Journal Entry – June 24, 2007 Flying Foxes and the Arts of Islam

Author: Pam

Early in the week our friends Tim and Georgia sent an email inviting us to get together to do something fun over the weekend. We made a plan to get together on Sunday and Georgia was in charge of planning the activities. They picked us up at 10:30 as the sky began to cloud over. I decided to brave it and wear sandals, I have a major lack of closed toed shoes. My feet were actually warm enough, but at one point Tim did ask me if I was at all aware of how many people were staring at my feet. Sydney is now in the dead of winter and they have all pulled out their furry boots. Coming from Maine I find it a bit amusing to see so many people wearing boots where there is not a chance it will snow. At any rate I guess I was providing an equal amount of amusement.

Our outing began with a stroll through the Botanical Gardens which hosts not only a huge array of plant life, but also millions of birds and the renowned flying fox or also commonly referred to as the fruit bat. From almost every branch there are brown sacks hanging upside down napping while they wait for just before dark when they will take off in search of the fig trees. We have heard the gardens are teeming with bats, but I had no idea what that really meant. Outside the visitors center a volunteer was sitting at a table with a display of an adult and baby flying fox hanging from a branch (they had died on an electrical wire). It is the only way I want to get up close and friendly with them, although it was an opportunity to see they do have kind of cute faces. I am sure I would have a near heart attack if I was there when they all take flight. We also saw Ibis birds, which are black and white and as big as a small puppy. The cactus garden was definitely more up my alley. As it started to sprinkle, because rain is now almost a daily occurrence we headed into the Art Gallery of New South Wales to visit the Arts of Islam exhibit, treasures from the Nasser D Khalili collection. The Arts of Islam presents the extraordinary wealth, imagination and artistic heritage of the Islamic art over more than 1000 years. The pieces in the exhibit were exquisite ranging from pottery, glassware, rugs, many copies and pages from ancient Qur’ans, jewelry, gemmed daggers (Tim & Scott’s favorite pieces), ancient games, drinking vessels, two dimensional art and weavings often telling a story. It was a fascinating collection and we were all left in awe that this is only a fraction of the artifacts Khalili owns. After we had our minds thoroughly opened we walked over to Wooloomooloo (you can’t even begin to imagine the pronunciation) for a lunch of Tapas. The sky cleared while we sat at an outside table and the sun came out making it a very pleasant afternoon.

After Tim and Georgia dropped us back at the boat we gathered up our computers and made our way across town to the Internet café, it had been two weeks since we had checked email. We do not have convenient internet access near the boat where we can use our laptops and with the weather and all it has not made it to the top of the list. After a couple hour session we headed back to the boat putting an end to a very nice weekend with a nice balance that did not include any boat work.