Day Two? in Sydney. July 18, 2015

Hi Mates (They actually say that!… as well as things like “no worries”)

It’s Saturday night and I just returned from the Sydney Opera House where I heard Chinese superstar Yuja Wang plays Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.2 in her Australian debut! The full concert included the Australian Symphony’s chamber group and Dvorak’s 8th Symphony. I think every person of Asian descent who lives anywhere near Sydney was in the audience — young and old! Anyway, she deserves to be called a superstar, and makes it all seem effortless. She’s also quite beautiful and “glided” on stage in a backless white sequined gown that showed off her great figure and had a bit of “train” (I think that’s what you call it when the dress sweeps the floor in the back).

The Opera House is pretty amazing — well beyond its totally iconic position in the harbor and viewed from numerous vantage points. It has 6 distinct performance halls. I was in the concert hall which seats about 3,000. — Turandot was being performed in the one of the other halls.. All told, the Opera House venues seat about 6,000 people. The project, the result of a competition, was 10 years late and fifteen hundred (1,500) times over budget. But so it goes!

I decided to take a ferry to the Opera House.. seemed like a good idea. But the walk to the ferry from the hotel is about 25 minutes and it was about 45 degrees. So I took a taxi to the ferry and then arrived by boat which was fun and gave a great series of views of the Opera House along the way. Once you emerge from the ferry at Circular Quay the walk is only about 4 minutes.. .and then you take an escalator to the lower level which is packed with upscale restaurants (the famed Bennelong Restaurant is on an upper level — I didn’t venture there because the prix fixe menu is $175 without any wine. So I decided to eat at the Opera Bar — food was good and atmosphere good with great water views if you chose an outdoor table! I ate inside since all the outside tables that had heaters were taken.

Anyway, I shared a high table with a couple who live about four hours south of Sydney — both are poets. Imagine the chances of that. We quickly got into some interesting conversations. They seemed to have decided I must be a lefty since they quickly discussed politics; US issues; the terrible conservative government in Australia which they think is copying some of the bad decisions of the US; problems with energy; concerns about California’s drought; etc. It was a lively meal. They were headed to the opera, so we parted at the door. The venue is huge..

OK.. so the rest of my day.

Ventured out right after breakfast (by the way, marmite and vegemite are everywhere) to Paddington Market which only happens on Saturdays. It wasn’t raining although it was cold. Took the train to Central and then decided to take a taxi to the location because it looked like rain was coming soon and figured I’d get there faster by car. (Taxis are not cheap; nothing is cheap here!) Anyway, Paddington Market is interesting.. about 150 stalls outside of a church and school. All of the products sold are made by local artists and crafts people — from bread and chocolates to clothing and housewares. Strolled around and then started to walk back to the train (25 minutes) — stopping by an interesting old reservoir that looks like a Roman aqueduct — converted into an inner-city park and a few other sites (and shops)… walking through the Darlington neighborhood. Oh this neighborhood has very interesting houses with wrought iron porches on first and second floors… a bit New Orleans-esque… in fact a lot New Orleans-esque… and the houses are row houses in groups of about 5 and situated on narrow alley size streets. It’s clear that they went into disrepair at some point and now are being renovated with serious efforts to rehab according to original plans, so they are fantastic.

Eventually stopped at a very sweet little wine bar/café where I had the “whipped botarga pretzel” — sort of a taramasalata made with fish roe — and served with a house made soft pretzel. Topped it off with a nice glass of white wine.. And used the restaurant to charge my phone which was woefully dead. Once that task was accomplished I headed back on foot to the station, but then decided to go see Aurora Place — a tower that includes residential, commercial, and offices — designed by Renzo Piano. About 30 minutes into my walk it started to drizzle and so I hopped into another taxi.. Anyway, it was really raining by the time I got to Aurora Place.. so I just did a quick run around the building..

Then it was back to the hotel to get serious about preparing my talk… I also had some work to do for a project that is currently at a printer in LA… answered some questions to keep the job progressing on time…

And that’s about it… except that Sydney (and I suppose all of Australia) is certainly not diverse in our sense of the term. It’s also a pretty youthful city. Healthcare is excellent and free I’m told. And some taxi driver data from my very large sample of about 6 — immigrants from Lebanon and Iran. The Iranian taxi driver I had escaped about 27 years ago. He’s Bahai and says there’s a sizable (20,000) number of people of the Bahai faith here in Sydney. Many taxi drivers are Muslim and tonight was a Muslim holiday so there weren’t as many taxis on the road as usual (which is why I had to walk about 3/4 mile from the Opera House and then wait about 20 minutes to get a taxi to take me back to the hotel).

OK.. not quite as exciting and interesting as Tibet and Kathmandu and other travels… so toss if too boring.

Tomorrow I’m spending all morning in my room finishing my talk(s).. and if I’m successful then I’m heading to the Botanical Gardens and the zoo! and maybe a ferry to a northern suburb. Doubt I’ll have anywhere near that much time.. so just finishing the talks and getting out for air (and hoping it’s a bit warmer) will be great. My last day before the conference.. and then immediately back to CA.

Best –

Fern