Public Libraries Would Never Exist If Proposed Today

 



27/02/2025 and 28/02/2025. I am 100% certain if a government (likely a looney lefty liberal one) proposed the idea of public libraries today then they would be laughed out of Parliament/Congress/the respective legislative assembly. I am writing this post from the New South Wales State Library which is an immensely impressive structure. As you can see by the picture, the ceiling is probably 20 metres high (rough estimate I could be wrong, but anyway very high ceiling). This is the second visit to this library in two days for me, and it's provided such a great environment for me to write, research and read in, and most of all in sweet, sweet air conditioning. Oh and it's totally free. What will these liberals think of next? Free healthcare? Frightening stuff.

The past two days have seen me settle into my solo-travelling lifestyle a bit more. Yesterday I caught the metro to North Sydney for breakfast and then took the ferry to Cockatoo Island and through Sydney Harbour and up the Paramatta River to Paramatta. A great way to see the harbour, and super easy all just using my visa card to tap on and off. Sydney Harbour is pretty impressive, with Herne Bay-like wharves and flash houses all around. What a great place for a city. Paramatta was pretty buzzy, it's like 30km out of Sydney central but has 10+ skyscrapers and a ~70 storey residential building. Following that it was on the train even further west to the lovely suburb of Mount Druitt. After a few 1-4s and a picture of the train station sign for Sam and Tali, I was back on the train east to the CBD. Western Sydney is like if West Auckland went on for another 50km and was dry, featureless, flat and a little more depressing. Fuelled with a delicious bahn mi and then taking the metro the wrong direction, I ended up in the aforementioned State Library. Dinner was a beige delight of mass produced crumbed chicken, rice and microwave mashed potato provided free of charge from the hostel. A decent few beers were required to wash it down in a couple of pubs after that. Oh and City beat Tottenham yesterday which was nice - unlucky Lance.

Today started with a train and a bus to Bondi Beach, which was honestly pretty underwhelming. It's just a beach? My Aotearoa-centric brain doesn't really find many beaches that interesting if I'm honest. Bondi was apparently filled with Sydney's supermodels by the way people were strutting around. I started doing the Bondi to Coogee walk but gave up half way as it was 9.30am and I had already saturated my shirt with sweat. Gross. I also realised that the reason I was slightly grumpy on this walk besides the god awful heat was that I hadn't had a coffee yet. This was fixed swiftly before a shower and another bahn mi (from a different place). The Australian Museum and Museum of Sydney were on the agenda this afternoon for educational as well as heat-related purposes. Did I mention how good air conditioning is?

Tonight I will have more than a five line conversation with someone which is something I haven't done the past two days. A drink with ex work mate Nikita at Opera Bar on the waterfront is on the cards. Should be good. Also I am sitting here typing and there is this old couple who have been furiously tapping their phones with one finger for the past 10+ minutes? Do you reckon they're gambling on something? Anyway, they get to use the library and do whatever the hell they want as long as they're not disturbing anyone as far as I'm concerned. I hope they win.

27/02/2025 - 19,800 steps and 14.6km walked. 28/02/2025 - 22,900 steps and 17.2km walked.

The commencement of the official city rating system will be launched tomorrow so stay tuned. Long live public libraries.

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