It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out of the city. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a train. A few months back I took cityrail to the airport and back with a trip to NZ in between. Late last year I did similarly for a flight to the countryside. Twice this year I’ve tried to catch trains but the signs announcing trackwork, meaning having to use replacement bus services, disuades me from straying far from Sydney city.
I’d planned an exciting adventure, camera in hand, to Rhodes Shopping Centre all of 20km (aka a world) away! I haven’t been out to Homebush, never seen the new developments, and I wanted to buy some shelves from Ikea for a little diy at home. At the train station the trackwork posters were up so I revised plans to hop a bus to Moore Park instead (only a few kms away but atleast I’d get some shelves) but emergency crews had blocked off the street where the bus stop was. They won’t let me leave this city. I’m stuck.
Head down I thought I’d see what had happened at World Square – I’d recently noticed the boarding had been removed dismantling the City Lights project and at some point I thought I’d seen some sign about a Sony store opening. What I found was a full blown block of shops, cafes, newsagents and hair salons bustling with people! How on earth had that opened without me realising? Taking it all in, going underground and back to street level I found signs saying it opened on June 2 so I hadn’t missed the boat by much. Shops were holding opening sales, everywhere had a “positions vacant” sign in the window. The cream on the top – they’ve built me a brand spanking new Coles supermarket that’s open til midnight; none of this Express rubbish, a full blown proper store with the standard range of foods except that they’ve followed the Coles/Woolies trend of charging $7.98 for a kg of mushrooms so I won’t give up on my local Duffy’s yet. No more long walks dragging the shopping home or putting up with the small (expensive) range of the Oxford St supermarkets. Blissful.
A friday night in last night watching a bit of Rage and caught the Daughterboy Jao video for “Simple Matters” and felt I’d been a little harsh with my previous comments. The video looked, and the song sounded, much better than had come across live. Kinda Velvet Underground-ish and cool. Tambalane’s “Little Miss Liar” was also on and is a little toe-tapping ditty (you can catch it on their website).
Sounds just like London. Can’t go anywhere these days due to tube works. rail works. Glad the camera has returned all fixed and working.
oh how i wish for full supermarkets which stay open to midnight (or, better, 24 hours). brisbane shuts too early, probably the biggest frustration with living here.