Festival of the Winds

Here's an event that took place on Sunday the 13th September 2009. It was a kite flying festival held at Bondi Beach, called the Festival of the Winds. Kites of all shapes and sizes filled the skies.

There were also musicians, kite making workshops, face painting, a kite exhibition and pony rides, among other things.

The weather was also perfect, with blue skies. Too bad so few people turned up at the beach.

Kidding! The beach was unbelievably crowded! It was like sardines in a can, and it's not even summer. Finally, as the setting sun bathed the cliffs in an orange glow, I left the beach and started my walk home.

Paddington Reservoir Gardens

A couple of weekends back, I visited Paddington Reservoir Gardens, located across the street from Paddington Town Hall here in Sydney. Paddington Reservoir Gardens was officially opened on the 29th March 2009. It was originally built between 1866 and 1878, and was a crucial part of Sydney’s early water supply but was finally decommissioned in 1899.

The renewal of Paddington Reservoir Gardens won the 2009 Australian Award for Urban Design.

Paddington Reservoir Gardens is not a large place, but it's a nice little oasis of calm in the middle of a busy part of the city.

Although it covers only a small area, this is an interesting place for photography and I found myself visiting it twice at different times of the day.

City 2 Surf 2009

City 2 Surf is a 14km run from the heart of Sydney (near Hyde Park) to the famous Bondi Beach. This year, it was held on the 9th August and 75,000 people participated. Each year, the run starts at 9am and the winners usually take about 40 to 45 minutes to complete the course. But this is also a fun-run so in addition to the serious runners, you also get families participating (complete with babies in strollers), and people with superhero costumes or goofy getups. Winter is coming to an end and people are already spending weekends at the beach.

Throw in another 75,000 people and Bondi Beach was one crowded beach last weekend! Some were there for the run, some were there to watch the Australian Idol singers performing, and others just took the opportunity to make a political statement or two!

Participants also get a participation medal... but this year, they didn't have enough for those who crossed the finish line really late (people were still strolling across the finish line a couple of hours after the start of the run).

I'm thinking this is probably because a) they didn't make medals for everyone b) more than 75,000 people participated in the end or c) 75,000 people participated but some collected more than one medal! How inconsiderate! :)

And I hope no one had an urgent need to go to the toilet because the line was really long!

When I was leaving the area, I saw another long line that streched the entire length of the street.

At first, I thought they were waiting to buy lunch at the shops, but after walking to the very end of the street, I saw that they were waiting for the bus! Good thing I live within walking distance! :)

Sydney, Australia

So what's happening to the weather nowadays? I was reading the blog of a cousin in Bristol, England and it seems they're having the coldest winter in 20 years. Photos of snow-covered landscape dotted his site. And here in Sydney, the weather has been really hot. We've been in the middle of a heatwave for weeks now, with temperatures going over 40°C in some places for more than 9 consecutive days, and more than 50 bushfires burning in various places in NSW at one point in time. Entire picturesque towns have been burned off the map in Victoria down south. It's now Australia's worst ever natural disaster with many lives lost. Then all of a sudden, the temperature drops drastically the past 2 days. Yesterday was the coldest February day in Sydney for 17 years with the highest daytime temperature only 19°C! The next few days are forecasted to be more or less the same. It just makes you wonder what's happening to the weather everywhere.

A while back (when the weather wasn't so extreme) I was at Sydney Harbour and took some photos of the Volendam, a Holland-America Line cruise ship. Coincidentally, they were having a drill that day, and everyone had to 'abandon ship'. It reminded me a bit of the movie Titanic, except no one panicked and the life boats were a lot more modern. I haven't been to the beach yet since coming back to Sydney... maybe when the weather is more moderate.