My Lucky Finds

I am constantly surprised by the differences between Australia and New Zealand.  Something that I love about the Australian people (that we don’t do in New Zealand) is that they put their material belongings on the side of the road in front of their house once they feel the object(s) has outlived its usefulness.  There are probably people who would say that in fact this is a terrible habit that makes decent neighbourhoods look like dumps and encourages scavengers.  And they’d probably be right.  But I can’t help but like it that they do this because I’ve benefited so profoundly it.  I have picked up lots of little treasures.  In my mind I’m saving Australia’s landfills from filling by extracting useful tid-bits from piles of trash doomed to death by being buried alive.  Essentially that’s what this is.  Taking something that is still fully functional and burying it in the ground is being buried alive.  The object still has life left in it.

In all seriousness, having not come across this before it provoked a conversation with myself about consumerism and recycling. 

When I first moved to Brisbane I found myself in a curious position.  My partner and I needed to fit out our little apartment with furniture and kitchen utensils.  I wanted to achieve this on a small budget while not conforming to the ever growing epidemic of ‘consumerism’.  I came up with the perfect solution of shopping at second hand stores to acquire what we needed.  However, when I found the few second hand stores that were located in my area I realised that this option was by far the more expensive.  I couldn’t buy plates for less than I could get them at Kmart.  I was very disheartened when I conceded that yes, it would be off Ikea and Kmart to fit out our little apartment with a minimal amount of items to start with. 

It was while we were in Brisbane that I first noticed people setting things on the side of the road for passersby’s to collect.  We picked up a bench for Ollie to put in the garage for his tools and a little shoe rack to go in the closet.  

In Sydney however the ‘dump gods’ have really shown their heavenly light on me.  I have found so many things in perfectly good condition on the side of the road for FREE.  So the conclusion is hopefully in the eyes of the ‘anti consumerism gods’ I have balanced out a little of my Ikea purchases by rescuing outcast household items from a horrible death and the filthy grave of the landfill.       

       

These little hanging spices racks were someones rejects.
They fit  perfectly on some existing hooks in the kitchen.  
It must be a sign, we were meant to be. 

White crockery, stainless steel plunger and painting
 in back ground were all outcasts that I've saved. 

Super funky little stacking baskets that are
 handy for keeping odd bits and ends.

The jar for spaghetti pasta and the ceramic utensil container are
the newest members of Heidi's Home for Orphaned Kitchen Stuff. 

     

Long Drop Toilets - Dunnies

Over the long Easter weekend I was camping in the Blue Mountains.  Which is why the topic of this post is the humble long drop toilet, otherwise known as a dunny.  I really enjoyed my encounter with the dunny at Perry’s Look Down camp ground, near Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. 

In the homeland, New Zealand, a popular weekend destination was the Craigieburn camp ground where my experiences were not so delightful.  Without fail there was always an awful stench even from some distance away and it only got worse the closer you got.  Upon arriving at the door I would consider bailing, but in the interest of the environment and keeping the camp ground clean I would always have to follow through and bare the toxic fumes of the dunny.  The exceptionally bad smell of this particular toilet might be due to it not being emptied regularly enough.  However, I believe there are factors regarding the architecture of the shelter in which the dunny is located that could improve its fragrance and atmosphere. 

Standard NZ dunny

The long drop that I had the pleasure of using this past weekend was a Windyloo.  The company who makes this style of long drop is called Pureablue.  You can look them up at www.pureablue.com.au.  

Windyloo exterior

Disable friendly Windyloo with hand rail .

They also do other styles of public toilets, but in my opinion the Windyloo is their best work because of its simplicity and functionality.  The exterior cladding is iron, the framing is steel, the roof is fibre glass and the floor is concrete.  They leave a 50mm gap between the floor and the walls for ventilation, light and drainage (apparently you can just hose them out).  The door is a sliding mesh steel grate positioned so when closed the person on the loo isn’t visible to someone standing outside.  I imagine this is to help get even more air flow through.  It was spacious inside, unlike the tiny toilets in NZ.  There were absolutely no flies buzzing around, there was no disgusting poo smell and for the most part it was clean, save some empty toilet rolls on the ground.  And it remained this way over the entire weekend with a fully packed camp ground.  Go the Windyloo, I love you!

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House (photo courtesy of SOH website). 

I am living in Sydney now so I took advantage of the opportunity to go on a tour of the Sydney Opera House, a highly discussed, photographed and visited building.  Indeed Australia’s most iconic building.  Accompanied by my friend, Venetia, we cued to buy tour tickets and were pleasantly surprised to find out that presenting our tour tickets when purchasing performance tickets we would receive a discount.  Unfortunately neither of us took advantage of this, although it is worth noting for when fellow New Zealanders cross the ditch to visit us.  

We were provided with head phones for the duration of the tour.  I found this to be really beneficial.  I didn't have to always be looking at the guide to hear what she was saying and it meant I could roam a little while she talked. 

Our guide pointed out that there have only been to alterations to the Opera House since its completion.  The first alteration was the refurbishment of an interior space to become the Ultzon room.   Jorn Ultzon is the architect who designed the Sydney Opera house.  Apparently the Ultzon room is updated and very classy; it was closed at the time of our tour, so I didn't get to see it.  The second was the installation of deep set windows on the lower level where the Playhouse theatres are located on the Circular Quay side of the building.  These I thought were done tastefully in keeping with the buildings style. 

Most impressive is the bright purple carpet in the gathering area outside the concert hall overlooking the harbour.  This area is now commonly known as ‘The Carpet Room’. 

The bright purple carpet

The tour is sometimes limited to which rooms they can show us due to performances and rehearsals.  We were allowed to go into the concert hall while the organist was practising.  The pipe organ is huge.  Over three hundred pipes are visible at the front and there are over a thousand behind that are hidden.  We were also permitted to sit in the opera hall while crew were setting up a stage for an evening ballet performance.

Concert hall pipe organ

There were several little things that I learnt on the tour.  The glass in the windows overlooking the water are not vertical, they are heavily leaning out, away from the view so you can see much of what is below.  But the reason for this is so the view of the city at night can been seen, rather than a big fat reflection of yourself in the glass.  Also the Sydney Opera House never has to be cleaned as the exterior tiles are self cleaning.  Apparently there are several different types of tiles that form the exterior cladding and this is why the Opera House very seldom looks the same as it did yesterday.  The tiles reflect light so its appearance changes with the weather and lighting around it.  

There is so much that I could prattle on about in regards to the Sydney Opera house, from its designer and his influences, the turmoil that ensued during construction over time delays and budget to the construction methods.  But all that stuff is pretty widely known already and if you want to read about it you can go to the Sydney Opera House website, it’s very comprehensive.

What I took away from my tour of the Sydney Opera House was an appreciation of a grand building.  I look forward to going to an orchestral concert sometime in the near future and letting that feeling of being somewhere special and significant sink into me.