After the record temperatures of yesterday, we expected something different – and we got it: rain. Well not that much rain but just enough…! It didn’t stop us having a light lunch and then journeying over to Jo and Hamish’s for the day. The parents of their housemate Tully live near the harbour in Balmain. Alan and Viv have lived there for a long time and gave us a short guided tour of the area including walking to a small park which overlooked part of the harbour where a huge cruise liner was just doing a three point turn to prepare to leave on the next stage of their voyage: an amazing sight with the city in the background.
Alan then took us to see an exhibition which forms part of the Sydney Festival. It is called “Waste Not” and was showing at the Carriageworks (an old railway sidings and workshops where small art exhibits are housed and performances are put on). This particular piece was by a Chinese artist called Song Dong whose mother had been collecting stuff over five decades. After his father died this helped her grieving process but it filled their house completely. The son then proposed to his mother that they take her stuff around the world to show at exhibitions. Interesting to reflect on just how much we hoard ourselves.
The final call of the day was at the North Sydney Oval Cricket Ground where we were expecting to see an outdoor movie on a blow-up screen. We drove and walked with our picnic and blankets only to find that the organisers had failed to update their website or send emails to people who had bought tickets to tell them that the forecast was rain and the film was cancelled. Still we weren’t the only ones who didn’t know and we had a little gathering outside the ground to express our displeasure at such time wasted. Still we returned to Ashbury and had an indoor picnic along with one of Tully’s movies.
