No car - unregistered, undriveable. No real problem (until I need to take a tuba somewhere). So, push bike it is. Fortunately, it is just reaching the time of year when the weather pleases me!
My Easter appointments have been a couple of event piano tunings.
For the fun of it (and because access to the venue was pushed back to late afternoon).I decided to make a leisurely, picnic-y saunter over to the very lower North Shore of Sydney. On a whim, I filmed and photographed my trip and made a little clip. That's a first! WOO!
I am buoyed a newer laptop that has come my way, and a 2013-appropriate internet connection. Until VERY recently, gentle reader, I was the only person left in the First World still using a dial-up connection (and a cheap slow one at that - 28Kbps) My steam-driven laptop groans at the notion of having to turn on... so it's a REVOLUTION, people!
I got to this point in my filming and ran out of camera memory, so then (even after a mini-delete-fest) I had to resort to stills. A Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb group.
There are several groups, at intervals, on the Bridge at any time.
That's where I'm headed - yes, Luna Park. Just last week I was photographing Melbourne's Luna Park.
Contrast the faces. Melbourne's is angular and scary, even for adults - Sydney's is rounded, open-eyed, non-threatening - as though it has been approved by a Disneyesque committee.
...with eyelashes part cartoon, part drag-queen.
"Just for... gainful employment". That's my slogan, right back to the flurry of street band work I did at Luna Park when it grandly re-opened some years back.
Everything around here looks like tourists should be madly photographing it - and they are.
Another comparison. Last week I was photographing Melbourne Luna Park's Big Dipper/Scenic Railway. Sydney's looks like a tame dinky-toy in comparison (and not just because I'm a grown-up). Elevated dodgems trundling tamely - that's how it seemed.
When the Luna Park re-opened, there were immediate complaints from nearby Kirribilli residents about park patrons' screams lowering the value of their properties. Things were modified, hours were reduced. But I don't think it was too radical - so this must be how it was. The Little Dipper - that doesn't dip, with scalextric sound. Still - I'm not up for riding it!
Cakey, this bit. I find later I'm tuning for an engagement party, and the piano is icing-white.
Here's the building I'm waiting to gain access to. That's the reflection of the "Just for fun" wall in its windows. I flipped the image for fun - so that it reflected what it was reflecting.
Finally (but right on schedule) I gain access. Pleasingly, the sun was soon off the piano and out of my eyes. A stunning panorama, Opera House, Harbour Bridge - you can even see the Anzac Bridge. I wanted to film, but resisted, lest the catering staff think I was the photographer rather than the piano tuner (I'd already been photographing an interesting repair under the piano lid).
Entrance to The Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway. This is a very dodgy bit of infrastructure, but I can't quite dream up the solution - probably a fly-over that drops you somewhere neatly in North Sydney (all on the level).
I've seen similar (yet STARKLY different) things in The Netherlands. There they are much shallower, so that Oma can wheel a well-laden fiets up and down with ease. Sure, the roadsters just toss their feather-weight steeds on their shoulders. I just trudge upwards, wheeling ("donkeying") my load. I did carry it down, but not on the shoulder! What if one really did have a Dutch cargo bike? One of myriad disincentives to utility cycling for all. We have so much to learn in this city/country.
Here's a sight that reminds me of The Netherlands (but in a good way, this time). A bicycle pump at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway northern entrance. I'd like to pump myself up instead of my tyres, then I'd be ready for those bloody stairs!
