At lunchtime on 31 December 2007, from all corners of New South Wales we came, to have lunch together at dear old Clovelly Hotel. J&J & little E were returning home and we were all taking over the apartment from them for a New Year reunion of the Kenyon "girls".
Little E wasn't phased by her first visit to a pub. She found a few things to chew on including the Christmas decorations still festooning the bar walls.
These are the Kenyon girls all dressed and ready for a night out on the town (after the obligatory glass of Majella).
And these are the Coogee girls all dressed and ready for the same night out on the town (as seen from our apartment window).
Barzura was buzzing on New Year's Eve. Everything stopped at 9.30pm (kid friendly time) for the firework's display courtesy of the Randwick Council and us ratepayers. We had the best seats on the East Coast for the show. We saw the new year in on the Coogee Beach esplanade along with hundreds of drunken revellers (many of them extremely young).
Unlike the young revellers we were bright and perky enough the next morning to go for a LONG walk to Bronte and back before breakfast. We then took all our guests sightseeing around the eastern suburbs coastline (Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watson's Bay) before heading to Sabbaba at Bondi for a scrumptious lunch. We enjoyed the last night of our reunion at Cocolo at the Spot, Randwick with a memorable sashimi and sushi meal freshly prepared by the maestro (worth the over one hour wait!).
We woke one morning to find a disaster had befallen our Freedom "Jasmine" bed, no doubt due to its serious structural design deficiencies. We made good use of uncollected telephone directories belonging to the good residents of Randwick to address the problem until Freedom organised a replacement Jasmine. Our new Jasmine has exactly the same design deficiencies so the phone books are staying in situ.
So all is good!
We went looking for Rodd Island (right smack in the middle of Iron Cove between Drummoyne and Rozelle) because of its links with Rob's family. John Tremayne Rodd (1777-1844) arrived in Sydney on 6 April 1822, a middle aged man and a widower, with three young sons: John (17), Robert (15) and Brent (13). Brent, unlike his brothers who became pastoralists, was eventually admitted to practise at the Supreme Court of NSW.
With marriage and a growing family (12 children in all) Brent Rodd eventually acquired significant land holdings in the Five Dock and Drummoyne areas. Rodd Island was the property of the family too, used for "picnics and entertaining". Brent relinquished his claim to the island in the late 1890s and it is now managed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Rob is a descendant of Brent's brother Robert so we have worked out that Brent Rodd, such a significant figure in this area of the developing colony, was Rob's great grandfather's uncle!
Rodd Point, off Five Dock, was nice too, a quiet little haven guarding the cove entry to Haberfield.
Rob was interested to find the Brent Rodd Family vault in Rodd Point Reserve. The memorial and cross was hewn by convicts from a single slab of sandstone.
Afterwards we went exploring at nearby Balmain. We thought we found the best park in Sydney (the Elkington Park) and possibly the best patisserie in the world; Adriano Zumbo in Darling St. What a combination!
The Dawn Fraser pool is on the rim of Elkington Park. I didn't realise Dawnie did all her swimming in an enclosure of the Parramatta River - not a proper swimming pool!
I had just eaten a spinach, goat's cheese and blueberry quiche and a walnut and cinnamon pretzel!
Another day we explored The Spit region and Balmoral Beach. We were pretty impressed with the astounding architecture at and the outlook from Chinamans Beach at the the Spit.
We peeked in the window of Serge Dansereau's beautiful Bather's Pavillion Restaurant at Balmoral Beach.
We found Balmoral Beach to be exceedingly genteel.
The grassy esplanade is shaded by huge old fig trees, a great place to munch on the designer fish and chips available from "Under the Harbour", one of the few upmarket food establishments along the beach road (no nastiness allowed). It was fun observing the languid activity on the beautiful yachts moored just off shore.
Anyway, back in Coogee real life goes on...I was sitting at our window when this accident happened on Carrington Road. It was also a crime scene because the perpetrator just drove away (fast) from the scene. There was very quick response by police, fire and ambulance.
Amazing Sydney; we love it!
Little E wasn't phased by her first visit to a pub. She found a few things to chew on including the Christmas decorations still festooning the bar walls.
These are the Kenyon girls all dressed and ready for a night out on the town (after the obligatory glass of Majella).And these are the Coogee girls all dressed and ready for the same night out on the town (as seen from our apartment window). 
Barzura was buzzing on New Year's Eve. Everything stopped at 9.30pm (kid friendly time) for the firework's display courtesy of the Randwick Council and us ratepayers. We had the best seats on the East Coast for the show. We saw the new year in on the Coogee Beach esplanade along with hundreds of drunken revellers (many of them extremely young).
Unlike the young revellers we were bright and perky enough the next morning to go for a LONG walk to Bronte and back before breakfast. We then took all our guests sightseeing around the eastern suburbs coastline (Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watson's Bay) before heading to Sabbaba at Bondi for a scrumptious lunch. We enjoyed the last night of our reunion at Cocolo at the Spot, Randwick with a memorable sashimi and sushi meal freshly prepared by the maestro (worth the over one hour wait!).We woke one morning to find a disaster had befallen our Freedom "Jasmine" bed, no doubt due to its serious structural design deficiencies. We made good use of uncollected telephone directories belonging to the good residents of Randwick to address the problem until Freedom organised a replacement Jasmine. Our new Jasmine has exactly the same design deficiencies so the phone books are staying in situ.
So all is good!
We went looking for Rodd Island (right smack in the middle of Iron Cove between Drummoyne and Rozelle) because of its links with Rob's family. John Tremayne Rodd (1777-1844) arrived in Sydney on 6 April 1822, a middle aged man and a widower, with three young sons: John (17), Robert (15) and Brent (13). Brent, unlike his brothers who became pastoralists, was eventually admitted to practise at the Supreme Court of NSW.With marriage and a growing family (12 children in all) Brent Rodd eventually acquired significant land holdings in the Five Dock and Drummoyne areas. Rodd Island was the property of the family too, used for "picnics and entertaining". Brent relinquished his claim to the island in the late 1890s and it is now managed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Rob is a descendant of Brent's brother Robert so we have worked out that Brent Rodd, such a significant figure in this area of the developing colony, was Rob's great grandfather's uncle!
Rodd Point, off Five Dock, was nice too, a quiet little haven guarding the cove entry to Haberfield.
Rob was interested to find the Brent Rodd Family vault in Rodd Point Reserve. The memorial and cross was hewn by convicts from a single slab of sandstone.
Afterwards we went exploring at nearby Balmain. We thought we found the best park in Sydney (the Elkington Park) and possibly the best patisserie in the world; Adriano Zumbo in Darling St. What a combination!
The Dawn Fraser pool is on the rim of Elkington Park. I didn't realise Dawnie did all her swimming in an enclosure of the Parramatta River - not a proper swimming pool!
I had just eaten a spinach, goat's cheese and blueberry quiche and a walnut and cinnamon pretzel!
Another day we explored The Spit region and Balmoral Beach. We were pretty impressed with the astounding architecture at and the outlook from Chinamans Beach at the the Spit. 
We peeked in the window of Serge Dansereau's beautiful Bather's Pavillion Restaurant at Balmoral Beach.
We found Balmoral Beach to be exceedingly genteel.
The grassy esplanade is shaded by huge old fig trees, a great place to munch on the designer fish and chips available from "Under the Harbour", one of the few upmarket food establishments along the beach road (no nastiness allowed). It was fun observing the languid activity on the beautiful yachts moored just off shore.
Anyway, back in Coogee real life goes on...I was sitting at our window when this accident happened on Carrington Road. It was also a crime scene because the perpetrator just drove away (fast) from the scene. There was very quick response by police, fire and ambulance.
Amazing Sydney; we love it!
1 comment:
I was just doing a search for Family when your Blog popped up. Brent Clements Rodd was my Great Great Grandfather. We've visited Rodd Island often... wonderful knowing where and when our ancestors arrived isn't it.
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