December already

It feels like the pace is really picking up now we're into December and only a few days to go until we leave for Bali. We've had all our vaccines, finished off our Christmas shopping, got the girls sorted with their Advent boxes, had another trip to Coogee, signed off on final meetings for the year and carried on the usual level of end of year socialising. Its been busy!!

We took Abi and Ella shopping for their Christmas gifts (on different days). It's the best fun for us keeping them company on shopping trips - and lunch is always included.   

We took ourselves to the 50th anniversary Cold Chisel Concert at the end of November. It was a beautiful (warm) summer evening and we were able to walk to the venue in Commonwealth Park.

You could see that the audience fitted a certain age demographic ......

The best part was sharing the night with Josh & Jody (who were among the youngest members in the audience). ......

We all agreed the band was in fine form - a fabulous concert with lead guitarist Ian Moss the stand out star of the night!

We headed for Coogee again at the weekend, meeting up with young Aine for lunch at Barzura on Sunday and Conor and Lesley (from Belfast) for a day of walking on Monday.

But first of all an early morning walk to "the honeycomb", to get the day started right on Sunday.

By Sunday lunch we were in a prime position to watch a severe rain storm roll in and experience the torrents of rain and wind squalls that buffeted this part of Sydney quite severely for just under an hour.

Afterwards, the sun came out from behind the rain clouds, giving off a very surreal lighting vibe.....

Monday dawned bright and clear and HOT. We met up with Lesley and Conor at Bondi -nearly 7 months since we last saw them in Belfast in Northern Ireland. They had only arrived in Sydney a few days before, from freezing wintry Belfast!

Together, we walked all the way to Coogee along the 7klm coastal path - all looking absolutely stunning on this perfect summer cloudless day - but I did worry how our guests would cope with the heat, the sun, the glare, the UV factor!!!

They made it to the end - still amazingly positive about everything (they make 'em tough in Belfast) and we rewarded them with lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel, looking very friendly, very breezy and quite uncrowded on this fine Monday. Uluru is the next stop for Conor and Lesley - so our walk today in 30oC heat would be good preparation for what they'll be facing there.

Tuesday was a quieter day for us. We enjoyed a walk around the picturesque streets of Paddington and lunch on the balcony of the old Royal Hotel on Paddington Fiveways.

I loved this take on a "decorated" Christmas Tree at the Ampersand Cafe and Bookstore on Oxford Street.

We had new shutters installed in our living room on Tuesday morning. After waiting ELEVEN weeks for this to happen we were really congratulating ourselves that we'd finally got a Sydney supplier to deliver as promised. The living room gets more comfortable every visit now. Rob connected our new (Smart) TV this weekend too, with full connectivity to all our streaming services - Yay!

And back in Canberra now - we're back to old (lovely) routines. Abi and Sam were in fine form in the arena at Freshford on Thursday. They're looking like a great jumping team......

Social Sydney

We've just had a few days in Coogee enjoying a rather social time. It looked beautiful when we arrived on Thursday - the beach uncrowded and no waves at all in that gorgeous turquoise ocean.

We headed into Haymarket quite early on Thursday, in time to score a seat at popular Gumshara, just off Kimber Lane. Those in the know say Gumshara makes the best ramen in Sydney. It's all in the tonkotsu broth of course (made of so many pork bones). We can vouch for the fact it is indeed very very good - and we were lucky to get there early before the queues started.

We had tickets to see the Sydney Theatre Company production of "Sunday" at the Opera House Drama Theatre that night - a first for us at that iconic venue.

The play was superb - inspired by the stories and myths of the Heidi Circle - the group that ruled Australia's art scene in the 30s, 40s and 50s - led by its charismatic muse Sunday Reed. How about this for a view as we emerged from the doors of the theatre?

Friday morning started with a walk to the "honeycomb" - the Ivo Rowe Pool in South Coogee - we are really enjoying the new half million dollar stairway down to the rock pool - built just for us.......

We had a long anticipated lunch date with our Coogee neighbours Greg and Lizzie on Saturday afternoon. They kept the venue a secret until the last minute. We didn't know where we were going until our Uber turned up at Woolloomooloo Wharf - and Greg and Lizzie led us to the iconic .... "China Doll" - a first time for us but an old favourite of theirs.

The food at this "hatted" restaurant was amazing - superb ingredients, carefully judged Asian fusion flavours. The prawn toast and scallops for starters could have made a full meal. Our favourite drink of the afternoon was the spiced pear spritz; it went so well with every dish!

We loved our long, very special lunch hosted by Greg and Lizzie, and felt quite mellow afterwards checking out the sculptures spaced around the wharf.

We've shared some testing times with our lovely neighbours this year as both of our units have been assaulted by building works (windows in both, new bathroom for Greg & Lizzie). Greg and Lizzie have been absolute rocks throughout every building drama. We are so lucky to have them as our friends and neighbours in Coogee!

It was 9.00pm by the time we got home last night after a very long afternoon of socialising, eating fine food and imbibing a fair bit of alcohol, including at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel for an extended session after our China Doll lunch.

We had a quiet day today ........ I signed up to Bluesky Social and thought I did an ok job with this selfie (my new profile picture).

We ended the day with a late afternoon walk to South Coogee again - much wilder this time compared to Thursday. We were lucky to get back to the apartment before the rain, lightning and thunder started ........

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, closing off a busy year in the lead up to Christmas before we leave for Bali in mid December. We have another few days in Coogee at the end of the month, which will be lovely, but probably a bit more rushed than we'd like. But that's the end of the year for you!

Canberra best

In the last two weeks we've seen Canberra at its best - the decisive return of progressive local government (continuing now for 23 YEARS!), the opening of the commemorative "gift" to celebrate our National Gallery's 40th birthday, the staging of the wonderful Canberra Writers Festival and an action packed 6 day visit with our friends from Far North Queensland.

Lindy Lee's "Ouroboros" was unveiled at the Gallery on the 24th November. We were among the first group of visitors at special members only events, the day after.

While there has been some controversy about the choice of Ouroboros to mark this milestone birthday - especially around its $14,000,000 cost, the consensus view now seems to be quite positive. We think it looks absolutely sublime in this setting!

There is a small exhibition inside the gallery of key works by Lindy Lee over the past decade including this 50 kgs 24 carat gold version of Ouroborus (worth $10,000,000) on permanent loan to the NGA by its new sponsor partner the Pallion Group.

In an abundance of riches the Canberra Writers Festival followed on from these big events at the gallery. All events were conducted in iconic locations in the Parliamentary Triangle ..... a chance to hear some of my favourite writers talk about new works in these beautiful venues .....

Our dear friends David and Ro arrived the day after these big events concluded. Ro had a conference to attend at the ANU on Tuesday but we wasted no time in taking David to see our new favourite art acquisition - part of our morning walk around the lake. I think he was impressed!

We took both David and Ro with us to see Ouroboros later that night - after a movie outing to our old fave Palace Electric at New Acton.

If anything Ouroboros looks even more spectacular at night .....

We caught up with the Wharf Review on Thursday night at the Canberra Theatre. Very sad to think this will be the last W.R. - after 25 years of brilliant and hilarious satire of our political life. This week's show was one of its best!

It was David's birthday this week too - a great excuse to meet up with other old Canberra friends for a classic (and delicious) Italian meal by the lake at Molto on Friday night.

Saturday dawned warm and sunny so we took David and Ro on one of our favourite "close to the city" bush walks - out to Shepherd's Lookout, along the back of the new Ginninderry development.

David and Ro left early yesterday morning - a big day's drive back to Brisbane ahead of them - and then from there, eventually back to Cooper Creek, north of Cairns. We loved having them stay with us but also felt proud our town had so much to offer our visitors, especially over the past week or so.