Hoopla on Good Friday

Not an image you'd usually associate with Good Friday, is it?

It certainly wasn't for me. An Aussie who'd been to the States told me that Easter weekend here is like Thanksgiving because everyone travels and visits family. Actually, I think it's like Thanksgiving and Labor Day combined because there's a fervor about getting out, especially to the beach, before the weather changes. (And yep, I am getting "caught up" on blogging--only I don't think of it that way).

Many people have a four-day weekend. Almost everything that doesn't cater to tourists is closed on Good Friday - more so than on Easter Sunday. Sylvia and I went to the Hoopla Festival at Darling Harbor. Darling Harbor is a touristy area downtown that has the aquarium, National Maritime Museum, a great playground, lots of restaurants, etc. Here you can get a sense of the buildings around the harbor. (These acts are NOT using a safety net or pads, by the way!!)

The Hoopla Festival is an all-day, mostly free festival of circus performers from around the world. Some are outside and some are in "tops" of various sizes. My favorites were inside, and we could not take pictures. Sylvia and I saw one circus troupe that was only children ages 7-18. I thought the Solid State Circus was the best by far. Talk about absolutely incredible teamwork! Impressive.



This duo from France was Sylvia's favorite. They combined mime, music, juggling, acrobatics, and a pool! (It's hard to see, but there's a man playing the guitar up on those bars by the palms.)

This couple is from Ireland. I loved that their act was in front of an Oz poster.

                                                                     

Hoola hoops were a big deal.

And at the Botanical Garden, circus inspiration at work:

Random Moments of Happiness

1/13 Sylvia and the Sydney Bridge

1/13 Old Music Together friends reunited

2/13 At the Museum of Contemporary Art

2/13 On the south head

3/13 Reading at the public library

3/13 Behind the opera house

4/13 At Victoria Park playground

Mosman & Balmoral Beach

Here's Sylvia on the rocks at Rocky Point Island. This is from a Sunday outing at the end of February that I had written up a post for, and then forgot to "publish" it!

To get there, you have to cross that little stone bridge at the left of this picture from Balmoral Beach. Immediately across the bridge you face:

all the possible dangers you risk and all thing actions you are not supposed to do.

Clearly, Sylvia had not been daunted by the potential dangers (although the ends of an old shark net did get our imaginations going. Shark nets are exactly what they sound like - a net strung across a bay to keep sharks out).

The view!

The yellow boat in the center is a taxi.

You're looking at the North Head or the landmass to the north of the harbor's mouth. The coastal geography is very complicated and can be confusing.

The ferry does not go to Balmoral beach, so we took a ferry to Mosman, a neighboring suburb, and then walked along a trail and then through town. Here's Rick and Sylvia with Mosman Bay in the background.

Here's the trunk of a palm tree we saw in a garden along the shore. Isn't it stunning? Each of those ovals was left when a palm frond fell off.













Even the vegetation along the city roads was completely different from anything we see in New England. We walked through a couple of patches scented by jasmine. On this particular outing, we dashed off without a map and a general sense, it turned out, of things being closer than they were. After a few wild Sundays, we got much better at bringing maps and consulting public transit timetables.

A number of trees have flowers that remind me of bottle scrubbing brushes -- although gorgeous ones. 

The scrub brush shape seemed to be very attractive to hungry birds here. These particular blossoms smelled like vanilla.

And remember those cheeky birds I've mentioned in other posts?

Well, this bobble-headed owl keeps them away from the fruit at the market.

Notice the fruit selection: grapes, persimmons, figs, passion fruit, and pineapple.

Berries are extravagantly expensive here.

Potts Point

One morning a number of weeks ago, Rick and I headed out to Potts Point. Although it's a small point jutting out into the bay, there is very little public access to either a view of the water or the water itself. I believe the tip of  the point is used by the navy and is closed off to the public. Potts Point is on a high ridge and is densely populated. It has the feel of the Gold Coast of Chicago - very posh - but on a hill. As you can see, there is much vying for a view.

One of the first things I noticed about Sydney: 

balconies are very popular.

This one reminded me of

my parents' patio in Illinois.

Here's one of the few views of the coast to be had:

This was in front of the Elizabeth Bay House which is now a small museum. It was built around 1839 for Alexander Macleay who was an accomplished naturalist, the secretary for the governor, and a spendthrift (this last being the reason he moved to Australia). Before he died, he lost all of his land and his house due to financial difficulties. In 1977 the house was opened as a museum after extensive renovation.

Here's looking up at the oval dome in the central foyer:

And here's what's under the dome.

With all that gorgeous, "impractical" space, you can see why many developers considered the house a "white elephant" before the Historic House Trust bought it.

As we wandered around Potts Point, we found a street that had rows of old houses converted into "backpacker" hostels and hotels. We also found this fountain. Because the neighborhood is on a ridge, we often found long stairways that would lead from one block to another.

But, as you can see, we did not have to worry about getting lost.

Tawny Frogmouths

Is this a branch or a bird?

You're right - it's a bird, but if we were standing at the bottom of a tree, it would look just like a bit of wood, don't you think? (We were only about four feet away when I took this picture).

These are tawny frogmouths. (Sometimes they're called "owls" because some people think they look like owls, but they're not). The only reason we got to see them is that these tawny frogmouths had been injured and could no longer fly, so they now live at Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Here's one that Sylvia was lucky enough to stroke:

She said the feathers felt soft.

The first day we went to Sylvia's school (before classes started), the principal spied a feather on the ground and asked Sylvia to pick it up. She told us that it was from a tawny frogmouth and that they lived in the Morton Bay fig trees around the school. Here's the feather:








And these are the Morton Bay fig trees next to Sylvia's school:

Here's another shot (taken from the school's basketball courts) of the trees in which you can see their leafy canopy:

 If you were a bird, don't you think these trees would be an enticing place to hang out?

If you want to know more about tawny frogmouths, try this link.

School Management Team

Sylvia was chosen by her principal to be one of the children on the school management team. Working in groups of two or three, the kids on the team get a new task each week. Sylvia's first job was to ring the school bell six times a day: at 9 A.M., - the beginning of the school day, at the beginning and end of recess, at the beginning and end of lunch, and at 3 P.M. - the end of the school day.

The children get a wooden pole from the office that has a hook at its end that is then hooked into the bell's chain. (You can see the chain on the right here). They pull on the pole to get the bell to ring. Isn't this a lovely, old-fashioned bell? (The local high school has automated buzzers).

And here's what the bell sounds like:

(Sorry, but I could not figure out how to turn the clip so it's not sideways.)

The bell is in the middle of the back courtyard. Here in the bright early morning sun, you can see that scooters get parked in between the fence rails. (That is a stairway that is rarely used). The scooters are never locked up or stolen. Lots of kids ride scooters but very few ride bikes, by the way. The streets are too busy to be safe to bicycle in, and some of the sidewalks are quite narrow.

Other tasks that Sylvia has done as part of the school management team have been: being a "message-runner" for staff or teachers, delivering lunches, feeding the fish, trying to get the "lost property" found, and raising and lowering  the flag. (The school does not have a cafeteria, so parents can order food from a café on the corner. When the lunches are delivered, children on the school management team deliver them to the right classes).

Here's Sylvia and her peers lowering the flag while a younger boy watches. 

Don't you love those hats? You can identify Sylvia from her backpack. 

I think it's terrific that the kids are given so much responsibility, and the kids like it too.