Museums, Rain and Bathrooms

A woman visitor at the Contemporary Art Museum in Sydney challenged Tim to follow the artist's instructions to unzip his fly, lie down on the floor and stick the bouquet of silk flowers in his open fly. Of course, Tim, not one to back down from a challenge accepted in a heartbeat. This artist was a kick. Another of his "instructions" was to stand in one bucket while wearing a second bucket on your head. Check out the link to see a much better explanation of the artist's work.

Sunday was another rainy day here in Oz. I know the rain is needed, but I wouldn't mind a bit of sun now either. At least the temperatures are wonderful - cool and comfortable. When we had the killer hot day on January 1 (112 degrees F), all our beautiful ferns and several other plants turned brown and keeled over. I'm sure they will recover, but I think their response shows how unusual that kind of weather is around our home.

On Sunday we dragged (drugged?) each other out and took the train into the big city of Sydney. Our plan was to go to the Contemporary Art Museum, which we did, but we decided to eat first - at the Museum Cafe. We got a wonderful table sitting on the veranda overlooking Circular Quay, the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour, various street performers - and the people-watching was fascinating. I ordered what Tim ordered (since he always gets something good and I always get something that only "sounds" good). Our lunch was a blue cheese souffle with endive salad greens and caramelized walnuts. Sounds great, doesn't it? Actually, it was good, all 1.5 grams of it! The souffle arrived in a tiny white ceramic cup and the plate had about 10 small leaves of endive with what seemed to be enough pieces of walnut to perhaps make one whole walnut. This plate should have been called an appetizer, because it certainly did that - made us more hungry! We of course had some wine (in that venue, how could one resist?), and the Riesling was lovely, fruity and crisp and made us mellow enough not to protest the tiny portions.

After lunch and museum we went over to get a closer view of the street performer we had earlier been viewing from afar. Now this was one crazy guy. He juggled and rode a 9' high unicycle. Mostly he had the one-liner down to an artform. He was particularly good at embarrassing people, e.g., to the two men standing on the ferry coming in near us he yelled, "I was glad to hear you two got back together!" and the old woman who he gave a hug to and came away holding a lacy black bra. At first she didn't see the bra, but when she did she exclaimed, "It's not mine! Really, it's not mine!" Tim and I both had severe "cheek ache" when we finally walked away. This photo I took with my mobile phone camera shows the performer and an unwitting 10 year old volunteer.



Last Friday, I had a lovely new friend over to our house for some afternoon snacks. Lisa brought Bella with her, who is probably the most beautiful and well behaved and good tempered baby in the world. I don't know Bella's exact age, but she is seriously considering walking about now. Lisa and her husband, Chris, were kind enough to invite us for dinner at their home not long after we settled into our house last May. That kind of hospitality is unusual and special and did wonders for our sense of belonging. Chris works with Tim at ATNF, and Lisa is working part-time as a pharmacist as well as caring for Bella.

Saturday found Tim anxious to get out and do something, while I was anxious to stay home and do little. Tim called Chris to go kayaking and later that afternoon, off they went. I went to the mall to buy magazines for collaging (the weirder the mag the better).

Note: Australian toilets are interesting in that they have two buttons. The button on the left is for "light" duty and the one on the right is for "heavy" doodee. :)

In the brochure put out by the water company who is encouraging residents to be careful with their water use, I read: "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." They don't mince words here in Oz.

Have a lovely day, Mates! Judi