This morning I took the metro into the city to meet someone for brunch. It was in Surry Hills, near the train station. Nice to get out and at least somewhat by myself, and a very great relief to have brunch, as I have eaten nothing but biryani and haleem (and yesterday’s cake) since Sunday. I love both, but having progressively sadder versions of each for three meals a day was getting a bit hard.
On the train I went over the Harbour Bridge without realising it, perhaps due to the lack of fireworks, though I did identify the Opera House.
Brunch was a classic Australian avocado and toast (or avo as they call it here), with some mushrooms. Very tasty. I added on a couple of coffees as well, feeling indulgent, and was appalled at my final bill (which included muesli and coffee for my companion) of over 60 Australian dollars. This is an expensive country.
Pride, the first pride after the pandemic, is this weekend. I will miss it as I booked a train to Canberra early in the morning. It goes through Surry Hills, so the entire neighbourhood was gearing up, though in the usual corporatist sort of way, with all businesses putting up rainbow flags and announcing how welcoming they are. One bar had changed its name to Homo House. That sort of thing. I’d like to have seen it anyway, as it will clearly be quite a blowout after the last few years, but oh well.
After brunch, we met up with the bride and groom to be, and walked to the new wing of the national gallery. It’s Ash Wednesday today, so aside from people arriving for Pride, there were people with ash crosses on their foreheads, something I first saw in Boston, when it properly took me aback.
I liked the gallery. The new wing was airy and a little bland. Maybe the greatest architectural contribution to the city since the Opera House as is claimed, but I couldn’t say. I thought it was nice and airy and I particularly liked the veranda-ish bit, with it roof referencing corrugated iron, as well as the view of the very large battleship. We saw a good exhibition of Aboriginal art, and the bride remarked on how much things had changed, and Aboriginal issues come to the fore in the last few years. Australia is so far behind the rest of world in this, that it is something that a person a decade my junior could remark on. I particularly liked a thicket of flying foxes and some bark paintings, none of which I understood, really, but liked looking at.
Another exhibit I really liked was a room with a mirror on the ceiling and on the floor, and between them three open floors of a building, so the reflection made it look like the building extended up and down forever, until one caught oneself reflected, peering into the mirror.
Then I came back, via the local shopping centre, where I got lost in the search for what is supposed to be a nice walk by a stream back to the house. Along the way, though, I bought a pack of sushi which I smuggled home, since I really couldn’t face more of the biryani and haleem.