Put your feet up with a good book | Wednesday, October 12, 2005 |
Gillian and I are now members of the City of Sydney Library. Personally, I think that library membership is one of those things that defines a 'hometown' (or it could be that I'm just feeling to tight to buy books in the immediate future), but that's not really relevant to this story.
Anyway, we popped down to circular quay to again slaughter birds with stones. There's a small coffee related exhibition in the library, which was all quite interesting. Lots of pictures of stylish looking immigrants setting up coffee parlours back in the 50's and one or two dreadful adverts extolling the virtues of the first instant products - "It's concentrated! That's why it's so inexpensive". And we think today's ads are bad.
Outside is another piece of Art and About. A series of thongs (snicker) painted by members of the public. Was better than it sounds, trust me.
Anyway, we popped down to circular quay to again slaughter birds with stones. There's a small coffee related exhibition in the library, which was all quite interesting. Lots of pictures of stylish looking immigrants setting up coffee parlours back in the 50's and one or two dreadful adverts extolling the virtues of the first instant products - "It's concentrated! That's why it's so inexpensive". And we think today's ads are bad.
Outside is another piece of Art and About. A series of thongs (snicker) painted by members of the public. Was better than it sounds, trust me.
The real star though was the library itself. The former Customs House, it's a grand old building that's been extensively refurbished and along the way picked up some awards. It goes to show that an old building can be brough into the 21st century without diminishing its heritage. To me, it's exactly right.
The main entrance hall by the way has a largely transparent floor (which caused Gillian a moments woozles) which gives the public the chance to see an scale arhitectural model of the CBD extending just far enough out to encompass the building we now live in. This was quite unexpected and fascinating; Sydney has it's tall buildings, and some are open to the public, but there aren't many who get to take in the whole city that way. Interestingly (perhaps), the ABN Amro building stood out, and then quite by chance we walked by it on the way home.
