Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Coogee July

Six years ago we moved into our little flat in Coogee (on this exact same weekend in 2007). Maxie and Rod helped us move in that weekend with our VERY basic furniture - just enough for us to sleep, eat and sit down!


Over the past six years the only major thing we've done is to pay a lot of money to the two Nicks to properly paint every peeling, flaky surface (a big and expensive job) and employ the gorgeous Juan to do a lot of electricals (including new lights and ceiling fans). We've had carpet laid in the bedrooms and hung some beautiful art works (thank you Claire!), but nothing too major other than that.

We don't get to Coogee as much as we'd like - but when we do - it feels like home now!




Our bedroom is a good size, and very light and airy. Paint and carpet have made a big difference since that first weekend we slept here!


...although it still needs some art work on that blue wall.


We enjoyed our 6th anniversary long weekend in Coogee. Thomas and Phoebe stayed with us on Saturday night. We felt like Mum and Dad again as we waved them off to see the exhibition match (along with 83,000 other people) between Manchester United and the Australian All Stars at Homebush.


We heard all about the game over breakfast the next morning at Barzura's. Thomas and Phoebe spent the rest of their short stay walking to Bondi - where they were most excited to see the Man U team again training and glad handing on Bondi Beach, followed by a bit of shopping at the Junction.

We knew a little girl in Sydney (another family member) who celebrated a fifth birthday a week or so back, so we spent Sunday afternoon with her and the other ZACS, enjoying some hair related gift giving....


some quality time with Zoe and her beautiful blue eyed little brother.....


including a lively hour or so at Glebe's "red" playground........





and precious time for catching up with C & S who continue to do an amazing job of parenting these two gorgeous kids while both working in very demanding jobs in this hectic city.

By the time we left the ZACS we were so full of goodies from the wonderful Black Star Pastry in Australia Street Newtown (and C's handmade orange cake) that we couldn't fit in another thing until lunchtime the next day.

We found our way to the Northern beaches on Monday - 8 kilometres or so north of Manly, in fact, to Dee Why.

First stop was the beach front SeaChange Cafe because by now we were both quite hungry. This amazing plateful is the"Veg Out": Poached eggs with a kumara ‘n’ corn cous cous cake, wok fried veggies, eggs & rocket ‘n’ tomato toss (on sourdough). With the carrot, beetroot and ginger juice as a "side" I managed to replenish a few of fresh food vitamins that had been missing from my diet this weekend. We'd like this cafe to open a branch at Coogee please!


This was my first visit to Dee Why. It looked gorgeous today.







But the real reason we were over on the North shore was to meet up with a friend of mine. She's preparing work for an exhibition in September which she has asked me to "open". We spent an hour or so talking through all the work, clarifying  ideas, approaches, media and motives. There's some really intensive weeks of work ahead. I feel very privileged to have even a small part to play in the way it might come together.



The weekend ended with a really successful AGM for our Coogee Body Corporate last night at our unit. The best news is we have  OWNERS moving in (Greg and Liz) in the flat opposite ours.  We were astounded at what they paid for the unit - indicating to us that the Sydney real estate market is very healthy indeed. But what was the best news of all is that Greg is a BUILDER and seems a lovely sensible chap! Rob is over the moon to have someone else on the BC at last who is interested in all the technical building issues.

We're looking forward to more time in Coogee over the next six years.

1 comment:

Malcolm said...

Great photos!!
New lens?