Another fun week

It's been another huge week for us. We picked up our new car from Sydney City Lexus on Tuesday - after a very long wait since we placed the order for our new hybrid Lexus LBX on the 3rd March this year. We drove back to Canberra straight after, determining our shiny new vehicle was too young and innocent to overnight unsupervised on the streets of Coogee as yet!! We paid our respects to our beautiful little 16 year old VW Golf as we departed the showroom.

It was back to Sydney on Wednesday (in the Tiguan) and an afternoon rest for Rob after all that driving over two days and the undoubted stress of our interstate car purchase.

Thursday was rainy, very rainy. We waited for a short break in the skies and headed out to explore another Sydney neighbourhood on our list. Newtown was our pick for the day but it was hard to consider any ambitious exploring with all the heavy rain, and no let up once we got there.

We were able to enjoy a wonderful lunch at the iconic Cairo Takeaway on 81 Enmore Road. We both had memories of the legal stoush involving this iconic cafe last year involving the Sky News invasion and the Zionist activist. We let the food do the talking today.

Thursday night we had our Coogee Strata AGM, which went very well, but which had involved both of us in a lot of preparation being the diligent EC members we are, especially Rob as Treasurer.

Friday was the opening day of Sculpture by the Sea. We did the Coogee to Bondi walk that morning so we could see the sculptures in situ and enjoy the warm sunny conditions. SxS featured 100 sculptures by local and international artists this year, marking the event's 30th anniversary. 

Tamarama Beach is usually quite crowded with works for SxS - this year the installations looked quite sparse and it was quite noticeable that works on show throughout SxS looked to be reduced in numbers and scale compared to previous years.

....... although this sphere of fog, blowing in the wind by Tamarama Beach was creating quite a lot of interest.

Emma Anna's DREAM_N was beautifully placed.

Yoshio Nitta's moon series work was one of my favourites.

There were quite a few film crews on the walk and artists being interviewed about their work.

And installation was being finalised for quite a few of the works. Apparently the day of heavy rain during the week had delayed things. The Sydney based artist Ian Swift's " A Great White Pointer View" was still a way off being in its final set up.

Another Japanese artist's work (Keizo Ushio's Oushi Zokei Enmusubi 11)......

We ended off the walk with lunch at the Beekeeper Bondi in Hall Street before heading back to Coogee and a night of socialising with our lovely neighbours Greg & Lizzi. We ended off a busy day by meeting up with niece Claire, who'd made the Murrays bus trip from Canberra that afternoon to join us for the weekend.

Saturday dawned bright warm and sunny, a perfect Sydney day. We started the day with a walk to our fave Honeycomb in Sth Coogee.

We then met up with Ollie (and best mate Tom) at Central Station in time for lunch at the Royal Albert Hotel on Commonwealth St in Surry Hills. We were all on our way to Darlinghurst to see Angus's band's gig at the Oxford Art Centre in the eraly afternoon.

The Oxford Art Factory in Darlinghurst is an awesome venue .... and Angus's band (Body Shirt) absolutely smoked it there - the energy of their set was incredible.

We loved it!

And of course there was merch too!

We enjoyed a wind down afterwards with all the young ones at the Riley Hotel, over the road on Oxford Street. We spent nearly three hours together there, talking music, band goss and life in general - and lots of laughs ... lucky us!

Ollie came back with us and stayed the night in Coogee. It was great to have extended time with him to talk about all his plans for the future and (Wollongong) Uni highs and lows.

We drove back to Canberra on Sunday afternoon with Claire, happy after one of the most lively weeks we've had in Sydney for a while.

Birthday celebrations

We were lucky to have the young ones join us in Coogee this past (long) weekend - three days of good times together and an opportunity to enjoy a celebratory dinner to mark the occasion of my 75th (yikes!) birthday.

Ella, being on Uni break, was able to come up with us last Thursday. We experienced the fiesta like atmosphere of The Spot at Randwick that night - a regular occurrence apparently on the second Thursday of every month. There were hundreds and hundreds of people around, eating and drinking on tables set up along St Paul's Street with a soundtrack of great hits from a rockin' live band.

...... and a small army of street performers .....

Our fave old Randwick Ritz was serving up a bit of old school nostalgia that night too.

Friday morning dawned perfectly clear and sunny - but with a strong NNE wind the waves off Coogee Beach were a bit wild.

We walked from Coogee around a more turbulent than usual Gordon's Bay, to Clovelly Beach.

.... where it was calm and beautiful ...... calm enough that Ella couldn't resist taking a dip and then putting up with a wet cozzie while we did coffee and a pastry at Tuga Pastries on Clovelly Road.

Josh,Jody and Abi got to Coogee on Friday in time for a late lunch by the beach at the Coogee Bay Hotel - a great way to start our official weekend of fun times together.

Saturday morning started out raining heavily - for a few hours ..... but by 11.30 it had cleared and we set out for the beach ......

.... back to Clovelly .... where Ella convinced Abi to brave the fresh conditions (that water is barely 19oC) and have a swim.

Abi is just as happy to be back in one of her favourite childhood haunts - exploring the Clovelly rock pools - finding octopus, starfish and all sorts of other sea creatures.

Saturday night was booked for our big night out together. So I had the chance to do my annual photoshoot with this beautiful family outside our Coogee apartment block on Carrington Road.

Just look at this pair!!

....... and this amazing pair too!!

We made our way to the iconic Bondi Icebergs Restaurant for dinner ....... initially for an eye popping (and mercifully short) drinks session at the Icebergs Bar (along with a few too many glammed up and primped up residents of the Eastern suburbs).

But then we were shown our table in the restaurant - a proper, old school, Italian fine dining establishment - and very glamorous, yes - with the location (and view) to die for!

It doesn't get better than this!!

We had the BEST night - superb food, attentive service, the best wines - with my favourite people in the world - and THAT VIEW!!!

And there was even a birthday candle for me - thank goodness there weren't 75 of them.

We had a few stories to tell after our night at Icebergs, mostly about the other patrons frequenting the bar. But that all adds to the fun!!

Abi, Ella and I just stood together on the balcony at the end of the night and took in this most amazing view of this special part of the world, at the end of a very special night together.

Both mornings we started the day with breakfast in our tiny little kitchen. Abi cooked on Saturday. Ella cooked on Sunday. I enjoyed watching them bring together a full breakfast feast for the 6 of us in this tiny little space - with such confidence!

There was time for one last swim at Coogee Beach before the young ones had to head back to Canberra on Sunday afternoon. I love watching these two sauntering down Coogee Bay Road together - looking so like sisters don't they?

This was the first swim for our family at Coogee Beach since that shocking shark attack back in June. The beach has a drone patrol now, tandem helicopters flying overhead and lifesavers patrolling on boards just beyond the 30metre line off shore. Probably a very safe time to swim at this beach.

There was also a small army of volunteer surf lifesavers on duty this morning too.

Aside from all that the beach was looking its absolute best!!!

It seemed very quiet once the young ones left that afternoon. We're having a few more days here and a touch more excitement (more on that later!) before the week is out while they get back to Sammy, school and Uni and all the other demands of their busy lives.

In the meantime we're going to enjoy living in this 'hood for a while while i think back on such happy times we had this year celebrating being together on my birthday!!

Coogee again

We've managed to squeeze in another 3 night stay in Coogee just to make sure this month finished off as busy as it started.

The weather didn't look great as we drove off the M8 on to Gardener's Road (near the airport) on Sunday ......

But it was perfect weather for getting a few DIY jobs done at the apartment - in time for more extended family visits in October.

We think our newly framed Evonne Rraraypum "Yam Dreaming" painting from Bula'bula Arts in Ramingining (Arnhem Land) looks right at home here in our Coogee kitchen .....

And our old 80s(?) era Ikea (or was it Freedom?) pine shelf unit works well for extra storage alongside the fridge.

Levelling up the shelf unit on our very uneven floor boards proved to be the biggest challenge...... but we did it!

And last job on the list, we installed a chargeable light (no cords) above the "desk" in our new tiny office ...... all in all a very good effort on a rainy afternoon we thought.

So Monday being fine (but quite cool) we had some time to enjoy ourselves. ........ We always love to start our day with a walk to the "Honeycomb" in South Coogee.

..... and this morning, with the tide quite low and very little wave action, we were able to spend some time looking back away from the ocean, towards the towering sandstone cliffs over the honeycomb rock platform - we thought it looked particularly photo worthy this morning!!

Late that afternoon we met friends in the city for a meal at Pandawa - a local Indonesian haunt, very popular with the locals. But before we made our way there Rob was able to capture this pic of the new Ai Wei Wei installation outside the Museum of Contemporary Art down near Circular Quay. Titled "Mushrooms" it comprises 500 cast iron combat helmets in ten uniform rows - Wei Wei says the idea for this work originated when Germany offered 5,000 helmets to "aid" Ukraine just before the country was attacked by Russia in early 2022.

Yesterday we took ourselves out to the end of the L1 Light Rail line - to Dulwich Hill in Sydney's Inner West.

Our Sydney explorer days always focus on lunch - and today's did not disappoint........

Proscuitto, truffle, ricotta, black olives and rocket on focaccia made fresh in store.... a very yummy lunch from the very authetically Italian Deli - Xioso on Marrickville Road.

Followed by just as yummy, and authentically Lebanese, pastries and coffee from the Dulwich Hill branch of the famous Abla's Pastries which we've visited before on Railway Parade in Granville.

We can pack a lot of fun into even a quick visit to our little place in Coogee, Sydney can't we!