Making Friends With The Neighbours

Julian Wilson has been promoting breast cancer awareness by surfing a pink surfboard, which is great. I've read many articles where he has discussed the issue and his attachment to it through his mum's experience and I think it's great that he's been trying to do the awareness thing in such a fun and public way. Yay for Julian! However, the much loved and admired glamour boy of pro surfing might just have gone just a little further to the dark side (aka, trying to impress Stab writers and readers so he can remain their 2 nd favourite little surfer in the world after Dane Reynolds) with his latest quoted offering that was published in this story in The Courier Mail * about the Quicksilver Pro... Meanwhile, the quote of day went to Sunshine Coast grommet Julian Wilson, who has won a wildcard into the Quiksilver Pro. Asked about his decision to ride a pink surfboard to promote breast cancer checks, Wilson told the media he was "just raising awareness for the yo...

A few weeks ago, I was at the beautician's getting my waxing done... As I lay there with my legs splayed, I asked the women waxing me if she ever waxes any men? "Oh NO! I'd never do that!" she shuddered. "And anyway, it's not natural!" I looked at her as she pasted the thick, hot wax down the inside of my groin, pushed a cotton strip on top of it and winced as she painfully tore it back off again. "This isn't natural either," I suggested. She blushed, "Yes, but, well, you know... It's different." Whatever. Lots of girls I know hate their body hair, saying that they just don't feel like a woman if they have it. I don't feel like that. Having hair on my legs isn't really an issue for me, but I do know that other people judge me by it and are repulsed by it, so I keep it all in check more for them than for me. With surfing it's an even bigger issue - imagine paddling out in swimmers when you've been lax with...

I’m a longboarder, so quite often I find myself surrounded in the water by, well, umm, older gents. And it’s interesting because they often tend to get all paternal on me! I don’t know if there’s something about me in particular that lends people towards a kind of encouraging protectiveness, but when I paddle out, I often end up with several new dads. They give me advice, call me into waves and, in one particularly excessive display, PUSH MY BOARD INTO WAVES THAT I’M MORE THAN CAPABLE OF PADDLING INTO ON MY OWN! Which is nice. I suppose. Kind of. In theory. I mean, it’s nice that they’re so encouraging. But what would be even nicer would be if it didn’t feel so patronising. I have one girlfriend in particular who is a pretty accomplished surfer, but even so, she's just stoked if she can go for a wave, get back to her car, pack up and leave without some old guy offering her advice for how to be better. She just wants to go for a surf! For all the ti...

It was summer. It was holidays. It was busy. Everyone was competing for waves. Everyone was bitching and moaning about tourists. But one guy in particular, who clearly thought himself quite important and some kind of general surf-break ‘authority’, was surfing with a very particular brand of heroic arrogance, sitting with his chest puffed out and loudly bitching and moaning and carrying on and swearing at people, so that everyone around him could hear how much he hated “this”. He was a total downer. I couldn’t help myself and had to ask, Me: “What are you taking about? What’s ‘this’? Him: “All these people in the water! It’s shit.” Me: “People? You hate people?” Him: “Ohh, well, you know, when it’s busy like this. I hate it.” Me: “Well, it’s Saturday morning at Wategos, so what did you expect?” His friend laughed and shook his head conspiratorially with me as I paddled away... Busy surf breaks are a real...

Yesterday, in the rain, I went out into the city and saw a beautiful exhibition of photographs by George Caddy at the State Library of NSW . The highlights of the collection include a series that show ' Beachobatics ', which were an impressive show of health, fitness, strength, balance and beauty. The picture below is my favourite from the whole exhibition. I imagine how it would feel to be that woman in mid-flight, completely trusting and relying upon the arms reaching out to catch her. She looks joyful . Another aspect of the exhibition that got me rather excited (and clapping my hands) was the pictures of Jitterbugging. George Caddy was an enthusiastic and prize-winning Jitterbug dancer, which was a form of Swing. The exhibition even held three short reels of film that show Jitterbugging in all it's jittery glory! I wish I could tell you just how enthralled I was by these films, but looking at this picture below you might be able to get an idea why... The clothes and the...

Sic. I found this clip over at Curl Magazine ... Interestingly, it also provides a comprehensive list of things that I am not!

I don't know if this says something morbid about my personality, but I have been reading this blog from the curators of the Justice and Police Museum in Sydney and it is fascinating. The focus on the people, crimes and personalities, as opposed to skewed thoughts on policing and justice has sucked me right in, and the accompanying photos are both terrible and so interesting.

After a long afternoon spent trawling around YouTube looking at some fantastic moments of musical performance (such as those posted below**), I very suddenly and painfully missed the water and so started looking for something other than Dolly Parton film clips... Amongst other things, I came across Bodysurf - a beautiful collection of photos that satiated my aqueous needs for the time being (even if it did make me ache a little in the process). **As well as the piece of musical magic below, my search provided me with my new favourite karaoke duet . Joy. (And it really is worth watching the entire clip because the attempts Kiki makes at dancing further down the line are off the hook, which is probably a consequence of her being off her head. Sic.)

A few days ago, I finished reading Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (yeah, I know, so the fashion right now, but I once heard Marieke Hardy say it was very good and I trust her - and she was right) and it's only this afternoon that I can even bring myself to really think about it. I travelled along Revolutionary Road with Yates, certain of what the outcome was going to be from the beginning and not wanting to have to endure it. But his words are so beautifully crafted and without pretension and honest , even though honest was the one thing his characters could never be with each other, nor themselves. They head to inevitable disappointment and ruin, and reach it through their own egotistical belief in their own goodness and selflessness, when all along they're the most blindly selfish people in a myriad of ways. That book, that damn book, has made a kind of fear rise up inside me and tap against the back of my throat like an unwelcome visitor walking up the driveway. It...

The always delightful Lorelei V is not only a very good writer, but she loves music and is funny as well (not funny in a cheap one-liner kind of way, but funny in a thoughtful and sometimes incidental way). And she lives in Brisbane. That makes her my favourite kind of new-person-to-meet. And I have met her. And I wouldn't have had to use any of my back-up conversation starters because she is much too interesting for that (also, we shared, at the time, a common frustration with Brisbane).

I am generally terrible at making small-talk. In fact, I really hate it but since I find myself in small-talk situations a lot lately, I've considered some topics to talk about when an interaction requires polite, but genuine conversation... 1. The heat. EVERYONE is onto this one at the moment. It's inoffensive and not-at-all political, which makes it a winner for any situation. It also allows you to segue into some other topics too. For example, I went to the fruit and veg shop this morning and raised the heat in terms of whether it affects their fruit and veg? It led to an engaged and personalised discussion of the owner's business and allowed him to assure me of the quality of his produce. Innovative, no? In another exchange, it enabled my conversational partner to bring up the fact he used to live in Dubai. Also, it gives people a chance to whinge, which we all love. 2. The tennis. Now, as someone who finds tennis unutterably boring (and this from a lady who loves cric...