A New Year

We celebrated Haruko's return to Canberra with a lovely lunch at Koto on Tuesday. Koto is billed as modern Japanese - and it's one of our current Canberra faves. Haruko gave it's signature lunchtime bento box her seal of approval.

We couldn't go past their Ichigo Daifuku for dessert - but Haruko's choice was much lighter.  We liked the way it came with a lovely welcome sign!

 

We thought it would be fun to try to repeat the picture we took in a Canberra restaurant on Haruko's first visit to Canberra in July 2003. So here are Rob and Haruko again - 22 and a half years later. Old (as in duration, not in age) friends are definitely the best!!!

We love the setting of Koto too - in the restored, iconic, Lobby building in Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle.

Last night, for New Year's Eve, Haruko prepared us a very special meal based on a signature soba noodle dish. Right from the start I could tell we were in for a very special experience.......

This is the first time tempura has been prepared and cooked in this kitchen. Eggplant is s-so-o-o- good cooked this way (and so are beans)!!

And now Haruko is cooking the kakiage (a kind of fried vegie fritter with shrimp - mixed with tempura batter). It's served with the soba noodles.

I watched her make onigiri with great precision....

The rolled egg is tamago yaki and the green beans are just beans - but dressed with sesame oil and black sesame seeds - which make all the difference!

The soba noodles are cooked for 4 minutes then washed(!) and then they go into a dashi flavoured soup.

 

The meal was AMAZING!! I still can't believe Haruko produced all this in our kitchen and with ingredients from our pantry (mostly anyway!). It was DELICIOUS!!

It is the custom to eat soba noodles for New Year in Japan. It is apparently because soba noodles are very easy to cut (bite) when you eat them - which symbolizes how we all need to cut the bad things from our life before the new year begins!

We finished just in time to walk down to the lake for the 9pm kid friendly NYE fireworks show.

We loved the kid friendly fireworks - good enough for us to welcome in the New Year too - and a fitting finale to the awesome meal Haruko had served us!

This morning we set ourselves up for good things, health and fitness wise, for the year by doing the Mt Ainslie walk. 2025 has been such a challenging and disrupted year that we found it hard to fit in our weekly mountain walks. This year we want to get back into all those lovely healthy routines again.

But it is always so much more enjoyable coming down the mountain than going up!

12 Days of Christmas

It's been a busy time for us with all the Christmas festivities, another stay in Coogee, an International (and a dear friend) visitor and new responsibilities taking on the care of Sammy at Freshford while Josh, Jody and the girls are away on holidays. And most of that has been fitted into the last 12 days or so.

We had our annual pre Christmas dinner with the L and F families last Sunday and as always there was way too much delicious food and plenty of outstanding wines on the menu - along with plenty of socializing and the usual Christmas quiz. Ella and Abi are regulars at these events now and enjoy the company of our friends too.

We celebrated an early Christmas with the young ones the next morning with a slap up breakfast prepared by Joshy and Abi. I got the chance to take the yearly opening the presents pics - like I always do!

I loved the way Abi colour coordinated with this shot.

Jody excelled herself this Christmas incorporating so many thrifted (mostly brand new with labels!!) gifts in everyone's stockings. I also loved the handmade wrapping - beautiful!

Abi made hash browns and conducted a masterclass for me using her very special recipe.

We fitted in an overnight stay in Coogee that same day and were able to high five the young ones the day after as they made their way to Sydney, as we made our way back to Canberra, in the opposite direction.

Christmas Day was a busy one for us: out to Freshford twice to look after Sammy, and the arrival of our friend Haruko in the late afternoon. We only had time for a sandwich for lunch, but luckily Angus and Ollie were able to join us - picnic style by the lake which made it seem a lot more like Christmas!

A trio of Rob's borrowed hats - which well suited both Ollie and Angus, we thought!

We're looking after Sammy while Abi is away. One of Haruko's first outings this visit was to go and see him at Freshford (on Boxing Day). Luckily, Sammy was on his best behaviour for our International visitor.

Freshford, with its rolling hills, mobs of kangaroos and stray wombats is a beautiful property to show to a visitor like Haruko (who is currently based in Jakarta).

She's been prepared to join us in all the horsey care chores - it's a "unique experience" she says!

Rob has been doing all the heavy lifting with Sammy - and managing him superbly. Our only challenge each morning is getting his fly mask on - which Sammy doesn't like - but we are improving our technique.

Haruko has been wonderful fitting in around our program of horsey care, cat care and garden care for friends this week. She has been happy to appreciate quiet times and a complete break from crowded busy Jakarta - she says!

Christmas Coogee

We've been in Coogee since Tuesday this week - a very sober time for the communities around Bondi after the shocking events of Sunday evening 14th December, the first day of Hanukkah. 

We found this heartfelt message on the fence of a house near the Coogee Synagogue on Brook St, which summed up a lot of feelings at this tumultuous time.

Alongside all this - it's the week leading up to Christmas, the final days of the school year and people (and buses) everywhere preparing for the Christmas wind up - and then wind down.....

For us it was a wonderful opportunity to welcome London family back to Coogee - for a few days break before they head down to Geelong for Christmas celebrations with Ros, Pete, Erin and John (and kids). They arrived late afternoon on Tuesday, fresh from an idyllic week in Noosa.

We headed down to our fave Barzoura on the beachfront soon after they arrived, for our first meal together....

It's the magic hour on our beautiful Coogee Beach, as the sun is setting.

It's been over eighteen months since we'd seen Vincent and Jazzy (in London). They seemed to remember us well and Vincent in particular was very warm and sociable with us over dinner.

We enjoyed a slap up breakfast at our new fave Little Kitchen in Arden Street this morning before heading to the Grant Reserve Playground, which both kids seemed to enjoy.

It's been six years since Joel and Kay (and Vincent) have been in Coogee. I took this pic of Vincent in January 2020 (our summer of bushfires), catching bubbles on the sand at Coogee Beach. Look how much he's grown!

I hope Jazzy won't forget her time here at Coogee after that long flight back to her London life ...

This is one gorgeous family....

We've promised we'll try to catch up with them again in London - hopefully in 2027!