can't believe I never...

Can’t believe I have never been to Luna Park. That enormous face with the gaping mouth and buggy eyes right next to Sydney Bridge has, to be honest, always put me off. Felt the rides and stuff behind it would be mundane in comparison, and certainly not up to the glorious decrepitude of Coney Island in New York. Plus, I really hate going on fairground rides - I get very sick very quickly, to the extent that even looking at big dippers etc., makes me a bit queasy. But, weirdly, Dr. Cornel West (African-American scholar and activist) was giving a public talk at the Big Top, Luna Park (yes, that is what I said) so I went early to take pictures at twilight. And of course it was a magical place - both in its own right as a fading, small but determined amusement park and as a location to look back at Sydney Harbour and Opera House. Took photos until my battery ran out.  

mardi-gras

So here we are in May and I am just catching up on Sydney’s Mardi Gras that ran from 20^th Feb to 8^th March. And, anyway, I didn’t get around to go to the celebrations. Although I did have the pleasure of witnessing a rehearsal in the forecourt of St Mary’s cathedral; nicely segued with a heterosexual Japanese couple having their wedding photos taken. Very Sydney.

and then 2015...

Watched the famous Sydney Bridge fireworks on Shark Island, from a fabulous picnic spot with a full-on view (with thanks to R's fleetness of foot, literally running from the ferry to find a space), but as usual took lousy fireworks shots. If you would like to see the full shebang, click here...

happy christmas everyone!

And - finally - meeting Santa himself, at the Coogee Carols last Saturday. Another surreal winter-in-summer experience. Not just weird because of all the red woolly Santa trappings (ho ho ho) and the snow/sleigh bells songs but also because not a choir, as I had perhaps stupidly expected, but a band and singer and (something I had forgotten how much I disliked) pop songs masquerading as carols. Bah humbug!

...and dressing up

The other side of being comfortable in small amounts of miscellaneous causal wear is an enthusiasm for proper dressing up. As far as I can tell, this is of two basic sorts: smart casual and fancy dress. The first – at the risk of sounding unfairly derogatory - tends to 80s disco and the kind of blingy dressiness that people in the North East of England do very well. The second is the propensity to use any occasion to party in a costume; starting with party hats and getting more and more outrageous as required (for example, playing bowls dressed as characters from superhero films). Or not just being Father Christmas in the pub, but also some Christmas parcels.

swimmingly

And talking of 40 degree days. Another of those weekend mass events (with associated, multiple, open-air parties) that turn Coogee into a place packed with nearly naked and often wet people, hundreds happy to swim a kilometre out and around wedding cake island, hundreds jammed on the beach happy to cheer them on – and all of us suddenly buried in a damp sea fog, rolling in off the sea as the high temperature and humidity made its own huge and thick condensation cloud.

not the Melbourne Cup (3)

And then the aftermath. That evening Coogee Beach was packed with people dressed up to the full, and mainly very very drunk.