Taking a short break - Rosedale, NSW South Coast

What on earth?

This structure has me totally mystified. It looks a bit like an aerial disguised as an orange palm tree...

Spotted it on the way to the gym this morning and just HAD to get out and investigate. I came away none the wiser.

The curve of the bridge

Well, the curve of the approach here. A different perspective is Grace Cossington Smith's painting The Curve of the Bridge.

Sydney Harbour 8pm

Had dinner last night with a Canadian friend at a pub in The Rocks. Afterwards we wandered around by the harbour for a while. On Tuesday night the Opera House was bathed in pink light, apparently, for Breast Cancer Awareness Week, but it was back to plain light on Wednesday.

Late afternoon shadows, Woodford Bay, Longueville

A tranquil spot on the Lane Cove River, on Sydney's Lower North Shore. Mellow in the golden glow of the late afternoon.

Mark Foys, Juanita Nielsen and Abe Saffron - a Sydney story

Former family owned department store, now The Downing Centre, Sydney's biggest law courts complex.

There's a rather interesting story involving the name Mark Foys. A really nasty character called Abe Safffron, one of Sydney's chief gangsters died last week (so you can now say anything you like about him - no defamation) . Many believe that he was responsible in 1975 for organising the disappearance / death - her body has never been found - of the Mark Foys heiress, a woman called Juanita Nielsen. This is a notorious uncolved Sydney crime. Nielsen published a local newspaper and was campaigning against property developments and vice and corruption.

Hey! That looks interesting!

The baby seems fascinated as s/he watches these Falun Gong practioners at Darling Harbour on Sunday.

Outlawed in China, Falun Gong - also called Falun Dafa - "comes out of the Chinese tradition of qigong, a system of cultivating one's inner energy and thoughts through exercises and meditation. The Falun Gong version comes from Li Hongzhi, known to his followers as Master Li. It is an exercise system based around a wheel, or falun, placed by Master Li into his followers' abdomens, and there is a morality system based around the central components of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance" [ABC Radio National story about the Chinese Government and Falun Gong believers]

So, harmless belief system, or dangerous cult?

Never too young to play air guitar

Scene in Pitt St, lunchtime, Saturday 23 September. This kid was really groovin' !!

The Hungry Mile

B ig controversy about the naming of this part of Sydney Harbour. It is part of the end of Sydney harbour as a working port - the last remaining port facilities are being moved south to Port Botany and Port Kembla (near Wollongong).

This area, currently referred to as "East Darling Harbour" is to be redeveloped. Here's all the "concept' guff.

A competition has been announced to rename the area. There is quite a campaign lobbying for one name already ruled out: The Hungry Mile. This is the wharves and port area where men during the Great Depression walked searching for work as wharf labourers (wharfies in Australian parlance) on a day hire basis. Sometimes they were lucky, many times not. Conditions those 'lucky ' enough to work under were atrocious.

You can read more about the Hungry Mile Name Campaign here.

The current Labor government has ruled out this name - maybe it is too embarassing a legacy in these days when their largest political donors are property developers, who tend to prefer much more anodyne and "naicer" names than something which recalls hard times and political struggle?

Postscript 27/9/06: The government has announced that Hickson Road, along which the men walked will be renamed The Hungry Mile, and that there will be history markers. Story here.

Luna Park

Quick quiz: which famous New York City building are the "towers" flanking the Luna Park entrance face modelled?

Luna Park opened in 1935, and still provides entertainment for (mainly) children.