Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Drop your pants

(Woy Woy walk #88)

Finished off the lanes at Ettalong today. There's a big wodge of them there, from Gallipolli Avenue-Maitland Bay Drive down to Palm Street. I've got stuff-all lanes to go, polished off more than I realised in the last couple of weeks. I'll be finished by the 31st.

Cocky logo at Ettalong Pet Shop
(Big version)

Another cocky for Suzanne. Not the real thing but an accurate depiction. They spread their wings like that and stick their crests up when they're squabbling with each other. The pet shop's opposite The Excrescence.

Drop your trousers
(Big version)

The sign says "DROP YOUR PANTS / A SOUL IS WASTED WHEN THERE IS NO AIM". The 'drop your pants' bit is the dry cleaner's slogan. The bottom bit is some sort of homily I s'pose. While I sat there at the bus-stop I stared at the words until they lost all meaning then floated about in my mind like some strange eroto-religious stricture. More prosaically, the seventies building on the left is the Senior Cit's (Senior Citizens) and stands on the spot where the Ettalong cinema once stood.

1950s shop on Barrenjoey Road Ettalong
(Big version)

Don't know if this old shop is being used for anything more than storage but the old(er) house behind it is occupied.

I'd guess it was a butcher's shop, going by the nice big window and the position next to an older shop (green roof) on a busy suburban road. This suburb was once a village in its own right and is now part of the Peninsula's suburbia. You can still see the village in these old shops and the age of the houses around them.

Barrenjoey Road Ettalong
(Big version)

Despite the cladding and the windows this one still looks fairly close to original. Because the window awnings are still there I think. The one's without their awnings lose most of the fifties look.

Bourke Street Ettalong
(Big version)

Finally got this bugger without the caravan blocking it. I like the smart green and white of this one, though I'm not sure a green that dark is a fifties colour. That's Blackwall Mountain in the background, by the way.

Woy Woy's largest cactus
(Big version)

In a lane off Lurline Street Ettalong. I'd love to transport this magnificent beast to the front garden of a nice fifties house where it could be admired to best advantage. It has a few translucent yellow flowers (big version) not unlike waterlillies. Didn't even know they flowered.

Bit muggy today. Cloudy this morning, as you can see from the photos. A storm on the way, the weather person said. Hope it happens. It was darkish on my walk and it's sunny now but there's a big front of cumulus coming in from the north-east.

6 comments:

Suzanne44 said...

Extra points for "eroto-religious stricture"! There's a wonderful turn of phrase.

Spike said...

Ta muchly. I rather like it myself.

I wonder if there's a market for tee chirts bearing eroto-religious strictures? Probably is.

Erica said...

just been exploring your blog - ma-in-law lives at Woy Woy so we know it well - BTW, that cactus only flowers at night, huge yellow flowers which just last one night, that's why the ones in your pic are looking past it.
that's a damn lot of lanes you've walked VBG!!!

Spike said...

The flowering for just one night thing sounds beautiful. It'd make great photos.

As well as the lanes, I've also done a little streetwalking and am shortly doing some more.

Had a glance at your blogs. Excellent stuff. Going to put any Woy Woy photos on them/flickr?

Anonymous said...

Re: the shop on barrenjoey road
I live at woy woy and have lived around this area all my life i lived just around the corner from that shop and i used to walk past it all the time on my way to and from Ettalong Public - i dont know what sort of shop it was orginally but I do remember that it was once a fruit and veg shop for a short time I think that was the late 70's/early 80's but has been like that how it is now since then

hope that is some help to you
cheers
Michael

Spike said...

Thanks Michael. It does help. Builds up a picture of the Peninsula through other locals' eyes. I love that.