Abi eleven

Abi turned eleven at the start of the week. With all her school and horse riding commitments we were lucky to be able to share two celebrations with her during the week ... the first on Wednesday after school - afternoon tea and some present opening ............   

Presents are mostly horse related, of course .......

Except for the metallic water paints, which went over rather well ..........

Yesterday afternoon we were back at Forest Park for Abi's regular riding lesson with Victoria.

This is Abi's third (and a bit) year of riding, and the classes are increasingly technical. Yesterday afternoon she had a lot of circuits incorporating poles and cavaletti jumps. She handled X - Claim (a five year old gelding) beautifully!

The girls all enjoy the "after the lesson" time with the ponies/horses too.

Time to catch up with old friends too (we all love Casper)!

.. and Abi's favourite at Forest park - Belle, the most beautiful horse of all!

Abi asked for a brownies birthday cake so, of course, I did my best. Joshy cooked a beautiful meal last night and the conversation over dinner got very lively, as usual (thank you Ella). Abi ended up arranging her own cake and candles while her sister held the floor (cultural appropriation, gender politics were the main topics last night), but we all stopped to wish this darling girl the best birthday ever. Happy birthday Abi!

Walking / eating the Inner West

We set out this morning to find a good lunch and, in the process, learn a bit more about the inner west Sydney suburbs of Petersham and Stanmore - places we've only driven through in the past via Parramatta Road.

One light rail trip to Central and a few stops along the T2 (train) line and we were at Petersham, a suburb known for its large Portuguese population, a diverse mix of other migrant groups and the more recently arrived inner city bohemians and "lefties".

Petersham's Town Hall is a real landmark ....

 

...... as is the water tower on New Canterbury Road

The old Petersham Fire Station on Stanmore Road is magnificent - now converted into a hotel!

We found the very cool little Saigon Story Cafe (recommended by our Annabel Crabb) for a delicious lunch .... and we loved the way it faced on to Maundrell Park........

The food was light, fresh, delicately flavoured - and delicious!

We enjoyed dessert at the famous "Sweet Belem" on New Canterbury Road.

a proper, old school Portuguese bakery .......

and yes the pasteis de nata from Sweet Belem were DIVINE!!!

We walked from Petersham to Newtown after our beautiful lunch, along Stanmore and Enmore Roads, around 3klm all up. We loved looking at the character filled terrace houses, the mix of high and low end food shops in this diverse area, the shabbiness alongside the affluence.

The very cool and retro Enmore Theatre ..... 

We caught the train at Newtown and made our way back to Coogee. We've loved our week (almost) here. Our walks in various directions each morning are a delight..

....and its been fun to get to know our "hood" again after a four-and-a-half-year absence (the pic below is my favourite colour scheme along Coogee Bay Road).

Our little apartment feels comfortable and homely despite our minimal set up. We even had a surprise visitor there yesterday. The lorikeet was itching to come in but we tried to discourage it ....

It wasn't fazed by us - no doubt it expected some food, but we'd rather admire the local birdlife from more of a distance.

A week in Coogee

We've been in Coogee since Thursday, the day of the huge rain/hailstorm, with more threatening the day after, but interspersed with lots of sunshine, warm blue skies and crowds of people enjoying otherwise perfect summer days here in Sydney.

Coogee is rainbow ready for Sydney WorldPride 2023, starting in a few days' time (17th February). We couldn't be prouder to see our Coogee celebrating our brilliant LGBTQIA+ community in this way......

 

One of our favourite morning walks is to the Ivo Rowe Pool in South Coogee. From here you can see all the way up the coast to North Bondi.

The beach was packed with hundreds of Coogee Minnows (Australia's longest running junior surf lifesaving club) this morning (Sunday).

.. and Gordons Bay had the snorkelling and surf paddling schools going flat out.

..... more Coogee Minnows .....

We made our first visit to the fabulous new Sydney Modern Gallery on Friday - the new extension to the AGNSW that doubles its size and opens up the space to fabulous vistas of Woolloomooloo and the harbour beyond. The entry forecourt has been built over the Cahill Expressway .....

These large bronze sculptures were commissioned for the launch of the building in December last year.

It's a breathtaking, awe-inspiring space - designed by the Tokyo based architecture firm SANAA.... built to budget, and within the planned timeframe, despite COVID, firestorms, lockdowns and heavy rain spells throughout its construction phase ... amazing...

The Indigenous Yiribana gallery (previously in the basement of the original AGNSW) is now on the entry level of Sydney Modern, making it the first exhibition space visitors come across.... abolutely awe inspiring ....

Fabulous views to Woolloomooloo Wharf and Garden Island beyond from the north terrace of the building ........

A Yayoi Kusama floral sculpture was commissioned for the launch of the gallery too.

Contemporary works look fabulous on the Sydney sandstone walls.

There is an extraordinary 2200 sq mtr underground space at the lowest level of the gallery - an enormous, decommissioned WW2 era fuel tank - but repurposed now by the inspired architects as a unique and atmospheric gallery space "The Tank" complete with its vast forest of 125 concrete columns and moody lighting. The Argentinian artist Villa Rojas has created the very evocative and sometimes disturbing "The End of Imagination" installation for the launch of this gallery. 

I loved this work at the entrance to Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter - completely made of cardboard - hundreds of tiny little models of fantasy dwellings ....

Yesterday we spent the morning at Paddington Markets - catching up with our favourite jeweller Melaney McCleary and setting in train a commission for a new bracelet for Rob ....

before heading back to the City and down to Circular Quay where we were to meet up with our dear young friend Aine for lunch together, with this view ........

Our lunch lasted four hours in fact - but we had a lot to catch up on: Aine's travels in the UK, Belfast and Copenhagen, work rewards and challenges, doggy dramas and far from perfect developments at the Q Station. We love Aine!!!

We're still making almost nil progress on our reno plans for Coogee - although there is a possibility we may get to talk to an engineer in the coming few days about our plans to remove a wall. Because of the reno plans we've tried to keep furnishings to a minimum since we moved back in but the addition of a rug and a TV (gift from Ella) have made things much more homely for us this visit.