Wednesday, July 07, 2010

I'm sitting

in a room in what is described as a "boutique hotel" writing this. The hotel's not bad; my only complaint the apparent lack of connectivity of its wireless network. So, went out to buy a topup for our "travelling" national telephony broadband connector, came back, plugged it in. At which point the hotel network decided to come in/on loud & strong, so I'm using that.

Frost this morning, white underfoot; but the predominant color of Canberra is black. Black hoodies, black leather jackets, black full-length coats, black pants, black shirts, black sweaters, or a combination of any or all can be found adorning 80% of the people I've seen today. I felt quite at home in my black corduroy coat.

Tomorrow is our day for being strictly tourists, but this afternoon I'm heading off to the National Gallery, to see Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. Bought by the Whitlam Labor Government in 1973, its purchase created an outcry, partially because the Australian public considered they could do better, partially because of the price paid. $US2 million. Now it's regarded quite differently. It's a national treasure, an example of the forward-looking nature of Australian perspicacity in buying seminal works of art.

Plus it's currently valued at something like $180 million.

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