Hot Town, Summer In The City.

Village sculpture. Camperdown Rest Park, 2004.

Today is hot. An hour ago the weather report put the temperature at 36C (97F). Walking to the Buddhist centre this morning to do some volunteer cleaning I felt baked, seared. A couple of hot and tiring hours of cleaning later, and I'm spent. Fortunately I ran into my friend James and his little daughter Isobel down in Newtown, just as they were about to scurry home out of the heat. So my 10 minute walk home became a couple of minutes in an air-conditioned car instead. Sweet.

Newtown is a bit like a village, I can often bump into someone I know when I'm walking along the King St shops. This sculpture (above) is an apt piece for the neighbourhood I think. A little village surrounded by a maze, which Sydney definately can be.

I grabbed a DVD of the M. Night Shyamalan film The Village while I was in Newtown, which reminded me that I had taken the picture above a while back. I liked the look of the film very much, but found it curiously uninvolving. I guess it was partly because I already knew the 'twist' at the end, but I just didn't find that I cared enough about anybody to be really invested in it, nor did Shyamalan hold the suspense through the film I thought. Having said that, there were some great perfomances in the ensemble cast, including the lead Bryce Dallas Howard, and there was much to enjoy in the film. 6/10 maybe.