I had a great afternoon wandering around the city with The Other Andrew, who has also blogged the afternoon. Knowing of his interest in photography, I’d booked us in for a free tour with the curator of the Sydney Life exhibition currently in Hyde Park.

I’d had a brief look at the exhibition last weekend with Sam, but today I had a chance to really look at the works, and to learn more about them. And in a really terrific and unexpected move, a number of the photographers were also on the tour which added something really special to the experience.

Although there were some photographs which I still don’t find all that appealing, I’ve gained a lot more of an insight into the works, and some of them I felt half-half about, I now quite like. My favourite remains a photograph of a snake on pebbles in a suburban background (it’s almost like a dot painting), but there are others which I didn’t previously like (such as the birth shot) which I now really like.

The curator also noted how the works appear differently throughout the day depending on time and how much light is around. She also noted how they’re usually looking for works that will look good in a large format in the park, noting they need to be part of the environment of the park also.

From there, we wandered through the city, had a bite to eat, looking at books and record stores, before finally making our way up Oxford Street.

“Do you think we’re looking at it through rose-tinted glasses?”, I asked Andrew as we walked along Oxford Street and remembered that mid to late 90s vibe the place had. I wondered if the apparent drab nature of the street was a product of our cherished memories of youth. “I don’t think so”, he noted, pointing out the large number of closed shops.

In a positive move we noted, however, the Sacred Heart Church has re-opened. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but it’s obviously been sometime in the last few months. Peeking through the doorway, and not wishing to disturb those inside, we noted they had a done a beautiful job in refurbishing the place. “I don’t remember it looking this good”, I commented to Andrew at one point.

Late in the afternoon, we had a couple of beers at the Gaslight Hotel. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I have a joke among friends now that it’s “Sydney’s Leading Bisexual Bar”. The joke all started when a friend and I were walking along Oxford Street and we spotted someone we know. In asking him if he wanted to join us for a drink at the Gaslight, he responded calling it by that phrase, and it’s kinda stuck ever since.