Lunchtime

These building workers rest in the shade for a lunch time break. Taken out my office window.

Getting ready for work

I've got used to people doing all sorts of things as they drive, but increasingly people are using public places to do what once were purely private acts, such as applying makeup. Before I got my camera out, this woman spent some time plucking her eyebrows. I was sitting right next to her and debating with myself whether to take a picture, and then I thought "Well, she's oblivious to my idea of privacy, so let's see how she goes with the camera." She didn't miss a beat, just put away her lip pencil and got out her mascara.

Maybe she was also going back to work for the first time in ages and hadn't calculated the morning time?

Back to work

Today marks the end of the summer holidays. Teachers go back to work, kids follow tomorrow. And I'm back to work after several weeks holidays (interrupted rudely by a week at work in early January!) . So, once more, the morning train will deliver me at Central Station.

Big Strong Men

I hate being advertised at as much as we are, but sometimes you can't help laughing! Especially when you're stuck in heavy traffic on a boring stretch of road.

Native Bush Orchid and Spotted Gums

Reconciliation - when? Not on Australia Day 2007.

This is a picture of Sydney Cove, taken from a significant point on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

On 21 January, 1788, Captain Arthur Philip and the First Fleet, a raggle taggle collection of convicts and hardly-better British soldiers, reached Sydney Cove (the water in this picture) to establish a British convict colony.

On 26 January, the British flag was raised at Sydney Cove and the colony officially began.

Captain James Cook had sailed along the coast 18 years earlier, and had stopped in Botany Bay, south of here. Cook saw the entrance to the harbour on May 6, 1770, and named it Port Jackson, after a friend, one of the secretaries of the British Admiralty, George Jackson. He noted that it looked like a good anchorage, but decided to sail on, so he never entered this magnificent harbour. Cook, and his botanist, Joseph Banks, recommended a settlement at Botany Bay, however Philip found it did not possess a reliable fresh water supply, so after anchoring there on 18 January 1788, decided to move on to explore the possiblity of the anchorage at Port Jackson. Philip and the First Fleet arrived here on 21 January, and named it Sydney Cove. There was a stream, the Tank Stream, for water.

On 26 January, 1788, Philip raised the British flag and so founded the colony. That occasion id now commemorated as Australia Day, a public holiday.

That act also signifies the dispossession of the land from its original inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, although that was probably not the original intention.

A doctrine was used in British law, known as terra nullius (empty land) - now overthrown in Australian law. It asserte that the land was empty of people, and thus free for the taking. Cook had thought, because he encountered so few people around the coasts, that the interior must be empty.

In fact living in this very place were the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, Philip was under instructions to be friendly and to treat with them. A subsequent governor (Macarthur) went back to England to get terra nullius invoked, when he wanted to clear Aborigines from land he wanted to expand into.

This has led to more than 2 centuries of injustice towards the Aboriginal people.

At the southern end of the walkway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a plaque commemorates the Reconciliation Walk of 28 May 2000. On that say, there seemed like there was enormous hope for reconciliation between Australia's Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, as referred to yesterday. Under the policies of the current federal gocernment, that hope has dimmed - I hope temporarily. Now THAT will be a day to celebrate!!

The plaque reads:

On 28 May 2000, more than 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation. In the months that followed a million more Australians participated in similar walks throughout the nation. Mari budjari yana. Unveiled on 27 May 2004

Redfern Park. Redfern Speech.

On 10 December, 1992, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, Paul Keating, made a speech at Redfern Park which offered great hope for the future of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. You can read the 'Redfern Speech' here. Along with Keatings speech at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Canberra, I rank it as one of the great speeches of Australian history.

Unfortunately, since that time, under an exceptionally conservative government, the hopes expressed here were not realised, and relations have, if anything, deteriorated.

Redfern is an inner suburb of Sydney with a large Aboriginal population.

Tomorrow is Australia Day which commemorates the date of the first European settlement in Australia. I will have more to say about Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians tomorrow.

They're here!

On 29 July 2006 I wrote about the imminent demise of the old destination indicator boards at Arncliffe railway station, and their replacement with computer operated monitors. Well, they have arrived....vale sentimental journey, hello "progress".

Lane etiquette

One of the delights of summer is being able to do my daily swim in the local outdoor pool. It's important to follow proper lane etiquette to avoid any collisions. Like driving in Australia, you must keep left - up the left side of the black line, and down the other side. It's also nice being able to stretch out in a proper 50 m pool, instead of the indoor 25 m one. Not so many turns... Psychologically it seems easier to complete "half" the number of laps!

In the mornings, 4 lanes are reserved for lap swimmers, and 4 for leisure swimmers - plenty of room for everyone.

PS Iam away from home for a few days on a very slow connection, so apologies for not visiting other sites very often.

The view from the Harbour View pub

From the outside terrace of the Harbour View pub in The Rocks, you can check out the returning bridge climbers (many of whom give a wave) and the boats on the harbour beyond the Hyatt Hotel.