Party and Packing
I have just returned from an extended afternoon in Petersham (full-disclosure: it is past 1:00AM here, so it was quite an extended afternoon) where I was helping Amanda pack up her flat in preparation for her move this upcoming weekend. Admittedly, packing turned into a marathon of watching the entire run of the British show 'Black Books' - just three seasons - but it made for a quite entertaining night.
To review since my last post, Friday included a full day of work. The morning yielded some quite exciting developments that I will share in the near future once things are ironed out. I played some catch-up on various projects as John and Cindy (the two people I tend to work most closely with) were out for the day. It was good as I had a backlog of projects across a few teams that needed some attention.
Friday night was our party for Tiffany's birthday, which turned out to be a major success. I made red beans and rice (I think I have finally figured out how to make them fairly authentic with Australian ingredients), which Hannah and Abs have taken a particular liking to. We had a cake, complete with 21 candles, and I think everyone had a great time.
Saturday morning I slept in (finally got to catch up on the week's missed sleep) and piddled around the house this morning. Around 3:00 I headed out to Amanda's to help with packing. I decided on the train and made my way to Macdonaldtown Station to try something new. Macdonaldtown is the closest station to my house (beating out Redfern by 100 metres or so) but I have never really considered it as a transit option when I am travelling - it is away from the city and only serviced by one line, whereas Redfern is serviced by all of the lines that feed the city. If you have no interest in the formation of Sydney's public transit network you should probably stop reading now and skip to the end of the post.
Macdonaldtown Station was built back when the Eveleigh Railyards (now the Australian Technology Park where I am doing my architecture studio project this semester - it all ties together...) were active (late 19th century). It is a tiny station with no building and only a central island platform serving two of the six tracks which run into the city, accessed from an underpass on a side residential street. It is a station that really shouldn't exist anymore as it does not meet any of the internationally accepted standards for distance between stations (being sandwiched between Redfern and Newtown) - trains don't make it up to speed before stopping again on that stretch of track.
It was interesting to board at Macdonaldtown as there are no fare gates, no modern fixtures that are in all the large stations of the city. The platform was empty at 3:00 in the afternoon; I was the only one to board when the train stopped. The railyards to the right of the station, combined with the four tracks on which intercity and all the other lines run south and west out of the city (or north and west into the city) add a distinctive ambiance to the station. Dozens of trains fly by, a testament to the proximity to the city, and the activeness of the rail lines in Sydney, as you wait on the platform for the one service that stops at the station.
Once on the train I went downstairs (the trains are double-decked) for the ride to Petersham. I usually ride in the main vestibule (at platform level) as my trips are short, and have ridden on the top deck, but since the train was not crowded on a Saturday afternoon I figured it was a good time for a new experience. The ride down at track level offers a different perspective from the other levels...
It is impressive that over a century ago there was the foresight to design the system to allow for such a large capacity. Though, even with the size of the trains and complexity of the network (as I have mentioned before) the trains fill to the max during rush hour even though the size of the city is no bigger than Atlanta. The United States, and even cities in Europe, have a lot to learn from some of the successes of the Sydney system (even as my coworkers would disagree).
I have to clean tomorrow as I have plans all day Monday and Tuesday and MUST clean the house before I go to meet Jason and Rebecca at the train station at 7:00AM on Wednesday!
To review since my last post, Friday included a full day of work. The morning yielded some quite exciting developments that I will share in the near future once things are ironed out. I played some catch-up on various projects as John and Cindy (the two people I tend to work most closely with) were out for the day. It was good as I had a backlog of projects across a few teams that needed some attention.
Friday night was our party for Tiffany's birthday, which turned out to be a major success. I made red beans and rice (I think I have finally figured out how to make them fairly authentic with Australian ingredients), which Hannah and Abs have taken a particular liking to. We had a cake, complete with 21 candles, and I think everyone had a great time.
Saturday morning I slept in (finally got to catch up on the week's missed sleep) and piddled around the house this morning. Around 3:00 I headed out to Amanda's to help with packing. I decided on the train and made my way to Macdonaldtown Station to try something new. Macdonaldtown is the closest station to my house (beating out Redfern by 100 metres or so) but I have never really considered it as a transit option when I am travelling - it is away from the city and only serviced by one line, whereas Redfern is serviced by all of the lines that feed the city. If you have no interest in the formation of Sydney's public transit network you should probably stop reading now and skip to the end of the post.
Macdonaldtown Station was built back when the Eveleigh Railyards (now the Australian Technology Park where I am doing my architecture studio project this semester - it all ties together...) were active (late 19th century). It is a tiny station with no building and only a central island platform serving two of the six tracks which run into the city, accessed from an underpass on a side residential street. It is a station that really shouldn't exist anymore as it does not meet any of the internationally accepted standards for distance between stations (being sandwiched between Redfern and Newtown) - trains don't make it up to speed before stopping again on that stretch of track.
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| The platform of Macdonaldtown with the Channel 7 Building at the ATP on the right. |
Once on the train I went downstairs (the trains are double-decked) for the ride to Petersham. I usually ride in the main vestibule (at platform level) as my trips are short, and have ridden on the top deck, but since the train was not crowded on a Saturday afternoon I figured it was a good time for a new experience. The ride down at track level offers a different perspective from the other levels...
It is impressive that over a century ago there was the foresight to design the system to allow for such a large capacity. Though, even with the size of the trains and complexity of the network (as I have mentioned before) the trains fill to the max during rush hour even though the size of the city is no bigger than Atlanta. The United States, and even cities in Europe, have a lot to learn from some of the successes of the Sydney system (even as my coworkers would disagree).
I have to clean tomorrow as I have plans all day Monday and Tuesday and MUST clean the house before I go to meet Jason and Rebecca at the train station at 7:00AM on Wednesday!
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