A Hoi Hoi

A few weeks back P and I did a bit of a tour of Historic Houses in Sydney trying to knock a few things of The List. First up was lovely Elizabeth Bay House.

The main reason why it has taken me so long to put this one up is because I didn't know what to write really and didn't think I could properly explain the history of the houses, I'll let the photos do the talking. There are great views from both houses and the Historic Houses Trust always do well with their museums with furnishing their houses and the staff are always informative.

A marble bust of Macleay in in the library, he doesn't often have a knitted rat on his head it was part of an art installation throughout some of the museums in Sydney.

 

Each room is furnished as it may have been when it was originally built, with separate rooms for Husband and Wife, reading rooms and foyer for greeting guests. Elizabeth Bay House changed hands many times and was an artists commune in the 70's where the rooms were split and squatters moved in. 

About a 20 minute drive from Elizabeth Bay House is Vaucluse House. The house doesn't have an entrance to the museum as such, you come up the side of the property and go through this little shed thing (more of a building really) so the start of the tour is from the kitchen. This is because of the way the house evolved from a small house consisting of the main living area then with add-ons to the mansion today.

 

Money ran a little short towards the end of the build. looking towards the staircase. Marble busts of Will Wentworth and his wife Sarah are positioned where the front entrance would have been, looking to the grand stairwell.

 

Main living area which was the only part of the house when originally built.

People had a fair amount of time to create elaborate things of out shells.

Two more places off The List. I'll probably go back to both houses again. We only caught a bit of the tour at Elizabeth Bay House and we forgot to see The Grotto!. 

 

Also, Macleay (Elizabeth Bay House) and Wentworth (Vaucluse House) have buildings named after them at Sydney University for the science-y type work and their houses were kind of rivals at the time. Apparently they would not have been all buddy buddy though because Wentworth was born out of wedlock and his wife was a commoner. I think Vaucluse House was better though, mainly because of the history of the building and you can see how much it changed as the family changed.

- A

You Rock My World, You Know You Did

Knocked off a newbie to The List. I've read about people locking engraved padlocks onto retaining walls within Ballast Point Park on a few different blogs. This oddity was the main reason I was going to go. I didn't read anything about the place. Checked the map and saw it was down the road from Adriano Zumbo's so done! Cake in hand I found possibly the most complicated way to get there.

The park reminds me of Cockatoo Island with an industrial and slight modernist feel and basic native plantings. This is an internal photo taken from 'Delicate Balance' which hovers over the edge of the water. There are little cut outs to see framed parts of the harbour and a steel grate which allows the sound of the water to come up the tunnel you're in. 

Ballast Point Park was used to quarry sandstone in the past. Obviously being near Balmain there is a fair bit of the stuff about.

There is the running theme of rivets throughout. Another, much later, purpose of the park was as an oil refinery for Caltex. 

I tried the panorama thingo on my camera. Worked a treat. Now I have no idea how to make it panorama on computer. Views from the park are amazing. Lovely clear day. Thought it was going to be all overcast.

Cake! I had the Drunken Mocha Tart ($9). Consisting of Grand Marina, Orange Ganache, Italian Meringue and..... one last thing I can not remember. Felt a little odd taking a photo of the card in the store. I know heaps of people blog about his food and take notes. Still. little self conscious Aly just didn't have the guts. 

Finally, I find the padlocks. I read the first one. Sweet. I read the second and wonder if MJ is a weird relationship-py code for something, it is just a coincidence or MJ likes to throw themselves around the Inner West. The final one gave it away.

 

I think you pay per letter for engraving. Only one person out of ten was not stingy and got his whole name on there. I thought this was a going to have hundreds all with personal notes. Maybe there is such a wall and I missed it. 

There are heaps of these retaining walls through the park. The park is a sustainable park using mainly recycled materials, including Phil's 21st Birthday Pewter mug.There is also shade cloths made out of seat belts that didn't meet safety standards.

Tank 101 is a sculpture that symbolises the Ballast Point industrial history. The sculpture is in the place of the largest storage tank in park which was used to store crude oil before processing. It was the largest tank in Australia to use rivet construction technology!

Don't know if it is a Space Invader original or some cheat. 

 

Jeremy Gili's 2002 Mosman Rugby mug. This made me wonder if people donated stuff to the site. Caltex occupied the site from 1928 to 2002 and then it was acquired by the government to turn it back into a public space. Maybe Jeremy worked for Caltex and used his mug to cheers off the remaining days to Caltex. 

 

Obligatory feet shot. Always with the blue nails, jeans and thongs. Am consistent with my style. The site maintains much of the industrial Caltex site. Outlining where the tanks stood and the paths around the park.

Retaining walls surrounded the park when it was still Caltex in the event that one of the tanks fell apart and the oil wanted to go into the ocean. Now, all that greenery filters out stuff before it goes into the ocean. 

I do love Kangaroo paws. Barely any coloured plantings, this could have to do with the fact it is Autumn. 

Finished up Ballast Point Park at about 5pm, there is a full history PDF of the site. Read it! Bit of a pain to get across Victoria Rd at this time so when I came across another park I thought I'd check it out. 

Expecting to hear the screeching guitar of BH90210. Am currently going through the series. 

I either saw a movie or had some weird nightmare in my youth but this tree reminded me of a 'movie' where people are absorbed into a tree or people put their babies into a tree... I just remember a tree with faces in it. I feel like a bit of a freak asking the Internets this but, meh. 

I'm at Dawn Fraser swimming pool park! These are blue flowers near the pool/baths. Lovely flowers. Also a lot of spiders in this park. Heaps. 

Pool is closed because of heavy rain. I didn't have my $4 casual entry fee anyway so I took a sly over the fence shot. 

 

Why do all the boats face the same way? Genuine question.

Storm clouds look like coming over. 

The end of my Balmain park tour. I really need to figure a better way of ending posts.

- A

I Get Knocked Down...

Forgot my camera... what an idiot. Had a mega day planned with Bin and my Niece. Started of with lunch at East Ocean for Yum Cha. I had heard that this is tha place for Yum Cha in Sydney and so it made it's way onto The List. Maybe I just enjoy the fan fare of Yum Cha more than the food. East Ocean does not have the trolley thing anymore, just order and it gets delivered. Good food though.

Next stop was Hyde Park Barracks, one of my favourite museums in Sydney. Then a brief tour through The Rocks and a guided tour through Susannah Place Museum, mostly unchanged since they were built in 1844. My Niece seemed to enjoy these museums but this was probably overshadowed by ending up at Luna Park. Think I pulled them throughout Sydney on a 10km walk!

 Susannah Place - 19/01

We spent Bin's last day of her Sydney 'holiday' at IKEA! I ended up finally buying a bedside table. Much needed. For the evenings activities I met up with some of the girls I play Netball with of a Thursday night at Forresters Hotel in Surry Hills.I went the classic Fish and Chips. Oddly it came it a bamboo steamer... This was the first time I had ordered something of their actual menu and not just one of the $5 meals which was not on offer the night we went there.

 Crunchy with only a hint of salad - 20/01

Friday was Scace's birthday drinks! Started of at Sussex Hotel. The place looks on to Bangaroo so it pretty much has an unbroken skyline, kinda. I did take other photos but most were on other peoples camera or of nothing on mine. Why does this happen???

 Being all artistic - 21/01

What did I do on sat the 22nd of Jan? Sat around. Decided I should buy a cheap hat to wear at Big Day Out on Weds. Drove to Bondi Junction Westfields, still holds Aly's '#1 Worst Car park in Sydney' title, close second is Rhodes car park especially when trying to find IKEA pickup. Could not find a worthy hat. Started to drive home. Got a call from P. Went to her house. Tried to take a photo of a spider in the front yard and got what you see below. Nothing. It looks as though they grow corn in their front garden. Don't think they do though.
 

 Spiders (?) - 22/01

I have way to many clothes for someone who pretty much has the same items on heavy rotation. Bought some new coat hangers for those unused clothes which will hopefully entice to wear them and decided to re-do my wardrobe. Intending to throw stuff out but did not. I own a lot of pinks and heaps of dresses. Both I did not realise until I started to sort.

 Nothing changed - 23/01

I finally bought a new bedside table. I didn't want one with draws. Mainly because my old one was holding stuff I rarely use. Hair straightener??? Have had short hair for a year. Am thinking of growing it again... (tangent) The old one was a gift from my ex. Think I may of wanted/needed it. I did not, however, need nor want the Lazy Susan he gave me as an anniversary gift a few years later... romance.

 Sup. Check out tha whiteness - 24/01

Hat was bought for Big Day Out from a cheap shop! Realised at about 930 at night that I would need a bag. Huzzah! I shall make one. I made a lined messenger style one strap bag. But with the strap was on either side thus stopping any would be thieves stealing all my important trinkets. This does work when then straps are put on correct. If a 'This is me wearing' photo is requesting suppose I could get to posing and put one up. Bag worked well and allowed me to create a minor dint in my sewing stash.

 The straps are wrong... don't sew!!! - 25/01

Big Day Out was massive! I went on the Australia Day one. Heaps of bands seen. Nearly 3 litres of water downed before sunset. Four applications of sunscreen and still managed to get an unusual sunburn. Huge day. So big I an unable to summarise in a short sentence, or in a single photo. 

The masses - 26/01

I really wanted to see Sia as I had heard that she will be taking some time off touring, confirmed the day after BDO. So I missed the start of Rammsteins set. Wish they were on separate times. Sia is quite funny, very chatty wish I could have stayed for more. We saw some fireworks which later found out it was to blast off the sheet fully covering Rammstein's stage. During Du Hast there were some more fireworks and flames and finally a giant canon shooting out white flakes which I understood to be a penis... Possibly one of the best sets I have ever seen and I only got half of it! 

Flames are hard to photograph - 26/01

Netball. I stacked it. Major stack. Left ankle went both sides. Crunch. Crunch. Fell over onto knees. And elbows. And wrist. I felt OK. It hurt but I could stand on it. I am an arse. I also filled in for a friends team on Tues. Stacked it there too. It was an indoor court with floorboards, I'm used to cement. Managed to bruise my left front calf... what is that called???

That's a major lump on the right knee - 27/01

So, I went to work. It wasn't that bad when I went to bed. Bit of a pain to try and sleep. Sunburn on back from BDO, cuts on knees and a bruised elbow made finding an OK position crap. After a few hours standing at work I had to go home. Not a major sprain (I'm no Doctor though).
.

 The film probably makes it look more dramatic - 28/01

New years resolution should have been to make posting regular. I still haven't made any. Anyone out in the interwebs have an interesting one to lend me while I try and figure one myself????

- A