Tag Archives: multicultural

Late post today — eyesight adventure and happy place gone

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Yes, the dreaded eye examination

9.10 am I had an appointment at Illawarra Ophthalmology.

Result? Back from the ophthalmologist and blur drops are almost worn off. OK, the news is exactly what an 81 year old would expect. Cataracts, but not yet requiring surgery, and a degree of macular degeneration to be monitored. See the Prof again in 12 months — if still alive. Get those over due new specs!!!! Compared with some of my 1959 classmates from SBHS I am actually rather well off!

Next door is Byarong Creek, and just over the bridge is The Hellenic Club. Or was…

Requiem for the Hellenic Club

Can you believe it?

Baby Toshiba and pasta 2012

Spring coming; $8 roast lamb at The Hellenic Club

Posted on  by Neil

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Spring!

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I did it justice…

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Ten years ago: Got more than I bargained for at The Wollongong Hellenic Club today. Combined Greek Welfare Centre event plus next week being Greek Independence Day. Interesting time.

The lovely Sophia, and her Friday all you can eat menu!

BUFFET LUNCH
& DINNER
All you can eat with
a combination of
Traditional Greek
and Australian Cuisine

The lamb shanks were made in Heaven!

But alas, today it stood all closed up and forlorn….

The website tells the sad tale….

My Dad’s birthday, and former neighbours

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Jeffrey Noel Whitfield 25 November 1911 – 27 December 1989

A photo of Dad that I had never seen before last year — and yes I wondered if AI had been involved. But it is on Virtual War Memorials Australia. The Patron-in-chief is General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK AC(Mil) CVO MC (Retd) so it is legit.
I have colourised it.

A poem Dad never tired of quoting

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown forever dies.
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door where in I went.
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d –
‘I came like Water, and like Wind I go.’

From The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald

Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1123) was a Persian mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet, today most famous for his Rubaiyat, a spirited and profoundly humanistic celebration of life, love and liquor! The best known translation (or rather adaptation) is that of the English writer Edward Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was born in 1809 and published his first set of Khayyam-inspired verses in 1859.

My Persian neighbour

At Puckeys, North Wollongong October 2013 — my former neighbour Danny from Isfahan on the right.

See also Reclaiming Australia Persian-style in Wollongong.

I had a beautiful lamb shank dish, buried under fragrant rice.

Danny was not a great fan of the current regime in Iran, had in the past been a student protester. We had many informative conversations. And here is a reminder from recent times;

Incidentally, the first Iranian I ever met was when I was working at Wessex College of English in 1990. He was a colleague. He had been a member of an Iranian rock band and had to leave to escape persecution.

Danny had contacted me, sadly, because another of our former neighbours had died.

An item that came my way on YouTube

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Pai Pai — LGBTQI+ in China — and learning English

Here he is:

And very much speaking for himself, I would say. His desire to share his experience and communicate with others shines through.

Reminded me very much of the Chinese people I got to know in Sydney in the early 1990s, through my time teaching in a language college and also through my friend and flatmate Michael from Shanghai.

Michael and Sirdan, Surry Hills 2010

1993 — guests at my 50th birthday party, Elizabeth Street

Surry Hills Christmas 1992 or 1993: l-r George from Shanghai, me, Michael

That was taken in winter 1990 on an excursion to Wollongong with my class of overseas adult students. The couple on the right are from Korea, as I think is the woman with the red bag – or is she Chinese? Blue umbrella is Zhang Rui from Tianjin in China (a scientist) and next to him another Chinese, Ding. The taller slightly older man is Bill Zhang from Guangzhou. Lovely man.

The language abilities of the Chinese students were often amazing, especially given how pathetic my few attempts to acquire some Mandarin were! This video from China is interesting in that respect.