Newtown spring. Sydney.

Today (1/9/19) is the first day of the Australian spring. Newtown becomes the centre of the world for ordinary happy peaceful folks. The air is warm, the musics are loud and the atmosphere is tuned to relaxed vibrant. The Sydney Fringe Festival started in earnest today. Even the Ibises fly up and down the street in search of a bin not occupied by other like-birds. The swallows have returned. The pigeons court. The queues to the music venues are long, mostly young people who have to show their identity card for the busy bouncers to decide whether they are under the age limit for alcohol consumption. Beer flows like river water, cans of mixed drinks pops. Cocktails are shaken and stirred... Eardrums are shattered by punk, some rap, but mostly "traditional" Sydney Rock sounds that created INXS and other famous bands. The colours are saturated by a joyful sun. 

The worries of the world, the Trump of an America that can’t stop shooting itself, the Boris bunionic bubonic Brexit and the Chinese turbulences in Hong Kong are forgotten — or to say the least, as nothing can be done from here about the lunacies of these far away perturbations, why not enjoy the light air and the flowers of a magnificent day. Super blue sky...

The long main street, King Street, still retaining most of its late 19th century decorated character, sometimes interrupted by a Modern-Style pub build in the 1930s — from "Sydney Uni”, meanders lazily towards St Peters. The shops are cafés, pubs, countless restaurants from exotic lands and local burgers, nail polishing joints, tatoo parlours, hairdressers, all busy on this bright glorious Sunday. The funeral parlour and the church are closed though, while the flower-shops are brisling with colours. Bookshops, art shops, clothes shops, beauty shops are doing their best trade since winter. The traffic is slow. Cars really don’t move but no-one is upset if a truck crosses the lanes in front of a bus, slower than a snail in reverse. All-chromed motorbikes and electric bikes whizz pass in slowmo… 

And everyone has a smile on their face...