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.

Holiday's over

We tried one last time to get the new Moran sofabed installed at Coogee this weekend. The delivery "boys" arrived on cue at 12.00noon but then declared it would need 4 boys to carry it up the 3 flights of stairs. Only 2 boy teams work on weekends. 4 boy teams work Monday to Friday!

I had to disallow Sam the electrician his best service in Sydney award from last week. He "forgot" to turn up on Saturday as arranged to do the electrical work. He had also forgotten to let Vera the painter know she was meant to meet with us too. I rang Vera the painter and felt quite intimidated by her dour Slavonic(?) demeanour.

Anyway our last holiday weekend at Coogee was still great - even more fun now we have found a few of the antique/asian furniture emporiums around Rosebery & Waterloo. We didn't catch a glimpse of Rodney Adler, fresh out of Muswellbrook prison even though a lot of the pundits were predicting he'd visit Gertrude and Alice cafe/bookstore at Bondi (one of our favourite cafes too!)

Our timing was just right this afternoon to see baby Ella drying off after her bath - what a peach! Her smiles light up the world.

We had a big girls day out at Floriade two weeks ago. The big girls had a chance to catch up while Ella, big O and little A stayed very mellow for many hours in the spring sunshine, amongst the tulips

The nation has breathed out a sigh of relief today as "Wimpy" (my mother's favourite nickname for JH) has finally called the election date. At least it will bring an end to the avalanche of thinly veiled political advertising that is jamming the media at the moment (and being funded from the public purse).

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.

Travelling Davey

A birthday wish for Travelling Davey

It’s been thirty years now

Since he was a baby

He’s now an IT Journeyman

Plying this trade like a true Artisan.

But there is much more to the Davey I know,

And some secret stuff is beginning to show

In his travelling journal

Stuff that's bubbling down there

In his very own kernel

But like that skilled playwright

Bill Shakespeare

Travelling Davey gives them

Only what he wants them to hear

But he is in a joust with the ‘force’

I am referring to the Kenyon Tarts

Of course

Who decrypt each line

Working out the metre and time

In this time of self discovery

I send my best wishes

To my friend

Travelling Davey

I hope that it’s not too long

Before we can share a beer again

Down under in Coogee

The best zoo in the world

The early morning bus number 373 from Coogee Beach takes us through Saturday morning awakening traffic to spectacular Circular Quay. It's still too early for the indigenous buskers to be working but it's fun to watch them applying their body paint straight out of the Chromacryl bottle.

Armed with our Zoo passes we board the Taronga Zoo ferry and take the best seats in the house to capture that amazing bridge, that amazing opera house, Kirribilli, Garden Island, and, best of all according to Ollie: the bumpy waves.

We had to see the crocodiles first. Ollie quickly became impatient with my map reading ability so tried to find where they were himself. Jeremy also became disillusioned with my map reading ability and took over the job too. He ended up as lost as I was - we just zig zagged back and forth around the "best zoo in the world" on this perfect Spring Sydney day with both O and A finding delight in every ordinary and wondrous thing - even the sleepy crocodiles who were doing a great impersonation of big hunks of logs in the water.

The cable car ride was too thrilling for words - gave us the best view of the elephants and that stunning harbour view.

Ollie's day was made perfect by the crocodile treat to take home and an extra bumpy ride back to Circular Quay on the ferry - this time up on the top deck.

Back at Coogee there was time for a quick drink and then some beach time. Angus caught up on some sleep as I tried to emulate the womb experience for him by trundling him up and down the paved boardwalk in his stroller. Ollie headed straight for the water and ended up getting happily soaked as his "paddle" went a bit out of control.

We ended a perfect day back at the apartment with imported beers and great takeaway from Coogee Thai. 

We woke today to another perfect Spring day. We enjoyed breakfast at Barzura's with the Davies who were recovering from a noisy night at Coogee Sands. We handed over the keys so they could enjoy the next night at our apartment while they caught up with son Gareth. We envied them being able to stay on.

Back in Canberra we were able to catch up with the beautiful Ella who dazzled us with her smiles and her dumpling soft thighs. She is very settled at the moment, sleeping well and just starting to roll onto her side. She slept her first full night in her cot her last night.

Not in Sydney

We're not in Sydney this weekend because APEC has made it a no go zone for everyone else but Asia-Pacific world leaders and their hangers on. Annabel Crabb summed the week's events up brilliantly in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald September 8, 2007. I've copied it into the blog for Dayv's benefit in case it didn't get reported in the UK.

BEHIND THE FENCE
AND on the Friday there came a great confusion on the conference, and they spake in tongues. Thank God for the arrival of Vladimir Putin.
APEC was in dire need of a language as yet unmastered by the rampaging Kevin Rudd.
It was almost a relief to haul out the clunky headphones and embark upon the agonising choreography of simultaneous translation at the Putin/Howard news conference; the missed cues, the bungled allusions and the long stretches of everyone looking vaguely stupid while Viktor the blank-faced interpreter delivered a guttural account of what the Russian President had just said.
Howard never looks entirely graceful at these events. We cannot blame him for that - they are impossible - but this one brought a special clanger, when he enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a 2012 APEC in "convivial" St Petersburg, only to be reminded with Slavic chill by Putin that Russia favours Vladivostok.
If only APEC organisers had thought to chopper in some interpreters from Texas. The US President, for whom the English language is not a tool so much as a room full of baited mousetraps, started the day in great form at the Opera House, where he told business delegates that he thought John Howard was a terrific host "of the OPEC summit".
"I mean APEC summit", he corrected himself grinningly. "I've been invited to the OPEC summit next year." (Not true, in case the oil producers among you were wondering.)
The President plunged on, traps snapping to the left and right of him. He voiced his abhorrence of terrorist groups operating in the Asia-Pacific region, including the evil "Jenna Islaaanah Nia", who does indeed sound like quite an alarming young lady.
He congratulated Howard on his visit to Iraq last year, which had given hope and succour to "the Austrian troops there".
One could almost sense the craning CIA sharpshooters wearily exchanging their live rounds for tranquilliser darts. "Time to get the big guy out of there, Hank?"
"Roger that, Chuck."
Meanwhile, Rudd and China's President, Hu Jintao, nattered away animatedly in Mandarin, despite the general feeling of all that they should perhaps just get a room. The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, grumped on ABC radio that it was no big deal to speak Chinese; he spoke French, actually, but he did not go on about it.
Hu should be careful. No sooner had his farewell endearments dispersed to the winds yesterday morning than Rudd was already two-timing him with a handsome Russian. The Labor leader popped up at Putin's official lunch and delivered an erudite speech sprinkled with humour and literary references to The Brothers Karamazov.

(So like Rudd to ignore the more obvious Dostoevsky text, Crime And Punishment, in favour of a lesser-known work, in a cosy hint that he has read further into the oeuvre than was mandated by the English curriculum at Nambour High.) Who can stop this man? In any language?

Who needs to be an Asia Pacific world leader when you can have Ella come for dinner? I took this sequence of startled expressions on Saturday late afternoon in between courses (for Ella). 

Look very carefully at this shot. You can see Ella's first two teeth emerging. Jody saw the first one last Thursday morning and the second one became obvious that same afternoon. This is pretty early for teeth to be emerging but we all know Ella is very advanced. It also helps to explain her being a little less settled than usual lately.

We did get lots of smiles too!

Rob and I have spent some time organising more things for Coogee. We bought a TV & DVD at the opening of the new Dick Smith mega store in the Canberra Centre on Friday night. Far more interesting was our success in picking up 4 beautiful bentwood chairs from the Fyshwick Antique Centre that we think will be just perfect for the apartment. Also bought a small dot painting from the Central Desert region - very similar to the one I picked up in Alice Springs last year.

Rob is already sketching plans for how he is going to fit all this loot in the Mirage next Friday night when we will be trying to transport it all up to Sydney. Claire and Jeremy have booked into the Coogee Sands Hotel so we will be able to have some fun together next weekend. A trip to Taronga Zoo with the boys will be the highlight.

Spring starts

We celebrated the start of Spring with a stay at home weekend, baby sitting Nellie the beagle while J & J & baby Ella enjoyed their first weekend away at Coogee. We tired Nellie out with lots of walking and garden mulch spreading in perfect Canberra Spring weather. We so enjoyed the novelty of being quiet little homebodies that we even resisted going to a (cut rate) advance screening of Lady Chatterley's Lover at Dendy. A Saturday afternoon spent reading and snoozing was too appealing.

We enjoyed a visit from Big O and little A for Father's Day. Big O loves going through the same routine every visit: setting up Rob's old wind up train set and his surviving 50 year old Matchbox cars, building towers with the 25 year old wooden blocks (no lead paint; they were manufactured in Australia), eating a selection tof the food on offer, checking out the parrots and filling up the bird feeder. This afternoon the added attractions were watching Nellie do her amazing ball catching act and blowing some bubbles in the back garden.

Little A loves standing up now and moving himself around with the help of furniture and grabbing peoples' knees. He learnt "up" and "down" today, bobbing up and down with a big cheeky grin on his face to show he knows which is which.

Josh came and picked up Nellie tonight after a great weekend at Coogee. Although Ella has a cold and was not always in the best of spirits while driving and shopping they had great weather and great dining (including their favourite Than Bhin at Cabramatta) and they loved the experience of staying in the apartment for the first time.