Sated senses

On Thursday, I did that wonderful walk I discovered earlier this week, but in reverse. I got up in the morning, and set off for Bicentennial Park, and then over to Glebe Point Road and up.

When I got to Bicentennial Park, I couldn't believe what I was seeing! A tree full of these wonderfully colored birds - vivid green, blue, red...if you look closely, you should find them in the tree. I discovered afterwards that they are called rainbow lorikeets.

Later that afternoon, I went to Paddy’s Market…like the Rastro, really, with lots of cheap junk being sold in stall after stall. I did buy a few things, of course, that claimed that they were made in Australia, and there to promote Aboriginal culture. Probably a ploy I fell for! I also went over to the train station where Elena and I had seen an Aboriginal artist selling her own art work, which we both liked. I bought a few pieces, and the artist, whose name is Tammie, gave me the stories behind them. Tammie also told me about her own life a bit, and how she was from a western Aboriginal group, the Gumbayngirr, who, she said, people didn’t pay so much attention to anymore because they were not a remote, recently found group, as they had been discovered way back when the Europeans came. Still, she said, they held on to some of their customs and ways of doing thing. She said that she had learned her language and her dreamtime stories, of the Gumbayngirr, from her grandmother, stories which she tells through her art work. She also told me about her grandmother’s language book, which had been promised to her as the only daughter of her grandmother’s only daughter. Yet her grandmother took her time passing it on to her until recently. Tammie said it was because she hadn’t had any children yet to pass the language book on, although she said that her grandmother had changed her mind because she feels that Tammie will soon (Tammie got goose bumps telling me this!). She showed me the book: a dictionary and grammar of her language. I found it wonderful to see how important a book of language is…how it can help hold the traditions in place, now that the language has been written down. And here is a young woman (she told me that she’s 34) who shows great reverence for her language and culture.

On Friday, I met a friend for lunch on Circular Quay. She took me to one of her favorite restaurants, and I can understand why. I sat there eating my crab cakes and rocket salad with a clear view of the Opera House sparkling in the sunshine across the bay. Saturday I woke up to another beautiful clear sunny day, so I got out my walking shoes and set off for Balmain. This time I knew what I was doing, so I walked directly to Leichhardt Park, and walked all along Iron Cove Creek and Bay, and emerged just a couple streets away from Darling St., which is the main drag in Balmain, full of shops, cafés, and beautiful old houses. I walked down to the East Balmain wharf, which has this great view of the Harbour Bridge. I thought about taking a ferry to Cockatoo Island, but I arrived at the wharf at around 10.30, and the Cockatoo Island ferry wasn't due in until 1.30! So I got on the bus and came back home, and did some work!

This (Sunday) morning (another clear day in paradise!), Elena and Richard picked me up and took me on a tour of some of the Sydney beaches (Bronte, Tamarama and Bondi). Then we headed off up north to a place called The Entrance - about 70 kilometers from Sydney. It is an incredibly beautiful drive. I never knew that when people said "bush" here they meant beautifully forested land. The countryside is thickly populated with trees, and everyone once in a while you catch a glimpse of a deep blue ocean on one side, and off on the other, the blue haze of the Blue Mountains. We drove up to this HUGE lake, Tuggerah Lake, right next to the ocean; it is so crystaline, placid and, well, ...huge! Then we drove on over the bridge of the channel which connects the lake to the ocean (called the Entrance) and parked and walked out over the sand to the ocean, with a beach that opens wide out to the sea, where we could see a line of ships way off on the horizon, carrying their cargo who knows where. I had to splash about a bit in the waves...the water was delightful! Then we drove over to Terrigal, a much more densely populated beach resort area, where we had a delicious lunch (stuffed mushrooms and porterhourse steak) at Le Chat Noir. I have to say that my senses were quite over-sated by the end of the day, as we had the beautiful drive back, too!