"The Birdcage" is the long steel arch running down Wollongong's Crown Street mall.

I've never heard a kind word said about it since it provides no protection from the elements and obscures the light from the sky, not to mention disrupting the line of sight down the mall. The then council administrators had decided to remove it back in 2009, but as you can see it's still there. Last I heard demolition work was due to start in 2013.

Of course Wollongong Council has other matters to address first. It was dismissed in 2008 because of systemic corruption and has only recently been re-formed. Those who were involved in the corruption (including the town planner who was approving a property developer's applications while having an affair with him) have largely escaped prosecution because of the dogged and relentless tenacity of NSW's Department Of Public Prosecutions.

Boy, I'm glad that the DPP isn't out to get me. I might even lose half an hour's sleep over it. Eliot Ness, on the other hand, is probably turning in his grave as we speak.

Unbelievably the council's former-general manager, who was found to have created a climate "liable to allow, encourage or cause" corrupt conduct, tried to run for Lord Mayor when the council was re-formed earlier in 2011. I swear, you couldn't make this stuff up.

But to the picture itself. My original intention was to have a sea of motion blur depicting the relentless bargain hunting post-Christmas. Unfortunately while I got some of that along the edges, that was it. It didn't help that I couldn't see through either the viewfinder or through Live View since the light was so intense but eh, at least you get to see what Wollongong Mall looks like.