tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56897062024-03-06T06:11:07.495+00:00kewlchopsGeorge Oates's personal blog. Enjoy! Tell your mum.georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comBlogger1196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-52162945221722846952023-03-21T11:34:00.004+00:002023-03-21T14:52:59.851+00:00See if you can tell
It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since I left Australia. It feels like a lifetime ago, yet the memories of that time are still vivid in my mind.
When I decided to leave, I was filled with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I had spent my entire life in Australia, and while I loved my home country, I also felt a strong pull to explore the wider world.
Leaving my family and georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-25536919381267930332023-03-01T21:43:00.007+00:002023-03-02T10:13:23.803+00:00I've fallen out of love with Indiana JonesI loved him to death when I was a girl. Raiders of the Lost Ark was a wonder. The poison darts, the idol, the booby traps, the exotic locales, the "archaeology," the hating-the-Nazis, that trick he worked out with the post-with-the-gem-on-top in the map of the city that time...But, he was somewhat of glorious purpose. Even in his swashbuckling. He was get the baddies. Those people he is georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-24109447793228787062022-05-12T18:08:00.005+01:002022-05-12T18:09:40.865+01:00Today's a big dayI first wrote about a possible Flickr Foundation back in November 2007 in a notebook. Today we filed a Certificate of Incorporation to bring it into existence. Luckily I have a mate coming over for a sausage and a bottle of bubbles in the fridge, otherwise I'm sure I'd go quite mad from typing OMG OMG OMG into every box I've got on this damn laptop.12th May, 2022. There you have it.(I'll georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-56185480331672888472022-04-09T18:27:00.000+01:002022-04-09T18:27:02.507+01:00Scrubbed It's Saturday. I'm sure I've told you before I like a lazy Saturday. There was a new Killing Eve to watch, which I have now accomplished. Eventually, I got out of bed and dressed, and headed out into the chilly spring day with big fat white clouds.I popped into Jolene on the off-chance of a table for one because their feed said mortadella but it was chokkas and the nice young women georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-53327108895694893242022-03-03T18:29:00.005+00:002022-03-03T18:31:44.616+00:00It's done. It worked, we think.I've been home 7 days now. This morning I cleared away the medical stuff that had lingered. Pain meds, spare compression socks, constipation powder, letters from the hospital, Spatone. I moved the projector from the boudoir back up to the lounge–that was too good and I would never leave the boudoir if I kept it there, but maybe it will return for the right moment or person–and am generally georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-2778704900589709112022-01-31T19:29:00.001+00:002022-01-31T19:29:14.185+00:00"Please resume breathing."Today I had an MRI. I'm writing about this because it's novel for me. Plus, the "what to expect from an MRI" stuff I saw was... uninformative. I went to the place. I was a bit nervous and therefore surly on arrival. I couldn't hear the explanation the chap was giving me, and had been led to believe there would only be one thing—dye—injected, so was more surly when he said something about georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-91489830865894660672022-01-30T11:23:00.001+00:002022-01-30T11:23:27.564+00:00My body my choiceIt's been a while. Happy new year. It's a sunny Sunday morning, and it feels like spring is coming. The birds are chirping a little twinklier, and yesterday it was 14'C.Soon I'll have my last period. That'll be something like the 420th one. I can't remember exactly when my first one was, but I do remember that my sister's friend went to the Big Heart supermarket with me and got me some pads. georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-80057873471999901452021-05-14T08:30:00.002+01:002021-05-14T08:33:47.391+01:00Culture BurnI've learned three new Australian things:Ember Attack I was watching a show recommended by my sister called You Can't Ask That, and this episode was about firefighters. They were talking about what it's like to fight a gigantic fire, and how even if there's a fire break like a road or something that can be skipped over by an ember attack, and the fire continues.Deep Time There's a real hum georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-7717441194255387212021-03-23T16:00:00.016+00:002021-03-23T16:30:14.369+00:00I have returned to the place I am fromIt feels appropriate to break out of the COVID-19 Journal now. At least for the next little while perhaps. I write to you from a little room in Perth, where I've been holed up for the past several days to clearly and unequivocally establish I will not be the guy to bring that horrifically contagious strain of the virus into this wide, brown land, my home. I'm exchanging madness for the belief I georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-21451118774255520952021-02-22T21:24:00.010+00:002021-02-22T21:34:15.596+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 338Now I'm just using my creative writing course to spawn content for the blog. I'll put some lunch photos at the end. Sadly, the course has now finished. Thank you very much to our teacher, Vicky Grut, who is an ACTUAL WRITER.This was a quick exercise we did in class, about setting a scene without stating the obvious. Writing for ten minutes after selecting from one of five prompts:She was very georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-14439016455149127122021-02-10T15:54:00.010+00:002021-02-10T16:12:19.567+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 326Today is about 1'C. It's snowed a bit for the last three. I am still deeply amazed and awed by snow. I love it. I spent most of the first day just sitting in my front window and looking at it. Turbulence, writ large. The cats liked looking at it too. I've enjoyed the proper cold. My step count has flip-flopped between 0 and 12,000 daily this year so far, and I am fine with this. Cardio? georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-2040872784643895302021-01-25T22:30:00.009+00:002021-01-26T00:08:29.344+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 310I have made a delicious 24 hour salt-and-pepper dry-brined expensive spatchcocked roast chicken. I've had one drumstick and thigh in some fried rice and now the whole house smells like it and even though it's delicious I feel like it's everywhere. I thought I'd valiantly do the make your roast chicken stretch the week and now I'm like ugh. Once I finish writing to you I'll go and deal with it. georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-18443085160531169052021-01-22T18:41:00.005+00:002021-01-22T19:04:32.813+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 307Thank god I've defeated the lentils. No actually they were delicious and lasted me three days of meals. I had "lunch" at... 16:21.Just one sausage left. Buttery toast, obvs.Quite a lot happened today, but I can't really remember what. Spoke to several other humans, either phone or Skype, which was refreshing. A friend in Liverpool, one in Maryland, another in Massachusetts, one in Somerset. Now georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-67921898938768294282021-01-20T22:09:00.009+00:002021-01-20T22:16:02.182+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 305Naturally I began today tweeting to the ether that my job for today was to listen to Kate Raworth's book called Doughnut Economics. I did so. I'm enjoying it.
Today my job is to listen to Doughnut Economics by @KateRaworth 🍩🍯🎧— George Oates (@ukglo) January 20, 2021It's history and critique and statistics and information and a roadmap, all about economics and the planet and humanity. georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-72616121452486882462021-01-19T19:23:00.007+00:002021-01-19T19:26:48.288+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 304Whoops almost forgot and then just remembered that yesterday I said I'd try and do this each day again or close to it, so here we are.Last night I attended the first session of an online creative writing class with actual strangers and a teacher and it was awesome so now I'm free-writing this which was the first exercise we did, and to be honest most of the journal entries I've made are a bit georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-26052311634705290712021-01-18T15:31:00.004+00:002021-01-18T23:36:22.353+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 303Oops. Missed Day 300. I'm officially marooned. Marooned in my house in London though, so, it could be worse. At the beginning of my maroonment, I decided to read Robinson Crusoe for the first time in a billion years. Turns out he was a slave owner. He was stuck on Trinidad. When Friday enters the story, it gets gut-wrenchingly awful. I kept thinking what it must (have been?) like for black georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-85972121142804571012020-12-29T19:15:00.003+00:002020-12-29T19:16:57.946+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 283Happy Christmas.I was booked on a flight on 30 December to go home for 6 months, but that was cancelled. I'm working on it, like the tens of thousands of other Australians who are trying to go home. My home state is only letting in 600 people a week so the quarantine procedure doesn't get overwhelmed. I had made many major plans in order for this to work. These plans have gone somewhat awry.georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-49624827161132558092020-12-17T20:11:00.007+00:002020-12-17T20:29:30.232+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 271aI'm ok. I feel better today. You know when a scab comes off when the skin underneath is very tender and new but also sealed and ready? It's a bit like that. You can just feel that the black dog has wandered off. It was a big thing to learn that you will eventually feel better even when you're in a depressive bout.Plus I made Nigella's giant pot of lemony chicken orzo thing for linner-duncheon andgeorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-261100153386563972020-12-17T00:19:00.011+00:002020-12-17T00:52:33.561+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 271What a day. Started well. Coffee, small gift, bacon, orzo (in a packet), coffee, four carrots. Took the bus after (that and sunny Tower of London) for about 20 mins. Went past my stop to look beyond. Ended up crying as quietly as possible wearing sunglasses and a mask in 10'C as I wandered up Green Lanes on the side of the footpath that’s the way back home. Had been listening to a georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-3057227271902496592020-12-09T13:11:00.006+00:002020-12-09T14:26:00.452+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 263I think it's Day 263. Each time I take a break from writing and then come back, I count days on my fingers and hope I'm getting it right. I'm not traditionally strong on arithmetic, except in restaurants when I'm in a group getting the bill. (This is mostly because I just round up and simplify.)I was with a friend last week. I turned into a version of myself I don't like. Needy and questioning. georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-30737532907363469682020-12-02T16:31:00.003+00:002020-12-02T16:33:33.147+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 256 So, it's fine. I'm not fat. But, I do have a problem. I, like about 1 in 3 women have fibroids. I first noticed mine when I woke up in a tent last year in Kent needing to do a wee. I felt my belly and a big lump. My first thought was cancer, so I went to the doctor. The GP I saw cast a wide net of testing, so I was sent to get various scans etc, including a surprisingly georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-22341593751971253602020-11-15T16:32:00.003+00:002020-11-15T16:34:55.717+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 239Because I have no ideas and too many ideas today I thought I'd look back, a bit like they do on TV shows like Family Ties or Golden Girls when the writers have no ideas or too many ideas. So, reader, we find ourselves back at Day 7. That's 232 days ago now, people. Anyway, back then, you may recall I was hypothesising about the tribes that may be about to form...What tribes will form? Who georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-53628425701786144692020-11-10T18:35:00.007+00:002020-11-10T18:38:14.243+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 234Last week I had a singular fantasy. I wanted to be wandering along the chilly streets of London, to stumble on a not busy cosy cafe, find that there was a perfect and delicious Black Forest Gateau on the counter, and to eat a slice of it, with a black coffee, looking at the window at the city.I looked. There isn't one. I've found a gap.Ever since then, I'd harboured a gentle humming desire for georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-9261123849225237252020-11-07T16:28:00.002+00:002020-11-09T16:14:40.994+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 231 Well, the good news is the Cheeto is FUCKED.In other news, I think I might finally be becoming British. Yesterday I listened to quite a lot of Brian Eno's early and definitive ambient music. Just like the Alan Bennett revelation a bit ago, turns out Eno is quite good too. And I must say, I admire his desire to create music that is just there, in a space with you.I am sitting in my outdoor georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689706.post-42912910645496621242020-11-05T10:57:00.006+00:002020-11-05T12:29:26.136+00:00COVID-19 Journal: Day 229Yesterday, November the fourth, I rose and delayed tuning into the world. Normally, I'd flip the radio on when I get to the kitchen, before I put the kettle on. But yesterday I didn't. I made coffee, and toast with butter and strawberry jam. I sat in my kitchen spot, and cracked open the news.It wasn't the blue landslide people like me were expecting or hoping for. It was closer than it should begeorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18251729055245254088noreply@blogger.com