The weekend shortlist

The indicators that I have had an awesome weekend include an unscrubbed house, no clean laundry, not an ounce of schoolwork done and nothing delicious baked (well, not by me anyway).

Luckily, a shortlist has already been made to outline the top weekend events, cos there was simply too much jammed in. Hurrah!

In fourth place for an honourable mention: a ferry ride back to the city from Cockatoo Island (an old industrial/military island in the harbour, where part of the Biennale art exhibition was held). We'd missed the rain (just), the sun was dancing across the water, the city was in view (and admittedly I'd knocked back half a bottle of vino!). Getting out on the harbour reminds me why I choose to live in Sydney - I think it showcases perfectly the freshness and sparkling beauty of the city and it's setting.

Coming in at number three: an installation on Cockatoo Island, which was not only awesome but totally unexpected. Shortly after completing number two on this list, we wandered along and came across a site - an old house - that held an exhibition but required special bookings (everything else on the island you could just wander in). The guy at the gate was convincing; the house opened in ten minutes, and our names were on the list. I didn't rate most of the stuff in there (I believe she was a Norwegian artist and there was lots of photographic images imposed over each other and some really dicey quotes). But the thing that blew me away was the camera obscura. You walk in to a totally darkened room, where there is just a tiny pin prick of light. With your back to the pin prick, after about 5 minutes you begin to see an image appear. I was in there with a stranger; we were having giggles about the dark, and how long we should stay, and whether it was all a hoax when she started to be able to make out shapes. Firstly a very pale light patch began to show, and as my eyes adjusted I could see, reflected upside down, the image from outside projected on the wall. I wasn't sure what it was at first but stranger lady was on the money and together we made out the edge of the building, telegraph poles and the streaks of grey clouds that were drifting across the sky. It was mind blowing - I think mainly because I'm not an overly patient type of person and this was direct reinforcement of why it is a virtue and all that lark. The surprise and unexpectedness of it made it my winning piece for the day.

Number two: it's a sad sad fact that booze will always make it onto my shortlists. This particular instance was a bottle of red wine shared shortly after arriving at the island. It was medicinal, really - it was freezing after the trip over and we had to get warmed up! A seat was found in the sun (but unfortunately also in direct line of attack of the aggressively nesting seagulls) (who, to be fair, kept to themselves), red wine was consumed, and good conversation flowed. Ah, day wines!

And a drum roll for number one: my top moment of the weekend was my inaugral visit to the NSW State Library. I'd been to the exhibition room before, many times, but for some reason had never actually made it into the library proper. And oh heavens, it was worth the wait. It was a large room, lined with books and staircases, filled with light, and with stained glass windows along the upper walls. We went in and found a book on Marrickville which had a range of old maps and pictures (for some reason Da Ville was a hub of brickworks at one stage. Like, there were a million factories here only to make bricks!) and propped it up on a reading aid (a big wooden book stand made for lazy people like me) and explored the suburb from the sanctity of a library. There is something about speaking in hushed tones that makes anything you find in a library seem more exciting, more like a discovery, than if it was to be read in a place where normal voice levels were acceptable. We also had a flip through the hand written cards in the calling system (I don't know what it's called! I am tempted to say dewy decimal system cos it's my only library term and should therefore be thrown in somewhere, but I know that's not exactly what I mean). Some cards had an early type print while others had the distinct spidery handwriting of an old school lady. We happened across a drawer that held the cards for a whole lot of commissions into Chinese gambling in the 1800s. I wouldn't change technology for the world, but there was something magical about flipping through cards from one subject to the next that the google machine just can't replicate.

So anyway, that was the roundup! The weekend also held a lost game of trivia, a trip to the markets for poppies, cherry blossoms and green garlic (my current food obsession), a freshly baked loaf of bread for Sunday breakfast (thanks bread boy!), and some frisbee in the park. It was exactly how a weekend should be. And now I'm dragging the Monday chain and have to get to work, and hit the books to make up for lost time tonight!