James O'Brien

Some of the best views to be found in Sydney are at train stations.

I’d forgotten how wonderful it is to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and to get on and off at Milson’s Point Station. There’s a terrific restaurant located underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge called, La Capannina.

About once a year a former colleague and I, and some others catch up there for lunch. Over some excellent food and wine, lunch tends to start around 12.30pm, and will often go through until 5.00pm (or later). The owner and staff are wonderful, and if you’re ever looking for a nice place to have lunch, I’d highly recommend it.

I’ve had a few catch-ups for lunch and dinner lately. In the last couple of weeks, the weather has changed. It’s much warmer, and it has prompted a lot of outdoor dining. Aside from a few restrictions, life seems to have returned to “normal” in Sydney, with restaurants often fully packed.

“Do you think this is COVID-safe?, a friend said over dinner at a local restaurant last night. The consensus was that it probably wasn’t, but no one seemed to mind, even though a number of the group were in their 60s and 70s, and therefore at risk.

“I hope we don’t all go crazy over the next few months”, I told the group, adding that I’d been told by a fairly reliable source, the Australian Government is expecting a “third wave” of the pandemic in March. “It’ll be much worse than what we’ve had so far”, I was told.

In contrast, the cinemas remain fairly empty, though I wonder how much this has to do with COVID, and how much this has to do with cinema generally. I’ve been to the movies a few times lately, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen.

When I first heard about the Australian movie, “Rams” I was slightly apprehensive. I’d seen the original Icelandic film a few years ago, and I loved it very much. Even now, a few years later, I remember going to see it at the cinema and being blown away. As I wrote at the time.

The film is set in a small farming community in Iceland, and focuses on the relationship of two estranged brothers, Gummi and Kiddi who live side by side, tending their individual sheep, but who haven’t spoken in decades.

However, they’re forced to interact when a rare sheep disease is discovered, meaning the entire sheep population of the area has to be destroyed. For everyone in the area, there’s a direct economic impact. For these two brothers, there’s a strong emotional element, too, due to their joint history wrapped up in the blood-stock.

The premise for the Australian film is the same, except (obviously) the landscape differs. There’s also a lot of uniquely Australian humour.

In the end credits, I noted the creators of the Icelandic film were listed as Executive Producers of the Australian film. Hopefully they were happy with the translation to English and to Australia?

I enjoyed the film very much. The story was very believable. And even though it was Icelandic in its origin, the characters in this film were also very Australian. Sam Neill and Michael Caton were very good in the lead roles, and were supported with a strong ensemble.

The other film I went to see yesterday, “Steelers”, was about a gay rugby union club participating in the Bingham Cup. The documentary tells the back story of a number of players and their coach.

The back stories are interesting, and the narrative of the film tells the story of how their involvement in the club affirmed their lives.