AUSTRALIA: Sydney

After a cancelled flight the day before, I finally made it to Sydney. I was thoroughly pleased to find a Jazz trio playing outside the pub connected to my hotel. The Lord Wolseley is a cozy hotel with a great restaurant in a nice quiet neighborhood.

REDY2GO – This is cheapest and easiest way to get to your Sydney hotel from the airport especially if you’re traveling solo.

A jazz trio welcomes me to the Lord Wolseley Hotel which is a reasonable, friendlyisit , and well located place to stay on a first visit to Sydney.

The vocalist awaits her opening. She was very good and did some sweet jazz standards.

The pub connected to the hotel.

THE SYDNEY TOWER

CHINATOWN – A late night snack.

ROO BLUE BALLS – This is truly amazing. What going on with the obsession with Kangaroo’s gonads here in Australia. Now they’re encouraging the tea bagging of their children by these creatures. Never mind the metaphorical ball sucking going on when the kids consume this garish product. I also want to know why anyone who sucks a kangaroo’s balls would worry whether they were gluten free. I think the type of people with a gluten intolerance would also have an intolerance of kangaroos with giant blue testicles hawking candies that are facsimiles of said testes. Crikey!

I saw this beguiling logo on the side of a building on the way back to my hotel after my Peking Duck soup.

 

 

                                         DAY ONE

VERY COOL MOVING GRAPHIC ON THE SIDE OF THE CONVENTION CENTER

CAFE de WHEELS – This is a Sydney institution since 1945 that has been patronized by celebrities from all over the globe. Purchased by Hannah’s Pies it is now a very popular national chain offering meat pies of many varieties. You can see Hannah with her tray of treats on the right, and you will recognize her from the picture I saw on the side of a building last night. Surely the tray of desserts will jog your memory, wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean?

I start my day with a chicken curry pie and a Coke.

ICC THEATER

DARLING HARBOUR

COCKLE BAY WHARF

 

 

                           WILD LIFE SYDNEY ZOO

PYTHON

SKINKS

 

It’s not easy being green.

 

 

KOALA BEAR

WALLABY

BARE-NOSED WOMBAT – He is the largest herbivore in the world, and is the closest living relative of the koala. He can move up to speeds of 40 km/hr. Unfortunately the wombat is endangered and needs your help.

Our friend here is a rodent with a good PR firm, and is well worth saving.

Wombats have unique cube-shaped droppings that help them to mark their territory!

WESTERN GREY KANGAROO

LAUGHING KOOKABURRA – This large kingfisher feeds on insects, crustaceans, frogs, reptiles, and smaller birds. It is best known for its loud, laughing call, once used to emulate jungle sounds in Tarzan films.

ECHIDNA – Echidnas are found across many habitats from alpine to desert and feed on a steady diet of ants and termites.

BILBY – Also known as the rabbit-eared bandicoot, the Bilby uses its huge ears to listen for insects. It also uses its long snout to sniff out fruit, fungi, bulbs, and seeds. It was once widespread throughout inland Australia, but it is now restricted to a few isolated pockets.

DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS – This young platypus roots around in the sand looking for crayfish.

Here we catch a glipse of his bill.

He homes in on his prey.

Success, the crayfish is trapped in his bill, and you can see the tail and claw sticking out of his mouth.

 

 

For those of you who thought Billabong was just a surf wear company, here’s what a billabong really is.

That’s a mighty big Croc.

 

 

Say hello to my little friend.

I got to take my own close up as well.

Here’s a mom and her baby who is nursing at the moment.

 

AN EXCELLENT NAP POSE

CHOCOLATE KANGAROO POO – Not again! Here we have yet another bizarre Australian candy offering. The really disturbing part is the marking on the bag that says the chocolate poo is rendered in a realistic shape and color! Now they’re encouraging children to eat simulated feces. Is there no end to their confectionary chicanery in this country?

MARITIME MUSEUM

 

 

                  SEA LIFE SYDNEY

SPINY LOBSTER

OCTOPUS

MOON JELLYFISH

PHOSPHORESCENT SOFT CORAL

LUNGFISH – PREHISTORIC STYLE FISH

 

SPOTTED EAGLE RAY

I had not seen any of these guys all year so I got my fill at this aquarium.

 

SICKLEFIN LEMON SHARK

LOGGERHEAD TURTLE – He looks ironically seasick.

GROUPER

KING PENGUIN

 

 

 

SYDNEY TOWER

STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK – LIVE WITH THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

IMAGES STREAK PAST ON THIS ELECTRONIC ART INSTALLATION

 

 

                                        DAY TWO

 

TRAVEL ZEALOT – SHADOW FIGURE

HERE COMES MY RIDE

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE – DESIGNED BY DANISH ARCHITECT JØRN UTSON

Considered one of the 20th. century’s most famous and distinctive buildings, it has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Leave to those Scandinavians to come up with an amazing design.

MAGNIFICENT

GARDEN ISLAND NAVY SHIPYARD

WATSON’S BAY

IBIS

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE – It is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge and the tallest steel arch bridge. It is nicknamed “The Coathanger” because of its arch-based design.

I was a little bit disappointed with the museum’s exhibits so here are a few of my abstracts of the Sydney Opera House instead. I hope they tide you over until we get to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

OPERA #1

OPERA #2

OPERA #3

VIEW FROM THE OPERA HOUSE LOOKING BACK AT CIRCULAR QUAY

Fear not there will be art. We just have to stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney to get there.

Birdsong filled the air all the way to the museum.

 

 

This fountain is a real benefit to the local birds.

This sulphur-crested cockatoo stopped by to get his beak wet.

ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES – SO FAR SO GOOD

Amedeo MODIGLIANI – Seated Nude with Necklace – 1917

Paul CÉZANNE – The Banks of the Marne – 1888

Cézanne spent much of 1888 in Paris and at this time painted a group of landscapes representing views of the river Marne. Believing color and form to be inseparable, the painter attempted to emphasize structure and solidity in his work. The monumental impression given by Banks of the Marne depends on the stability of the composition and its architectonic sequence of horizontal bands. It also conveys a great sense of balance and harmony in the distribution of color.

Pablo PICASSO – Femme Allongée sur un Canapé (Dora Maar) – 1939

This portrait is, in many respects, a traditional representation of a reclining woman: there is the couch, the glimpse of flesh, and a hint of a world beyond the bedroom. The windows at the top right even echo the window in Titan’s Venus of Urbino 1538. But there the resemblances stop. Trouble was brewing all over Europe when Picasso made this painting in early 1939. And trouble erupts through the very skin and physique of Picasso’s model, Dora Maar. With splayed eyes, cadaverous green skin, artichoke hands and a menacing grin, she is a monstrous but strangely sympathetic retort to the myth of ideal beauty – an odalisque for the age of surrealism and the Second World War.

Del Kathryn BARTON – come of things – 2010

Every part of the surface is alive and writhing. Patterns nest within patterns. Humans morph into creatures. And plants bloom not with flowers but body parts and organs. Del Kathryn Barton’s come of things is a painting that does not let up, pressing us at every point into a world of feverish transformation.

BUDDHA sheltered by the Naga Muchalinda – Early 1800’s

Phyllida BARLOW – brokenupturnedhouse – 2013

 

Ernest NETO – Just like drops in time, nothing – 2002

 

 

Nike Savvas – Atomic: Full of Love, Full of Wonder – 2005

 

 

Colin LANCELEY – Atlas – 1965

Clement MEADMORE – Untitled – 1961

 

 

 

                            ABORIGINAL ART

Patju PRESLEY – Kali impil – 2015

 

Munggurrawuy YUNUPINGU – The Rain Men – 1959

 

Joe DHAMANYDJI – Burala and Djalambu – 2016

Lena NYADBI – Hideout – 2002

Patrick Olodoodi TJUNGURRAYI – Untitled (Two goanna ancestors) – 1999

Uta Uta TJANGALA – Untitled (Jupiter Well to Tjukula) – 1979

 

 

 

 

 

 

“THE COAT HANGER”

 

 

                                        DAY THREE

MANLY WHARF

 

MANLY BEACH

 

A little stroll through the center of Manly to get back to the ferry.

As you can see we are a ways from the main part of Sydney, but the city is quite spread out like Los Angeles except a hell of a lot nicer. There is a great deal of construction and development going on, and the city is constantly growing and improving.

This small fortress was built to guard against the Russians entering the harbour, but it never came to any use and the guns were never fired.

 

 

             MADAME TUSSAUDS

MAHATMA GANDHI

ALBERT EINSTEIN

TAYLOR SWIFT – With her arch nemesis in the background, Taylor prepares to clobber Katy with her guitar.

KATY PERRY – Don’t let the smile fool you, Katy has sharpened her talons to scratch Taylor’s eyes out.

HONEY, GRAB THE KIDS!!!

ELLE MACPHERSON

HEATH LEDGER

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

BRUCE WILLIS

AUDREY HEPBURN – BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS

GAL GADOT AS WONDER WOMAN

BATMAN

HUGH JACKMAN AS WOLVERINE

IRON MAN

RYAN REYNOLDS AND NICOLE KIDMAN

JOHNNY DEPP – In need of a $10,000 bottle of wine.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH

CATE BLANCHETTE

ANGELINA JOLIE AND DUMPER

It’s been decades since I have been to a Madame Tussauds, and back then about half of the figures were respectable likenesses. The improvement in technology has rendered amazing results in accuracy and realism. About ninety percent are spot on, so if you want to rub elbows with your favorite celebrities without having to embarrass yourself by asking for an autograph or selfies, then this is the place for you.