Movie-going is a relative rarity these days. Because of the costs? That doesn't help, but no, that's not the reason. Because Hollywood is pumping out more effluent than a sewerage plant these days? Yes, that's the main reason. The Hollywood Machine seems to have forgotten that people want to be entertained, and seems to have all but forgotten how to do that.

Occasionally there is a movie that is an example of good, old fashioned story telling. In this case, the movie was Ferrari which we were heading down to see the morning session of. (It wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen, but it wasn't bad either. And frankly Adam Driver, an actor whose work I really have never warmed to previously, performed the role remarkably well.) But first, breakfast!

Port Kembla is /was / sort of still is primarily an industrial and commercial port. The breakwater that we're looking at here was constructed to provide a sheltered port for incoming commercial shipping which services the nearby industrial plants, like cement producers and the steel mills. Some smaller, private boats also benefit from it.

The building that I'm just outside of is the Maritime Centre. Remember the good old days when western countries still had a full range of factories and industries and a need to transport goods by ship and rail, on ships and trains that could also be built in said countries? Mmm. In 1946 the Federal Government formed the Australian Shipping Board to handle maritime transport. In 1956 it formed the Australian National Line (ANL) as a coastal shipping business to take over from the Board.

In 1970, the Maritime Centre was built as a terminal for the ANL. It was opened by The Hon. Davis Hughes, Minister for Public Works who played a, to put it charitably, "controversial" role in the construction of the Opera House including causing the departure of the original architect.

ANL was privatised and flogged off to foreign owners in the 1980s and 1990s. As we all know, a nation always gets rich by selling its infrastructure to foreigners, or at least some well connected residents of it do. Please tell me that I don't need to put up a neon sign saying "Sarcasm".

Since we don't have a national shipping line any longer, the Maritime Centre was free to be converted into (amongst other things) a café called Lo Stretto. As soon as you see its signage, you know WHICH "stretto" the owners are referring to; specifically, the strait of Messina. The café is located between home and the cinema, so we decided to stop in here for breakfast.

On a sunny day, the outlook over the water would be beautiful, I expect. I don't know for sure because there have been barely any movies since then that aren't cr@p, or at least none which had a morning session. And with the La Nina effect, we get few enough sunny days in any case.

In any case, I offer a view of the breakwater (which can itself be an interesting shooting spot... when the authorities deem that you're allowed on it) with a bit of seagull photo bombing.

Wollongong Head Lighthouse to the north can just vaguely be glimpsed through the mist and haze.

And yes, the breakfast was nice.