jandkinsydney.com

Hanging out in Darling Harbour

Ah, it is a grand thing to explore Sydney in the summertime. Blue skies, happy people and lots of stuff to do. After our traditional late Saturday breakfast (coffee, toast, David B* Astle), we launched ourselves into the sunny blue day and the Sydney Festival.

After checking the timetable, we managed to get on the right train first time.

First stop was Darling Harbour. There is some striking architecture around it these days. Please ignore corporate logo for maximum effect.

Once there, it was a bit quiet, so we just hung out for a while.

James got a bit bored and started climbing the walls.

Up around Tumbalong Park it is pretty civilised. Deck chairs and umbrellas are scattered about. Very relaxing, and a good place to watch the passers by passing by.

Shame there were no cocktails

On to the Festival Village at Hyde Park. Who needs Europe?

As it was not raining, we took refuge in the outdoor library.

James still needed directions

And then, coffee in the Strand Arcade. $3.50!

First blog: Blogger In Training Writes About Self

... and in breaking news, a fortysomething bloke decides that he has important things to tell the world and starts blogging. The world is whelmed.

Hello, readers. Welcome to A piece of my brain, in which I aim to write about the things that interest me. I'm doing this to focus my mind and build up a regular discipline of considered writing. Most of my writing is as a policy wonk and this will be good for that, but also I hope to do something more than that specialised and pretty dull way of communicating.

Who should read it? We'll see, but if you are interested in development, human rights, justice, wordplay, social media, Doctor Who, cycling, photography, politics and how we can make the most of our world,* then you might find something here. There will also be more than a little bit of silliness along the way.

So if you care to, please watch this space. If all goes according to plan you will be able to read about these exciting topics:

• Stalked! I am seeing acid green Mazda2's everywhere I go. It must mean something...
• Empathy and Twitter. Can following people whose ideas I dislike help me to get past my innate prejudice?
• The transit of Venus. It's a twice in a lifetime chance to blind yourself by looking at a very small dot on the solar disc. Can I take a decent photo of it?
• The deep pleasure of choral singing
• A rant about the pathetic depths that the political debate on asylum seekers continues to plumb. I believe this is required for my basic blogger accreditation.
• David Astle: cruciverbalist deity or utter bastard?
• Childhood revisited: Is being an adult fan of a childhood love a real thing, or just a protracted exercise in nostalgia?
• After the Millennium Development Goals: The MDGs have been great. They have enabled the world to concentrate on overcoming some of the most fundamental causes of poverty. But they end in 2015. What do we want for MDG2?

Please feel free to comment - perhaps there are one or two of these ideas that you desperately need to read as soon as possible. I will endeavour to comply.

cheers
James








* Yep, I'm an inner city leftie.