Summer in Sydney
Inch Worm on Blue Tongue
Originally uploaded by inkognitohI'm sitting here on Thursday eve typing with the back door thrown open so that the southerly buster can blow through and cool us all down after a 43 degree day. I spent most of it asleep on the couch in the air-conditioned living room taking on some much needed down-time.
I spent Sunday catching up with a couple of old school friends at a local historic pub. We sat out in the beer garden (I really miss these things) while a band played and the sun shone. I hadn't seen either of these friends in over 20 years but it really didn't feel like all that time had passed. Making it a really long day, I then went to visit my niece and her boyfriend at their new flat in trendy Homebush Bay (former Olympic Village and prior to that toxic waste dump...) for a lovely pseudo birthday bash. There was a coastal storm snapping around the bay, lighting up the balcony with flashes of lightning giving us plenty of girly giggles and squeals. I'm going to miss these bright young things very much once I had back to England again.
Mum and Dad took me out for lunch on my birthday proper and had a good natter under the gum trees with some cold beers and more excellent weather. We then drove around the old Prospect Reservoir which had changed so much somehow none of us recognised it. This former picnic stalwart is now pretty much abandoned methinks and even the water processing plant looks like a ghost town. Shame but I guess time marches on.
No rest on Tuesday as my sister and whichever of her daughters who weren't working collected me for a trip up the Blue Mountains and a visit the Norman Lindsay Gallery & Museum. I love Lindsay's watercolours and etchings and am especially drawn to the idea of this rollicking party house of sin in what would have been remote bushland at the time they lived there. There are no delicate flowers amongst Lindsay's nudes, they are definitely strong, harsh Australian girls with muscles and bellies and bulges. From there we lunched at the grand old Wentworth Falls hotel and drove on to Katoomba to see what havoc they've wreaked on the ancient Three Sisters site at Echo Point. This was pretty hard to take as it's no longer the quiet place of contemplation and awe that the Australian bush can be but it's a tourist mecca with parking stations, paved viewing platforms and bus loads of tourists.
After we came back down the mountains, I very tiredly hauled myself into the city to visit with the Sydney Bookcrossers who had dropped me an invite the day before having noticed me registering books. They were a lovely group who all knew each other and met regularly but welcomed a stranger into their midst. I fought sleep on the train journey home!
I'd heard Wednesday was going to be a scorcher so suggested to my friend we head to the coast (always the best option on a 40 degree day) with her children - my Godlings - and visit the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple via the Sea Cliff Bridge and maybe dip in the ocean if it cooled off enough to do so! It was a long day in hot weather complicated by a very wrong turn, a sullen teen and a hyop car bound ten year old boy but LOL it was a good day out and we all survived.
So that's me vaguely caught up and now I'm off for a walk up the shops Golden Gaytime.