A good week

As weeks go this past one has been a very good one for us. It started Thursday a week ago with the unexpected bonus of having Ella and Abi's company for most of the day - thanks to an ACT public school teachers' strike and the end of Ella's Uni assessment for semester one - yay!!

The girls came over to Campbell and we were all able to try one of the new dining options, over the road at East Traders Hall. The ramen at World Eatery was very good we thought ..........
 

..... and the lamingtons, courtesy of the iconic Tokyo Lamington in Marrickville, ended off a great lunch with pizazz.

Afterwards, the girls re-enacted the joys of their younger days in our Hassett Park. They're older and wiser now - but still as good on their feet as they were a decade ago when we first introduced them to this park playground, as our apartment was nearing completion.

The day after we made our way to Coogee for a week long stay - via Wollongong where we were able to catch up with Ollie over another delicious lunch.

That Friday night in Coogee looked pretty sparkly from the beach front!

Saturday dawned a perfect Sydney winter day - not a cloud in the sky - and the ocean like a mill pond. We walked along the coast path to Clovelly Beach ......

....and then back to a chilled out Coogee by around 11.00am on Saturday morning.

We were walking back to our apartment up Coogee Bay Road by the time the shark attacked the young woman swimming at Coogee Beach, about 30mts off shore - between the flags!!!

The attack has shocked everyone and had a very sobering effect on the locals understandably. We are all wishing the absolute best for the young woman who is still fighting for her life, 7 days later, in St Vincent's Hospital.

As a complete contrast Sunday was cool and cloudy with frequent rain showers. I spent a few hours shopping at Bondi Junction, marvelling at how many shops and how much stuff there was to buy (in all different sizes too) compared to the mediocre offerings in Canberra. 

Rob stayed home and helped neighbour Greg repair a dodgy Sydney Water repair job at the front of our building. We're feeling more like locals now with chores to do each visit: e.g. window cleaning and garden maintenance as well as the fun bits like interacting more with our neighbours, including getting a dinner invitation or two.

On Monday we ventured out to Marrickville to do a bit of exploring in this very diverse part of inner West Sydney. Wandering up Marrickville Road (home of Tokyo Lamington) from Sydneham Station revealed the suburb's industrial past and its strong migrant heritage - some good Op Shopping too.

We were struck by this distinctive mural on Petersham Road .....

..... and learnt how highly the local Council regards Street Art in public spaces ... good on them!

Illawarra Road in Marrickville looks to be the home of the local Vietnamese population. We chose pho and bao from Pho Viet Xua 1919 for our lunch. We over ordered of course - but it was delicious food!

.... and we enjoyed a wander around the local shops afterwards and the array of exotic looking ingredients and snacks on offer.

On Tuesday I met up with my friend Tania and we had some fun at Sydney Modern where one of her friends is completing an artist in residence stint in "The Tank" in the underground level of this newest extension to the Art Gallery of NSW.

Afterwards Tania introduced me to Parkers Sydney Fine Art Supplies in Cambridge St, The Rocks - a quite mind blowing experience for me - and then this unusual view of the Shangri-La Hotel with its foreground of old terraces and graffitied galvanised iron fences ... as the sun was setting. 

We had drinks at the Baxter Inn that evening (located in a hidden laneway off Clarence St), joined by Rob, Aine and Alan and then dinner afterwards at Jimmy's Falafel on George St - another great dining experience shared.

We spent Wednesday vintage (furniture) shopping in Alexandria - That Vintage Emporium and Mitchell St Antiques gave us high hopes of finding the right piece to finish off our remodelled Coogee kitchen - but to no avail in the end (this time anyway).

However lunch did not disappoint - these Portuguese tarts (for dessert) from Tuga Pastries on McEvoy St were world beating!!

.... and to continue the pastries/cafe culture theme we need to acknowledge the newly completed extensions to our local Bohaus Cafe - out on to the ROAD! I took this pic on the first morning it was open and by the time we walked past again an hour later it was full of people (and their doggies)!

But we were on our way over to Clovelly again on Thursday morning - the long way, including all the hill and stair climbs - so we could visit the homebase of Tuga Pastries on Clovelly Road..... and what a sight it was ........

We over ordered again - but what else do you do when you have to try a pickled pumpkin Danish, a Nutella croissant and another one of those world beating Portuguese tarts? And yes, they were all amazing!

Coogee Beach looked like this on Thursday morning - two people were in the water close to shore, and there was at least one swimmer doing the cross the bay swim ......... and there was a monitored drone criss crossing the beachfront area the whole time. 

It's going to take a while for everyone to feel confident about swimming here again.

Thursday afternoon we met up with Tania again - this time at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is hosting a very big exhibition of the work of the Aboriginal artist Tony Albert. Tony Albert has been collecting "Aboriginalia" from Op Shops and souvenir shops since he was a boy growing up in Far North Queensland. His biggest collection by far comprises thousand of "souvenir" ash trays depicting stereotyped images of his people. He's used these to create challenging and profound art works challenging Australia's colonial history and ongoing race relations.

These beautiful works in the exhibition's main gallery are a homage to/questioning of the works of Margaret Preston. They are actually intricate collages of tiny cut up pieces of souvenir teatowels (once again depicting stereotyped images of Aboriginal culture) that Tony Albert has combined with areas of painted colour wash to evoke the Margaret Preston works from the 1920s and beyond. 

"Not a Souvenir" was a completely stunning and thought provoking exhibition.

We left Coogee on Friday - after handing over the keys to our apartment (temporarily) to a pair of our Campbell neighbours (for their weekend stay). 

We agreed we have been able to enjoy one of the best weeks of the year so far - here's to many more.

And a birthday

We've had another few days in Sydney this past week.... a rainy afternoon put to good use while Rob connected our unit to the NBN and permanent internet access (at last) and then a full day exploring another part of Sydney we've not been to before.

As part of my ongoing series titled "Inner Sydney streets that would be perfectly liveable" we present Quarry Street in Ultimo ........ 
 

....... terrace houses fronting onto a street scape that has been turned into sunny parkland - perfectly walkable and communal, only a kilometre and a half walk from the Queen Victoria building in the CBD (we know that because we did that walk too!)

Also, only just over a kilometre walk to our new fave Pyrmont Bridge Hotel - where we had lunch that day.

Ultimo is also close to the new Sydney Fish Market and our new find .... the Upcycle Design Centre in Wattle Street. We found a nicely framed little original watercolour in this crammed warehouse of junk shop finds and genuine treasures. The little watercolour was added to what we hope will be a wall of art works in our Coogee bedroom eventually.

We were back in Canberra in time to share some precious time with Ella at the end of the week. She had her nineteenth birthday in May as well as completing all the course work and assessment for first semester of her bachelor's degree at the Uni of Canberra. It was a great excuse to enjoy a celebratory lunch with her to mark the occasion.

We walked to lunch together - on an incredibly mild, late Autumn day in Canberra.

..... and enjoyed the set lunch menu at Zero Complex (Korean fusion) on Lonsdale Street.... which we all loved.

We three can talk for HOURS, covering a lot of ground, including lots of politics and international affairs, along with a fair bit of pop culture and in house joking around. We are so proud of Ella's incredible success in her first semester at Uni, handling new challenges, new subjects and vastly different expectations without the support of friends or peers, in her stride.

This pic is pure Ella --- tolerating her Granny trying to get just the right shot - on the move - with such good humour and that cheeky grin. She's special this one!

20 Years ago

Twenty years ago in 2006 Rob and I started looking for a small holiday apartment in Sydney.  Three weekend visits and lots of internet surfing later we were lucky enough to bid successfully on our one and ½ bedroom art deco apartment at Coogee Beach, Sydney. The auction was at the Wollahra Golf Club, Rose Bay, on Wednesday 5 April at 6.30pm. Joshy came with us for moral support and after some spirited bidding with one other interested party (by the end) we claimed our prize for the grand total of $395,000.

Ocean dreaming....... was the heading for our property's listing..... and we were thrilled to get it in the end - 8 minutes walk to the beach and only 5 minutes walk up to the village of Randwick and The Spot with all its restaurants, cafes and shops and the restored art deco movie theatre “The Randwick Ritz”.  

 These pics were from the real estate blurbs prior to that auction, circa 2006 ......

   

After settlement on 17 May we were able to celebrate our good fortune with a surprisingly large number of family members, with lots of our favourite sparkling Shiraz but no furniture or fittings, on the following weekend (20 May). 

Of course Rob wrote one of his special poems to mark the occasion .....

This was described as a modern eat-in kitchen at the time!

And this pic proves there were ocean glimpses from our living room window in those days (now overtaken by the growth in the trees).

Sadly for us, our apartment was tenanted for the next 12 months or so.  We had regular weekends at the Coogee Sands Hotel just so we could keep a check on things until our tenants vacated at the end of July 2007.

We moved in with minimal furniture and effects, with Maxine & Rod’s help, and spent the next 3 and ½ months getting it furnished so we could enjoy weekends and short stays there.  We had it well enough set up that we were able to celebrate New Year at the end of that year with Maxie & Rod and Ros and Pete - with dinner at our fave Barzura and community fireworks on the beach after.

This was us at move in weekend in July-August 2007. By the end of that year it was a bit more comfortable for short stays ......

In October-November 2008 we started a tradition of "Sisters Reunions" each year at Coogee. Maxie & Rod and Ros and Pete would stay with us in the apartment and we would check out "Sculptures by The Sea" and explore different parts of this amazing city - and just spend extended time together. It was wonderful. We kept up this tradition each year from 2008 right up until 2016 (9 reunion stays all up!).

Rugs and paintings really made a difference in the living room (June 2009).

In 2010 we had a dramatic new paint job in the apartment. Porters Paint - Polo on the walls and Whisper White on all the ceilings and trims transformed the spaces - making them look much more sophisticated.

This pic was taken in October 2011 as I was celebrating my 60th birthday.

We welcomed new neighbours in the last half of 2013 - Greg and Lizzie in number 7. Not only was it great to have a friendly, fun couple as owner neighbours at last but it was also great to have allies on board for all our strata committee decision making. Greg is also a builder so can actually back up his advice on lots of technical matters with expertise and experience.

By 2013 our living area was looking even more homely.

I took this photo on the beach over Christmas - New Year 2014. It's not of the apartment but it is an indicator of the great times Josh, Jody and the girls have been able to spend over the years at Coogee, and sometimes share with us too at times!

In late February 2014 Pete had major surgery at the Mater Hospital, North Sydney as a result of his Neuro Endocrine cancer diagnosis. Ros, and then Pete after his discharge, ended up basing themselves at the apartment until Pete was well enough to move back to Sandy Beach. In the process they ended up having the longest continuous stay in the apartment of any of us up until that time.

in an odd sort of coincidence Rob also got a cancer diagnosis that same year and he had surgery at St Vincents on Oxford St that same year, in August. It also meant we had quite an extended stay in Coogee as he recovered - and thankfully never looked back, health wise, in the following 12 years.

We sold our house in Mawson in August 2015 and became "homeless" for the next 19 months until our off the plan apartment at St Germain, Campbell was ready. We were so fortunate to have a Canberra home with Josh and Jody and the girls for that time but our Coogee apartment was a very welcome backstop for us (and them) whenever a break was needed.

We made the big decision to rent our Coogee apartment in 2018 in preparation (saving up) for renovations that were needed on our almost 100 year old property. We did the clean up and move out in April that year and new tenants had moved in by early May - a very smooth process apart from the pain of packing up and moving everything out. 

We ended up renting out Coogee for longer than intended given all the lockdown upheavals of 2020-2022. We had excellent tenants and they were happy to stay on for the full period throughout that time - a bonus for us.

Around October 2022 we started our move back into our Coogee apartment after four and half years of renting. We vowed we’d make it a minimal move back as we had renovations planned. However, we found loading beds, mattresses and other essentials into vans and carrying them up three flights of stairs far from a minimal effort. Despite all this we managed to get the apartment quite comfortably set up for however long it was going to take to get renovations underway.

However not much happened on this front throughout 2023. My alleged abilities to manage people hit a brick wall in relation to Sydney tradespeople that year so we decided to put things on hold until the reno/building market in Sydney quietened down a bit after the COVID years. 

At the end of July through to August 2024 we had new (old style) timber sash windows installed in our Coogee apartment and a new paint job after all the disruption the install caused. Every room in the apartment was affected except for the bathroom and sunroom. Many hours of cleaning up were involved but the final result is beautiful. We now have Dulux Hammer Grey walls replacing the dark navy grey, with sparkling white ceiling and trims. 

We were lucky to have an excellent (but expensive) old school joiner work on the windows and a very good painter to do the finish off work. Rob and I are project planning window replacement for our whole block (9 units). It’s a quarter of a million-dollar + project (starting in late 2023) and has required our pretty constant attention. Our joiner works slowly and it’s going to take a few years yet.

Removing 100 year old windows raises SO MUCH dust - you wouldn't believe it!

Our major renovation project finally got underway in mid March 2025. We’d been waiting so long for this to get underway that in the end it came as a bit of a shock when our builder announced he was ready. 

Our old bathroom and kitchen had to be completely demolished (including a load bearing wall) before the real work could get underway. You can imagine the dust and mess this created in our 100-year-old building (three floors up and no lift!). We are absolutely thrilled with the finished job - finally moving back into what feels like a brand-new apartment, in August, just in time for the visit of Davey’s family. 

We took this pic of the old kitchen just before work got underway in mid-March last year.

... and the bathroom .....

Two or three weeks later the (load bearing) wall between the kitchen and eating area and the ceiling had been demolished and all the kitchen fittings removed.

The bathroom had to be gutted.

Our wonderful builder Greg had erected very effective screens around the demolition zones which ended up saving so much dust seeping into the rest of the unit .....

By mid-May it looked like this ....

.... and the bathroom tiling was mostly completed by the end of  June.

..and the vanity in place .....

These are the two men (along with Brett) who made it all happen - We're forever grateful for their professionalism and concern for a high quality, stress free process for us - so important when we're living quite a distance away from the job.

The kitchen cupboards were installed early July.

... and by mid - July the finishing touches were being made.

We were really hoping it would be ready in time for Davey & Cath's and the kids' visit in mid August last year.  Luckily it all came together, just in time for their Sydney stay!

We're all set now to enjoy the next phase of our Coogee lives. Josh and Jody and the girls get plenty of fun out of it when they're ready for some Sydney time. Ella has even stayed there with her girlfriends over a weekend - as the adult in charge. We still think it is the very best investment we ever made, way back in May 2006 - bring on the next twenty years!