Lots of walking for little return

I found my way to the Hamburg University of Fine Arts today. It is about 43 minutes train ride from where I live and housed in great big old buildings with high ceilings and enormous corridors. As I wandered up and down the stairs trying to find someone to ask where the admin office is I kept thinking how many studios you could fit into those wide corridors. Although the term has started the whole place was empty. People are on their Easter break and there is not much happening until after Easter. I couldn't even register as the admin office is only open Tues/Wed/Thurs. I asked for information and was told that everything is online now as there is no money available to print lecture schedules.

Through my eyes

This is what I see as I write ... the view from the window of my host's study.

The village of Rissen, about 10 minutes walk away.

Spring flowers outside a grocery store. The shop displays are so charming that window shopping is a real pleasure.

Happiness is ...

... an attic bedroom in a good friend's house.

Flying

I had a good flight to Frankfurt. I flew in one of those A380 huge aircraft to Singapore and it was so much more comfortable than the normal jumbos that I would actively search to book on an A380 next time I fly. The rest of the flight was in a normal jumbo and I was so tired I slept most of the way. Despite this I slept 13 hours last night ... and am still feeling sleepy.
Why does flying (and eating 3 dinners in a row) make one so hungry? I seem to have eaten enough to feed two cattle beasts this morning.

Edward E

Meet Edward Elephant. Greta is designing and making toys out of recycled materials. One of her first was Edward E who is made entirely from recycled materials from Reverse Garbage at the Addison Road Community Center.

Zeinab

This is baby Zeinab with her mother and her mother's friend Helen having a coffee in Rockdale. When I showed them the picture they were so delighted. Zeinabs mum has a round and happy face. Helen (with the cap) said 'Oh, I'm glad you didn't draw my big nose". I didn't think her nose was big at all ... and I have looked closely at a lot of noses!

Philip

Ten years old

Yesterday was Ruby's tenth birthday.

Sydney Ceiling

I am back in Sydney. The oldest (over 100 years) part of this Banksia house has ornate ceilings, common among houses of the period. It makes you feel as if you can feel the breeze of a colonial fan whirring in the heat.

Victorian Art Gallery

This is the door to the Victorian Art Gallery. It reminded me of the water screen in the Adelaide production of Das Rheingold in 2004 which was enormous and effective. It replaced the theater curtains just as this one replaces a wall. As I looked through the gallery water curtain I waited for that long E flat major. (Das Rheingold begins with a 136-bar unmodulating prelude based on the chord of E flat major that is meant to represent the eternal unchanging motions of the River Rhine. Source: Wikipedia)

And inside the gallery, a sprinkler isolating valve.

Gallery tea shop which served all sorts of teas including smoked tea, good coffee
and an artistic selection of cakes.

Tiles

 

 

Tiles in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.

Melbourne through the window

Love your trams

This sign seems to me to say a lot about Melbourne. In Sydney, Government signs and warnings are negative and admonishing. This little sign though asks you to love your trams. How much nicer, and probably much more effective too.

House with character

 

 

There are a lot of old character houses in Brunswich and this is one of them. Most are wooden, with fancy fireplaces and gardens out the back.

Feet on Saturday morning

Fireplace with fedora

The fireplace in the house where I am staying.

Brunswick backyard

The dog is called Jackson.

First impressions of Melbourne

Softer than Sydney, less hectic, fewer sharp elbows, friendlier and more artistically vibrant; weather more variable, grayer, less humid, temperate rather than tropical vegetation, no cockroaches. Folk here seem less defensive. It is just a wee bit more like Dunedin!

Melbourne rain

It is raining and what was dust yesterday is a mud puddle today. This picture is of the reflection of a tree in the decking behind the house.

Dry Victoria

I arrived in Melbourne yesterday. Sydney has been having rain and is lush, but it is a different story in Melbourne. The gardens are dry and most lawns are like this one, just dust.

On the way south I read about farmers who have had to leave their land after unremitting drought. Environmentalists have long pointed out that growing water intense crops like cotton is nonsensical in a climate like ours but governments kept selling water rights. The magazine article showed a picture of a family of 5 standing in their dry-as-a-bone irrigation channel that normally irrigated their cotton crop. No water despite the farmer paying $25,000 for x gigalitres. Perhaps the irrigation industry lobby should be sent to talk to the rain Gods?