Banana thieves foiled again

Today was a fun day. I saw a sign in the window of a cafe that read 'No cash or bananas kept on premises overnight', which made me laugh (I was going to take a photo but I chickened out at the last minute because there were people sitting at the table right in the window). 

I also saw a magazine display at the supermarket in Mosman* (super snooty suburb, for those of you not in the know) which confirmed all my prejudices about the people who live in the area; it went New Idea, Women's Weekly, OK!, Business Review Weekly and Quadrant (a fusty right wing publication) - that's the Mosman target market of trophy wives and racist property developers catered to, then. This was right after I saw a swish BMW with a vanity plate that read 'FTSE' run a red light, so basically all the cliches you could think of were demonstrated for me.

And I went to the SH Ervin gallery. I'd been curious about this place for years - it's the art gallery just off to the side of the harbour bridge where they have the  Salon des Refusés, also known as the Alternative Archibald Prize. 

It's tucked into in a funny spot just next to the bridge and behind Observatory Hill, and it took me a while to figure out how to actually get there. Which was fine because it meant I also had a nice wander around The Rocks, which is possibly the most appealing part of Sydney. Oh, I know there are umpteen places selling Ug boots and Genuine Art by Real Life Aboriginals TM. But all those little sandstone houses and funny little alleyways are really lovely, and give a nice feel for what it must have looked like when Sydney first started to become Sydney. 

It is a really nice area, and I can't recommend the gallery highly enough. The art wasn't really anything that earth-shattering, but it is a fantastic building with a really peaceful feel to it, especially considering that just outside the door are the six lanes of traffic that cross the harbour bridge. I did like a few of the paintings;

Tanya Chaitow, Four Types of Ambiguity

Scott Marr, Bob Brown

Helene Grove - this wasn't in the exhibition, but I couldn't find an image of the one I liked

but I the main think I liked about it was just wandering around the room. I'm going to go back when I've got a bit of cash so I can have lunch in the restaurant, which looked nice and sunny and friendly. I'm so happy I finally got around to going to the gallery, I feel as if I've filled out another little corner of Sydney on my mental map, which up until now has pretty much been a big blank space with 'Here Be Dragons' scrawled across it. Next - the uncharted wastelands of the Western Suburbs.

*Just as a side note, spell check doesn't recognise 'Mosman', and suggests 'Madman' instead.