I cannot wait for the 2011 RWC. :)

Latte (Sista-in-law-barista)

Submitted by @ChookingHam

Waiting for my coffee

Love Traveling to Sydney Australia come see the specials on our Fan Page for discounts you can use! http://on.fb.me/eHCRud

mm.

@toolateforforgiveness I agree…I don’t think the Cathedral will be going anywhere soon, and Novocastrians would no doubt rise up if someone tried to hurt it. (Although we’d all probably have a long discussion about the Laman Street Figs and removing the train line before we started any of that hasty rising-up business).

And really…hmmm…wouldn’t the Cathedral’s site make a great place for a big-giant KFC?

Isn’t this proving a nice excuse to pontificate further about the Cathedral? Block your ears those of you who are easily bored…

…At least now that the Cathedral is “listed” the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney might be discouraged from doing what he did in that city. There he has been trying to turn his Cathedral into a “multifunction worship space/office suite”.  As a newspaper article reported in the mid 2000s, at St Andrews next to Sydney Town Hall; 

“…the ornate pews, part of the cathedral since its foundations were laid in 1868, have been removed, probably sold. Office chairs stand in their place.”

Of course, St Andrew’s in Sydney - the finest piece of Blackett architecture in that city other that the Sydney University’s Main Quadrangle - had legal protection too! The heritage listing gave it as much actual protection as an umbrella during an asteroid impact. And of course the Victoria Theatre in Newcastle CBD is similarly on the heritage list as well, and look at how well kept that is!!

But back to the Cathedral, I suppose that although it looks like it has been there sitting atop The Hill forever, the tower of Christchurch was only finished in 1979 and then, in 1989, the fabric of the church took so much damage in the Earthquake there was talk of knocking parts of it down. This is a pretty interesting article (to me) on how they reinforced the church. There’s about 5km of new, steel reinforcing bar in the fabric now, keeping the thing standing up. Oh and here is its entry in the Heritage Register. And here’s some information about Horbury Hunt, Australia’s finest (Canadian) architect of the Arts and Crafts period.

All this shows that I’m fond of churches on heritage grounds. Even though me and religion aren’t exactly on speaking terms. Actually we’re on shouting-and-throwing-things-at-one-another terms.

(For a gold coin donation you can climb the tower).

So when do we get our 10c refund?

I cannot wait for the 2011 RWC. :)

Go the Wallabies!!