A walk through Chinatown in autumn

It was a nice day for a walk and they said on the news we would get rain later in the week, so I decided as soon as I woke up that today I would go for a walk. I took my usual route down to Darling Harbour. There was a pair of young women walking and one of them had dust on her backside but I felt too sheepish to say anything about it, and just kept walking through the crowds to the overpass.

They have closed off a lot of the pedestrian access due to the redevelopment of the IMAX cinema, which is going on apace - they have pulled down the whole cinema structure and have fenced off a large area of promenade as well - so I squeezed around the corner into the walkway near the roundabout. They have put up a sign telling bicyclists to slow down for pedestrians. It's just a small sign attached to the hoarding.

In Dixon street a girl was walking with a shiny tag attached to her handbag, which was slung over her shoulder, and it was making crazy patterns on the pavement as the sun shone off it. It made me think someone was wearing a reflective watch at first, but then I realised the dramatic movements of the light spot could not have been made by a watch on someone's wrist. The traffic light at the bottom of the street was still red when I crossed - there was no traffic coming when I looked - and I scampered across. There were plenty of people up on Union Street and the traffic was crawling around the corner as per usual.

In Harris Street near Mary Ann Street the ibis droppings were making their wonted stink, highlighted by the warm air. I made it all the way down Harris Street to Pyrmont, then went in the Japanese restaurant and had sushi and a beer. I was thinking about sending the new paintings to my family in Japan and how I would have to make two trips up to Windsor to get them wrapped adequately to protect them during the journey. I will call the framers this afternoon.