Tugun with Ros & Pete

We all landed in Tugun last Sunday afternoon - Ros by way of a flight from Geelong, Pete by way of a 4 hour car trip from Sandy Beach (where he's been house sitting for a mate for the past week) and we arrived by car, having driven up the M1 from Coogee early that morning. 

We've all found our way to unit 13 at Pacific Surf in Tugun for a 6 night stay - so many thanks to David and Ro for introducing us to this great place on the occasion of their wedding last February.

We arrived to a glorious sunny afternoon, and a very happy reunion, by Tugun beach.........

We knew we might be in for a stormy week ahead so it felt extra good to get down on that beach as the sun was going down - while there were no rain squalls on the horizon (well not yet anyway).

It's rained most days since Sunday - but Tuesday dawned with a wide expanse of blue sky and a spectacular sun rise through the clouds.

We walked in the sunshine all the way to Kirra Beach (3.9klms along the coastal path) that morning, eventually finding our way to our fave coffee joint (Coastal Living) along the esplanade.

Yesterday Rob and I caught the train up to Brisbane. We'd booked tickets to an afternoon show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at beautiful Southbank. The train service from Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast in to South Brisbane Station is easy, efficient and cheap (only 50c a ride). There was a disruption to yesterday's service because of track work but back up systems were in place and we found the service was excellent and completely stress free.

Southbank looked as spic and span and gloriously sub-tropical as ever ..........

We found an old favourite Middle Eastern restaurant at the eastern end of the foodie area - Baba Ganouj - so we were able to enjoy a fabulous lunch before the show.

But we were here to see the man himself - Sting - performing in "The Last Ship" - a musical (more like a dramatised story with songs) he wrote as a tribute to the grim ship building town he grew up in in NE England (Wallsend, near Newcastle on Tyne).

Rob took this while I was attempting my selfie with Sting (how embarrassing).

The beautiful Glasshouse Theatre at QPAC looked stunning this afternoon - a worthy venue for this wonderful show which we found stirring, heartfelt and packing quite a punch. Sting played a leading role and was in fine voice along with the rest of the cast. 

We caught the train back to the Gold Coast again afterwards, arriving back around 6.30pm after a completely wonderful day. We're so glad we were able to do it!!

We woke to another rainy morning again here today, so we decided to drive the short distance to Burleigh Beach for lunch and a change of scenery. We took these photos while we had about 15 minutes of sunshine at Burleigh.

We'd had lunch at Red Hot Cod at Burleigh on a previous visit. We found it again today - and enjoyed similar Bali inspired seafood dishes but the casual venue has much expanded spaces and a brand new recent fit out. It was great to find this calm space in the rear courtyard, out of the way of all the Light Rail construction frenzy out the front of the restaurant.

Ros and I enjoyed a bit of shopping in James Street in between rain showers after lunch while Pete and Rob looked for the best Portuguese tarts on offer.

We have another full day together here at the Goldie before departure day on Saturday. We're all hoping for some sunshine and calm seas so we can have a bit of sunny Queensland beach time before we return to encroaching cooler weather in the southern states. No matter the weather though, we always have great fun hanging out with this pair!

Coogee perfect

We're just back from a 5 night stay in Coogee - a perfect time of the year to enjoy clear blue skies, sunny mild days - and everyone with a happy smile on their faces. No one looked too worried about world events (and the price of fuel) in the parts of Sydney we were in over the past week.

We were in Camperdown on Wednesday - enjoying a fabulous lunch at Camperdown Commons after my (routine) check with a specialist at the RPA hospital.

The rustic style outdoor restaurant had a view to the healthy looking Camperdown Pocket City Farm and the old Bonds factory beyond (still with its Chesty Bond poster boy on the turret even though Bonds left the site 40 years ago)..Parramatta Road has a few gems in this same area .....

I loved the look of this weatherbeaten old place at 85 Parramatta Road:  "Publisher - Textiles and Papers" ......

Unfortunately it was closed today but a peek through the window showed me I have to come back one day!

Back in Coogee that night we had the fun of observing the "Coogee Nights" phenomenon .... a free event on Coogee Bay Road (closed to traffic) with outdoor dining, games, free live music and performances. It was HUGE - with thousands of happy people mingling, eating, playing, watching movies and dancing!

All was quiet the next morning and Coogee was at its most Autumn perfect. We missed what must have been a small army of workers who cleaned up and put away Coogee Bay Road after the night's festivities - bless them!

We had never seen "The Honeycomb" as calm as this ........

Two days later the surf was a lot wilder and the Honeycomb was back to its usual self.

This is a very familiar part of Coogee for us - we must have spent HOURS in Barzura over the years (and lots of dollars too no doubt). This end of Coogee had all the excitement of the Harry and Meghan visit on Friday, which went very well apparently according to the people who'd paid a lot of money to attend the event!

Bohaus on Coogee Bay Road is our nearest cafe. Its obviously doing very well as the owner was there this morning with his very fine car parked outside.

We had some shopping to do in Surry Hills on Saturday which gave us an excuse to wander some of its very picturesque streets. Reservoir Street was our favourite on this walk.

Look at this renovated wonder (number 65) - now Elf & Taco (Mexican restaurant) ......... and on our side of the street was the lovely old Royal Albert Hotel, definitely worth a visit on another day.

And cuteness overload on these tiny terraces on Reservoir Street.

Those two women were singing beautifully in duet outside Pasta Emilia (as you do).

Saturday night we hung out with our neighbours at our fave Royal Hotel along with lots of stylish people (on the way home from the races at Randwick).

And most of Sunday we caught up with Rob's niece and the fam - with Coogee putting on another perfect day for their absolute enjoyment, a nice way to end off their week and our stay in Coogee.

Meanwhile back in Canberra it's been the peak season for show jumping, pony club and Nationals events. A professional photographer took these shots of Abi riding Sammy recently in the "Nationals". They have to go on the blog record because they capture something completely wonderful about this pair in action!

We got back to Canberra yesterday afternoon and headed out soon after to Freshford with Abi so she could ride Sammy and we could help her with the stable muck out and food prep. It was another beautiful Canberra Autumn evening with all the horses - and hundreds of kangaroos grazing under a setting sun - just beautiful.

March highlights

March brings on our favourite season in Canberra - the light softens (as does the temperature), the blue of the sky is brighter, birds are feasting on an abundance of seeds and the mood is celebratory in amongst all this beauty - in a very local kinda way - given how awful the news is around the rest of the world.

We all had a rude awakening about the effect of the rest of the world when our fave local live music venue (The Dissent Bar & Cafe) was closed down one recent Friday night because of the allegation of "hate speech" in its political poster display on the walls inside. There was a huge police presence and a comprehensive investigation (!!) before the police eventually decided the posters were (harmless) examples of political satire (anti-Trump) and not racist at all (!!). An alarming example of how free speech, artistic expression (and common sense) are all under attack in the current climate.

A week or so after the police closed it down (on its busiest night of the week) we were there to see Angus perform with Body Shirt.... an awesome high energy gig - and no police in sight!

The French Film Festival is another March highlight for us. We've signed up for a 6 film program and so far we've loved the films we've seen. Living where we do we can walk to the Palace at New Acton to see the films and even catch the tail end of the lakeside Enlighten Festival (also in March) on the way home.

Abi, Josh and Jody have been busy most weekends this month with pony events. A big one involved a trip to Goulburn where Abi and Sammy competed in two events. They're a beautiful jumping team, especially on those days when Sammy is feeling calm about the venue. For some reason he wasn't feeling as calm about the event in Goulburn. It may have had something to do with how crowded and noisy it was, with helicopters landing near by and all sorts of other distractions. All good experience though for horse and rider.

We spent some time on the Canberra Day public holiday, in a lovely calm way, with Abi, Owen and Sammy doing some strolling around the beautiful Freshford property together.

Afterwards we enjoyed a family dinner, hosted by Josh and Jody, to celebrate Canberra's 103rd birthday (that was the excuse anyway!). 

This little interlude with Abi and a random (wild) magpie reminded us of the days when she knew every bird and insect in their garden and had names for them all!

We came across this gang of cockatoos on our walk into Braddon the other morning stripping a Chinese Pistachio bare of of its early Autumn seed growth.

We (inadvertently) chose to visit Koto (near old Parliament House) for a fabulous meal on the night of  Canberra's lakeside Skyfire celebration on the 14th March. While we were enjoying delicious Japanese food and the thrill of seeing Rod out and about with his loved ones, outside there were thousands and thousands of people settling around the lake ready to enjoy the birthday fireworks spectacular.

It made for a very memorable night, not only for the sense of occasion and the beautiful food, but also how difficult it was to navigate our way out of that place once the night was over, due to the huge crowds and traffic jams (Rob and I walked home!).

March has also seen Ella settling into Uni student life. We've been lucky to have extended lunches with her occasionally over the past month too and its been lovely to hear all about the huge new (sometimes overwhelming) world opening up to her.

Today was the last day of Canberra's Balloon Spectacular. Rob and I made the effort to get going early so we could see the balloons rising as the sun came up in the East. It's a pretty spectacular sight!

How lucky are we to live here in this beautiful city!