more words.

today, the 433 bus driver is a Yank. from Philly, his number to go to Vietnam was coming up, 167 when they were conscripting 163, so he enlisted, and the war collapsed two weeks later. somehow ended up in Australia visiting relatives 33 years ago, and never left. born in Italy, half the family went to Philly, half to Australia in the late 1950's, early 1960's. the best thing, he says, about living here, I can wear shorts to work year round.

all the late night bus rides have been interesting, by the time the bus gets through the hard-core downtown, the Quay, and The Rocks, it's empty, so few people actually live in Millers Point. in the shadow of The Bridge.

out the door, down the street. up the hill.

Monty, an amateur astronomer working for the Sydney Observatory 100 meters down the road and up the hill, has a hydrogen-band-filtered spotting scope for solar observations set up next to a bench on the lawn. the face of the sun is clean, as it has been for some time during this extra minimal solar minimum. at three o'clock, though, there is a small and ethereal (plasmatic!) prominence rising perhaps ten percent of a solar diameter from the edge of the reddish shimmering disk. choice thing to see. along with the view from the hill.

a week into August already. more than two weeks in Oz, a number to go. haven't made any images at all except the occasional telephone lo-rez abstraction. so that goes. this may be the way the travelog goes in the next months. as there are so many other things to get done now. teaching heavily underway, research cranking up, and networking. as well. essential life starts to make its way forward.

plenty of sound recording though. on aporee maps. and a few photos from around the house.

with a seven-day red transport ticket, all the Harbor ferries running from Circular Quay around the corner are free game. the longest cruise is around 90 minutes up the Parramatta River. so, with the warm sunshine a continuous feature of the Sydney winter, a cruise is in order. ahhhh...

as is the norm, living someplace, I don't make many images, that and the backlog into June hanging overhead, and getting on with research instead of data juggling. so, one image from Marrickville in the two weeks I was there. on a short evening wander up the Cooks River.