sistawendy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sistawendy) wrote2018-03-01 07:32 pm
sistawendy) wrote2018-03-01 07:32 pm
Sydney pics, part 2 of n
I'm posting pics so I can keep my self awake until a reasonable hour. I felt compelled to decline an invitation to a fetish party from V's partner, because a) I've been awake since 0300, and b) I've got some weird dry cough, dammit. I have some serious party plans for the weekend, so I better take care of myself now. I did administer beef pho and vegan gelato for dinner.
But on to the pics! I did the touristy bits today, taking the train from Newtown to Circular Quay*, wherein lies a ferry terminal, with the famous opera house just to the east and the Harbor Bridge a little further to the west. So in slightly non-chronological order:
I wish my photography did the Sydney Opera House justice. Yes, it was way over budget and behind schedule, but you know what? The people who commissioned it got their money's worth and then some. It's decades ahead of its time, reminding me of things Gehry did in this century using CAD software.
Right next to the opera house is the Royal Botanic Garden, which greeted me with a big group of Japanese school kids and this gonzo sign:
Yup, lots of different kinds of plant sex happening. The RBG (love the abbreviation, no?) brought out the biology geek in me. For instance:
An Australian white ibis, the sight of which made me freak out and take many pics. You see, I'd seen an ibis in person exactly once in the fifty years prior to this, near Deland, Florida when I was in my twenties. And then I saw maybe a dozen more of them at various points around Circular Quay, poking those curved bills into the ground.
A particularly majestic specimen of the hoop pine, which you'll be unsurprised to hear isn't a true pine. It's a native Australian member of Araucaria, a genus of coniferous trees that I had up to then believed was limited to South America. Uncle Wiki says its distribution was nearly global during the Mesozoic, but most of the ones in the northern hemisphere disappeared with the dinosaurs. It's possible that the planks in the old apartment that I'm sitting in are hoop pine.
I'm told locals call it the coat hanger. I went looking for the place to climb onto the bridge. It took me quite a bit of walking, and by the time I realized you have to pay for it, my dogs were barking good and loud.
On the way to the Harbor Bridge I saw several groups of cheerleaders in uniform, all getting photographed. They all had Australian accents. Several emotions clashed silently in my head.
I kept my appointment at Gallery Serpentine's secret lair; they no longer have their regular store on Enmore Rd. The secret lair is in an unmarked warehouse full of theater-related businesses. When I walked in the door there was a gruesomely realistic fake disemboweled cow greeting me to the left of the door, made by a prop company. Somebody had positioned a beer bottle at its mouth. I have that photo, but I thought I'd spare you.
I didn't take photos of the secret lair because it's - wait for it - a secret lair. However, suffice it to say that it's a garden of Goth delights. I... bought things. I bought an entire outfit. It's awfully reminiscent to me of thingscupcake_goth would wear, only in my colors and not hers, with a longer silhouette. And I can wear it to work, so I don't feel as if I did something too terribly impractical. And the lady who helped me? My age and cute!
Oh yeah: more street art.
*It isn't quite circular anymore, but it was during the second half of the 19th century.
But on to the pics! I did the touristy bits today, taking the train from Newtown to Circular Quay*, wherein lies a ferry terminal, with the famous opera house just to the east and the Harbor Bridge a little further to the west. So in slightly non-chronological order:
I wish my photography did the Sydney Opera House justice. Yes, it was way over budget and behind schedule, but you know what? The people who commissioned it got their money's worth and then some. It's decades ahead of its time, reminding me of things Gehry did in this century using CAD software.
Right next to the opera house is the Royal Botanic Garden, which greeted me with a big group of Japanese school kids and this gonzo sign:
Yup, lots of different kinds of plant sex happening. The RBG (love the abbreviation, no?) brought out the biology geek in me. For instance:
An Australian white ibis, the sight of which made me freak out and take many pics. You see, I'd seen an ibis in person exactly once in the fifty years prior to this, near Deland, Florida when I was in my twenties. And then I saw maybe a dozen more of them at various points around Circular Quay, poking those curved bills into the ground.
A particularly majestic specimen of the hoop pine, which you'll be unsurprised to hear isn't a true pine. It's a native Australian member of Araucaria, a genus of coniferous trees that I had up to then believed was limited to South America. Uncle Wiki says its distribution was nearly global during the Mesozoic, but most of the ones in the northern hemisphere disappeared with the dinosaurs. It's possible that the planks in the old apartment that I'm sitting in are hoop pine.
I'm told locals call it the coat hanger. I went looking for the place to climb onto the bridge. It took me quite a bit of walking, and by the time I realized you have to pay for it, my dogs were barking good and loud.
On the way to the Harbor Bridge I saw several groups of cheerleaders in uniform, all getting photographed. They all had Australian accents. Several emotions clashed silently in my head.
I kept my appointment at Gallery Serpentine's secret lair; they no longer have their regular store on Enmore Rd. The secret lair is in an unmarked warehouse full of theater-related businesses. When I walked in the door there was a gruesomely realistic fake disemboweled cow greeting me to the left of the door, made by a prop company. Somebody had positioned a beer bottle at its mouth. I have that photo, but I thought I'd spare you.
I didn't take photos of the secret lair because it's - wait for it - a secret lair. However, suffice it to say that it's a garden of Goth delights. I... bought things. I bought an entire outfit. It's awfully reminiscent to me of things
cupcake_goth would wear, only in my colors and not hers, with a longer silhouette. And I can wear it to work, so I don't feel as if I did something too terribly impractical. And the lady who helped me? My age and cute!Oh yeah: more street art.
*It isn't quite circular anymore, but it was during the second half of the 19th century.
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this skirt in black taffeta
this coat
A shiny, red high-collared blouse with voluminous sleeves and black lace trim.
A little, spherical pendant of black agate in a filigree cage.
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and (having already read the comments) that outfit is SO AWESOME! and yes, I agree that Jilli will love it.
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