No Sydney Vivid

Our Sunday in Sydney promised to be an exciting one. We started off the day normally enough with a good walk, as far as the Waverley Cemetery, on a section of the coast walk where the district's buried must really appreciate the oceanfront real estate they occupy - in perpetuity (?).

....then back to Coogee by way of sweet Clovelly....

.....past the beginner diving schools at beautiful Gordon's Bay....

..... and back to Coogee Beach where we had our first minor celebrity sighting of the day - the admirable Amanda Keller walking her dog on the esplanade.  

The beach volleyballers were out in force this morning on the beach while the littlies were tearing up the esplanade with their scooters.

We were back in town by a little after 1.00pm, with just enough time to enjoy a quick but delicious lunch at one of our favourite Sussex Street eateries, before heading off to the Lyric Theatre at The Star at Pyrmont.

We had seats booked for the wonderful "War Horse" at 3.00pm, presented by the National Theatre of Great Britain.  Without the amazing horses created by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company and their extraordinary puppeteers, this could have been just another anti war, human (and horse) interest story.  For us, the "puppets" and their handlers who brought them "to life", gave the production such an emotional boost. We found it a really poignant and memorable show - fantastic to see.

We're so ignorant that we walked out of the Lyric Theatre after the show and headed for Darling Harbour without realising that BRAD PITT was nearby, here in Sydney for the premiere of World War Z, also at The Star - we only realised it when we read the papers this morning (duh!)

We were on a mission to get to Circular Quay and a good viewing position to enjoy the light show presented by Sydney Vivid - the annual festival of light, music and ideas. 

We crossed Cockle Bay by way of Pyrmont Bridge and caught the opening (at 6.00pm) of the light show in Darling Harbour.  We were underwhelmed by this installation - a new feature of the 2013 festival - but we did enjoy the projections on the roof of the National Maritime Museum. They were inspired by the colour, flavours and sounds of India to coincide with its current exhibition East of India - Forgotten Trade with Australia.

As we made our way down George Street towards Circular Quay it became obvious that a LOT of people were making the same trek we were.

By the time we got to the Museum of Contemporary Art - beautifully illuminated in waves of gorgeous colours and patterns it was clear that it was going to be IMPOSSIBLE to gain a good vantage spot and enjoy the sights around us. I have no way of estimating crowd numbers but to me the Quay seemed almost as crowded as that day in 1997 when we tried to make our way onto Tienanmen Square, along with at least two million other people, on October 1st, the Republic of China's National Day (and a public holiday in Beijing).

We shuffled our way past the ferry terminals in the tiny spaces left between the waves of oncoming crowds of people. By the time we'd made it to the "toast rack apartments" on the East of the Quay and were faced with a solid wall of people shuffling their way around to the Opera House we both looked at each other and decided the situation was ridiculous - and we called it quits for Sydney Vivid this year....WITHOUT seeing the Opera House!!!!

I took this quick pic of everyone's favourite bridge and we breathed a huge sigh of relief to get out of the city and back to Coogee.

In amongst the crowds and bus stop closures for Sydney Vivid we were lucky to catch a 374 bus back to Coogee. Across the aisle from us was an older man listening intently to his music of choice. We both recognised him as a fairly well known character actor - although neither of us could remember his name or any specifics about where we'd seen him before. I googled mature Australian male character actors - images as soon as I got back to the apartment - but his name remains a mystery (for now).  He got off the bus at the Arden St stop - so we'll look out for him walking beachside in future!