Finally, a place to call home

Although slightly sad to be leaving the lovely Elizabeth Bay apartment and its wondrous view out across the bay (especially at sunset) we were now happy to be able to move into our own apartment, a place that we could call home and finally unpack all our stuff. I am especially eager to unpack my bike and surf board and get using them.

So, the weekend just gone we embarked on another move, our 4th since the beginning of May (including moving out of our home in UK) so you’d think we’d get used to it!

We had a fair bit of stuff to move and we needed to do plenty of running round town so we decided to hire a Toyota Hiace van from a cheap car rental place imaginatively named ‘Discount Car and Truck Rentals’ …simples!!  

White's Removals

We quickly realised that although this little van was an ideal run around, it definitely should not be driven up steep hills, especially if required to stop at a junction and go from a standing start.

Unfortunately most of our routes that we needed to drive were (you guessed it!) up hills with plenty of traffic lights and junctions. On more than one occasion we thought the old banger was going to break down or just not have the steam to get away up the hill. So after a while we ended up going round the houses just to avoid going up said hills.

Once we had loaded our luggage we had to get on the case and starting buying stuff that was going to make our home a home.

With the massive influx of people into the city that are travelling through or staying a short while there is a really good second hand market for all manner of household items that can assist people like us to setup home cheaply. So rather than forking out for brand new appliances or renting we decided to hunt down a washing machine and fridge freezer on Gumtree. We struck lucky as we managed to pick really good bargains at $140 for a fridge freezer and $120 for a top loader washing machine, hopefully we’ll get a good years use out of them and then sell them on next year.

With the fridge safely loaded, I could now rest easy in the knowledge that my beers could be kept cold…phew!!! We then headed back to Ikea via K-Mart and the Big W to pick up essentials supplies.

It was a hectic day running round, moving, shopping and picking stuff up, but we did everything and we can now start to properly settle into Sydney life and enjoy ourselves.

After dropping the old banger back the next morning, we arrived back in sunny Coogee (winter’s day of 19 degrees) to find the beach front and cafes bustling with people, what a great place this is going to be to live, so good to be near the beach.

Coogee beach

There are so many nice cafes along the Coogee Bay Road it’s gonna take us a good while to get through them all, but gotta start somewhere so we headed to the Black Pony Café. After reading through the breakfast menu, I think this one is going to be an early favourite for weekend breakfast outings. I had a delicious breakfast of buttermilk pancakes with ricotta, carmilsed banana, blueberries and maple walnut praline, while Charlotte had a fresh fruit salad with vanilla bean yoghurt and honey, each washed down by a Flat White of course.

All the cafes along the Coogee Bay Road are nice relaxed, compact, indoor/outdoor atmospheric little dens that ooze character and buzz with the chitter chatter of locals enjoying a nice relaxing breakfast, brunch or lunch by day. As night descends, all these cafes are transformed into a hive of activity and meeting spots for dinner and/or drinks. Although serving their own selection of alcoholic beverages, most cafés are also BYO (Bring Your Own), which is such a great idea.  

After our lovely breakfast we decided to explore Coogee a little more and walked down to enjoy the beach and a bit of the coastal walk. Over here there are an abundance of amazing outdoor pools which are situated at the edges of the bays and get their water directly from the sea. These ‘baths’ as they are called are like the ultimate infinity pools and have been around a fair while and even in the Aussie winter there are plenty of people in their budgie smugglers and swimming caps swimming lengths as the waves crash over the sides. There are 3 of the baths/pools in Coogee alone, so I’ll be getting myself to brave the cold waters soon, but I think it’s worth it given the views that can be enjoyed.

Wylie's Baths, Coogee