Come dance with me, Newtown

Every second and fourth Friday of the month from 7 pm til late, the relatively sedate Church Street in Newtown hums to the strains of the Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller bands. Down in St Stephen's Hall they're bringing back swing with a vengeance.

Emma and Nikki are at the front desk. They're part of Swing Patrol, a school started ten years ago in Melbourne that's now spread as far as London, becoming the biggest swing school in the world.

Snaky Business

Summer is also a time for snakes. They come out of their hiding places and bask in the sun. Thor unravels this newly shed snakeskin found in Arcadia. It's still damp and pretty stinky but will dry to a more papery consistency in a week or so. As you can see it's a whopper - well over six foot long. It probably belonged to a common brown snake, known to be the second most venomous snakes on land in the world.

It's a timely find seeing as we're on the cusp of the year of the snake!

Per and Karen.

Bird Island, Georges Hall

Every evening at dusk, over 1,000 native ibis fly in to roost on a small man-made island set in an artificial lake in Georges Hall near Bankstown. Although ungainly on land, the ibis look like aeronautical masterpieces in flight.

The ibis were an unfamiliar sight in Sydney until 2003 when they arrived in droves from inner New South Wales to escape the drought. They've since flourished and have become a fixture of daily life.

This small nature reserve is adjacent to a busy main road yet throbs with bird life. Corellas, the short stubby cousins of the cockatoo, swoop in and make a racket with their asthmatic screeching. They perch in the trees beside the lake although they don't stray near the island. Herons are the only other birds welcomed here.

I noticed this ibis back in December at the fish markets, just about to dive into a juicy dumpster.

Under the Paperbark Tree, Centennial Park 

We had our picnic under the paperbark tree near the duck pond. It was hot and the afternoon stretched before us. The boys played chess. We drank bubbly, talked idly and lay on our backs. We watched trees, strange birds and a wedding slowly coming together across the water.

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The Hercules Cure for Insomniacs

I’ve long been a fan of Hercules from the plant stall at Rozelle Markets.  At sixteen years of age, he’s a senior Pomeranian who could be hired out to cure insomniacs.  He sways, snoozes then wakes, then sways, snoozes and wakes all day. I could watch him for hours but he makes me feel very, very sleepy.

The woman at the plant stall tells me Hercules belonged to her ex-partner until he left her for another woman. The other woman preferred cats, so the ex dumped Hercules too! Well it didn’t last - the new woman went back to her husband, and the ex is now a sad and lonely man.

Back to School

“Well I ask you, have you ever heard of a triple edged pencil?” quizzes a woman I’ve just met in a shop. No, I haven’t. This unusual stationery item features on an exhaustive list of requirements for a child’s return to school. The complaint continues: “And glue, it’s not just any glue, it has to be a special brand that’s double the price of anything else.” “So much for the humble Perkin’s Paste”, I say. We nod in recognition of that white stuff in hot pink pots from simpler days.

Strangely, this woman tells me, the kids don’t get to keep any of this stuff. It all has to be handed over on the first day of school, is stored in a locked cabinet and gets doled out on an as needs basis. ‘It’s not as if it’s posh either, just a little Catholic school in Willoughby’, she adds.

All over Sydney for the last couple of weeks, mums and dads have been dragging reluctant children and teens around the shops to get uniforms, shoes, sporting equipment, stationery and the other paraphernalia required for this week’s return to school. They enter Officeworks with auras of exasperation and lists in hand.

Heidi is just about to start year 10. ‘How many exercise books will you need?’ asks her Mum. ‘About twelve, but I’ll need something more colourful for drama.” she replies. 

Arielle and Sophie are discussing the merits of different white out; some brands dry out too easily.

Both are going into Year 8 on Thursday. Re-entry has been staggered across three days this year, they tell me and they’re pleased as some of their friends had to start today.

Father and son try to decide on which type of calculator to buy.

Abel has just completed his orientation day at Sydney Boy’s Grammar. He says it went okay. Mum says gearing back to school is a shock to their systems.

At the checkout counter, some mothers are catching up. “Would you believe we just got back at 10.30 last night” says one. It seems like she represents about half of Sydney as the city feels fully occupied today for the first time since Christmas. The long Australia Day weekend was the last hoorah. We’re all getting back to work, or school. Only university students have a couple of weeks of holiday left - if they're not already working jobs to pay off their fees, that is!