July break

We were lucky enough to share the weekend in Coogee with the young ones - the last weekend of the July school holidays - a welcome break from wintry Canberra for us and all the difficult things we've been doing related to Rod's affairs.

We drove down early on Friday morning and Ella was able to come with us. It's always a great way to start a beautiful weekend in Coogee with her..... lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel.....its our tradition! 

.... and a walk after - just to catch the beach vibe!

We also got our first view of recent progress with the reno on our apartment. We could not be more thrilled with how it looks and the standard of work that Greg and his team have achieved for us. It all looks truly amazing! We could not fault a thing.

The job is 99% complete now - we're just waiting on the glass shower screen, the final silicone finish around the bath and new skirting boards for the kitchen. We intend to head back up to Coogee next week and "move back in" - unpack all our boxes, clean up the remaining dust and have the joy of living in our beautiful "new" apartment. We are so excited about doing all that! 

Josh, Jody and Abi got to Sydney around 10pm on Friday, but they were all set to go on Saturday morning - ready to tackle our favourite walk again, the 4klm coastal path from Coogee to Bondi Beach.

All the beaches along the way looked stunning under the clarity of our bright winter skies.

Gordon's Bay......

Clovelly......

Heading to Bronte.......

Tamarama........

..... and rounding the bend to Iceberg's at Bondi Beach .......

Bondi was pumping, as always. There was even an ice skating rink set up on the beachfront (weird??)

We always head for the Bondi Hotel for lunch at the end of these walks - another family tradition!

Dinner together on Saturday night is always pretty special too. We didn't have to go far this time - to La Spaggia on Coogee Bay Road, a five minute walk from our accommodation...... Coogee's oldest Italian restaurant and an absolute classic.

It got our seal of approval.

.. and Yo-Chi for dessert for the girls later ... a popular choice

We celebrated Sunday with a lunch together at Cabramatta before heading back to Canberra in time to catch a spectacular sunset around Goulburn. Now our apartment is habitable again we are so looking forward to more time back in Coogee and sharing more of these wonderful times with the young ones in the future..... 

As a side note to July I finished my first patchwork quilted project at last. A long time in the making, it's going to do service as a sofa cover for our Coogee apartment - hopefully strong enough to withstand lots of couch time after all our beach and walking activities. I learnt a lot with this project - not sure if i would embark on another - but rewarding to solve all the challenges and get it finished!

More of the same, and a big birthday

There's been a lot of progress with the Coogee reno over the past week or so. The new kitchen and bathroom vanity were delivered to the apartment on the 1st July and installed the next day. It looks good to us in the pictures Greg sent. Can't wait to see it in reality!

Do you remember what it looked like at the start of all this? (Pic taken on the 14th March before demolition started at the end of March)

We have a new pantry too (not too wide, not too deep either!)

The new bathroom vanity .......

This picture was sent through today. The new cornice is in place and Joey has finished the painting in the kitchen. The stone bench top and splash backs will be installed at the end of this week and then the plumber and electrician will fit all the appliances, sink and tap off. Then finito!!!

And more pics sent through today ....... Greg and the plumber have installed the long delayed bath, and fitted the tapware and toilet. The vanity basin and tapware will have to wait until the end of the week when the stone top goes on the vanity.

Luckily that bath tap swings out of the way when not in use.

Back in Canberra we had Claire's milestone birthday to celebrate on Sunday night, with a happy family get together. In one of the biggest years we've had in a while with a lot of grief and stress it was great to get together and celebrate a big birthday with these special people. The fact it was the start of school holidays gave (some of) us an extra reason to feel happier than usual on a Sunday night

Ella always has a funny story up her sleeve ........ that Abi and Angus can always find a rif off - it's very entertaining!

We spent the afternoon before at Freshford with Abi, helping to prepare Sammy for his 3 event show at Equestrian Park the following day. Abi trimmed his mane......

.... and i helped her do the required braiding. This is the result - which Abi was happy with - although Sammy doesn't look as impressed with it in this pic. Please note all the chopped pieces of his mane on the ground.

Sammy and Abi came second in their grade on the day. Even Sammy looked impressed with their prize rosette in this pic. Their best event is cross country which both Abi and Sammy LOVE competing in!

Then for a complete change Rob and I spent a few hours at the National Gallery today - enjoying a talk and viewing of the Cezanne to Giacometti exhibition from the  Museum Berggruen in Berlin. Highlights for us were seeing the Cezanne collection, the amazing works by Paul Klee and a room full of Picassos. In between the stressful hours we spend sorting out the bureaucratic requirements of taking over Rod's admin as he enters aged care, under the watchful eyes of the NSW Trustee and Guardian and Centrelink (Aged Care) its wonderful to find these times of pure joy in our life.

Making progress

We're happy to report we've made some positive progress in a few areas over the past 10 days, since our return from Geelong. 

Abi has taught us to lead Sammy with a lot more confidence around the wild tracks of Freshford - always on the lookout for things that will make Sammy "spook", and getting him to match his pace to ours - it's a lot more complicated than you'd think - but we've improved our skills and confidence, a lot.

Sammy behaved perfectly during this lesson last weekend......

 

We're also very confident we've now found the right place for Rod to live, and be cared for, now his hospital stay is coming to an end.

Arcare is opening its first residence in Canberra in the next week or so and we have been able to select this room for Rod - it's North facing, has a balcony and overlooks the Aranda grass oval (and lots of trees). Rod likes the location and the building and hopefully he'll like his room once it's bits and pieces are all in place and it's ready for move in day. It feels like a small miracle we have found this place, at this time, and that he seems happy with it - so far!

We've just got back from an overnight stay in Coogee to check on renovation progress. Our timing was also perfect for a farewell lunch with Ollie (and Tess) yesterday in Wollongong prior to Ollie's departure for London tomorrow. It was a lot of fun sharing a few hours with this lively pair and hear more about student life in Wollongong and Ollie's plans for travel in Europe and the Mediterranean after he leaves London.

It was such a windy cold day in Wollongong yesterday, but luckily we found great shelter in the laid back Diggies Cafe, on the beachfront for a few hours of eating, talking and lots of laughing!

Our builder Greg continues to make progress with the Coogee reno. He's been doing major restoration on those 100 year old bathroom windows to make them worthy of the rest of the bathroom upgrade........

It's slow work but he's just the man for the job - and it's looking beautiful after all his efforts!

The completion of the bathroom has been held up by the delay in delivery of our Italian bath tub. It will arrive (allegedly) the week after next which will be a dramatic step forward in terms of getting all the other bathroom bits and pieces in place too.

I got this great pic of builder Greg this morning working in the kitchen with our painter Joey - getting the walls prepped for the kitchen cabinetry install - possibly happening as early as next week.

We are so lucky that everyone who works with/for builder Greg is a top notch tradie and a top notch human being too. They are all doing a brilliant job on this complicated, challenging (while still small scale) reno. Lucky us!

The reno is still on track for possible completion by the end of July (fingers crossed).

Coogee Beach looked beautiful this morning on a cold clear Winter morning.

We're wondering if this will be our last stay at the gracious old Royal Hotel, in Randwick, where we've been staying for all our progress checks with the reno.

Maybe next time we come to Coogee we'll be able to stay at our place??