Sydney College of the Arts Open Day

We attend the College Open Day. Can it really be a year since the last one? This time Spike is a student.

The van is still off the road so we were required to catch buses, which is not without its challenges when it's essential they have wheelchair access. Our first bus (7:05 a.m.) was scheduled as accessible. It was late (of course) but accessible as promised. We anticipated a forty-five minute wait for the connecting accessible service ... not quite long enough for breakfast - too long to make hanging around much joy ... but lo and behold the first bus to come was also accessible. The whole journey took 45 minutes. We'd feared twice that time.

Breakfast in Rozelle, La Grande Bouffe in Darling Street. Good eggs. Pushed to the college in light rain for which neither of us had prepared; promised (as we were) 28 degrees and sun.

I don't mean to br critical ... but ... Ok ... it's an art college. They're creative people; talented I'm sure. To be frank (but diplomatic) organisation is clearly not their forte.

Whatever ... the open day started ... eventually, sort of. Stuff seemed to begin; people arrived (exhibitors at least as puzzled as the visiting public). But the clouds cleared from the sky, the sun warmed up the windswept precincts of the former asylum, the day unfolded pleasantly.

Spike gave a tour of the glass studio, sold earrings at the market stall (6 pairs) and gave a demonstration of lamp work to genuinely interested passers-by and an enthusiastic in-house video crew.

I watched a woman called Stevie (in the left of this photo) spin a platter, which I subsequently purchased. It's cooling in the kiln. At the end of the day, after the public had gone, students and staff of the glass studio tidied up, shared some beers and crowded in to the hot shop to watch a team pour molten glass in giant ladles into a sand-filled casting box. Hot stuff.

We had a long wait between buses on the return journey but not (interestingly enough to me) because buses weren't accessible. It's just that public transport ... as much as one wishes it could be otherwise ... is sometimes less than wholly convenient. There can be delays. Those are understatements.

Finished off the day with pizzas. It's been a more than decent Saturday.