Sydney.

" I despair of being able to convey to any reader my own idea of the beauty of Sydney Harbour, wrote Anthony Trollope. I have seen nothing equal of it in the way of landlocked scenery, - nothing second to it. Dublin Bay, the Bay of Spezia, New York and the Bay of Cork are all picturesquely fine. Bantry Bay, with the nooks of the sea running up to Glengarrif, is very lovely. But they are not equal of Sydney either in shape, in colour, or in variety. I have never seen Naples, or Rio Janerio, or Lisbon; - but from the description and pictures I am led to think none of them can possess such a world of loveliness of water as lies within Sydney heads.

"I could not see the harbour from the aisle seat of the boeing 747 that brought me home from New York and I squirmed and craned just like my broad shouldered companions from Connecticut, each dressed in spectacular stars and stripes. Members of a martial arts team, they were so aflame about this journey, and had been loudly exited since we left L.A thirteen hours before, that they had tested the limits of my Temazepam to the limits. It had taken two 15mg capsules and and four glasses of of red wine before I could finally sleep. I knew only that they wished to win some medals in Sydney. They knew that I lived in New York City. I am sure they did had no idea that I was an Australian trying to get a glimpse of home."

Peter Carey. '30 days in Sydney. A wildly distorted account'. pub. Bloomsbury, 2001.

And so it begins. The NYC exquisites will begin their sky lines, each moving towards Sydney one or two a day from May 15th on, out of the sky we arrive in Sydney. 

NYCers you will fly towards the sun. A brief moment of darkness will occur near LA as we move out of the long summer twilight into night. But the sun rises soon over the pacific ocean and you will meet Sydney over the cusp of dawn, first the gold of the sand stone beach cliffs and then the harbour beneath you, arc of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, glimpse of the white Opera House sails, sail boats on the harbour, wind runs off the heads in a sharp intact, maybe a cloud and then the ground.

The first air I ever breathed was the salt air of the ocean. Australians are inextricably linked to the elements and the land. I know as sure as I know the rips and flows of the (my) ocean, that when I stand facing the ocean the desert runs to my back. That the sky gets higher at Cobar and the land starts a rise and fall like the ocean floor inverted.

Project Sydney starts now. May 20th?  you know there is always a twist. 

S.