I Was Just Standing There
The sky above the horizon was changing colours - mild purple, relaxing pink and topped up by an on-coming grey. That evening,the Tasman Sea was benign and reflected the colours of the sunset. It was past 8pm, and what transfixed us, along the North Gong Beach, was not a late summer evening's ambiance, but the fast changing eclipse of the full moon.
Smoky wisps of shadow gradually engulfed the largest lamp in our Earth's night sky -and just as fast as it came, the eclipse left in a huff, with the whole process taking just about 30 minutes. The event did not bother the wave and board surfers along the beach. Some diners in covered buildings were oblivious to this, what Nature can surprisingly throw up, but most pronounced and evident when it happens in that window of change called either sunset or sunrise. Different cultures ascribe various and varying meanings to such eclipses, but to me it was just beautiful -and my group was just awe-struck.
At twenty six degrees Celsius, it is not that temperature hot, but recently the radiating heat felt has been more like what an Australian summer should be like. What is lovely is the accompanying sensation of cooling breezes on the skin, standing beside water, standing at a look out point, or just looking out from your open house windows. I noticed an increasing preference for ceiling fans in several abodes visited in the past year. I am not convinced that this pattern arose out of an urge to primarily save the environment. Maybe it comes from a more practical mindset and to be more financially sustainable. As a Dave Soutter remarked to me, air-conditioning can be over the top for bedrooms when one sleeps at night, and all I may need is just a good circulation of air, like that experienced after winding down the windows in a moving vehicle. Utility rates have gone up in pricing as well across Australia.
At a Hornsby, Sydney party, looking out at the balcony, we could hear the passing traffic below. I have not been to a residental high rise much lately, and the impact of this lifestyle did rear up to my mind and imagination that evening. We could see beyond the suburb, the bush at the Ku-ring Gai Reserve, the lights of Westfield and the railway line and station. The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite, but both the kitchen and laundry room have no windows. The complex has two layers of security, one controlled by a resident guard and the other by buzzing the address button. The lounge and bedrooms of the apartment we had a party in were rather spacious for a Sydney location. There were proper garages in the basement.
We were hanging around, after a good spread for tea, and coming from Wollongong, it made me think. Numerous facilities were nearby, but mostly man made. Standing near the open windows did make me feel the breeze, but not immediately from the ocean. Permission was required for things that stand alone house owners may have taken for granted. Neighbour Ann and her young daughter Karlina dropped by at the gathering - Karlina loved rolling around on the carpet and seemed to be aware of the limits of the balcony.
I may have missed the point, though -you can still view the full moon, maybe even better, and any lunar eclipses, from a high rise residence. And talk of feeling, full on, of breezes at that height!
Smoky wisps of shadow gradually engulfed the largest lamp in our Earth's night sky -and just as fast as it came, the eclipse left in a huff, with the whole process taking just about 30 minutes. The event did not bother the wave and board surfers along the beach. Some diners in covered buildings were oblivious to this, what Nature can surprisingly throw up, but most pronounced and evident when it happens in that window of change called either sunset or sunrise. Different cultures ascribe various and varying meanings to such eclipses, but to me it was just beautiful -and my group was just awe-struck.
At twenty six degrees Celsius, it is not that temperature hot, but recently the radiating heat felt has been more like what an Australian summer should be like. What is lovely is the accompanying sensation of cooling breezes on the skin, standing beside water, standing at a look out point, or just looking out from your open house windows. I noticed an increasing preference for ceiling fans in several abodes visited in the past year. I am not convinced that this pattern arose out of an urge to primarily save the environment. Maybe it comes from a more practical mindset and to be more financially sustainable. As a Dave Soutter remarked to me, air-conditioning can be over the top for bedrooms when one sleeps at night, and all I may need is just a good circulation of air, like that experienced after winding down the windows in a moving vehicle. Utility rates have gone up in pricing as well across Australia.
At a Hornsby, Sydney party, looking out at the balcony, we could hear the passing traffic below. I have not been to a residental high rise much lately, and the impact of this lifestyle did rear up to my mind and imagination that evening. We could see beyond the suburb, the bush at the Ku-ring Gai Reserve, the lights of Westfield and the railway line and station. The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite, but both the kitchen and laundry room have no windows. The complex has two layers of security, one controlled by a resident guard and the other by buzzing the address button. The lounge and bedrooms of the apartment we had a party in were rather spacious for a Sydney location. There were proper garages in the basement.
We were hanging around, after a good spread for tea, and coming from Wollongong, it made me think. Numerous facilities were nearby, but mostly man made. Standing near the open windows did make me feel the breeze, but not immediately from the ocean. Permission was required for things that stand alone house owners may have taken for granted. Neighbour Ann and her young daughter Karlina dropped by at the gathering - Karlina loved rolling around on the carpet and seemed to be aware of the limits of the balcony.
I may have missed the point, though -you can still view the full moon, maybe even better, and any lunar eclipses, from a high rise residence. And talk of feeling, full on, of breezes at that height!
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