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Posts Tagged ‘Sydney’

Week 48 ~ V is for Vintage

Posted: November 30, 2015 in Inner West, Markets
Tags: antique, breakfast, cafe, Sydney, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, vintage, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

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There’s a fine line between vintage and crap – it would seem there are plenty of people who don’t know the difference.

There’s also a MASSIVE difference between vintage/second hand/old//crap/broken and what constitutes a bargain!

$hit! I’m never throwing anything out again EVER!

Deliciopus start to the day at https://www.facebook.com/SubStationCafe, an old electrical substation transformed into a cafe with a snug interior and a cute courtyard. We enjoyed a delicious start to the day at The Substation Cafe , an old electrical substation transformed into a cafe with a snug interior and a cute courtyard. Mediterranean influenced food, great coffee, friendly staff, good service.

We’ll be back 🙂

We went for a walk to the Mitchell Road Antique and Design Centre. It’s a warehouse packed with vintage and retro stuff – not really antiques. It appears to be divided into sections – I imagine that each section is sub-let to a different stall-holder.

This was followed by a short stroll to Lunatiques. Love the name 🙂
Ditto.

I was like a trip back to our grandparents’. We found ourselves at every turn saying either

Oh, look at that, I used to have these (ie remember those roller skates that laced up and the length was adjustable via a wingnut under the sole?)
or
Remember Gran used to have these? (cue the laminated kitchen table) or
Remember throwing that away/giving that to Vinnies?What a trip down memory lane!

Holy Crap! This little anvil, about the size of a rolled up sleeping bag – $1200! What would the one i have in the back yard be worth? No wonder the boys argue about who gets it when i die!!

Desk made from an aeroplane wing, anyone?

Week 47 ~ U is for Underground Bars

Posted: November 22, 2015 in Bars
Tags: small small bars, Sydney, Things to do in Sydney

Sydney’s small bar scene has changed a lot in the past few years as the local council has changed licencing laws to make them more viable.

The result is a really healthy mix of small bars, many of them underground, many of them completely un-advertised. Only through social media would you find a bar like Baxters – up a small alleyway and tucked around under a building in the corner.

We went to 3 underground bars –

Stitch Bar in York St, easily identified by the array of old Singer Sewing machines at street level
The Baxter Inn, a whisky bar in Clarence St, and
The Lobo Plantation, a rum bar in Clarence St

Secret Sydney. Fascinating.

Stitch Bar at street level

Underground

Stitch Bar

Baxters – hell of a whisky selection!

The Lobo – Rum Rum Rum

Week 42 ~ P is for Pittwater

Posted: October 17, 2015 in Cafe
Tags: pittwater, Sydney, Things to do in Sydney, this weekend in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

As Peter Fitzimons is fond of saying – Gotta love this city!

Less than 25 kilometres as the crow flies from the CBD, Church Point, opposite Scotland Island on Pittwater, north of Sydney.

Just beautiful. Idyllic setting; runabouts doing the Saturday morning shopping and run-around, lanyards slapping against masts, kayaks, fishing, walking, running, cycling.

A beautiful part of Sydney. Breakfast at the The Waterfront Store cafe and then a walk – what a great start to the weekend.

Next door, The Pasadena Motel and Restaurant – closed for the past 6 years after court action regarding its redevelopment – prime site, someone’s losing a lot of money.

The Waterfront Cafe on Pittwater at Church Point

Pittwater, Church Point

Pasadena Motel and Restaurant – closed for the past 6 years

Week 41 ~ O is for Opera Bar

Posted: October 10, 2015 in Sydney Harbour
Tags: barangaroo, opera house, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, Sydney History, Sydney weekends, Weekends in Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

A new arrival in Sydney – Barangaroo.

On the headland just west of the Harbour Bridge is Sydney’s newest urban park. Barangaroo was a local Kamaraygal woman who was the second wife of Bennelong, an important interlocutor between the Aboriginal people and the early British colonists in New South Wales. (wikipedia)

We wandered around this new park (it’s quite beautiful) and then made our way around the foreshore to the Opera Bar for a drink at the Opera House before a walk through the Botanical Gardens and home.

Quite lovely.

Looking south from Barangaroo towards Glebe

Looking west towards Balmain

Drinks at the Opera Bar

Week 39 ~ M is for Mooncake Festival

Posted: October 10, 2015 in Markets
Tags: festival, mooncake, Sydney

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival celebrated by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese Han calendar and Vietnamese calendar (within 15 days of the autumnal equinox), on the night of the full moon between early September to early October of the Gregorian calendar.
It’s a public holiday in Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea.
Given the Chinese and Korean influence in Eastwood where we live, it ws the perfect marriage of the week for M and convenience!

Classy place for the festival… Eastwood Hotel carpark!

Delicious street food

There’s bargains and treasure everywhere!@

Unfortunately the heavens opened up just as the parade started

Week 37 ~ K is for Kissing Point

Posted: September 12, 2015 in Cafe
Tags: beehive, breakfast, Lane Cove National Park, Sydney, what to do in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

There’s Kissing Points everywhere…
Fun fact: Historically, when a boat needed to have work done on the keel, the owner would float it up onto a sandy point at high tide and let the keel “kiss” the sand. Then when the tide went out, they could work on the boat.

We had to be up at Robyn’s work at Pymble on Saturday morning, so we had breakie at the Vertical Espresso cafe at Kissing Point Rd in Turramurra and then went for a walk through Lane Cove National Park between Turramurra and North Epping.

Beautiful Sydney spring morning. Great start to the weekend.

Vertical Espresso

Didn’t realize how close to Epping North we were

First time I’ve ever seen a beehive like this

Hard to believe we are only 16 km from the Sydney CBD

Week 33 ~ G is for Gladesville Hospital

Posted: August 16, 2015 in Walking
Tags: Sydney, sydney harbor, Sydney Harbour, Sydney History, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

We bought our first home unit at Gladesville in 1983 and lived there for a few years, but never visited the site of the former Gladesville “Mental Hospital”, a psychiatric hospital, established in 1838 in Gladesville. Its original name was Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum.

It’s located at Bedlam Point. Those of you who don’t get that connection > look here

It was purpose built to house “lunatics” in 1838, and apparently was a genuine attempt to improve the treatment of the mentally ill, allowing relatives to visit, patients to have access to recreational facilities and worthwhile work in what were once beautiful grounds.

In 1997, all inpatient services were consolidated at the Macquarie (North Ryde) site in Wicks Road.

Beautiful grounds

The pool looks a bit tired, but was probably once pretty advanced for a psych hospital.

Bedlam Point (not joking… it really is called that)

Gorgeous old fig by the water

One of these graves is that of a patient who was a resident there for more than 60 years

Had no idea there was a tunnel under Victoria Road

Imagine being housed in wings like this for perhaps years and years. Imagine the tears shed by inmates and families visiting.

Week 29 ~ C is for Cat Stevens

Posted: July 23, 2015 in show
Tags: panthers, penrith, Sydney

It’s taken me nearly 54 years, but I did it! I am no longer one of the minority of Sydney residents who have never been to Penrith Panthers! What a huge club! 7 restaurants, venues… a small city within a city!

With a dozen friends we headed out west to see the Peace Train – A Tribute to Cat Stevens show by Darren Coggan.

It was great. The story told of the life and times of Cat Stevens through spoken word and his songs.

Good fun 🙂

Week 27 ~ A is for Art

Posted: July 4, 2015 in Cafe
Tags: cafe, kids hospital, Sydney, Sydney weekends, Things to do in Sydney, this weekend in Sydney, Weekends in Sydney, What to do in Sydney this weekend

Back to the letter A again 🙂

Westmead Kids’ Hospital (The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children Hospital at Westmead, near Parramatta) runs an annual art competition for school children. From the thousands of entries, the best 50 are selected and framed and displayed on the walls of the corridors of the wards.

This has been happening for years, and as a result there’s hundreds of paintings that brighten the walls and corridors for the hundreds of sick kids and their parents, some of whom spend months and months within the confines of the hospital.

Even tough this year’s competition hasn’t been judged, we enjoyed what we saw from previous years.

http://bandagedbear.org.au/schools/operation-art/