Lamenting for the Cross

Last week my husband was working in the city so we decided to have the day 'in town.' We spent a few hours at Rushcutters Bay park. It was a warm winter's day - a perfect day for a play at the park then a walk (and scoot) along the esplanade.

I just love that part of Sydney. My husband and lived there for the first seven years of our relationship. We had an amazing few years eating incredible food and made some great friends too. After our son was born we had the opportunity to explore the area in a new way- playgrounds, parks, child-friendly cafes. We do miss our old life but we just had to move to a larger home and we love where we live now. We also started to feel more vulnerable raising a child so close to Kings Cross with it's seediness.

Comprising of Potts Point, Darlinghurst, Kings Cross, Elizabeth Bay, East Sydney, Rushcutters Bay and Paddington the community is extraordinarily diverse. Evident, even after a short walk through the streets is the poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and prostitution. Alongside that, the community is known for it's Bohemian roots, openly gay community and liberal views. All-in-all its a very accepting community- almost anything goes.

There are also people with huge incomes. The scene I witnessed that most demonstrated the extremes was a few years ago from a stool at the cafe, Latteria, on Victoria Street. One moment I was being urged to give a homeless man some money and in the next I noticed two men leap from their stools. Both of them crossed the busy street to two bright yellow Lamborghinis parked side-by-side. The characteristic doors of the cars raised, they jumped in and hooned off noisily down Victoria st towards Oxford st. 

Sushi on Stanley is an old haunt of ours. One of my first visits to this area, when my husband and I first got together, consisted of a meal there. It remains one of our favourites because of the $18 dinner sets- miso soup, salad, terriyaki chicken, rice, tempura or sushi, sashimi. Yum!

 

To finish the day off, after sushi, we walked from Stanley Street right up into the Cross. We used to do this often after dinner. There is always something to see in the Cross. The other night we stopped at Hernandez on Kings Cross Rd for a hot chocolate. This place is an iconic spot, open 24 hours, and always with a cab driver patron. The walls are adorned with classics and the smell of in-house beans roasting is divine.

Affectionately known by locals as "Poo on Sticks" the sculpture, "Stones Against the Sky" synonymous with the Cross, peers down William St. Almost as iconic as it's neighbour, the Coke Sign, "Poo on Sticks" is a controversial installation. You don't need to look far to read that, sadly, the artwork didn't honour the sculptor's (Ken Unsworth's) materials or design. For many years after it's installation the "poo" part of the sculptor remained a mission brown colour and a few years ago was painted a shade of equally unpalatable gun metal grey. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2608883.htm
And for years since its installation council and various guerilla art groups have been lobbying to remove the sculpture. There it remains, against the night skyline.... anything goes!