twice

I'm sitting here, a couple of wines and too much rum down, watching Pearl Harbour. Overblown nonsense, but thoroughly watchable. And I thought...near to death experiences. I don't mean stuff like Dad; he was fucking ill. More the sudden "OOOOOooooh shiiiiiittTTTT" stuff. Two so far, a low count for one so old as me...

First...1993, Chile. Overturned boat with people in a sea water lagoon out front of a glacier; kinda cold. Dai (David Hathaway, to give him his proper name) and I paddled a kayak out into the icy water and plucked a few people from the water, ferrying them to shore.

Second...London tube-and-bus bombings. I got to work as the Leadenhall and Fenchurch streets in London were being cordoned off by the police. My office was the last one before the cordon, the last one people were being allowed in to. As I arrived, after leaving my pushbike chained under Lloyds of London, news was of a power surge knocking out some tube lines. Then we heard about the bus. Unlikely that a tube power surge would blow up a bus...We were moved from any desks near windows, then moved to the centre of the office block...after a couple of hours we were given the option to leave the office. I took it, collected the pushy and cycled home on London's empty roads. Eerie...no buses...few cars...

Anyway, back to the movie. God bless you Ben Afleck!

The picture atop this post , incidentally, is of a Brett Whiteley sculpture that sits behind the art gallery at the top of the Domain in Sydney, the art gallery I visited today for the first time. Pretty poor effort on my part having not visited the gallery for nigh-on 9 years...but I'll be back...