Holiday highlights

At lunchtime on 31 December 2007, from all corners of New South Wales we came, to have lunch together at dear old Clovelly Hotel. J&J & little E were returning home and we were all taking over the apartment from them for a New Year reunion of the Kenyon "girls".
Little E wasn't phased by her first visit to a pub. She found a few things to chew on including the Christmas decorations still festooning the bar walls.
These are the Kenyon girls all dressed and ready for a night out on the town (after the obligatory glass of Majella).

And these are the Coogee girls all dressed and ready for the same night out on the town (as seen from our apartment window).
Barzura was buzzing on New Year's Eve. Everything stopped at 9.30pm (kid friendly time) for the firework's display courtesy of the Randwick Council and us ratepayers. We had the best seats on the East Coast for the show. We saw the new year in on the Coogee Beach esplanade along with hundreds of drunken revellers (many of them extremely young).

Unlike the young revellers we were bright and perky enough the next morning to go for a LONG walk to Bronte and back before breakfast. We then took all our guests sightseeing around the eastern suburbs coastline (Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watson's Bay) before heading to Sabbaba at Bondi for a scrumptious lunch. We enjoyed the last night of our reunion at Cocolo at the Spot, Randwick with a memorable sashimi and sushi meal freshly prepared by the maestro (worth the over one hour wait!).

We woke one morning to find a disaster had befallen our Freedom "Jasmine" bed, no doubt due to its serious structural design deficiencies. We made good use of uncollected telephone directories belonging to the good residents of Randwick to address the problem until Freedom organised a replacement Jasmine. Our new Jasmine has exactly the same design deficiencies so the phone books are staying in situ.

So all is good!

We went looking for Rodd Island (right smack in the middle of Iron Cove between Drummoyne and Rozelle) because of its links with Rob's family. John Tremayne Rodd (1777-1844) arrived in Sydney on 6 April 1822, a middle aged man and a widower, with three young sons: John (17), Robert (15) and Brent (13). Brent, unlike his brothers who became pastoralists, was eventually admitted to practise at the Supreme Court of NSW.

With marriage and a growing family (12 children in all) Brent Rodd eventually acquired significant land holdings in the Five Dock and Drummoyne areas. Rodd Island was the property of the family too, used for "picnics and entertaining". Brent relinquished his claim to the island in the late 1890s and it is now managed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Rob is a descendant of Brent's brother Robert so we have worked out that Brent Rodd, such a significant figure in this area of the developing colony, was Rob's great grandfather's uncle!

Rodd Point, off Five Dock, was nice too, a quiet little haven guarding the cove entry to Haberfield.

Rob was interested to find the Brent Rodd Family vault in Rodd Point Reserve. The memorial and cross was hewn by convicts from a single slab of sandstone.

Afterwards we went exploring at nearby Balmain. We thought we found the best park in Sydney (the Elkington Park) and possibly the best patisserie in the world; Adriano Zumbo in Darling St. What a combination!

The Dawn Fraser pool is on the rim of Elkington Park. I didn't realise Dawnie did all her swimming in an enclosure of the Parramatta River - not a proper swimming pool!

I had just eaten a spinach, goat's cheese and blueberry quiche and a walnut and cinnamon pretzel!

Another day we explored The Spit region and Balmoral Beach. We were pretty impressed with the astounding architecture at and the outlook from Chinamans Beach at the the Spit.

We peeked in the window of Serge Dansereau's beautiful Bather's Pavillion Restaurant at Balmoral Beach.

We found Balmoral Beach to be exceedingly genteel.

The grassy esplanade is shaded by huge old fig trees, a great place to munch on the designer fish and chips available from "Under the Harbour", one of the few upmarket food establishments along the beach road (no nastiness allowed). It was fun observing the languid activity on the beautiful yachts moored just off shore.

Anyway, back in Coogee real life goes on...I was sitting at our window when this accident happened on Carrington Road. It was also a crime scene because the perpetrator just drove away (fast) from the scene. There was very quick response by police, fire and ambulance.

Amazing Sydney; we love it!

Of horses and utes

We celebrated our first ever public holiday for the Melbourne Cup last week. We drank champagne, ate chicken, ran an in house sweep and tried to rekindle a bit of the old spirit around Melbourne Cup day in this year of the equine flu virus (EFV).

Ollie learnt about the difference between "the" favourite as opposed to the familiar "my" favourite when he drew Master O'Reilly in the sweep. Little A strutted around the house exercising his two week old walking skills in between being very interested in Rob's vintage Matchbox car collection. Little E smiled a lot and observed everything intently.

Josh lent us the ute for the weekend so we could transport another table up to Coogee. It went like a rocket up the highway. The table fitted the space in the kitchen perfectly and will join with our other one to make a larger square table when needed.

The ute looked right at home parked outside the mansions of Dudley St. We took it for another ride on Sunday morning to Rhodes Ikea to pick up a wall unit for J&J. Rob survived our two hours there without getting PTSD like he did last time.

Everyone stopped in their tracks at 11.00am of the 11th for a short Remembrance ceremony conducted over the Ikea loudspeakers. It was kinda bizarre. It didn't have the respectful ambience I needed - but full marks to Ikea for attempting it. We picked up a rug for the apartment at the same time.

The Victorian mansion over the road from our apartment goes up for auction this Tuesday evening.

This is Ella at about 7.00pm on Sunday evening - usually a time when babies get a bit crabby - but not our Miss Peach (Piarchay).

A weekend in Canberra

We enjoyed our weekend in Canberra: seeing "Inside Paris" (Dans Paris) at our favourite Dendy theatre on Saturday afternoon followed by an all out chocolate binge at KOKO Black; rudely woken on Sunday morning to daylight saving time..rushing out for a quick hello to a dreamy Ella (with daddy and her dummy) before taking Nellie the beagle on a long walk...back in time to see now smiley Ella refreshed after her morning nap.

We enjoyed our long talkative lunch today (lots of Bali news) with Jo A. & friends and struck it lucky with some of Jo's great Indonesian food to take home (including delicious urab urab) in doggy bags.

Two weeks back at school now and only eight to go. I have announced to everyone I am retiring and this term will be my last. I am determined to enjoy every minute of it and am already feeling like a weight is lifting from my shoulders.

Last weekend was very busy - a special night at the National Gallery of Australia for all us founding members (25 years) for a private viewing (and lecture) of the Culture Warriors exhibition.....then up to Coogee on Sunday for some more furniture acquisition and removal. The Moran sofabed has finally landed (thanks to the 4 "boys" who grunted and sweated it up 3 flights of stairs). The Chinese bench and side table from Coco Design, Rosebery have found their homes. The Coogee apartment stage 1 is almost finished now, just needs a rug and J&J's table to match the one under the window.

The 10 "best ofs" for this week

1. Best meal: Although the Nokia's flash found it hard to cope the atmosphere and food at "The Jimbarin", Avoca Street Randwick was the outright winner for us. Sharing wonderful Indonesian food with a Balinese twist in the outdoor courtyard with Ros, Pete and Rob on my 56th birthday was pretty wonderful. Eggplant with green chilli and anchovy sauce, kangkung, pancakes stuffed with beef and the sea food curry were our favourite dishes.

Rob and I returned to Binh Tranh at Cabramatta on our way home yesterday. The sugar cane prawn rice cakes (number 58) keep calling us back (along with the sticky rice cakes for dessert at the nearby bakery - the best ever).

2. Best walk: In a week where we walked everywhere, walking to the Clovelly Hotel with Ros and Pete was pretty special. We had the deck, the million dollar view and reasonably priced Coronas all to ourselves. I like the way Rob has managed to get my favourite Strylitzia (spelling?) plant into this picture.

3. Best Coffee: Cafe Mado, Auburn Road, Auburn - Turkish coffee and pastries to die for. Fascinating to sit and watch the multicultural passing parade- very strong traditional Muslim presence. Rob and I found amazing Afghan bread and hand made (in Auburn) Turkish delight to take away as souvenirs from our visit to Turkey in Sydney.

4. Best show: The only show in town for us this week was the Saturday matinee performance of Miss Saigon at the Lyric Theatre, Star City Casino. The theatre was packed, with a predominantly Asian audience. We were mesmerised by the show - not a particularly joyous one with its tough subject matter - but quite moving even with all the burlesque sparkle and helicopter special effects.

5. Best movie: We fulfilled my little Sydney apartment living dream of walking to the Randwick Ritz to catch a movie: "The Bourne Ultimatum". I experienced every knock, thump, bash and smash in the small but well set up Ritz theatre number two - here's to seeing many more movies at our "local"!

6. Best ice cream: Just to be sure I had two, both enjoyed sitting on the circular steps down to Coogee Beach as night time descended over the sand and rolling waves - my favourite was a double cone gelati - blood orange and pistachio from Gelatissimo, on Coogee Bay Road.

7. Longest walk: On Monday Rob and I walked to the Sydney Antique Centre, South Dowling Street, Surrey Hills - took us about one and a half hours. At least we can say we've done it. Without internet access it was really hard to locate where all the cool Antique shops are in Sydney. They are definitely not cool at Queen Street Woollahra (which we tried exploring on Tuesday). Way too posh; I felt a complete outsider, too intimidated to even enter most of the shops!

8. Best shopping experience: I spent nearly seven hours at Bondi Junction (by myself) on Wednesday. I had promised Rob I was going into every single shop I fancied. The time just flew and I only went into a couple of shops but I had the luxury of time to try lots of things on. Came home with heaps of parcels - new sunnies, David Lawrence coat, two pairs of jeans, a few Country Road tops; all good fun - lucky me!

Rob and I spent five hours at Ikea, Rhodes near Homebush Bay on Thursday. I swear Rob has been permanently traumatised by this shopping overdose, especially in the hyper controlling and consuming Ikea environment. We were very pleased however with our Expedit TV cabinet. It was delivered (exactly as promised) on Friday after which we spent three hours putting it together. We only made two fairly big mistakes despite Ikea's clear instructions, but they are not too noticeable in the finished product. We enjoyed sitting watching TV on Friday night and admiring our handiwork.

9. Best hardware store: One of Rob's happiest moments this week was when he discovered there is a Mitre 10 hardware store close by, on Clovelly Road at the Randwick end.

10. Best Service in Sydney Award: This has to go to Sam from Accept Electrical who responded to our temporary lighting problem on Thursday night with speed and diligence. We are going to get him to install more power points for us next weekend. He's keen to refer an excellent painter to us - she's female, paints like an artist and "doesn't charge too much". We are keen to talk to her!

Maxie and Rod hosted a big family get together last Friday night 28 September to celebrate Ros and Peter's visit. I came straight from a "hard day at the office" but didn't take long to enter into the celebratory spirit.

Moving in

Friday 20 July was a big day for us. We loaded up the Thrifty HiAce Van with mattresses, tables, chairs and other household effects, drove up to Sydney, hauled it all up three flights of stairs and spent our first night as the proud owners of our Coogee apartment. M & R provided great back up and reduced the number of stairs hauled in the process by at least 50%. Finally settled in by late afternoon we celebrated with a glass of fine red (notable for its soft tannins).
It was exciting to be able to walk up to Avoca St Randwick in the balmy, winter, early evening air and further celebrate our efforts with an Indonesian meal at our favourite "Jimbarin" restaurant. Our first night at the apartment was notable for the unaccustomed sound of traffic (for M&R in the front sunroom) and being woken just after 6.00am by the big jets coming into land at Sydney airport as the curfew finished!

Today we were able to add some refinements as our bed was delivered, and our (bargain) fridge which had to be manually lifted up the three flights of stairs by the burly Samoan/Maori delivery guys (trolleys no good twisting big tall objects around the landings on each flight).

We met our neighbours this morning, Andrea and Giordano (with an Italian accent). They are young and very sweet. They have lived in the apartment opposite us for over a year. They said it was a beautiful place to live. We think it will be too!