Art, Old Stuff and Green

On the 19th March the moon was the closer to earth that it has been for 18 years. Sydney decided this would be an ideal time to start raining and cover the night in thick clouds producing a daft amount of precipitation. No pictures of Mega Moon for this camera nerd.

I did, however, get to go into the city on Sunday to have a look at the Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Bosie Letters at the State Library and the Terracotta Warriors at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

It was raining and seeing as I believe umbrellas are evil I choose to wear a hat to keep my still fairly fresh bald head warm and dry and a hoodie for my body. My friend A. Had chosen to be all man and just had on jeans and t-shirt. Grr... :-)

Needless to say he got very wet. Me, not so much. I laughed hard when he popped into a tourist shop and came out with one of those plastic poncho thingies. He looked very silly.

Due to a leak in the ceiling of the MCA, part of the Annie Leibovitz thing was closed off to the public. It was OK, missed 15 pictures, saved $10. What we did see was amazing, including the somewhat macabre photos of her expiring father and close friend Susan Sontag. The majority of the pictures where printed in black and white with only a couple of famous faces in colour (Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore).

A cup of tea/coffee in the cafe revived us before we strolled up to the State Library. The weather was being kind and had stop raining for the time being.

I wanted to see the letters that Lord Alfred Douglas, better known as Bosie had written Oscar Wilde. I was a little disappointed; they appeared to be reproductions, rather than the real thing. We were only there for about five minutes. I was interested though that someone who was born and bred in NSW, as A was, had never been in the State Library.

A short stroll across The Domain took us to The Art Gallery of NSW. I love this place. Been here many times, A never had. I approached the lady behind the information desk and asked, ‘could you please tell me where the Terracotta Warriors are?’

‘That exhibition ended on Wednesday’.

Damn, I missed them by four days! We still took a wander around. We looked at the classic from 18th C Europe, the one Pissarro, ‘the bicycle’ by Fernard Leger, the strange little Picasso, the Gauguin and the dull looking peasant Mr. Van Gogh painted in 1884 that is hides in one of the corners, before having some lunch. It was 2.15 and we were both starving. We went into the restaurant.

Pork belly with seasoned cabbage and polenta mash hit the spot nicely, as did the Chocolate parfait that we shared for dessert. Conversation was nice too. We talked about the things we’d seen during the day, and being a tourist in your own town. We decided it was underrated and the opportunity to wander, sit and drink tea while looking out as the ants rushing by present itself, it should never be turned down. Taking time out to just sit and enjoy is often ignored in preference for dash and haste of busy lives.

After lunch had been consumed, we walked across the road and into the Botanic Garden. The weather had cleared up and the sun was poking through, throwing fingers of light onto the trees. The warmth brought out the fragrance of the damp gardens filling the air with scents of late flowering hibiscus and sodden mulch. As we got deeper into the garden, the sound of car disappeared and the squeal of flying foxes became louder. The foxes hung from the trees like Christmas decorations, stretching their wings, but not taking to them. As we approached the water’s edge the sounds of waves against the breakwater and boats took over.

We finished the day with some luxury hydration at the Guylian Cafe on Circular Quay, chocolate milkshake for him, strawberry for me.

The weather held out until I got home. The cloud came over just in time to obscure the moon for the second night.