Happy New Year

What a scorcher it is today! We've already been for a swim and the mercury is pushing 37 mid-morning. And more to come.

An uneventful NYE which a few of us spent on a rockplatform at Wenty Falls. It was cooler there and we had a good view of the sweltering city below, all heat haze and dust. At 9pm the first fireworks went up - tiny coloured plumes on the horizon. We didnt wait around for midnight so Nadia and I caught the harbour celebrations on TV. I enjoyed it but really, most of the celebrating has a perfunctory nature, as if people are going through the motions because of social convention. I think a lot of people in Western societies are hungry for communal festivals, which, since the decline of religious faith and practice, are pretty scarse.

I don't think that shopping malls have lived up to their calling as the new cathedrals. Sure, folks hang out in their cool buzzing environments。There's talk of of them becoming complete recreation centres, as new city centres and meeting places. It's funny that you see so little litter in malls and so much in the local environment. Perhaps just another mark of our falsely placed loyalties. All hype and glitter and the next new thing.

Nevertheless, Happy New Year to everyone!