Sydney recovers

We were nervous about what we'd find at Coogee this weekend after the wild storm 2 weeks ago that did so much damage. 

Firstly it was a huge relief to find no water damage in our apartment - what an amazing old building she is! It was another story on the beach however..........

Although everything has been tidied up by Randwick Council workers over the past two weeks this is what 8metre waves, a king tide and 250mls of rain does to a beach (and a surf club).......

The stainless steel frames for the awnings didn't survive the onslaught very well.

The beach looks to have lost over a metre of sand at the southern end and the foundations for the concrete steps lining the beach front are now exposed.

We thought Gordon's Bay would have been protected from the big swells coming in from the North East but we were amazed by the damage......... There was evidence of extensive wave damage in the bush area above those boats - so far above the little beach!

 And the fishing club house foundations have been compromised.

 But that didn't stop this fashion shoot on the rocks below!

We were blocked from entering the coastal walk path near Waverley Cemetery.

But by taking a detour through the grounds of the cemetery we got up quite close to the damage. This part of the Coogee to Bondi coast walk lost 8 metres of cliff face - from the waves crashing against it - and the king tides.

 

We were relieved to hear that the beautiful decking built out over the coastal cliffs on this part of the walk are undamaged. The engineers have pronounced that the coastal walk will be safe to open in a few days (just minus 8metres of cliff face at the cemetery part of the walk).

Nothing in the cemetery seemed to be damaged in the storm.....regrettably.  I don't think this cemetery should be here - a Victorian era remnant of colonial values - very out of place in Gadigal country.

It's winter

It seemed like there were a few milestones to consider this (long) weekend in wintry Canberra. Ros and Pete were here for a visit to deliver early birthday wishes to our Mum (102 years old in July) and to enjoy a good old sisters and spouses catch up!

We took them all to see progress at C5 in Campbell in between dinner, lunches, Hyatt breakfast, drinks at Pedlar (our local at Campbell), and a film at the Palace. We had cold and clear weather all weekend - perfect Canberra winter days.

Our apartment block at C5 is rising steadily now. The pic below is the South West corner of the block (the back view). They're working on level one now, only four more to go!

This (pic below) was how this same corner of the apartment looked 2 months ago on the 23rd May.......that looks like good progress to me!
The pic below shows the North East corner of the block facing towards its own parkland and views of Mt Ainslie (and the Northern sun).

The girls are loving a long weekend, especially the chance for breakfast at the Hyatt and a play at the C5 park and a chance to hear (up close) the 21 gun salute for the Queen's 90th birthday at nearby Rond Terrace by the lake.

Josh and Jody and the girls are celebrating their first year in their "new" house this weekend. Wow, hasn't that time gone quickly. The pic below is not at their house (no graffiti there) - but at a nearby sports park where the girls were practising their bike riding, gutter hopping and standing starts this afternoon.