Australia Day

As it’s 26th January, Australia Day, I’ve leapt from the English shores over to Sydney’s two biggest icons – the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, albeit slightly less conventional perspectives.

~ Spotted Cow

 

Inside the Opera House

We played at being tourists and went on the Sydney Opera House tour. I can’t believe we’ve never done it because it’s really interesting.

The Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point is so iconic that it is impossible to imagine a conventional rectangular building standing there. But that almost happened, if one of the competition judges hadn’t asked to re-visit the reject pile. He found Jorn Utzon’s design submission and subsequently declared it the winner. Construction began even though they didn’t know how they were going to build the now-famous sail shell structures. What followed was a 15-year controversy caused by design & construction challenges, building delays and massive cost overruns (a 15-fold cost explosion vs estimates), which saw Utzon resign from the project before it was completed.

There is, however, a happy ending to the story. You’ll have to go on the tour to find out.

When you’re there, have a look closely at the sails. They’re tiled with bespoke cream and off-white tiles so that they appear white overall. If the tiles were pure white, it would be blinding when the sun reflects off it.

~ Spotted Cow

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadowed

We’re back on the set after the Christmas – New Year (and more) break. Happy New Year everyone.

It was hot in Sydney and I was lazy with the camera, but I do have an image for this week’s Shadowed theme on the Weekly Photo Challenge. It’s a shot of the Opera House sails from the front steps, with the entrance shells deeply shadowed in the midday sun.

~ Spotted Cow

Sydney from a 727

I’ve booked my flight home to Sydney for Christmas – woo hoo ! – to catch up with the folks and hang out with the other cows. It’s ages away yet but I wanted to get a decent fare and a decent flight, ie. one without 7-hour connections. I have 8 months to savour the anticipation and note the things I want to get up to, places I want to eat & drink at, and stuff that I didn’t appreciate when I lived there. Anyone with interesting recommendations, feel free to comment below.

Sydney from a 727. It’s the Paul Kelly song that springs up – I can visualise it now – when the plane flies into the harbour head, over the iconic opera house and harbour bridge, then circles into Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. Only, these days Paul Kelly has upgraded to Sydney from a 747. He originally wrote the song about the red eye flight from Perth to Sydney. I love it. It takes me back to a time when I was a (very) young adult, still naïve and feeling empowered by my new independence.

While looking for the song, I discovered that Paul Kelly had done a TEDxSydney talk in 2011. He talks about his book How To Make Gravy, best listened to as an audiobook, where he tells his life story and there’s one of his songs associated with each chapter. It’s going on my Wish List.

~ Spotted Cow