Room With A View - or View In A Room

Well, the view I have been enjoying for the last couple of days. An intrepid blogger can hardly let minor matters like hospitalisation cause any interruptions to the usual broadcast.

I have shown the exterior of this hospital, and its carpark a couple of times in the past, so why let an opportuinity to venture inside and gain first hand knowledge slip by!(I waited til my room-mate was out of the room - she may not have appreciatd being featured with her best hospital look. The bed to my right was occupied but out of shot, and someone came into the one opposite after this was taken. Perfect timing eh!)

But it's my toes (later edit: note well: I have not yet turned up my toes!), and the view from my bed at St George hospital, where I have had a couple of nights after checking in via Emergency in the small hours Thursday. Gall bladder, apparently. But no obvious cause. Hmmm. Medical science doesn't always know everything straight away. But kudos to the nursing staff in CDU Ward. They were great.

I'm posting this on 1 Dec here in Sydney - Bloggers' theme day - but decided this is an authentic 30 Nov shot, you'd just have to wait for the Bridges theme day pic. Or maybe it's just a bridge between below and above par?

Statue of Lachlan Macquarie, Windsor

Unveiled in 1994, the bi-centenary of European presence (22 farms) in the formerly Aboriginal Darrug land. Windsor was the third settlement in the colony of New South Wales, after Sydney Cove and Parramatta. Governor Macquarie had plans drawn up for Windsor in 1810.

Wading through cement

Last week we came home to find our footpath had disappeared! This morning a cement truck pulled up, poured the new footpath, and - voilà - half an hour later we had a smoothed out new section of footpath drying.

Terraces, Erskineville

A row of pretty, single storey terrace houses in Erskineville, a traditional working class area of Sydney, now gentrifying.

Hats and thongs

Essential accessories for the Australian summer

Grapes

When crushed, these small globlets of delight can produce a fruity little beverage (fizzy or still) well suited to being raised in celebratory esteem.

As many people have been doing in the wake of yesterday's election result.

I espied this trellis of grapes in the front yard of a house as I was walking to the polling booth yesterday.

Democracy was served

In primary school and church halls all over Australia today, the people voted. (And by the way, it's compulsory to vote - there are fines if you don't turn up and get your name marked off the roll).

Later: In light of gmg's comments (inside), I add that there were, if not fireworks, whoops and hollers of joy, and air punching delerium emanating from the Sydney Daily Photo household at the outcome, it must only have been because private fireworks are banned in NSW! !

What the people decided was that it's all over for the bloke below as Prime Minister. John Howard's coalition government was resoundingly defeated, and he looks like losing his own seat in parliament. He faced a very strong challenge from a former ABC journalist, Maxine McKew, of the Labor Party. At close of counting tonight she is just ahead. This would make him only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to lose his own seat.
And it's all beginning for Kevin Rudd, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, who will be the next Prime Minister. On many issues, there is not much difference between Rudd and Howard. But, there are also significant, election defining differences. Rudd has promised to ratify the Kyoto Treaty on climate change, withdraw combat troops from Iraq, and roll back the extremely unpopular Industrial Relations laws.

Peaceful protest

A message for our Prime Minister, John Howard. Tomorrow is the federal election. John Howard is, according to the polls, fighting for his own political survival as much as the government overall. Tomorrow evening should reveal all. (Mind you, Howard is not really able to influence whether a paricular school stays open or not - that is the decision of the state government; but there's nothing like an election to focus protest.)

Mural, Kogarah

Seen on the side of a now-closed shop (former music shop?) - corner Gray St and Railway Parade.

Ian Rankin (for Michelle)

Author of the immensely popular series of crime novels featuring Edinburgh sleuth John Rebus, Ian Rankin signs books after a recent talk in Sydney. He was a witty and very engaging speaker.

I wonder what it is like seeing your own name in such large print all over the cover and spine of so many books?