pride event in Collingwood as well as St Kilda this year and we walked down there for a few hours. It was well-attended and another very successful event. I hope it continues in the future.
The last weekend before we went to Sydney for World Pride we had some fun photos taken by Damien Hinds. Jay wasn’t sure about it at first, but joined in and we were both pleased with the results. The plan for cutting body fat before going to Sydney was very effective and we won’t be back in as good shape for quite some time.
World Pride in Sydney seemed to be a huge success. There were many events run over a few weeks and almost everything seemed to go very well. We went for two weekend trips, attending four out of the dozens of parties put on for the festival. It was fun to go dancing with friends from Melbourne, Sydney and from further away as many people made the trip from the US or elsewhere in the world to come for the events. Like many other people, we returned to Melbourne exhausted with a few days to rest before returning to work. It was particularly pleasing to see many of the specialist medical colleges, including ANZCA and RACS represented in the Mardi Gras parade.
We have started to make a few plans for the rest of the year. Jay will be going to a conference in San Francisco in a few weeks and I will go to Sydney in May for the ANZCA ASM. We are planning a holiday in Europe in August/September and then Christmas with Jay’s family, but the detail of those plans are yet to be determined.
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