The first time some family members came to visit me in Sydney, I remember thinking how slowly they walked. Even though I’d only been living in Sydney for six months myself, I’d obviously already picked up some pace. Seventeen years down the track, I think I walk even more quickly. And when I walk quickly and with a sense of purpose, I sometimes fail to notice some of the detail of the many things around me.

But today, I walked a little more slowly and thus noticed some of the interesting design elements of the new-ish Westfield Shopping Centre in Sydney’s CBD. In particular, there’s some concrete work the Market Street wall of the shopping centre that’s worth having a look. It’s a nice reminder concrete can sometimes be a beautiful architectural design element.

I was walking more slowly as I was ahead of time to meet up with friends at Wynyard to catch the bus to have lunch and afternoon drinks for a friend’s fiftieth birthday at Balgowlah RSL. As far as RSL’s are concerned it’s pretty hard core (in a good way). The blokes of the fishing club were selling raffle tickets. There was a bloke cooking up $2 sausages on the barbie outside. There were very few people under the age of fifty. There could probably have been a separate car-park for mobility scooters. There were loads of people playing the pokies. And inside the toilet there was a pretty strong reminder about the reasons why RSL clubs exist, and therefore why people shouldn’t graffiti the toilet walls.

We had a lovely afternoon of drinking, chatting, and generally enjoying each other’s company. Oh, and Judy won a 6-pack of beer in the raffle. Happy birthday Donna.