VIVE LA DIFFERENCE

It looks like we have signed over the lease on the townhouse we have been renting and can move back to our apartment during the week in Auckland. The potential new tenants are a nice gay couple. Women. Lesbians. Is the use of the word lesbians PC? I don't know. All I know is that they are educated, have good jobs and love each other. Good for them. Good for us too if it all goes through as we can relinquish the fixed term lease that we are committed to.

Lesbians. I wonder if the word and implications still send shivers through the psyches of NZ males? On one level there is the sexist frisson often heard in bars where the alpha males think that they can 're-educate' the lesbians by giving them a good rogering. On another is the older type of Kiwi (not always defined by age) who are scared shitless about the fact that women can prefer women.

I remember, years ago at Allied Liquor Merchants one of the senior accounts women, M. was a lesbian. This is the liquor industry in New Zealand in the 1980's so it was still dominated by males in all senior positions and most of the middle management positions with a smattering of women in sales and virtually all women in clerical positions. Some of the macho dickhead sales people would make scathing comments about M. ( behind her back). Friday night drinks were de rigeur back then and often people would bring their wives, husbands, girlfriends or boyfriends in for a drink before heading off elsewhere. One evening M. told me that she was going to bring her partner in for a drink. When she did, and introduced the woman as her lover to some of the old crusties you could almost hear the intake of breath around the room. As a consequence M. and her lover were left alone at a table feeling the sharp glances of all the blokes around. I left the group that I was talking with and went and sat with them and had a delightful conversation for half an hour before I had to go.

A couple of years earlier, when I was managing a large and trendy inner city wine and spirit merchants a 'woman's group' was organising a celebratory function and we were providing the drinks and hire items. As it was a very large do and subsequent order I was assisting in the arrangements. One of the young women was beautiful with an almost translucent glow to her that made me think of the women in the paintings by the pre-Raphaelites.

We spent time together planning the wines and requirements and there was some sort of palpable connection between us.
One of the other women, it subsequently seemed to be her other half, noticed and took every opportunity to muscle in between us.

I don't think she liked me and the only connection I felt with her was the sharp jabs of her elbows into my ribs from time to time.

After helping the loading of the van with the party goods my last memory was seeing my Ophelia looking back at me from the passenger window as the group drove off.