This miniseries consists of 6 episodes of just over 10 minutes each. It is available on SBS OnDemand. The storyline is described as "A trans man returns home to care for his estranged mother Nora, only to discover she's been living with Dee--the teenage ghost of his pre-transition self." Having skin in the game, through Venra, I binged the whole thing in less than 90 minutes. It's lovely.

I told Venra a joke recently. It goes like this:
"A kid comes home from school and tells his mum that the school asked the kids in the class to choose their pronouns. His mother replies "You are Indian! Your pronoun is 'doctor'." Ven says to me "So, racist and transphobic".

I simply cannot see that logic. The school took the trouble to ask the students what pronouns each preferred; the only ridiculous content is the mother's attitude reflected in her response. (So yes, it's mildy racist; I say 'mildly' because I know most of my Indian friends acknowledge that parental attitude.) I cannot see any support for the accusation that this is mocking the idea of choosing pronouns, or being transgender.

After thought and rewatching, I see Homebodies as addressing an issue that had me confused from ages ago. Our hero is positively angry with his past self. Having 24 years of practice I occasionally refer accidentally to Venra as "Edwin", which she calls her 'dead name', and this upsets her. When talking about the male child I raised, I would normally call him Edwin, but I now avoid such references in Venra's presence. It is as if Venra hates Edwin. Homebodies is really about our hero somehow working out his anger with his opposite-gender self. In the end, he leaves happier and less angry, and the ghost is somehow exorcised.

I think some deep internal conflict might be part of what makes it hard work getting on around Venra. When she is engaged with her friends in some online adventure game she lights up. I can hear the enthusiasm and joy in her voice, emotion emanating from her room. Although we seem to love sitting down to dinner together, that same emotional energy never seems to bubble up for me. I love her and I miss her when I am not here. Part of me desperately wants Venra to visit Newtown with me, because I feel the same lack of joy and warmth in myself here in Hamilton compared to when I am in Newtown. I know Phyllis feels the same bohemian energy... it is just invigorating to wake up and know that Newtown is outside. [As an aside, she tells me that her children have both observed this in her.] On top of that, Newtown simply must offer that same effect in spades for LGBTIQ+ people.

I am quite a homebody for Newtown. I increasingly appreciate its closeness to the ideal of a "15-minute city". These days I dislike travelling, even between Hamilton and Sydney, even with the resumption, after 20 years, of direct SYD-HLZ flights. It seems to me that it is as much a case of missing Newtown, compared to being in Hamilton. A negative in Hamilton is how hard it is to get enthusiasm from Ven. Another negative is the stress that surrounds colleagues at the university who are underfunded, overworked, and forswunk... but I have little chance of exorcising that ghost.