It’s almost fourteen months since Reko Rennie’s beautiful artwork at Taylor Square was painted over so the building could be “more attractive to rent out”. The other night, wandering along Oxford Street, I noticed the “For Lease” sign was still there. A sad start to the new year, I thought, as I really love public art, and in particular, I really loved this work, both because of the sentiment expressed, and the brightness of the work itself.

But there have been brighter things to start the New Year. For example, it was awesome to read about this group in today’s paper, and their hookup at the Shakey. I used to drink there regularly when Pete was still there. Nowadays, I still live closeby, and drink regularly at The Crown where Resch’s is a very popular beer, probably the #1, and my favourite. $5 during Happy Hour 4-7. Though I’d like to think I was part of the hip crowd, I realise I’m probably a part of “dad’s army”.

And then yesterday, I went to the movies with my friend, Sue. Though there’s no song that comes anywhere near “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, the new Mary Poppins movie is very good. Awesome performances from the cast, and awesome cameos from Dick Van Dyke and Meryl Streep, amongst others. Enjoyed it very much, even had a couple of tears.

Meanwhile, I have loved going through some old photographs, and love this pic of my niece, Willow, taken in South Lismore in 2012.

And this where there’s three lads from Lismore. Robbie, my nephew Sam, and me, taken at ABC Radio Sydney. Like Sam, I went to South Lismore Public School, whereas I think Robbie went to Lismore Heights. Sam was in Sydney for a school excursion which came to the ABC.