everything has cracks in it, thats how the light gets in

....or the tale of Leonard Cohen and the suicidal whale.

A few highlights from my week in Sydney...

Highlight Numer 1.....

It was a drab and windy evening in the old mining town of Dominion as we drove past the hole where the old high school had sunk into an old mine shaft and the social club the locals named the'blood pit'. We were headed to No.26 mine.

As we neared the coast we turned up a dirt road where dozens of other cars and a couple of small ponies had gathered at the roads end, near the wire enclosed grave of a miner. After walking over churned and muddy ground we reached the edge of the land and there it was.

Poor dead wrinkly whale.

As the sun set behind the power station and the crowds dispersed I felt a warm feeling inside watching a father place his two toddlers on the decaying beasts back for a photo opportunity.

It was a special moment in Sydney Mines and a rather appropriate prelude to going to watch Leonard Cohen in Glace Bay, which was fantastic and Highlight Number 2.

Nine men standing on beached sperm whale at Leith Harbour, South Georgia 1913


Highlight Number 3....

The Tom Fun Orchestra played Rollies Wharf


It rained all week in Sydney and was about 5'C...the only thing for it was to stay up late and dance. Teaching on only 3 hours sleep was an interesting experience but all the classes in the Centre for Craft and Design seem to have gone well.