Lunchtime, Tuesday.
It's very much like the Olympics.
Lots of groups - some very large - wandering around the city dressed in tracksuits or uniforms and carrying backpacks. Often they are following their country's flag. I wish I'd read that 'flags of the world' book I was given as a kid. I did recognise the Swiss flag today. And the US and Canadian ones. There were a couple of others that used the union jack.
Everybody is having a great time. The biggest difference between now and the Olympics is that with this Catholic thing, everybody is on the same team, I guess. There are groups from different countries waving to eachother and I have heard the chant: 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oi, Oi, OI'. Very Olympics.
I'm looking out my office window onto Kent St (behind the Town Hall) right now and there is a towtruck picking up a motor bike that was parked in the street. Must be a clearway. I know the whole of George Street (the main road through the Sydney CBD) is closed to traffic from today till Sunday.
Also out my window I can see a homeless guy who lives in a doorway across the street. He's middle aged and I know he likes to sleep during the day - he told me he sleeps during the day so he can be alert at night when things get a bit hairy at times. I feel a bit sorry for him today because pilgrims keep trying to wake him up and give him food and coffee.
Not much protestor action. And I suspect the pilgrims would look on protesters with some pity - sort of like how people here look on Hired Goon.
There was a protest outside a KFC yesterday, apparently. Three girls stripped down to their knickers and climbed into a cage. The cops took them away, and some people people naturally blamed the enhanced powers the cops have during this event to stop 'annoying' behaviour. Somehow I think the cops would have would have carted the dills off anyway.
Today is the big opening mass down at the back of The Rocks. It kicks off at 4.30 pm, so there would be lots of people getting into position now. I'm glad it's a beautiful sunny day for them. I think Cardinal Pell opens the show today - the Pope is putting his feet (with those great red shoes) up till Thursday.
Cardinal Pell yesterday said yesterday that falling birth rates in lots of Catholic countries was a concern and that Catholics needed to keep their end up. With thousands of them bedding down in communal halls, now might not have been the best time to remind them of their duty to grow the faith. I wonder how many pilgrim girls will go home to their own country next week with a little Catholic inside them?
Scott
It's very much like the Olympics.
Lots of groups - some very large - wandering around the city dressed in tracksuits or uniforms and carrying backpacks. Often they are following their country's flag. I wish I'd read that 'flags of the world' book I was given as a kid. I did recognise the Swiss flag today. And the US and Canadian ones. There were a couple of others that used the union jack.
Everybody is having a great time. The biggest difference between now and the Olympics is that with this Catholic thing, everybody is on the same team, I guess. There are groups from different countries waving to eachother and I have heard the chant: 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oi, Oi, OI'. Very Olympics.
I'm looking out my office window onto Kent St (behind the Town Hall) right now and there is a towtruck picking up a motor bike that was parked in the street. Must be a clearway. I know the whole of George Street (the main road through the Sydney CBD) is closed to traffic from today till Sunday.
Also out my window I can see a homeless guy who lives in a doorway across the street. He's middle aged and I know he likes to sleep during the day - he told me he sleeps during the day so he can be alert at night when things get a bit hairy at times. I feel a bit sorry for him today because pilgrims keep trying to wake him up and give him food and coffee.
Not much protestor action. And I suspect the pilgrims would look on protesters with some pity - sort of like how people here look on Hired Goon.
There was a protest outside a KFC yesterday, apparently. Three girls stripped down to their knickers and climbed into a cage. The cops took them away, and some people people naturally blamed the enhanced powers the cops have during this event to stop 'annoying' behaviour. Somehow I think the cops would have would have carted the dills off anyway.
Today is the big opening mass down at the back of The Rocks. It kicks off at 4.30 pm, so there would be lots of people getting into position now. I'm glad it's a beautiful sunny day for them. I think Cardinal Pell opens the show today - the Pope is putting his feet (with those great red shoes) up till Thursday.
Cardinal Pell yesterday said yesterday that falling birth rates in lots of Catholic countries was a concern and that Catholics needed to keep their end up. With thousands of them bedding down in communal halls, now might not have been the best time to remind them of their duty to grow the faith. I wonder how many pilgrim girls will go home to their own country next week with a little Catholic inside them?
Scott
