ANZAC Day Dawn Service

Every year for as long as I can remember my Grandma has attended the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. She lost her husband, my grandfather, in WW2 and subsequently raised two boys on her own who never knew their father. She can not attend this year so I will take her place. I am sad and embarrassed to admit that I have never been to the Dawn Service before. My Pa also proudly fought in WW2, so it is fair to say that the war has had a dramatic effect on my family. I’m humbled to remember them both today.

Dedication of Purpose

At this hour, on this day, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, at Galipoli made immortal the name of ANZAC and established an imperishable tradition of selfless service of devotion to duty and fighting for all that is best in human relationships.

We who are gathered here today in this dawn vigil remember with gratitude the men and women who have given and are still giving in our Armed and Support Services, all that is theirs to give in order that the world may be a nobler place in which to live.

And with them, we remember those left behind to bear the sorrow of their loss.

Let us therefore dedicate ourselves to taking up the burdens of the fallen, and with the same high courage and stead-fastness with which they went into battle, set our hands to the tasks they left unfinished. Let us dedicate ourselves to the ideals for which they died. Let us with God’s help, give our utmost to make the world what they would have wished it to be, a better and happier place for all its people, through whatever means are open to us.

Special thanks to my dear, dear friend Sonia Louise who I accompanied this morning. She attends the Dawn Service every year.

Celebrating Good People on Good Friday!

Upfront: I have completely stolen this idea from Twitter-bestie ShaunHeron. He began a ‘movement’ during the week to change Follow Friday (or #FF) to Good Follow Friday. Instead of the Twitterverse sending shoutouts to their friends, for Good Friday he wanted everyone to send shoutouts to people who are doing good in the world. So that’s what I’m going to do at St. Murphy today.

Happy Easter!

Now I am not a religious person in any sense. Like many of my people, organised religion scares me. It's all that “Gays are going to hell” and “ Your relationships are the devil’s work” that puts me off. But I do believe in some of the christian values such as be kind to people, fill the world with love, take care of one another, respect and honesty.

While I am not 100% sure what Good Friday means in a Christian sense, I am going to use it to celebrate good people, doing good work, for the greater good. It may be someone undertaking a special project or just someone who just by being themselves makes the world a better place. Bottom line, I just want to celebrate and acknowledge some peeps that have made a difference in my world – the good people.

Mums

It’s a world so different to my selfish existence. This past month I’ve spent a lot of time with some beautiful mums – my Sis-In-Law and my gorgeous nieces and nephew, Cousin Trudy and Mrs Woog with the Woogettes. I honestly do not know how you ladies do it! I get exhausted thinking about it. I struggle with the compromising it involves having a pet, let alone a child. I've learnt from you guys how big and how important your role as a mother is. And goddamn you do it well!

Nina and Lucas

The Commitment Project           

Evan Cooper, through his website The Commitment Project, has simply, effectively and with so much heart put forward his case for Gay Marriage. Evan tells the story of gay couples who have been together longer than 8.8 years – this is the average length of a hetero marriage. It is a motivating and insightful website, and the fact that Evan has undertaken such a huge task is inspiring. It is people like Evan who can bring about great change. Get on board!

The Twitter-verse

I make jokes about my Twitter obsession all the time; yes it’s a time waster, yes it’s distracting, yes its full of a lot of shit. But I honestly do not know what I would have done the past few months without it, my crutch. It creates community, friendships, entertainment and knowledge. I’ve relied on it so much as an outlet for contact and engagement. And I’ve met so many new fabulous people, and cemented friendships with people who were only acquaintances previously. All jokes aside, its been my safe-place for the last few months. To my Tweeps – you are good, good people.

Twitter-Date #1 with @Simieboy & Milney01

Great writing & Tim Dunlop           

You maybe sensing a slight theme here, that’s because equality is very important to me. Via a tweet from TheFlack I was introduced to this phenomenal piece of writing by TimDunlop. For two reasons: his incredibly eloquent and sensible explanation for the legalising of Gay Marriage and for the fact he gives it to the offensive ramblings of Barry Cohen. For every dumb-ass Barry Cohen we need 5 brilliant Tim Dunlop’s so that as a society we are always moving forward, not backwards. We all need to stand up to the Barry Cohen's of the world.

Funny People

I rate laughing very highly. In fact, it is mandatory. Laughing with, laughing at, chuckling, mocking, laughing at yourself - its all good. Luckily all my friends are funny bitches, friends always have a shared sense-of-humour. Met a whole heap of new people lately who have made me laugh... Hard! So if I've laughed at, with or about you recently THANK YOU! I think everyone needs to lighten up! We've got a lot to be happy about me thinks.

Laughing...

exBoyfriend

I've been blogging for about 3 months and in that time Boyfriend became exBoyrfriend. Today I want to change it again. I use nicknames for my closest friends here on St. Murphy and exBoyfriend is one of my nearest and dearest. exBoyfriend sounds nasty and suggests a harshness that doesn't exist. He will now be known as Aschapelle due to his morbid obsession with Ms Corby. What this latest change means is that I 100% believe we have very maturely, cleverly and respectfully transitioned ourselves from long-term lovers to life-long friends. I would seriously be lost without my Aschapelle.





So thats my Good People on Good Friday wrap-up. Hope you liked it. Celebrate the good people today! And Laugh!

ROADTRIP: Priscilla Queen of Cobar

I love airports and I love planes! I've packed up my Clinique Men's range, headband and a suitcase of accessories and I'm heading 800km west of the Ghetto. But I always get a little nervous when you have to walk across the tarmac to get to your seat. Never a good sign…

Truth be known, I was asleep before take-off so the size of the plane was hardly a concern. I was off on a little jet plane to Dubbo for the first leg of my journey out west for Bro’s wedding. This first leg was the easy part, slept like a baby, the second part was a little more difficult but so much more interesting.

Picked up my hire car and my first Red Bull at Dubbo airport. Chookas to the lovely Budget Car woman who remembered me from last time. She is so sweet, and it was her wedding anniversary so extra love her way. And as she did for me last time, she wrote down the order of the towns that I had to drive through. Most important of the directions is the road selection at Nyngan – “veer left not right or you’ll end up in Bourke. This is not good.”

My 'virgin' beast!

So with the very handy list from Budget Lady I was off in my Hyundai i30, it had a grand total 36km on it so I’ve broken that baby in. I didn’t make it far before I needed a snack. Picked up a heavenly Chiko Role in Trangie as well as my second Red Bull. It’s 10.30am. Nothing like a hearty, well-balanced breakfast to start your day.

Now just before you hit Nyngan there is a gigantic sign welcoming you to the Bogan Shire – you can imagine how welcome that made me feel. I think I should have been born here! I am a very proud bogan, bogan to the core, and the gayest bogan of the bogan gays. I feel this is my homeland here in Bogan Shire. SO wish I had of got a pic of it. Stopped in Nyngan for more food and Red Bull, starting to see a pattern here??? I stop at the same place each time cause they have this gorgeous, quirky and slightly weird knick-knack collection on display….

Now after Nyngan the road gets even straighter and flatter (if that’s possible) and you lose all radio contact. Popped on my iPod, pre-charged and stocked in preperation. Did some BRILLIANT car-singing, some of my best ever! It was Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard soundtrack. Now seriously, at her peak the now crack-riddled Whitney was a genius! GENIUS! I’m Every Woman, Run To You, I Will Always Love You and Queen of the Night – I hit every note + plus key changes! I was successfully channelling Delta Goodrem.

No one can hear me out here!

Now on this long straight road where it seems you can travel at the speed of light, they seemed to have whacked up some stop lights for no apparent reason. Sat here on red for 5 minutes. Not really sure what I’d stopped for, but a red light is a red light. Go figure.

I had earlier bumped into a bikie gang at the Nyngan bakery. As always when I see/smell bikies it’s a strange mix of fear and arousal. They overtook my on the open road which had elements of Jodie Foster in The Accused. I tried to get a pic of them passing me, god only knows why. Probably should have been focused on not hitting them.

I had one more brief stop for a ciggie and then hit fabulous Cobar! For such a remote place, this place ROCKS! I always have a ball here. Those miners know how to enjoy themselves when they are above ground. Drinking here is something very different to home. Oxford St is a poor training ground for Cobar. I will give it my best this weekend though, my Bro deserves nothing less.

Priscilla Queen of Cobar has Arrived!

Bro's Getting Married

My one and only brother, my Bro, is getting married this Saturday which is the coolest thing in the world! It's going to be a massive, brilliant event. And, as I have been demanding from him since the age of 10, I am Best Man for my Bro. Couldn’t be more proud! But unfortunately with the very proud position of Best Man comes the Best Man’s speech. WIth only two days to go I'm having a slight panic.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what the Best Man's speech should be like. I'm feeling some pressure. It can really set the tone for the rest of the night. A funny, clever, topical BM’s speech can really get the party started. And you probably all know of weddings where it all goes tits-up after a bad or unfunny BM’s speech. I can not let that happen at my Bro’s wedding.

At the best of times I am a sentimental fool. At my Bro’s wedding my sentimental-factor hits 10+. How could it not??? All the elements are there. He's marrying his true partner and mother of his children, the gorgeous Kel. All our family will be there (remember, my family is like the mafia, we are also from Griffith!) and all our families closest friends. Plus of course my sister-in-law's family who are fabulous! Its gonna be a fantastc day and night. I’ll be speaking on behalf of Mumsy and I, with a big nod to Dadsy; I cry like a baby at the best of times so this is gonna be tough.

I'm reading all the tips...

Suits, cufflinks, ties and shoes – all organised. Mostly thanks to the soon-to-be-Mrs Murphy cause she is a MACHINE in the organisation stakes. If there is any organisation left up to Bro and I we will always come up short. Not in our genetic make-up me thinks, we’d be bankrupt if we were an events organising company. We were just lucky enough to pull off the Buck’s Night, anything more is too big for us. So for the big day I don’t have much to think about or prepare for - except the speech.

No one told me such a book existed

It’s really important to me for so many reasons that I get this right. It needs to be that weird mix of funny, sincere, official and BRIEF. I struggle with brief. The first time I was a Best Man, for my bestie Snuddo, I think it clocked in at 40mins. The wedding video is excruciating and still requires some heavy editing. The second time, when I was Matron of Honour for darling Cassandra Louise, it was at a fabulously informal gathering so it rolled off the tongue in a matter of minutes. Bro’s wedding is new ground and so not the time to be testing new material.

...and stealing lines!

There is one small thing I must be thankful for, and I will go to hell for saying it out loud. Until recently exBoyfriend was to be the MC but with the recent ‘change of circumstance’ a replacement has had to be found. Thank God! He so would have shown me up for being the second-rate public speaker that I am, he is a natural at it. Phew! Maybe I should be getting him to write the speech… (said with a hint of hope that there will be an offer made).

Best be off and get cracking on the speech! Cousin Trude, hope you are available for a test-run-through????

Next post: Like Priscilla Queen of the Dessert I will be en-route to Cobar for the much-anticipated wedding! Till then…

Me in Cobar!