February 21, 2023
Back in 1983, we lived in Sydney for a couple of months. Our home was a one bedroom bedsit in the inner-city neighborhood of Redfern. Back then Redfern had not gentrified and was a little rough around the edges. In fact, there was a riot in the neighborhood while we were there. We happened to be passing through Redfern on our way to the city and asked the cabbie to drive by our old home. We lived in half of the second floor of the middle home (the place just above the red street sign). It looked much the same. Our home was a one room bedsit with mice in the walls and a bathroom we shared with the other tenants, who we remember as mainly alcoholic old men. Being young, we weren’t particularly concerned at the less than salubrious surroundings.
Next we went for a walk down by Circular Quay and watched the ferries sailing to and from various points on Sydney Harbor. The harbor bridge and opera house provided iconic backdrops.
There is a widely told (and sometimes disputed) story that the opera house almost didn’t come into being. The design was one of 223 entries that had been received and according to the story did not make the early cut. It was not until one of the judges who had missed the early days of judging pulled the design out of the rejects pile that it went ahead. That judge was Eero Saarinen, the famous Finnish American architect who among other famous buildings, designed the TWA Passenger Terminal at JFK Airport in New York and Dulles International Airport outside Washington DC.
After a walk through the neighboring Royal Botanic Garden, we returned to the hotel for a rest before joining our old friend Chris and his wife Caroline for drinks and dinner down on the Quay, looking across to the opera house.
Mal and Lauren 