Has anybody been watching It's a Sin on Stan? I finished my binge last night and I must say the series was really, really, amazingly good. For the uninitiated, it's set during the Eighties in London, telling of a group of disparate young gay men who move to that city and become friends. Their friendships and new lives are tainted by the spectre of AIDS, then a new and largely misunderstood disease. The show brought back many unpleasant memories for me because I was a twenty-something during the series setting, and remember, with disgust and anger, the ignorance and prejudice surrounding HIV and gay men, mainly from contemporaries in the workplace whose idea of the height of wit was this joke: 'What's the difference between an AIDS patient and a cancer patient? The cancer patient gets visitors'. Yeah, real knee-slapper, that one *does eye roll*. I recall an incident from the early Nineties when I encountered one of my former colleagues at Martin Place Station, and without going into too much detail, the conversation segued to me stating I had had to stay away from cancer patients and HIV-positive people during a recent nasty flu. I said I had told my doctor my mother had cancer and I also knew a person with HIV, so I would keep my distance. This dickwad of a guy asked, 'So you know someone with AIDS?' I said this particular person was not suffering full-blown AIDS, but did have HIV. The guy then did a camp theatrical step away from me, ironically not realising I didn't like his company much, anyway; he was the laziest bludger with whom I have ever had the misfortune to work. If you happen to be reading this, turkey, I hope you've acquired an education and a work ethic. I thought of him as Hurricane Lamp because he was not too bright and had to be carried.
But back to It's a Sin. The sets and soundtrack really achieved an Eighties ambience. The acting was stellar from all the cast. The show's creator, Russell T Davies, apparently believes only gay actors should tell this story, and therefore the show was cast accordingly. It's up to Russell how he casts his productions, but this theory could prove problematic should he decide to make a series about zombies. But no matter, this series had me laughing and crying, as cliched as that sounds. Highly recommended.
Oh well, all good things come to an end. I am typing this post in the final hours of my leave. I return to work tomorrow. So, what did I do on my break?
1. Purchased and assigned ISBNs to my books for paperback version and will hopefully garner a few sales at the Maitland Indie Festival in May.
2. Purchased a new car, which some scraping of diseased goat smegma scratched yesterday. I didn't see it happen, and the paintwork can be fixed, but this is so infuriating.
3. Made some major decisions and commenced some work on my dining room - it should be painted over the next few weeks - yippee and yahoo!
4. Went on two separate getaways to the Port Stephens area, and had an utterly wonderful time on each trip.
5. Registered a business, and the link is here.
6. Did lots of yoga, but I'm still about as graceful as an elephant on a skateboard.
7. Meditated a lot.
8. Did some uni work.
Well, must get onto dinner. Chat soon.
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