There is another Sydney…

We think that we know the places that we live.  They are familiar to us by site, sound, smell, and feel.  But (if you are lucky) every now and then you come across a side of your home town that you have never seen before, and your eyes are opened…

I was lucky enough to be taken to visit a very unusual building.  It is almost in the CBD of Sydney, but the owners (whoever they are!) don’t seem to care about it.  It is home to a mix of people, but it is as far from your average apartment building as you could imagine, half squat, half artists commune, half… something else (yes, that’s three halves, but it seems strangely appropriate for this place).

The roof of the building has become an amazing art space for graffiti.  Uncontrolled, no rules, yet civilised in a manner that society at large may be uncomfortable with.  Don’t forget to click on each image to see them full size and enjoy the photos.

graffiti 1

graffit 2 John.

A bit of hard work…

Ok, it’s an excuse to post a photo with no top on, but what they heck, I’ll do it anyway.

I am working on a project to build a large cupboard at the moment and it was pretty hot last week, so no shirt!  Ripping a 2.4 meter long sheet of 18mm thick ply wood into two pieces was really hard work by hand, but prefer to use hand tools.  Reliable, simple, and a skill that I think is worth having.  By contrast, cutting these shelves was easy going.

cutting woodJohn.

The mons pubis

Every year (or is that week?) there’s a new “fashion thing”, usually it’s just something superficial like g-string whale tails that at the end of the day don’t mean a thing, but occasionally it’s something like the “thigh gap”, or in this case:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/were-doing-this-to-ourselves-ladies-20150222-13kfj3.html

… it’s having a flat mons pubis.  I think that the linked article pretty much says it all, but I want to go a little deeper on one point.  That is: the fat pad on top of a woman’s pubic bone that gives the mons pubis its shape is there for a reason.  It’s a bumper bar.  Seriously.

It’s job is to make sex more comfortable for you and your partner.  If your partner is a guy, then chances are that he doesn’t have the same level of padding on the front of his pelvis as you do.  So a shapely and well padded mons pubis is a real asset for both of you.

It could be compared to the fat pad in your heels.  They are an entirely brilliant piece of evolution that makes walking possible by cushioning the heel bone as your foot comes down with each step.  No-one would ever consider trying to make their heels skinny, so why would you want the same for your mons pubis?  It makes no sense, except to make women insecure about themselves and rush to the nearest plastic surgeon, diet, or gym.

I said this many years ago about labiaplasty (the practice of trimming a woman’s inner labia so that they don’t protrude beyond her outer labia): if you are worried about how your mons pubis looks (that it’s “too fat”, not flat enough etc) and want to change it through surgery or something, then come and see me first.  I will be happy to show you what real men (not the cruel judgmental types who don’t deserve to be in your life, let alone your bed) think of a beautiful curved mons pubis.  If you are still unhappy, then I will give you your money back.

Seriously, give me an hour of your time and I will change how your see your body and yourself.

John.

The world just became a slightly better place

I saw the following article online today:

Potential new vaccine blocks every strain of HIV

http://www.sciencealert.com/potential-new-vaccine-blocks-every-strain-of-hiv

A new drug candidate is so potent against all strains of HIV, researchers think it could work as a new kind of vaccine.

Developed by researchers from more than a dozen research institutions and led by a team at the Scripps Research Institute in the US, the drug is effective against doses of HIV-1, HIV-2 and SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) that have been extracted from humans or rhesus macaques – including what researchers consider to be the ‘hardest-to-stop’ variants. It worked against doses of HIV that are way higher than what would be transmitted between humans, and works for at least eight months after injection.

This is great news for everyone around the world.  As someone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s and now works in the sex industry HIV/AIDS has been an ever present fear (for good reason), so news that there may be a way to block HIV entirely with a vaccination is fantastic.

The reality of that solution is still a way off though and of course that only covers one of a range of STi’s that are out there.  Safe(r) sex is of course the very best thing that we can do to protect ourselves, but the thing that often isn’t mentioned is testing.  Many people carry STI’s without knowing it and while it may be uncomfortable to get tested and wait for results, at the end of the day if everyone was tested regularly during their lives, then the risk of STI’s would be cut almost to zero.  If there is a problem, then you can do something about it.  This is why I am tested regularly and why I recommend that everyone (whether you book a date with me or not) should get tested too.

Knowledge is power.

John.