Mister Mister take your hands off ma sister

Tonight is Reclaim the night for women. Women take to the streets and march, women only are to march. Men if their supportive have to stand on the sidewalks with signs. Ben, was tinkering a week before the march. He made a hundred small roses out of paper for anna his lady. But his master piece was to be the three large lamb roses for the rally. As seen in Magan's photo.

The rally was an hour long just getting people to listen outside of the City Hall. We had speakers from city hall give us the stats from Brisbane, almost 500 hundred reported rapes this year alone, and 80% go unreported, it was shocking. 1 out of 3 women.

We had people with disabilities speak about how rape goes unreported because their not able to have a voice of their own. We had Aboriginal people speak about abuses and there were several touching moments. It was difficult to hear but this was needed. A few months ago down the street where we're staying there was a rape, the men were never found. We stopped the march there and did a moment of silence.  Our chants where ''mister mister take your hands off ma sister'', ''hey ho sexual assault must go'', ''Women deserve to walk the streets free of fear of being raped'', ''No means no, yes means yes, no matter where I go or what I wear'',  Fay, Magan, Amanda and I were in the front leading the march following the cop cars. Our voices are now warn down from yelling. Ben and Patrick had signs on the side of the roads. Restaurants and bars were cheering for us and women and men alike where chanting with us and honking to encourage. Never in a million years did I for see myself leading a march in Australia holding signs over my head. Go figure.

We returned home and opened a bottle of wine and they asked us to stay at least until the Queer Halloween party. It's getting harder and harder to leave our new friends.


Photos by Amanda and Magan
Thank you guys :)

Kangaroo Point

   Well another day has come and gone, here in Queensland. As promised Amanda took us out to a park to learn how to skate, Fay was a natural. I however was horrible with controlling my footing. I wipeout the most out of everyone. Amanda insisted on full safety gear, which I was thankful for. Once we all took a break in the grass and we heard a group of people come toward us a young teenage boy with his hand in his hand bag clearly on something talking to himself comes over to Amanda and belittles her. Which broke my heart to have someone come over to this person that I care about and be discriminatory. Which is ironic because he was black and you think he'd have the empathy to realize that in many ways Amanda is like him. Amanda answered his question quietly and stared at her feet. Magan said '' Can you please get lost?'' I looked at him and said yes please if you don't mind. He swore at us and spat at me ( i was sitting nearest to him ) I looked at him and said nothing even after he spat on my face. As we got up and left he was telling us ''whities'' to go back to our own countries. When leaving we saw the other 4 people sniffing glue and the children near by, we reported them. I have no tolerance for ignorance.  The image of Amanda staring at her feet sticks with me. It's not easy for us but it's harder for some people in the community more than the others. It's why we have to stick together, a family.

 We had a girls night out and got some asia noodles at a restaurant of Amanda's choice. After that the boys came home and thought it would be nice to give us a tour around the city at night. We drove up to Mount Coot-tha where you can get a panoramic view of the city at night. You can see the bats the size of birds flying below near the trees.

Once we left the mountain top, they took us to Kangaroo Point that over looks the river and the bridges got some pictures and headed home. One thing about the blue house is that even if your tired or just wanted to get water from the kitchen, you end up sitting down and talking until 2am.

Farmer's markets

 The nice thing about Brisbane is that we've managed to track the markets. The fruit is so fresh, and it's local ! The prices are better at the markets than the stores. We buy only what we can eat until the next market day (which is about three days away).

 This morning we went in town to do the market and get a few things for the Gold Coast. After that we headed back for laundry and we saw our first spider that according to Magan was a red back. But later after killing it and googling it was not.

Tomorrow Amanda has told us once she gets home from work she's going to teach us how to  skateboard. Which is awesome! Amanda's a bit of a free spirit she's also rides a bike around the backyard every now and then, we're all a bit jealous of her skills.

A short note about the blue house we have the doors wide open for the breeze and at night before closing the doors sometimes possums come near the doors, a few nights ago two of them almost wondered in. Tonight I saw one much closer, there sorta like are raccoons but without the craws. I like them :) we made friends.




Tonight after dinner we hung out with Amanda and Magan and chatted to the sounds of a music studio next door with bands playing all night, until the weather broke and it started to rain. The lighting is         huge and purple. And now we sleep to the sound of rain drops on our tin roof.

Brisbane

 After parting ways with Bianca, Fay and I are staying with Magan in the Queer district. Within the first little while we we're in our first protest for Occupy Brisbane, it was in the centre of the bank district. Over 50 tents, signs, speeches, the whole nine yards. We helped set up the kitchen for the campers and volunteers.


 The next day we went to the beach again. This beach is in the centre of the city, it's a man made beach with real sand. Soft white sand. ( that doesn't get overly warm because it's too fine ) The palm trees are real and there are large birds everywhere that get up close and personal, how personal that varies depending on how much food you have on you. The grass is like golf course grass in Canada. There's markets near the beach. Sushi here is two dollars a roll and tasty compared to Canadian sushi.


Magan took us over to another one of the shared houses like ours that had a resent tragedy happen. One of the roomates had passed away and to heal the shared houses thought it be easier on close family to just clean house and take care of her stuff, as sad as this was. It was interesting to see how wonderfully caring these people are to come together and heal. We dropped by to see the house and to our surprise everyone was painting and moving couches. Magan introduced us to all the other roomates, and gave us a tour of the house. Everyone was fixing something or being helpful in anyway possible. Everyone in the house was fantastic Anna, Ben's girlfriend lived there and we already got to meet her earlier, Fay and I were unfortunately not in the best shape that day because we partied late the night before and weren't much help for the house, it was nice to get to visit tho.


The next day was the Zombie walk, Australia has the world record for the most zombies. I personally have a fear of crowds and get anxiety if too many people get together in mops. Fay really wanted to go and dress up, Magan was cutting up old jeans before noon. I thought what the hell lets be apart of the record books. Magan made me put on a washable tattoo at the very least. Fay did her make up with tattoos and Magan went all out. There were 3,000, we got split up and the cops held the traffic off. Everyone shouted brains or screamed. People or should I say zombies would look for the photographers and run at us. Which made for fun shots but I was not entirely comfortable.




The next few days were spent shopping for new bikini's and setting up bank accounts. As much as we feel at home here in Brisbane we don't want to set down roots right yet. Even if this is home away from home.

Farewell England

                                                                                                         

 

 The time has come for us to pack up and be on our way. The McIntyre's are very close, and even though their used to being apart saying good bye never gets any easier. Fay's family has been so kind and generous it's easy to feel like your part of the family. 

  Sometimes I feel guilty for being out of london because I steal their youngest away wherever I go. Peter Fay's father gave a hug and a few words of wisdom, Jackie gave a great big hug and we checked through security.

The flight was through Qantas, it was 13 hours from London to Bangkok Thailand the lay over was an hour and a half. I was sick from not eating and the water in the airport tasted like dirt even though it was crystal clear... go figure. I tried to get some sleep while waiting for the gate to open. We reloaded and left for Sydney Australia, this flight was 8 hours and some. From the airplane we saw the sunrise over the coast   where we were to land. The sun was hiding behind clouds of pink. I'd never seen this hue of pink in my life, it was incredible.  As we got nearer to the sea I could make out coral formations and began to look for sharks or whale shapes... there were none. I got motion sickness when landing but managed to keep it together until we landed. Once in Sydney we rechecked our bags and boarded for Brisbane, two hours later and passports stamped we all felt horrible and smelt some kind of nasty. But we finally are in OZ!  

The first two days all three of us were sick, in all sorts of ways. But good news is I've finally found my natural clock  I wake early here and sleep around 930pm, I figure it's the sun it's out earlier. In Canada I can sleep until 3pm if I let myself, so finally I can enjoy a normal day :) 

The first night we crashed at the nearest bed & breakfast, called Anne's. The gentleman that ran it was so kind and gave us all the directions we needed to find a hostel the next day. 

The hostel we settled on was called Tin Billy. It was located in the centre of the city. We had some interesting people rooming with us a Koran gentleman named Ane. And a grump-ie misplaced 68 year old that was kinda racist and a tad ignorant. Once we got in touch with our Canadian friend Magan, we got our things ready to relocate on the South Bank. Magan was kind enough to help us walk our stuff over. By this time Bianca had decided that she'd be staying else where at one of her friend's houses. So we went our separate ways which is fine. 

Once we reached Magan's Blue house we where settled in the spare room. Ben one of her roomates ( who is extremely crafty hand made flowers and doors out of cardboard to give a fake little house feel. ) As seen in the photo below. 

Amanda another roomate who is very shy and kind, quickly made us feel at home with late night film chats. 

Patrick the third roomate, was instantly welcoming offering to cook us pasta with home made sauce.  

Every person here was so special to me in their own way, but most of all I couldn't help but feel that this area, the queer district was safe. And all those years in Fredericton, this was what I felt home was with these people, my community. The fear of walking down the street and hearing remarks, the pit in my stomach was gone the stares were no longer. It feels like the future. It made me sad that Canada was lacking in these areas. It makes me want to never return to that feeling of less worth. Not to mention it has the best Indian restaurant in Brisbane, holy cow! seriously we're going back tomorrow night. 

                                              

Saturday at Camden

We chose to return to Camden for some Saturday shopping. Which wasn't the best of ideas because Camden has extra venders come out for the weekend. The tubes weren't much help with the crowds of people, because the tubes have construction on the weekends... every weekend. Which forces people to ride the same rails for routes that they don't normally use to get to those destinations. In the end it was bearable but a bit much.

 When we reached Camden market we headed for tai food, there were no seats so we eat with everyone else on a curb, which was really funny to see. Lines of people tracing the streets in every direction. The market was so over crowded that the crowds coming out of the market entrances appeared as a pulsing vein, with the rhythm of to and from.

With our tummies full and wallets willing we braved the masses. Bianca wanted a dress, which we found by the end of the day. Both Bianca and I found earrings that were fair trade. Once we got what we needed we headed back for yet another family get together. And started to repack for our flight to Oz.

Return to Putney

The next morning we cleaned the flat and headed for the tubes, we missed the jack the ripper tour but managed to go to the London bridge experience. 

Which was a really awesome history lesson. We got to walk over the tombs and under the London bridge. It was smelly but really interesting and got us in touch with how we walk in history everyday. History is always in the making. However Fay was not as keen on the tombs, mainly because the second half was a haunted house history theatre walk through.

 I don't recall the history books mentioning clowns with chainsaws ..... this is not an exaggeration by any means. I was glad Bianca was in front, I managed to close my eyes and tuck my head in between her tiny shoulder blades. The man behind us was screaming so much that his wife told him to shut up. Only then did I realize that he wasn't one of the spooks around us. The chainsaw was real and Bianca didn't trust the guard. And to be frank neither did I. Again I was grateful for her shoulders.


Lunch was at the Embankment we had sushi and some Hermen the German.


     After that we headed for the tubes to visit Alice one of Fay's friends from Kuwait. The visit was short but it was all we had time for. By then we needed to get to the airport to catch a ride back to Fay's place in Maidenhead where we'd meet up for a an Italian dinner at a local restaurant. Which was just in time! 

Camden Town

                                                                                 It's been a few days now and it's only going to go by faster until we land come Monday morning. So far we woke early to defy the jet leg. Bianca is doing better but still has an eye infection on the mend. Yesterday we showed Bianca the best places in Camden Market.

Nothing is quite like the indie capital, everything from piercing to tattoos. At times all of the above. I feel like I can disappear in the sea of faces. The cafe was nice, and we got some tai food from the venders. Everywhere you turn is culture. Music and vintage shops, at first glance it seems over whelming but to us it was home. The tea cafes in the stables and the pray flags lining the shops.

                   We settled down around five when the market slows, we sat outside on couches and had sesha until the moon came out. The stress of Canada had been   lifted. It's our time now.


We ended up going to a pub in Putney that was two stories with book cases and had a charming bartender that served water and sols beers 3 for 5 qid. So we laughed until our eyes went heavy and turned in late.   

         

Iceland and the flight to England

  The flight left late Monday night we said our farewells and set out to meet up with Fay in England. This will be my fifth time visiting England, and for Bianca this is her first. I'm terribly excited to get out of Canada and see Fay.  


  Our flight was a connecting one the first part was 5 hrs. Then we touched down in Iceland and got some breakfast with was well over due. Our stay was nice they even took Canadian currency. A few postcards later we were at our next flight gate and loading. Bianca was sick from the food and the man next to us gave up his seat for her to lay out. The second half of the flight was a little ruff for the two of us, and the landing was turbulent. We got in at 11:35 English time. By then we we're both sick and rather exhausted. Fay was waiting at the airport entrance Pete was bring the car around which was ever so nice of them to pick us up. After a getting settled and passing out for a group nap, we cooked a beautiful dinner and now are watching across the universe. I'm going to take a night nurse and call it a night. Cheers folks!