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Cool change
After six days of temperatures above 40C (that’s 104F), we have had a cool change to the lower 30s. We get to enjoy that until the weekend when we start into another heatwave. I think we may have set a record for most continuous days of 40+ temperatures here.
This reminds me that the Scientist and I went to see a friend play music at a cafe about 1.5 hours drive from here. She plays at this cafe about once a month so we take a trip down and enjoy the atmosphere which is lovely. There’s an indoor and outdoor area at this cafe and the artists usually play outside. But it was so terribly hot our friend was looking rather drained after playing for three hours (with breaks). We moved right inside to the air conditioning when she was done. On a good day, we might have stopped at one of the parks on the way home but it was just too hot for any outdoor activity.
On Sunday we went to Fremantle with Lego Lover to visit the Maritime Museum for a Lego shipwreck display. It was pretty cool to see and there were Lego models of some famous shipwrecks and some that are mostly known locally. Afterward, we went to a favorite cafe to have lunch. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t so good this time. I had ordered chips (thick-cut fries) with my sandwich and the chips were really terrible, enough that I left most behind. Also, the menu had changed so that some foods we like are no longer available. It seems we may have to find a new place to eat. We did have ideas of visiting the Fremantle Markets but were wary of crowded places with covid around.
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Auckland Holiday (day 4)
Day 4 photos are now here on Flickr.
I had a much better sleep on the previous night and woke up later the following morning. I think the jet lag was probably wearing off by this point and felt more refreshed from sleep than I had thus far. I was up and out of the hotel not long afterwards with no idea where I was going yet. I didn’t eat anything for breakfast because I just wasn’t that hungry yet. I think my body was still readjusting to a new place and new surroundings because I should have had a much bigger appetite with all the walking I was doing.
I started off by heading in the direction of the Parnell suburb. Like many of the suburbs around the CBD, this is another fairly up-market area and probably has a number of well-to-do residents. I had heard through the grapevine there’s a nice rose garden there and that was one of the ideas I had for sightseeing that day. As it turns out, I never got to see the gardens as fate had me heading in a totally different direction.
The overcast skies had been replaced by full sunshine. It was a beautiful day and not too warm and not at all chilly. I think the forecast still had possible rain in it but you’d never have guessed it from looking skyward.
The road into Parnell from the CBD was all uphill. Thinking about it now, it has its appeal although I do recall my knees being rather unhappy about the extra work they had to put in. I must admit that I probably would be that much fitter if we lived in the area. There’s just no escaping the hills. And now, knowing it’s all because the city is built on volcanoes, it seems that much more interesting.
I finally crested a hill and had a spell of relatively flat land to traverse. I didn’t take any photos along the way because I was worried about the battery compartment being open wide without the cover and wanted to carry it around my neck as I’d been doing. My first objective was to find a shop and buy some tape to provide a bit more security.
Parnell was a very pretty suburb, at least along the main road. There were lots of little boutique shops along the way and I suppose they were probably bit on the pricey side, much like it had been in Ponsonby the day before…although I think Parnell might have been just a bit more upmarket. I passed by the Parnell Library and then I was out of that suburb and heading into another one.
Next stop was Newmarket, a seemingly much bigger suburb and certainly much busier. I came across one of the Warehouse stores that I have heard about and decided to have a look in there. It’s an odd sort of store, very much a warehouse sort of place. It was kind of dreary in there and it reminded a bit of Big Lots from back home but sort of combined with a discount department store. I found the stationery department and got some tape and also bought a small packet of a fruit and nut mixture to snack on if I suddenly got hungry.
It was around lunchtime as I continued through the area and traffic was heavy. I found a Westfield shopping centre on the main road and popped in to see what was there. Since I hadn’t eaten yet, I went up to the food court and found a place called Pita Pit, which is a bit like a Subway but with pita bread and a bigger selection of toppings. I ordered a sandwich and even got the onions and mushrooms sautéed before being wrapped and given to me. There was also an option to have it heated I the sandwich press but I don’t really go in for that all that much. And it was much too warm to have anything but a refreshing sandwich with salad fixings. There were many other eating places there, including McDonald’s and a sushi place with some sort of French name. The sushi place seems to be a chain as I saw it in the CBD also. I chose Pita Pit because it was a NZ establishment and it seemed likely to be good food.
Finding a table for one was a bit tricky at this hour but I eventually found a table. The few tables left all seemed to have trash left on them. This is something that I still find a bit odd even though it happens here too. There is actually someone who clears and cleans the tables in the food court and the bins don’t seem to be located easily for us customers to deposit our waste. You would think this would make it cleaner but it seems to backfire during peak times. Anyway, I sat down and ate my food and then headed off. The sandwich was quite nice and I definitely would eat one again.
I left the shopping centre and continued my walk down a crossing street. I will point out that during much of this walk, I had the view of Mt Eden in sight and I had ideas of walking there. I eventually decided that might be a bit over optimistic to expect to walk there and then to climb up to the top. But it was definitely on my mind. I have a tendency to think about doing that sort of thing quite a bit but have found myself opting for the lest risky option more these days. I like the idea of wandering about and seeing where I end up. But I don’t like the idea that I will be way too far away to get back home, or in this case, my starting point within a reasonable time.
There were views of the harbor and seas from a number of locations in Newmarket and I took quite a few photos along the way. I found a street that seemed particularly boutique-y on the outer edge of the city and didn’t try out any of those shops. I ran across the train station in Newmarket, took several photos for Lego Lover, and headed inside. One of the girls in my room had strongly recommended getting a transit card as it would allow me to ride the red bus around the CBD for free whenever I wanted. So I bought a card and put some money on it. I had no plans for train travel yet but I thought it might be useful to be prepared should I need it. Also the card would be useful for purchasing transport back to the airport easily.
As I had decided not to carry on walking to Mt Eden, I started back towards Parnell with expectations of getting photos of everything I missed on the way there. I managed to get to the library and got a few photos there moved on down the road. It was then my stomach suddenly started to feel really ill. I was, of course, in the middle of nowhere in a sense, as I’d left behind places to stop in Newmarket and hadn’t got far enough along to Parnell. I won’t go into any more detail except to say this was the low point of my week there and I felt pretty awful.
I did end up going along to a large park called The Domain that bordered Parnell. In the middle of the park is the Auckland War Memorial and Museum. I think it’s mainly called Auckland Museum but it started out as a war memorial from what I could work out. I was feeling rather out of sorts at this point and somehow ended up waiting ages to pay and get into the place. The museum is free for locals but I think cost about $25 for adults otherwise. I Had heard this was a good museum and it truly was. I was just not quite in the right frame of mind when I started my visit.
I did eventually start to feel better and enjoyed the museum a lot more as the horrible feeling started to leave me. One of the neat places was an area dedicated to childhood. There was a sort of tree house design to the middle of het place and there were displays all around the tree area. I think much of the NZ experience of childhood was rather similar to that here in Australia. And that is quite a different thing to my experience growing up in the US. I tried taking photos here but it was quite difficult due to the dim lighting and my lack of mastery of my camera in these sort of low light areas. One day I will get better….I will post the photos on Flickr once I have them all sorted through and processed. This might be a while because I am so far behind. But I felt like trying to write up my account of my visit was far more important since I am bound to forget so many details.
I also so many, many areas focused on the Maori people. I don’t know why but I felt a connection to these people which I haven’t felt with the indigenous groups here in Australia. Perhaps there was more of a sense of the people being more integrated into the nation as a whole compared to here. Also different is the vast number of peoples here in Australia with separate languages and cultures. It’s a bit overwhelming to take them all in and it’s really just a couple of groups I tend to hear much about locally. There were so many beautiful sculptures in the museum, many made of wood. I did find it easier to photograph these and hopefully will find they are lovely reminders once I get them processed.
There were also sections for the flora and fauna of the area and this was really interesting. I didn’t realise how different it is in New Zealand to the mainland of Australia. I had thought of New Zealand as something of a distant off-shoot to Australia but with many similarities. From what I saw in the museum and during my walks, this was anything but true. Certainly the bird life isn’t quite as colourful as it is here. But it still is quite appealing to me anyway. I never got to see the famous kiwi bird but did see a lot of others that amazingly different to birds I’d seen before. There were also some dinosaur exhibits on one area, with a couple of them hanging from the ceiling in one area.
The top floor of the building is effectively the war memorial part of the museum. I had a look at the exhibits which mostly focused on World War 1. I don’t know if this is always the case but it was just a couple of months before the 100th anniversary of the Anzacs so it seemed rather apt to have that as the focus. In the centre of the floor was a true memorial area and there was a stained glass sky light on the ceiling. It was rather beautiful but also rather sad to consider all the lives lost in wars over the years.
After this floor, there was nowhere to go but down so I headed to the gift shop. I was rather disappointed to find there isn’t a book to showcase the museum as I have seen in some other places. I am glad to have the photos to remind of what I have seen.
I left the building and stopped to take some photos and then had a somewhat leisurely walk back through the domain towards CBD. While I was feeling much better than I had been, I was still feeling less well than I’d have liked to be too. The domain had a large cleared area in the centre but around it are pathways and lots of trees.
The trees there are really lovely. Lots of big trees that you felt had seen lifetimes of events. I stopped before reached the walking paths and had a break and just drank in the beauty of the place.
It was late in the afternoon and I finally started back to the hotel. The paths going through the domain were also quite lovely and peaceful. It was kind of hard to realise there was a busy and bustling city so close to where I was walking through the woods.
When I got back to the hotel, the young British girl was sitting in the middle of the floor packing. She was moving to a different backpacker establishment, in Parnell and up that very steep hill. It was going to be cheaper in the long run but was still close to the CBD. Anyway, her bed was going to be vacant after she left in the morning so I had an opportunity to move to the bottom bunk the next night.
After a shower and clean clothes I walked down to Queen Street in search of some sort of refreshment. I stopped at a bubble tea place to try out the local version and it was really nice. I notice the tea place had a lot more options than the ones I’ve visited here. In fact, it may be too many options as there is just so much to try to look at. The girl that served me was quite good and was apologetic because she was the only one working and I had to wait. I pretty much understand that at most bubble tea shops, there’s going to be a bit of a wait if I want a good tea.
I walked back towards the quay and discovered another ship was in port, the Amadea. This one is a fairly small cruise ship but it was nice to see it more fully. I also stopped to take some photos for Lego Lover around the train and bus stations nearby. I sat down at the end of the quay to see if I could catch a sunset. I don’t think the quay is really the best place to see a proper sunset because there’s just too much of the city in the way. I decided I would have to find some higher ground to catch a sunset and hoped there would be an opportunity at some point during the remainder of my stay.
After the sun set, I headed back to the hotel but stopped in at the Countdown supermarket to find something to eat. I hadn’t had a proper dinner. I ended up with a sushi box for dinner. Being kind of late, it wasn’t particularly fresh but it was a meal. Anyway, I went back to the hotel and tried to eat this down in the common room next to the kitchen. It was pretty noisy there. I sat down at the table and kind of watched the tv. I think it was the NZ has got talent or something like that. Either that or it was some cricket coverage from the world cup. That was all I ever saw on tv while I was there and I didn’t see much of either.
I ate quickly then went back to my room. I think I might have done a load of wash that night and then gone to bed soon afterwards.
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From Picasso to Warhol
This modern art exhibit has been installed at our local museum from the New York Museum of Modern Art since the middle of the year. I wouldn’t say I’m that heavily into art and some of the modern art draws even less of my attention. But I couldn’t resist the chance of seeing a real Picasso and even the Warhol pieces. The exhibit includes fourteen masters of modern art and is the first of several exhibits coming to Perth from MoMA. Seeing that Lego Lover is homeschooling, I decided it was time for him to have some exposure to art in the form an an art gallery.
I think it was late August when my plan to visit the museum finally took some shape and Lego Lover and I took the train into Perth to see the exhibit. We didn’t start all that early that day so arrived in early afternoon. Once in Perth, Lego Lover was hungry so we had to get some lunch. Finally at about 1pm we walked over to the museum. It was closed! It seems the exhibit is closed on Tuesdays and it was Tuesday. Lego Lover was delighted because he had no interest in seeing this modern art. I was sorely disappointed though as I’d got myself all worked up to see it.
As we’d gone to the trouble of going into the city, I decided to make the best of it and take Lego Lover to the WA Museum. This, it turns out was an excellent idea and he had a wonderful time there. By this time my knee was tired out and I ended up sitting down quite a bit. But Lego Lover enjoyed going around to see the exhibits and would have happily spent the day there, I think. Unfortunately it was getting late in the afternoon so we had to make our way back home as peak hour was soon upon us. As it was, the school kids were all out and the trains were pretty full the whole way back.
Last month, we finally went back to see the art exhibit, going straight from dropping the car off for its regular service in the morning to the bus station, and then catching the train into Perth. I was a bit worried about the crowds and hoping I wouldn’t regret not buying tickets ahead of time but it was all fine. There were some crowds there but it wasn’t horrendous. The first part of the exhibit was the Picasso section and there were probably 15 pieces. Lego Lover wasn’t too impressed by the style of most of the paintings but there were a couple that sort of resembled the real world a bit more, including a self-portrait of his from 1901. I found it quite interesting to see the paintings up close and even liked a couple of them quite well. One was a large mural piece  called Night Fishing at Antibes and I must admit that part of the appeal was the strong use of the color purple which is my favorite.
The next artist was Henri Matisse and I found the art style in the works on display really didn’t appeal to me all that much. This surprised me as I was sure I was familiar with some of his work and liked it. I need to do more research and determine whether I was just mistaken or if there really are some of his works that I like.
On to Brancusi who seems to have been a painter and sculptor. He had a drawing that I think maybe have been called something like Newborn with a rather egg-shaped image used to represent the newborn. Later on we found a bronze sculpture that seems to be based on the painting. Or maybe the painting was based on the sculpture. They weren’t the same but seemed quite similar in style. Another sculpture was called Endless Column and Lego Lover was quite annoyed with it as it appeared anything but endless. I must admit that for something that should have been endless, it seemed a bit lacking in height to provide that illusion. I found his sculptures Bird in Space and Young Bird more interesting, especially the latter as it did look like it could have been a bird in a nest of sorts if you used some imagination.
A couple of Mondrian’s works, or perhaps his style, were instantly familiar to me when I saw them. I think the piece called Trafalgar Square is something I’ve seen in books or represented in film or somewhere. While familiar I didn’t find the style that appealing. But he did have a painting called View from the Dunes with Beach and Piers which did appeal to me with its sea theme. My first thought was it seemed like an impressionist style but an online search reveals it is a naturalistic style. Just goes to show how little I know of art.
Possibly the least impressive part of the exhibit was the Duchamp portion which starts off with a fairly ordinary snow shovel just hanging from the ceiling. Apparently it was purchased at a hardware store and the artist signed and inscribed it and this is art. Lego Lover was quite scathing of its value as art and this is one area where I find I mostly agree with him. There were also less everyday items on display but I couldn’t find any connection with any of it, much as I tried.
The de Chirico works also seemed rather familiar to me so I must have encountered his work at some time in the past. I liked his works more than most of the others on display which I suppose isn’t too unexpected as I do find some other surrealist art interesting. I think the painting on display  that I liked most was Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon.Â
There were several paintings by Fernand Léger which were interesting to see look at but I didn’t really warm to his style of painting. I find it a bit too busy and it reminded me of being in a noisy place with the sound overwhelming and exhausting me. Further, we ended up delayed at seeing all the pieces in this section due to a guide drawing a group of students around and monopolising the painting for several minutes. It’s a shame we had to wait so long to see a work that neither of us liked.
There was only one woman represented in the collection and that was Louise Bourgeois. Â I don’t recall that much of her work except that she had a series of drawings displayed and I think that was of some interest. Right now I’m struggling to recall what it was that appealed to me. I suppose it might evoke different feelings when seeing it in person than seeing it on a two dimensional image. I noticed that she was still creating art far into her life with a couple pieces within the past decade. If I recall correctly, she only died a few years ago.
There were some works by Miro and whose style seemed familiar to me even though the the works on display were not. There was also Calder and several of his sculptures and jewelry on display. Most interesting were the wire sculptures of some faces. I was surprised to find some familiarity with Romare Beardon´s work but it seems appropriate as I believe he was from North Carolina originally so I´m sure some of his work would have popped up at some point while I live there. I quite liked a couple of the paintings by Jasper Johns, who is most familiar to me with his painting called Flag. The painting I liked most was one called Map and was his take on the map of the US. He also had a painting all in white of numbers that was kind of interesting but I didn´t particularly like it all that much.
I found myself a bit underwhelmed by the Warhol part of the exhibit. It was notable that I now have seen the famous soup can paintings as a whole series, I suppose. It didn´t impact me quite as much as I expected. His Brillo box and Heinz boxes were particularly underwhelming for me and upon further contemplation I though about the people who created the designs on the boxes that Warhol copied. I´m not quite sure what I think of that but it left me questioning the whole point of it. They also screened a film of his but I only watched for a short while as it was the end of the exhibit and Lego Lover was impatient to be done and out of there.  I did like seeing his S&H Green Stamps painting and the self-portraits done in the style of the famous Marilyn Monroe ones but that was the extent of my connection with his work. This really surprised me as I thought it would be more exciting to see his work than it was.
We saw this much earlier in the exhibit but I saved it for last due as the big surprise for me was Jackson Pollock. I first came to be familiar with his work in Art 101 back in college. The memory of sitting in an auditorium looking at images of art works and seeing Pollock´s work for the first time is still quite clear. I couldn´t see the point and it seemed like a work that many of us could easily imitate. I wasn´t particularly excited to see his work at all. But then I did see it and was surprised to find it far more interesting than I would have believed it could be. There were only five or six paintings on display and one of them was clearly in the category of painting that left me quite cold. But I didn´t see that until later. There were two paintings I found rather interesting. One was his painting called The She-Wolf and I was surprised at some of the images I could see hidden within the mess of a painting. It was quite large and I could have looked at it far longer but my impatient companion didn´t allow it. The other painting I found interesting was called Shimmering Substance. While I don´t know if I would be right in saying I liked it, I found it quite fascinating in the way there were so many layers of paint. There were thick layers upon layers and it was almost a three-dimensional work in the way the paint was so textured. I´ve since seen images of the painting and it doesn´t quite capture that texture very well. While I still wouldn´t say I like Pollock´s work as a whole, I certainly got much more out of it than I´d ever have dreamed.
And so we came to the end of the exhibit and I found my way to the service elevator as I wasn´t confident about taking the stairs down at this point. After the suffering Lego Lover went through, I treated him to another quick visit to the WA Museum and his mood improved massively. We plan to return to the museum again and spend much more time there. I´d really like to look more closely at the Aboriginal gallery and also see the exhibit on wedding dresses that is currently being advertised.