Monthly Archives: September 2004

Home soon

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In Vancouver. Off to the airport in a wee while for the long journey home. We have a seven hour layover at Narita on the way home, which I am really looking forward to. Not. Hopefully we can find a decent Japanese meal and some wireless access, that should pass the time a little faster.

Just to make the trip home that extra bit special, I’m struggling with a nasty chest cold which I caught from my husband. He’s all better now but I’m going to be coughing and spluttering all the way home. My big fear is that, on arrival in Sydney, they’ll take one look at my sorry, sickly state and the country I’m coming from (Canada) and march me off to quarantine.

So if Friday’s evening news includes a piece about a SARS scare at Sydney Airport, think of me.

I do, I did

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There hasn’t been much time, and even less net access, lately, to post. There still isn’t, but I figure I owe you guys at least a quick rundown of last weekend’s nuptials.

The venue was absolutely amazing — more spectacular, comfortable and welcoming than we dreamed it could be. Everyone was blown away by our choice of location and our luck in finding such a great place, sight unseen, on the internet.

View from our front porch at Nipika

The day of the ceremony was perfect: blue skies and not a cloud in them, so we got our wish and were able to have the ceremony outside, in a spectacular wild location above a canyon with a raging waterfall.

Our wedding ceremony

The celebrant was lovely, we had three beautiful readings from WH Auden, Walt Whitman and Christopher Marlowe, some tears were cried (including by yours truly) and rings were exchanged. “By the authority vested in me by the Province of British Columbia, I now pronounce you husband and husband,” said the celebrant, and the deed was done.

Brent and Paul - just married

These are the vows we wrote for ourselves:

I take you, Brent, to be my husband, lover and best friend and these things I promise to you:
I will be true to you.
I will respect, trust, help and care for you.
I will honour our past, treasure our present and build our future together.
I will share my life with you
For the rest of our lives.

More, including lots more photos, later. But before we leave, here’s one more. I’ll write later about how supportive and into the spirit all of Brent’s family were, but in the meantime, this is us with Brent’s Uncle who really got into the party spirit and chose to come to the wedding in a kind of septuagenarian Village-People-meets-the-Little-House-on-the-Prairies drag:

Uncle Fat

Happy in Vancouver

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“Are you Happy in Vancouver?” That, we’re told, is how one broaches The Question in this town. Canadians are of course polite to a fault, and so perhaps it’s not surprising that they deal with the tricky business of serosorting – finding sex partners with a compatible HIV status – in such a calculatedly inoffensive way. HIV = Happy In Vancouver.

Am I Happy in Vancouver? Yes, I am.

It’s nice to be back here – it’s my first visit for a few years and the first time I’ve been here with Brent. Vancouver’s a pretty city, with a sparkling harbour and a spectacular urban park, but it’s also a city with a heart and soul. We arrived here on Sunday morning from Tokyo and we’ll be leaving again in a few hours, once the sun comes up.

Last night was the third of our prenuptial dinners, at Delilah’s, with about 15 of our family and friends. One of the best things about this wedding caper is that we’ve spent more time in the company of our friends in the last week than we usually ever get to. And there’s more of that to come.

Vancouver prenup

Also yesterday we went to the Vital Statistics Office and purchased a marriage license. The whole process took about five minutes, and the folks in the office weren’t in the least bit fussed by the two poofs standing at the counter. Two men are getting married, something that would have been inconceivable a few years ago. The sky is not falling, people are sleeping safely in their beds. ‘Traditional marriage’ is not feeling the least bit threatened.

Marriage license

The ‘reform’ that shames Australia

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Alistair Nicholson in today’s Age:

None of the proponents of [the anti-same-sex marriage] legislation seem to have asked themselves if it is not a bit strange to fall back on 19th century definitions of marriage in seeking to define marriage in 2004.

In 1866, homosexual acts between adult males constituted a crime, and it was not long since adultery had been also described as “criminal conversation” in the law. There have been other changes to society far too numerous to set out here but they include the emancipation of women, the widespread introduction of anti-discrimination legislation, changing attitudes to human relationships and the adoption of international standards as to human rights, to which this country has always been a party. This latest legislation ignores all of those developments and treats them as if they had not occurred.

The legislation is a dangerous step in the direction of establishing religion in this country, for we must make no mistake that the sort of marriage the Government is talking about is Christian marriage. I am concerned that the Government, with the compliance of the Opposition, is attempting to entrench Christian dogma in relation to marriage on all of us, whatever our religious persuasion or lack of it.

[The Age, via Brent M.]

Engrish

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Japanese people love wearing T-Shirts with bizarre English slogans on them. But nothing prepared me for this:

RAW A.S.S. 3301

RAW A.S.S. 3301 – what could it mean?

Melbourne Prenup

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Prenup Melbourne

Round one of the wedding banquet: successfully completed. It’s very early in the morning as I write this and my head’s still a bit wooly, but I’m pretty sure we had fun last night.

The food at Jim’s Greek Tavern in Collingwood was as spectacular as promised, the company was charming, and we were in bed by midnight. Big love and thanks to all who were there.

Now we’re jumping on a plane to Sydney, for round two tonight.

What have we done?

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UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has told the BBC that the Iraq War was illegal. Presumably this means that John Howard is a war criminal.

An independent legal report has found that David Hicks is unlikely to receive a fair trial at the hands of the US military commission, which the investigator says is not independent and lacks proper rules of evidence. Australia’s attorney-general, Phillip Ruddock, says the government will not protest against the sham trial.

Howard is asking that he, his attorney-general and the rest of his gang of thugs be re-elected.

Shame, Howard, shame.

And so it begins

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My wedding starts today.

The actual ceremony isn’t until 25 September, but tonight is the first event on the wedding calendar – Brent and I have been invited to the Positive Living Centre in Prahran for dinner and a send-off. From there is just party, party party for the next two weeks:

Thu 16 Sep: big dinner with our Melbourne friends
Fri 17 Sep: big dinner with our Sydney friends
Sat 18 Sep: fly to Tokyo for a 24-hour stopover
Sun 19 Sep: evening flight to Vancouver, across the dateline, arriving Sunday morning
Mon 20 Sep: big dinner with our Vancouver friends
Tue-Wed-Thu: driving through British Columbia to the wedding venue
Fri 24 Sep: dinner with the early-arriving guests
Sat 25 Sep: wedding ceremony and reception
Wed 29 Sep: back across the dateline to Sydney via Tokyo, arriving in Sydney on Friday 1 Oct
Sat 2 Oct: Sleaze Ball
Mon 4 Oct: home to Melbourne

Add to that a (hopefully small) election night gathering at our house on October 9, and you can see we’re chock-a-block for the next few weeks.

If you’re planning to come to any of these events and haven’t yet RSVP’d, or if you’re wondering why you weren’t invited (probably not because we don’t like you, more likely we made a boo-boo) get in touch now.

There’s also the possibility of sending a telegram to the wedding, and if you’re a friend we’d be thrilled if you did that. The details are in the wedding invite – or email me.

Paying catchup

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Here’s a bunch of things I’ve done in the last week or so, all of which deserve blog entries of their own, but none of which got onto the site within a decent timeframe, cos I was either hung over the next morning, too busy working, or otherwise distracted.

Below the fold: I go to a fashion parade, a football game and (eek!) a slave auction. Continue reading →

Australians reported kidnapped in Iraq

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There are unconfirmed reports this morning of two Australian security guards kidnapped in Iraq. A statement by a group calling itself the ‘Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army’ says it has captured two Australians and two Asians. The men will be executed unless John Howard withdraws Australia’s troops from Iraq within 24 hours. ABC News story.

Australian officials are treating the claims with appropriate urgency and circumspection. At this stage they are saying they cannot confirm the accuracy of the claims and none of the 88 Australian citizens registered at the embassy in Baghdad seems to be missing.

Of course both Howard and Latham have said, quite properly, that they will not negotiate with terrorists. If Australians really have been captured they will most likely end up dead, just as other western hostages have been executed with increasing regularity since the start of the US-led occupation. It’s a horrible outcome of a foolish and misguided escapade, and I guess it was only a matter of time before Australia was the target.

Coming in the midst of a federal election campaign only makes it worse, if that’s possible. In the coming days our leaders will maintain a firm and statesmanlike resolve not to make political capital of this, just like last week’s bombing in Jakarta. But it quite possible that this week we will be treated to the kind of gruesome images that other nations have had to endure as their reward for supporting the US in Iraq. Add to that my strong opinion that this election campaign will turn a lot nastier in the coming weeks, and once the gloves are off, it’s not gonna be pretty.

Let’s hope the reports turn out to be false.

The worm turned

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Just finished watching the debate – not the live-to-air version on 44 minutes plus ads, the delayed version on the National Broadcaster. Australian Idol gets priority, even in my house.

I thought Latham won, and I’m not alone. The early signs from the blogosphere are similar, and the audience of “uncommitted” voters in the Channel Nine studios agree, giving Latham the win by 67 to 33. Very pleasing.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is that Latham came out swinging on national security and pretty much nailed Howard over what is supposed to be the incumbent’s strong suit. In between Howard repeating the old “cut and run” palaver, Latham convincingly argued that the real job for national security is in our region, not in Baghdad.

Obviously last week’s bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta didn’t do this line of argument any harm, but it was not the expected outcome. The received wisdom is that the coalition’s strengths are the economy and national security, and the ALP’s are health and education, so for Latham to have (seemingly) trumped Howard on national security is a surprising and encouraging sign.

We have a lot of distance to cover before we get to October 9, but this result means that the game is on, at least.

Playing it straight

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OK. I just watched the first ep of Channel 7′s new reality show “Playing it Straight“.

The premise of this show is fairly straight(!)forward: one leggy blonde girl, twelve handsome bachelors, all alone in the outback. She has to choose one of them, by a process of elimination. In ep 1, much to her disdain, she’s informed that not all the guys are straight, and that if she ends up choosing a gay guy, she loses.

There are two possible outcomes:

1. Leggy blonde eventually chooses a straight guy: LB and SG get $100K each.

2. LB eventually chooses a gay guy: LB gets nothing, GG gets $200K.

So it’s a brilliant premise. It takes an established societal norm (“reality”) and makes a spectacle of it (“show”). In this case, the established societal norm is the unquestioned ability of gay men to lie about their sexuality.

This ain’t liberation, kids, this is exploitation. Not exploitation on a grand scale, just run-of-the-mill, common-or-garden-variety exploitation of the less privileged status of one group for the entertainment of a more privileged group. Whatever. I’m not that distressed.

I’d like to think there’ll be a follow-up series in which a group of straight guys pretend to be gay to win the affections of another guy, but it’s not something I expect to see. No, this is about turning the notion that gay men are talented liars into entertainment for the masses.

As I said, I’m not that distressed. This shit happens all the time.

So, here’s my personal opinion on which of the contestants are shirtlifters and which are breeders:

Ben: back door bandit
Damon: straight
Josh: cork soaker
Campbell: screaming
Sam: flaming (Wrong! Voted off tonight and he’s straight)
Evan: straight
Chad: willy woofter
Dane: straight
Dean: gay as a goose
James: straight
Glenn: straight
Simon straight (Right! Voted off tonight and straight he is)

So far I’m one for two.

I know I’m right about at least one of the remaining ten. I won’t reveal his name here (email me if you want to know) but, take it from me, he takes it like a black chook. He’ll probably win. You (almost) heard it here first.

Back to more meaningful concerns…

Jakarta

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flag.jpg

Not good. Not good at all.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta has apparently been the target of a massive car bomb this afternoon. Bad news at the best of times. Sad, very sad, for the victims (somewhere between six and nine so far) and their families. But during an election campaign … not good at all.

Numerous commentators are already saying it would be wrong for anybody to try to make political capital of this, and of course they are right. It would not just be wrong, it would be cheap, cynical, vulgar, desperate opportunism of the worst kind. I’d like to think that our politicians are above this kind of grubby behaviour but, let’s face it, they’ve done it before.

The next few days will be interesting and, I fear, awful.

This is the bullet

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Cartoon

I wish I had something substantial to say about the awful business in Russia. I don’t. I cried when I read the reports, especially several eyewitness accounts. What a dreadful business and what a hopelessly violent species we are. I thought Cathy Wilcox’s cartoon in today’s Age was in the right spirit. Heartbreaking.

Random pokes

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New content!

Over at the left, the little menu you never clicked that used to say “we | they” now has three options: buggery, jiggery and pokery, which are … well, go click. I ain’t yo’ mama.

To the black heart of our democracy

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Both Brent and I are going to Canberra later today for the annual conference of the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine. We’ll be in Canberra until Saturday night and, as these events tend to sap the very life force out of your humble scribe, I doubt I’ll have the energy or time to post much if at all during that period.

I am hoping to find time to nip off and have a wander through the NGA or the National Museum (which I’ve never seen) but the program looks pretty full from touchdown to departure, and of course Canberra in September isn’t somewhere one lingers any longer than duty requires.

With Parliament having been prorogued for the election, the national capital will, at least, be mercifully devoid of politicians, although I note that both Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer are on the program for the opening ceremony of the conference. I won’t be too disappointed if it turns out they’ve withdrawn at the last minute due to campaign commitments – there’s no more reason for them to be wandering the windswept streets of City Hill than me.

The pollie they should have booked is the always-entertaining Trish Worth, who is in the news this week, causing a stir with some really stupid remarks comparing asylum seekers to animals:

Ms Worth told hecklers at the forum, organised by Justice for Refugees, that there were “some very practical reasons” for mandatory detention.

“I mean, if you bring a dog into this country, or a cat from some countries, they … look can you just hear me out? There are certain tests to be carried out, there are health checks,” she said. [SMH]

Worth, who holds one of the most marginal Liberal seats in the country (not for much longer, I suspect) reckons she’s been taken out of context and that she didn’t really mean to compare refugees to mangy dogs as such. The PM has (surprise surprise) stood by her.

Several refugee groups have also come to her defence, pointing out that Ms Worth is one of the more compassionate members of the government when it comes to asylum seekers.

She’s not a bad person, just an exceptionally stupid one. And she’s not alone among our legislators in wearing that mantle. Alas.