One day we'll be able to add the Quarantine Station to the itinerary...

We had a Sydney Heritage Theme Weekend, which was lovverly. On Saturday we went for a wee stroll around the Brickpit, a modest tourist spot on the location of the industrial site where most of the bricks that make up Sydney’s buildings were quarried. It is now a reserve for a rare kind of frog, which were heard but not seen. Perhaps they were scared off by the excitable 20-month-old charging around the place shouting “ducks!” at passing wildfowl.
Sunday saw quite a major local event, the 75^th birthday of Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bridge was closed to traffic for the day and 200,000 of us took advantage by rocking up and walking over. There was a wonderful atmosphere of festivity and civic pride, the whole thing reminded me a little of London on the day of the marathon.
As you know I am at heart a Londoner but I think the bridge is the symbol of Sydney that I feel most attached to. It may be because of my family roots to North-East England, where Newcastle provided the template and much of the materials and skilled labour fro its antipodean corollary. I also have an innate admiration for ambitious works of engineering genius, especially when they have such an impact both socially and aesthetically. I’ve done Bridgeclimb twice and visited the South Pylon museum several times, and my admiration for the designers and builders of the bridge grows with each visit.

In other news, our dear friends Jo and Jon had a baby called Ellie! I’ll be meeting her at the end of June and I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, I have been mostly listening to Augie March and Wilco.

Theologians don’t know nothing about my soul