city bingo (final) - the bins

Sydneysiders have bins for everything, and they are everywhere. There is a whole ritual of wheeling out and wheeling in, and a happy disregard for by the binmen about what is left where after they have been through. Again, actually to easy for city bingo; would have to be only the most outrageous pile-ups.

retro lollies

We also enjoyed many of Melbourne's fab little cafes. More shabby chic than Sydney on the whole, and with a bigger retro thing going on - down to the lollies (sweets).

a quickie to Melbourne

And then I had a couple of days in Melbourne, with some lovely friends, meeting some lovely Australians. At one stage we found ourselves, quite unexpectedly, watching some acrobats; as the launch for some kind of artistic/cultural event. 

NAIDOC week

Looking back, I am also struggling to get things in order. NAIDOC Week is usually in July (I think) - standing for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. I went to an event at the university which (to me) just felt awkward and embarrassing; both partronising and only at the level of appearances. It was a raising of the Aborginal flag - a weird device in itself, since based on a particular notion of nation, land and identity that historically doesn't seem to have much to do with First Nations people anywhere in the world. Then it turned out that nobody had checked whether the flagpole worked - again just felt like an indication of how half-heartedly the university was doing this.

So - someone had the idea to drape the flag across some attendant indigenous children, and use this as a photo-opportunity with the vice-chancellor (sweet children! friendly white man! pretty flag!) and then we were served cup-cakes, flavoured with indigenous plants (aboriginal! cupcakes!) and then an 'authentic' aboriginal man played and sang, and all the white people smiled.

city bingo: mailboxes and snail mail

I may have gone on about tiny mailboxes too much - no explanation (at least not based on land, culture, history etc.) Does give the snails some extra roughage.

by gum!

What for example, can you say, when a typical tree had bark like this; bark that folds and peels like the pages of a crumpled, elderly and unkempt book?

bit foggy

Will never tire of the views over Elizabeth Bay from K's apartment. Always changing, always full of interest. As the date of this post shows, though, I have struggled to keep this blog going. Am now looking back - from the distance of London as well as in time - on my experiences in Sydney. It is still very hard to grasp what is so particular (both special and different) about this part of Australia compared to England.

It feels obvious - if a bit crass - that differences relate to the extraordinariness of the land and its toughness, to the eccentricities of the wildlife (weird types, many very loud and/or dangerous); and of course to the country's very specific history of colonisation, in its complex and dynamic patterns of exploitation and oppression, its suppression of indigenous peoples and its basis as a new nation via poor, white and previously marginalised - especially working class - groups.

This shows most immediately in the writers  but also in those amazing painters like Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley. In day-to-day life, harder to unpick.