I was very fortunate to be back on assignment for Scenestr magazine, this time my first live event since COVID shut down the Brisbane Comedy Festival in March.
It was at The Sideshow in Brisbane’s West End. West End has its own character and history as a southside boy from the suburbs I am fairly ignorant of.
It’s down from the city’s South Bank precinct which I am more familiar with which is a giant cultural and restaurant hub with museums, art gallery and markets.
West End is the cheaper hippier end of this.
I remember going to see show with David Hasselholf years ago and seeing young people eating on a window sill out of saucepans in an apartment above a set of shops and just being delighted by it.
Places like West End are in danger of losing such culture with increased urban development but it was alive and well on sunday night December 6.
We entered what looked like a regular cafe, went up some stairs, got served at some makeshift bar and sat on pretty simple chairs. Nobody was wearing masks, we just didn’t do that in Queensland.
There were 13 active cases in the state.
The venue had the setting of being in someone’s large living room for a get together on a sunday arvo for a few laughs.
It was good to have a laugh.
The comedians were diverse in their styles and backgrounds and led by MC Steph Tisdell who got the crowd supporting them fully and open to the experimentation of the event.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Christmas Decorations. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
This War of the World piece is a mainstay of West End.Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Afterwards Karen and I wandered the streets of West End looking for a place to eat and also making our way back to where we parked in South Bank. Yeah we kind of had to let it across the suburbs to get to The Sideshow.
With some delight we saw some Christmas decorations and entered a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant we had seen packed only two hours later completely empty.
As someone who has always enjoyed quiet places Karen and I settled in for some fried rice.
There was a garden inside with a pond and we had the whole place to ourselves as West End started to quiet down for the night.
Karen waiting for our dinner. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The West End Garden Restaurant staff were so good to us, the food was fantastic and the whole place was just wonderful. Karen and I really enjoyed our night out.
Numbers were climbing around the word, I was worried about people who lived there. It was almost surreal what was happening in Australia. It felt like we being kept out of some sick game although I’m sure Victorians would agree they had had their fill.
On the 6th of December the World Health Organisation reported there had been 66,184,789 cases globally with a daily increase of 652,608.
1 million 5 hundred 2 twenty 6 six thousand and 6 hundred and 6 sixty 2 two deaths.
1,526,662 deaths globally from COVID.
With a daily increase of 10,767.
In Australia there had been 27,956 confirmed cases with a daily increase of seven. There had been 908 deaths.
In Canada there had been 402,569 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,299. There had been 12,496 deaths with a daily increase of 89.
In the United Kingdom there had been 1,705,975 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 15,539. There had been 61,014 deaths with a daily increase of 397.
In India there had been 9,644,222 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 36,011. There had been 140,182 deaths with a daily increase of 482.
In the United States of America the day before, the 5th of December had been a day of big numbers. A new record for daily increase in confirmed cases – 218,671. The highest number of daily recorded deaths since March and April – 2,844.
On the 6th of December there had been 14,191,298 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 213,127. There had been 276,503 deaths with a daily increase of 2,426.
On Sunday the 29th of November, 2020 I was lucky enough to attend a preview screening of the HBO documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? at New Farm cinemas and I got to take Karen with me.
Just another milestone that things were pretty in our neck of the woods while case numbers continued to rise astronomically abroad.
I enjoyed the documentary, it rang very poignant for me given Barry Gibb’s advancing years. I can tell you there were quite a few people of Barry’s and my parent’s age in the audience. I even floated the idea of taking my Mum but she had to decline. Maybe in the audience there were people who had known the Bee Gees from their days in Redcliffe. They certainly laughed and nodded at points like they were flicking through the pages of a photo album. Your culture remains your’s for life – it takes hold you of for life.
I grew up in a household of The Beatles and The Bee Gees. I heard The Rolling Stones and David Bowie but they weren’t in the house. I’m prety sure at one point there was a copy of every Bee Gees album on at least LP, tape or CD.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen and I. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Me posing with Rocky poster. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
It sent me down a bit of rabbit-hole of Youtube clips.
I would urge you to listen to a live acoustic performance they did of one of their lesser singles Blue Island from one of their strongest later albums from the early 1990s. The thing is, it’s not a bad song but something magical happens when the harmonies those brothers had together sing it. It is something special.
There is an interview Maurice Gibb had in the wake of doing rehab for alcoholism, (I thought he got clean well before Andy Gibb’s death not after) and Barry Gibb talking about his brothers, his wife – his family to Piers Morgan.
I would urge you to listen to a live acoustic performance they did of one of their lesser singles Blue Island from one of their strongest later albums from the early 1990s. The thing is, it’s not a bad song but something magical happens when the harmonies those brothers had together sing it. It is something special.
There are personal favourites here like The Nights on Broadway (I had no idea they were that broke when they recorded that album), and younger hits like You Win Again which is soooo 80s, their last hit single This Is Where I Came In which I will defend to the death is proof they were still crushing it in 2001, their first big hit as they left Australia in the 60s – Spicks and Specks which is a personal favourite and maybe lesser known to Americans and even Brits I think.
Songs like Alone and Immortality from 1997 which resonates even more now. Absent are the disco hits which I loved as a kid but have listened to a lot more than these gems and I suspect you have too.
Anyway enjoy.
On the 29th of November the World Health Organisation reported there had been 61,990,265 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally with a daily increase of 604,549.
There had been 1,451,964 deaths globally with a daily increase of 9,520.
In Australia there had been 27,885 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eleven. There had been 907 deaths.
In Canada there had been 359,064 confirmed cases with daily increase of 5,967. There had been 11,895 with a daily increase of 95.
In the United Kingdom there had been 1,605,176 confirmed cases with a daily increase 15,871. There had been 58,030 deaths with a daily increase of 479.
In India there had been 9,392,919 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 41,810. There had been 136,696 Indian deaths with a daily increase of 496.
In the United States of America there had been 12,939,666 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a daily increase of 175,669. There had been 262,736 deaths with a daily increase of 1,276.
Copyright Lloyd Marken. The view of Oakey airfield.
At the gym on Friday night I saw on the TV that India became the second country to pass 9 million COVID-19 cases. The only one since the U.S.
Per chance I was about to catch up with my brother from another mother the next day who had family in India.
It was a scary time but we intended to have a nice day out in each other’s company.
November 21
We were driving out west to the small town of Oakey.
Famous for the race horse Bernborough and where I had recently been reminded my grandmother had been born.
As a result I wore a hat that my grandfather had worn in travels when I was a boy. The hat fitted his head better but I wanted to wear it and pose at the statue of Bernborough like he had in a photograph many years ago.
I’ve never met a man who didn’t work harder. As we drove along he passed along information of everywhere we went. A ride share worker who had previously driven cabs and worked his way up in trucking to drive semis interstate. He knew when we were coming up to the well known Fernvale Bakery in Ipswich, he told us of businesses off the main track he’d gone to as we started to get out in the country. He quietly advised and offered stories of so many places.
We did stop at the bakery in Fernvale although I went for the sweets rather than their famous and beloved pies. We will have to return and partake properly.
Around people I truly love I relaxed a little and even started to sing songs like Don McLean’s American Pie and Cold Chisel’s Flame Trees. I am not a singer so spare a thought for the poor people in that car who had to conjure their best poker faces as they realised, “Oh man Lloyd’s really going for it!”.
It was a beautiful sunny day, the Museum is housed in a hangar that is located on the perimeter of the fencing of the defence base. You do not need to enter the base to enter the museum as a result. Very cleverly located.
CH-47 Chinook. Most recently used by the Australian Army during the horrendous bushfires last summer. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Sopwith Camel. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Me in cargo/passenger compartment. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Tivomagic parked outside the Australian Army Flying Museum. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
SR-70 Blackhawk. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The Bougainville Finger. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
If I see anti-aircraft weaponry, I take a picture of it. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
If I was mugging for the camera, certainly Karen was not. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
CH-47 Chinook. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The AS350 Squirrel which served in the Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
HUEY! Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Sioux helicopters made famous in the film and TV series MASH that was set during the Korean War. This is indicative of the ones that served Australian forces in Vietnam. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Kiowa faces off with Huey. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
“Get out of that Fokker you Fokker.” Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Maintained by local volunteers it is a wonderful display of aircraft and stories from Australian Military Aviation.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
We had a late lunch at the Oakey RSL Club.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Oakey RSL Club. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Oakey ANZAC Memorial. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Oakey ANZAC Memorial. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
A tale from a pandemic past. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Bernborugh. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Having driven north from Ipswich through Fernvale, past Wivenhoe Dam and through Esk I decided on the way back we would drive through Toowoomba.
I was hoping we would find the University of Southern Queensland campus where there is a beautiful Japanese peace garden but we actually googled just a public garden in Toowoomba and ended up there. A callback to simpler times when sometimes you just turned down a road and found you were where you wanted to be.
The Japanese Garden are well known and are quite beautiful and peaceful in these troubled times.
At one point we went over a bridge and looked down at ducks in a pond. In the late afternoon I exclaimed with excitement when I saw a creature underneath the water and realised it was not a fish. I grabbed everybody’s attention and the words escaped me on instinct “Look a platypus!”
A platypus sighting at that time of day with those amount of people would have been very special indeed but alas what became abundantly clear in the next couple of seconds was we were looking at turtle.
Oh well, still pretty special.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
LOOK IT’S A PLATYPUS! Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Flame Trees on the Toowoomba campus. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
As we drove out of Toowoomba my sister-in-law spoke of working as a speech pathologist in the town years ago making long commutes for the job. My wife had also worked around as a speechie.
In the late spring of Australia, the jacarandas were in full bloom in Toowoomba and so much more beautiful there.
It was only a 2 hour drive out of Brisbane but it had been years since I had come to Toowoomba and I had no memories of Oakey. Seeing this part of the world buoyed my spirits in the way only getting out and about can. I understood I was becoming older and now came to understand weekend trips as a child where we were packed out and driven out to dams and beaches that held no interest for me then.
As much as I appreciated my freedom which earlier in the year had not been possible and was not currently for so many around the world.
What I appreciated more was the company I kept.
It was a good day out.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
November 22
On the 22nd of November the World Health Organisation reported there had been 57,939,958 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 625,981.
There had been 1,380,494 deaths globally with a daily increase of 9,831.
In Australia there had been 27,807 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 18. There had been 907 Australian deaths.
In Canada there had been 320,719 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,968. There had been 11,334 deaths with a daily increase of 69.
In the United Kingdom there had been 1,493,387 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 19,875. There had been 54,626 deaths with a daily increase of 340.
In India there had been 9,095,806 with a daily increase of 45,209. There had been 133,227 deaths with a daily increase of 501.
In the United States of America there had been 11,789,012 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 191,033.
America surpassed a quarter of million deaths due to COVID-19 on the 21st of November, 2020.
250,607 with a daily increase of 2,036.
On the 22nd of November there had been 252,460 deaths with a daily increase of 1,853.
The Queensland College of Teachers held their TEACHX Awards on Thursday night the 30th of October, 2020 digitally via video conference with some live components and some taped components. The next day was World Teacher’s Day.
The previous year we had held the event in Customs House.
Last year I had been tapped to accompany the former chair of the Board of Teacher Registration (QCT’s predecessor) Miss Merline Muldoon last year. Miss Muldoon had just become the award eponym for the Innovation in Teaching category. She shared war stories with the finalists of the category. Long retired their individual experiences remained the same – their passion for education shared.
On that night as each Finalist received their certificate and each winner gave a short speech there was a feeling in the air that is hard to explain but contained good will, pride and optimism for the education of students across the state. It may be hard to quantify how such events elevate the profession but if you were there on the night you were left in no doubt that they do.
With COVID the challenge was always going to be how to create as much of this in a new setting without human contact.
I still remember 2019 winners Principal Andrew Peach speaking about education or the touching moment when Norah Parsons won – a teacher who had given so much to the mining community of Moura.
Last year I had been introduced by my manager in front of the finalists as the one who wrote half of their stories – a proud and rewarding moment for me.
I had been honoured to wait on Miss Muldoon.
This year I sat at my desk and listened to the ceremony on headphones.
The ceremony went well I believe and hopefully the teachers and their schools got something out of it. The nominees, finalists and winners were as deserving as any other year.
Afterwards I was very kindly invited to go out with the rest of the team and celebrate the completion of all of our hard work. We had a little champagne at the Regatta and toasted each other and what we had achieved as a team.
Last year the TEACHX Awards, rebranded significantly by some very hard working and talented colleagues and with the media releases prepared by me and my manger, received unprecedented media coverage.
At the time it was discussed that this would be highly unlikely to be repeated two years running due to the Awards being held in the final week of the Queensland State elections.
Then COVID-19 happened and one result of the that was the shrinking of media offices in the country.
Despite this and due to the sterling efforts of my manager there was a lot of coverage in the press.
Of the teachers I interviewed.
Media Sponsor The Courier Mail wrote a large article about the Awards and all Finalists.
Quest Newspapers also covered the Award Categories and Finalists and highlighted five Logan teachers Ping Ding, Donald Cameron, Sophie Gruhl, Margaret Sherrington and Michael King. It also covered Cameron Lynch and Gavin Jones. I had interviewed Ping Ding, Donald Cameron, Gavin Jones and Cameron Lynch.
Then no doubt with some help from my manager, Dell Rathbone was featured on the national television program The Project. To have shared Dell Rathbone’s story with such a wide audience is such a wonderful thing to have happened.
The TEACHX Awards are held annually by the Queensland College of Teachers to recognise some great teachers in our community and to elevate the profession.
In the year of COVID-19, the need for teachers to be flexible, hard working, innovative and dedicated to the education of students was on display more than ever.
The QCT received close to 400 nominations of which 74 nominees were shortlisted.
In each of the six awards categories there were five finalists.
Out of those 30 teachers I personally interviewed 15 of them and drafted 14 media releases.
The TEACHX Awards are held annually by the Queensland College of Teachers to recognise some great teachers in our community and to elevate the profession.
In the year of COVID-19, the need for teachers to be flexible, hard working, innovative and dedicated to the education of students was on display more than ever.
The QCT received close to 400 nominations of which 74 nominees were shortlisted.
In each of the six awards categories there were five finalists.
Out of those 30 teachers I personally interviewed 15 of them and drafted 14 media releases.
The TEACHX Awards are held annually by the Queensland College of Teachers to recognise some great teachers in our community and to elevate the profession.
In the year of COVID-19, the need for teachers to be flexible, hard working, innovative and dedicated to the education of students was on display more than ever.
The QCT received close to 400 nominations of which 74 nominees were shortlisted.
In each of the six awards categories there were five finalists.
Out of those 30 teachers I personally interviewed 15 of them and drafted 14 media releases.
I have been lucky enough to be seconded twice to the Media Team at my primary employer building upon my experience as a freelance writer. Both secondments were centred around lending support in the lead-up to the TEACHX Awards.
The Queensland College of Teachers is the registration authority for teachers in the state of Queensland. Every year they do a call out for nominations of teachers from the community.
In 2019, the QCT received over 200 nominations and during my secondment I wrote pieces on 115 of the nominees while others were tasked to write the rest.
This year there were almost 400 nominations received of which 74 were shortlisted.
Out of those 74 shortlisted I wrote pieces based off their nomination forms on 24 of them.
They are as follows according to their nomination category.
The TEACHX Awards are just one way to celebrate the hard work and challenges teachers face and the appreciation that we have for the role they perform in our society. I was grateful to write about them and celebrate them along with so many other hard working and talented colleagues.
The publishing of the shortlisted nominees was the culmination of three weeks of intense work but already I was consumed with interviewing and writing about the Finalists in each category.
Hence there are links to only shortlisted nominees that I wrote about that did not later become Finalists who were interviewed and written about by me or my manager.
If you click on any of the links you will find a story about an extraordinary teacher and person.
During my secondment with the Media Team at my main employer I was fortunate enough to interview teacher and retired Principal Bill McClintock who had made an enquiry that was forwarded by a wise staff member to media.
Bill was a wonderful man to interview, someone who talked warmly of people he had remained in contact with since retiring and took joy in the world and its people. I could not help but see a link between a boy who had been confined to his house at times due to asthma growing up who had gone on to travel and see the world, and furthermore bring education to the remotest corners of Queensland and the south island of New Zealand and the students there.
He retired in the early 1990s after twenty years working as a Principal before embarking on a “retirement” career that displayed best some of the possibilities that continued teacher registration grants. A recipient of the Order of the Australia Medal, he is still registered today, and still involved in the community.
Back on April 21 I bought a hoodie from the United States of America. There was a lot of handwringing about the getting the right size as I never order clothes online. In June the hoodie arrived and it fit but it was too tight. On the 20th of August I got a new one that fit just at the tail wind of winter in my home town, sunny tropical Queensland. That said I got some good weeks out of it and really love my hoodie. I hadn’t got a new jumper or coat in about 19 years.
Skinny Hoodie. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
With my new hoodie and less my beard. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The new hoodie. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Proceeds from the sale of the hoodie went towards After School All Stars which were delivering meals to kids in low socio-economic areas during the lockdown of schools in America.
The same day I was due to go to a preview screening of the new movie Tenet for Scenestr magazine.
Tenet was the first blockbuster to be getting released in cinemas since COVID had shut down cinemas earlier in the year. Warner Bros. was betting big that people would return to the cinemas but if they did, the blockbuster would have the run of the movie going public.
Attending a preview screening of a blockbuster is always a thrill for me. The preview screening was in a VMax screening at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. There were only other critics present at the screening, familiar faces. People seemed fairly relaxed. At the screening of Waves there was some sense of hopefulness and rustiness at what was for some of us the first screening we had been to in a while. Here things were more relaxed but there was security at this one given the high profile nature of the film. There was a media embargo to enforce.
My review was published the following week on Wednesday the 26th of August with the film premiering the next day.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
I would argue that while Tenet is billed as a blockbuster, it is not a crowdpleaser and in a particularly dispiriting year I think something like Wonder Woman 1984 would have played much better but COVID remains the all too important factor. Its actually a relief to know that people would rather prize their lives over seeing a movie where they deem the risk too much. In Queensland we felt relatively safe with a small number of cases.
Yet on the same day that I went to see Tenet, a supervisor in her 70s at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre in Wacol tested positive for COVID-19. She had been working shifts until she started to have symptoms. She was now admitted to hospital. Her diagnosis led the centre to go into shutdown with testing of 127 youths and over 500 staff at the centre. There were eight active cases in Queensland at the time.
