james o'brien

It’s Sunday evening and autumn has, at last, arrived in Sydney. After temperatures in the late 20s and early 30s last week, the last few days have brought with them those nights where you need to wear layers and those wonderful long autumn shadows. It’s also meant that when you go outside to “warm your bones”, as I did today, the available sunlight is no longer quite enough.

After getting out of bed late I had an odd craving for nachos, so I headed off to the nearby Trinity Hotel where I gorged myself on beans, sour cream and corn chips. Although I had a newspaper in front of me (there was NOTHING in it), I spent most of lunch listening to a conversation between two blokes sitting next to me. It was a fascinating insight into self-absorption, as one of them spent the entire conversation talking about himself and his family without ever once inquiring into the welfare of his friend.

Catching a bus into the city and going for a walk, things were really busy around the Botanic Gardens and Government House. Although I’ve been into various functions Government House before, I’ve never really wandered around the gardens. The gardens are really peaceful and beautiful, with spectacular views of the harbour and of the Opera House. There were also lots of couples walking hand in hand with that “draped over the shoulder look” with their pullovers not quite on, not quite off.

One of my goals from this trip was to find out more about the strange Stonehenge-like structure near the Cahill Expressway I’d seen a few weeks earlier from the rooftop bar of the Intercontinental Hotel. I was the one who thought it looked like Stonehenge, though my friends though maybe I’d had too much to drink. But no, it wasn’t an alcohol-induced illusion, as I discovered.

Rather, it’s part of the City of Sydney Sculpture Walk, with remants from old buildings and bridges (including the old Pyrmont Bridge and the YWCA) juxtaposed against the modern city skyline.

It was amazing, too, to watch the reaction of people as they stumbled upon it. At first it looks like a convict graveyard. On closer inspection it begins to resemble, perhaps, the foundations of a colonial building. It’s open to so many interpretations, and that’s why it’s well worth a look. It’s located at the end of Macquarie Street.