Last night I went to Symphony in the Domain with a group of friends from uni.

The quality of the concert was exceptional. There were a number of violin and saxophone solos and the orchestra overall sounded superb.

Most of the music performed was not very well known. But the rendition of The Blue Danube Waltz was brilliant, and the traditional final piece Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture rounded out a very good evening.

Below is a video of the last three minutes of the 1812 Overture with the full fireworks and cannon display.

This morning I walked along the coast from Coogee to Bondi to check out Sculpture by the Sea. My idea was to do the walk early enough in the day to avoid the big crowds – as it turned out lots of other people had exactly the same idea!

However, as the photos attest, today was one of those moments when I love living in Sydney. The weather was perfect – not too hot, not too cold, and people were out and about smiling and enjoying the day.

These photos only represent a very small section of the artwork on display. In total there are over 100 exhibits and despite taking 250+ photos I still missed a lot of things.

An added bonus to my walk was seeing a Blue Tongue Lizard for the first time in the wild. I would have expected it to be hiding from all the noise but it seemed content enough to stick around and pose for me.

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Today I went to the 17th Biennale of Sydney. I had planned to go when it opened but I kept on putting it off when I got to the weekend as I was lazy, or the weather was bad or I was busy with other events. But this morning I woke up and instead of being lazy I forced myself down to Circular Quay and onto the ferry to Cockatoo Island.

Arriving at Cockatoo Island on an overcast day brings with it an even greater feeling of mystery. In the past Cockatoo Island has been used as a prison and as a naval shipyard. It is said to have ghosts on it and that is something you can certainly feel in the air as you step onto the land. The exhibitions of the Biennale have been set up within the hundred or so buildings scattered about the island. There is a map in the guidebook of where each piece of art is but there is no set route around the island you are left to your own devices to explore both the art work and the Island.

A lot of the art is audio/visual consisting of short (and some long) films or a combination of sculpture and projected video. The best installation of this type was a circular room with video projected in 360 degrees. In addition to these installations there was also your more traditional modern art consisting of sculpture and a combination of post-modern objects mixed with everyday life.

In addition to Cockatoo Island there are a number of other galleries around the city with installations as part of the Biennale. I got off the ferry back into the city at Shed 2/3 and after that I walked through to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Sometime before the event ends I will need to head through the Opera House and the rest of galleries to see the rest of exhibition.

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Last night on the way to watch the All Whites game at Darling Harbour I detoured through the Opera House to see the sails of the building be lit up as part of the Vivid Sydney festival of light.

The different patterns and shapes projected onto the opera house are awesome and poor photos from my cellphone simply don’t do it justice. If you are in Sydney go and check it out.