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Published: August 8th 2007
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Gosh, it has been a while since I updated you all on what we have been up to. The last you heard via this Travel Blog was that we were moving from the serviced apartment in North Sydney into a flat in Mosman, overlooking Balmoral Beach. LONG Story!
But here is the short version:
We moved into the Mosman flat on the 16th of March and promptly gave notice on the 19th and moved out on the 28th after discovering the traffic noise was unbearable. Basically, we were deceived by the estate agent. She had advertised the property as being in a ‘Quiet Location’, and reassured us that the traffic was only busy during peak hours. Hmmm, well, turns out it is a major collector road, with constant traffic from morning until night, which of course being new to Sydney we were unaware of.
We recently took her and the landlord to the Tenancy Tribunal and we’re now out of that lease and thoroughly enjoying living in
Neutral Bay.
We love our new spot! We feel like we are constantly on holiday. It’s a two bedroom apartment (in a building of three) right on the water and in a quiet cal-de-sac. I’ve included some pictures so you can see what I mean.
It’s a 5 minute walk to the ferry (Kurraba Point) which takes 8 minutes into the city (arriving at Circular Quay, by the Harbour Bridge and Opera House), plus Mike can walk to work in North Sydney in 30 minutes. We’re much happier here. The views are amazing. We wake up naturally with light streaming in the bedroom windows and watch the early morning ferries and yachts go back and forth. I feel like we are living on a boat as all you can see from the front windows is the sea. The view changes daily with different levels of light and weather patterns. There is always something to watch with people going canoeing, sailing or fishing. Today we watched the SYDNEY, the Australian naval boat escort an American naval ship into the harbour. We’ve also bought some light fishing rods and are able to fish off the pier and wharf in front
of our apartment. We’ve caught Leatherjackets (odd looking fish really!) and Breem every time we fish.
We’ve settled in and have almost sorted out all our furniture and paintings which were delivered by the shipping company the day after we moved in. So far we have had Marcus and Michaela over for a Sunday lunch, as well as a lovely South African couple (from Pretoria) - Bianca and Jacques - who we met in Mosman. Mike went deepsea fishing with James this last Saturday (21 Apr) and caught a lovely Dolphinfish which we cooked for Bianca and Jacques. This Saturday coming is our official housewarming - so I will put pictures of this up next week. We expecting around 15 people, including Grace, a girl I used to ice skate with, and who we bumped into completely by accident (and to both our surprise) in Manly a month ago.
Back to general news about what we have been up to, apart from fighting estate agents and becoming professional movers (well it feels like it) :-)
The weekend of 24 March we went back to Jervis Bay down the South Coast with Marcus and Michaela. We had hoped
to take them deep sea fishing and show them the sights, but the weekend was rained out, so we drove around and enjoyed a nice meal at the Seagrass restaurant in Huskisson, and a night in a bed and breakfast.
On 30 March I took Mike to see the 80s bands INXS, Simple Minds and Arrested Development in concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. It was great fun. The drummer of INXS was superb.
More recently, Mike took a week off over Easter and we played tourist. We spent a day on the Sydney Explorer bus and travelled around to see the sights. We also went to see a 3D Imax show in Darling Harbour, and looked around the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World. Then we went on an organised day tour of the Blue Mountains - 2 hours north-west of Sydney. A group of about 10 of us were driven up by a very entertaining Aussie called Rod. On the way up, we visited Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got the chance to cuddle up to a koala and hand-feed the kangaroos. As we were in a four wheel drive we were able to wind our way
up through a less used road to the Blue Mountains, where we saw the Three Sisters (a rock formation), walked through a rainforest on an elevated boardwalk across the valley floor, rode on the scenic cable car to see the views, before travelling back to Sydney Olympic Park and then on the ferry back to Circular Quays. They’re called the Blue Mountains because of the blue haze given off by the oil vapour of the Eucalyptus trees. We met a nice Kiwi couple (diary farmers) who have offered to put us up and take us fishing if we make it to New Zealand for a holiday in the future. Will definitely have to do that.
We’ve also been snorkelling recently at Shelly Beach, which is next to Manly. Not quite Maldive standards, but we did see some good sized fish and even a few reef sharks.
More news after this weekend...
Caroline xxx
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Allie B
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What can I say
Well, what can I say, it looks fantastic and so glad to see you have really settled in and made some new friends. Wish I was there with you. Your views, the countryside, just everything is so beautiful. Maybe get out there one day. Take care and love to both.