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Sydney
Dear Ones,
Am not sure which is more shocking, the horrible realization that Australia is not very far away or the fact that Sydney
is such a small, cozy town.
For years I have avoided this trip, erroneously thinking the flight would be unbearable, the jetlag unthinkable and the
recovery impossible. I was wrong about all of it!
Truth is, I go to China at least once a year and Sydney is no further. My United Airlines flight simply dipped further
to the south and in the same time it takes to get to Hong Kong (one meal, one Ambien) I was comfortably in the land of Oz.
BIG BUSH SMALL BRIDGE: The scale of downtown is small and intimate, parts of it are like the UK. The whole thing has a
watered down Anglo-Yank feel to it with a hunk of New Orleans thrown in, as colonial buildings are two story jobs fitted out
with lots of wrought iron.
There are no remarkable buildings such as in Hong Kong or Shanghai, although there is much diversity in the architecture
and many famous names have built here. Yet it's the small residential neighborhoods filled with these colonial houses that
give Sydney its character and shape the retail scene - in many areas, the downstairs of the house has been turned into a store.
Paddington is the cutest of all these neighborhoods and the side streets boast adorable little homes that are now workshops,
ateliers and sources for shopping finds. On Saturdays, there's a crafts market in the local school yard.
When it's time to go shopping, if you aren't in these little boutiques or at the many weekend markets, you are most surely
in the art galleries that specialize in Aboriginal Art, which is sold in all formats: paintings on canvas, print son fabric,
scarves, dishes, tiles, boomerangs, placemats, T-shirts, snow domes, pens and even gift wrap.
Referred to as "contemporary indigenious art", the aboriginal works are displayed in hotel lobbies, airports
and even the back lobby of the famed Opera House. Original work by a famous name such as Clifford Possom begins around $10,000
USD and escalates quickly. His daughter Michele is an up and coming artist, you can buy a canvas she has painted for around
$3200 USD.
Galleries and Tourist Traps (TTs) sell original works begin at $75USD for a small square but averaging $250- 350 for an
18 x 24 inch canvas. The swirling dots and wavy lines tell stories of myth and culture and geography and creation. Books sold
in galleries and booksellers elaborate on the artists and the Dreamings, as their stories are called.
BEAUTY CULTURE: Maybe it's all those Aussie movie stars or simply the marketing of so many natural ingredients from the
earth, but Australia is known for a wide range of health and beauty lines. Napoleon Perdis, local makeup artist now relocated
to Hollywood, has his own shops as well as space in the department store David Jones, the local version of Neiman-Marcus.
His color cosmetics make him a paler version of Tokyo's Shu Uemura.
Sue Devitt, who makes color cosmetics and skin care, is well known in some parts of the US where she is represented in
Sephora stores -- her line is usually found in Sephora stores on the West Coast of the US. I couldn't find her anywhere in
Sydney but plan to go back and look some more, as I am addicted to her brown eyeliner pencil.
The two biggest skin care lines are Aesop and Jurlique, both of which are sold in the US. Jurlique is beginning a spa
business throughout the world and has three spas in Sydney, one is located in the ultra swank Park Hyatt hotel at the Harbourfront.
HOTELS & SPAS: While the Park Hyatt is hands down the reigning hotel in Sydney (Yeah, yeah, Nicole Kidman just spent
her wedding night there), there are a handful of luxury hotels, all with spas that make the 14 hour flight just an excuse
to test more treatments.
The Four Seasons Hotel, right on the water at Circular Quay, has an Elemis Spa, a large spa menu and a variety of treatments
created with home-made concoctions from indigenious ingredients. There's the coconut exfoliation and lemonberry wrap or the
house special "From the Earth" which consists of being rubbed down with local salt, painted with local white clay,
left to stew then sent to steam and then massaged into heaven with local lanolin.
Kangaroo Kisses,
SuzyKG
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