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!

I have a new iPhone

Thanks to encouragement from Sydney niece Clare I have a new iPhone17Pro, as of a week or so ago. It's been fun to get to know the vastly improved photo taking possibilities of its 3 lenses and hi-tech sensors, compared to my 7 year old iPhone XR.

Its frightening how well it captures our 74 year old selfies!!

and I am amazed at it's macro lens capability - this is a pic of my lunchtime salad.....

The telephoto allows for much better compositions (IMO)......

....... and great close ups .......

........but I love taking people pictures! And we had a chance to experiment with my new iPhone's portrait capability when we took Charlie the Jack Russel walking last week. A good result we think - especially considering Charlie never sits still for the portrait taker!

We had an early Christmas dinner and present giving with the young ones last weekend, and I was thrilled with these happy portrait snaps - taken in low (electric) light and completely unposed........

For once, Ella was happy with getting a book for Christmas (Kamala is her hero).

And random shots of Ella over dinner........ She was extra sparky this night after putting in a full day at work with both her current part time jobs (hospitality AND retail!).

Sunday was huge for Abi and Sammy - a big Pony Club event at Equestrian Park with Sammy competing in both 70cm and 80cm Jump events. My action shots have never been great as reaction time has never been my strong point. This was the best I could manage on Sunday.......... (I need more practice!)

I loved the way I managed to capture the huge smile on her face in this pic at the end of the 80cm course - when Sammy (and she) had done so well!!

Another milestone

Our girl Ella has just finished off a great final year at College - no more secondary schools for her! She's heading out to the big world now: part time work in retail for the next little while, then more study in the future. Last night she celebrated her Year 12 Formal - with all the fun of dressing up to the nines and making a splash on arrival, while handling the pain of unaccustomed killer heels for the duration.

We were lucky enough to see her (and her friends) all dressed and ready for the event.

It was so lovely to see Ella looking so happy and relaxed, as gorgeous on the outside as she truly is on the inside!!

Abi still has a few years to go to her end of school celebrations - but it will come quickly enough!

We followed the car as Joshy drove them to the venue at Old Parliament House. Once at the venue it was slow progress for the drop off cars - most of which were stylish older muscle cars and classics, some overheating under the strain of all the revving and idling.

Joshy's beautifully restored Holden VK retained her grace under pressure (of course) while being suitably impressive in its (powerful and noisy) engine revs.

Ella and her friends all made it safely home after last night's festivities, which is always the main concern of us oldies. We'll enjoy hearing all the details in the coming days!