Back to NYC - Part 1

It's been two and a bit years in the making but I finally managed to sneak back to NYC for a quick visit as part of a crazy round the world work trip. I'd been to Manila, Hong Kong and London during the week and finally touched down in NYC on a Friday night at about 10pm. I was pumped.

My mate from Sydney, Ange, had flown up from Miami and arrived about the same time as I did. As tired as I was I was keen to make the most of every moment of the weekend. We headed up to the rooftop bar of the hotel for a sneaky night cap. Very typical NY but the bar was going into doof doof overdrive and not quite my thing so we decided to jump in a cab and head down to the West Village. We ended up at Corner Bistro and my completely out of whack body clock thought it was lunch time alas it was 2am in the morning but when is it not a good time to have a Bistro Burger? It was delicious. I think it might be the ridiculously bad for you deep fried bacon but who cares.

We made it back to the hotel about 3am which was good as I had a huge day planned for the next day. Stay tuned for another epic NYC adventure coming shortly.

The Bistro Burger. Gold.

I still laugh every time I see this sign

On top of the Dream Hotel with Ange

Summer 2016

I was reading an article in SMH the other day and it said Sydney has had it's longest run of hot weather ever this summer. There have been 26 days in a row over 28 degrees. Awesome. We've really tried to make the most of it by getting to a few 'secret' beaches. I guess these days there is no such thing in Sydney but it's still an adventure getting to somewhere new that isn't Bondi or Manly. Here's some photos from some of the spots we've been over the past couple of weeks.

Kutti Beach
Kutti is a tiny beach down in Vaucluse and just before Watson's Bay. It's at the end of a dead end street and has a very tiny staircase to get down to it. What is so cool about Kutti is it's dog friendly so we've been able to go with Dasha. It's been awhile since he's been to the beach and he absolutely loved it.

Dash loving it but still afraid to come out in the water

The stair case to get down to Kutti Beach

Darook Beach
Darook is located down behind Cronulla and another slice of heaven in Sydney. It's a short walk down a steep hill but is a super calm spot being on the inner harbor. The best part about coming here is the random bakery we discovered nearby which has the best pies around. Sun, water, pies. Lovely.

Camp Cove
Camp Cove was a spot we went to a lot early on weekend morning last summer. It was good to get out there to beat the crowds as traffic and parking can be pretty notorious. I went there two days in a row last week and it was one of the beach highlights of this summer. The water was just that perfect temperature which is refreshing on a hot day. The boys had a ball and had their obligatory drive home nap indicating they'd had a really good time.

We're going to really miss summer 2016. Bring on Summer 2017.

Milk Beach

The weather was looking really good on Sunday so we decided to go on an adventure to a beach we'd not been to before. We ended up heading to Milk Beach in Vaucluse. Milk Beach is a hidden little gem down in front of Strickland House. The area is owned by the National Parks and it's about a 300 meter walk from the main road.

Upon arriving we pulled up a spot in the shade and then did beach stuff. Flynn was loving exploring the rocks and valleys and a real highlight was the ice cream boat which came to shore. The boys also loved watching the sea planes take off and land. A real piece of paradise in the city.

Small but lovely

Sausage rolls and pies on the beach.

Nice backdrop on the beach

Flynn's fav boat ever....the ice cream boat

All this swimming was to much for the boys

And Now For Something Different

It's been awhile and I thought I'd put up a blog which didnt include either Flynn / Archie, Dasha or the reno. Last weekend Tracy and I decided to get a life and got a babysitter in to look after the boys so we could have a night out on the town. Tracy had booked a table at Six Penny in Stanmore courtesy of Santa's little helper in Wattle Grove. 

We were both a bit excited for our first date night in a long time and dusted off our duds for a night on the town. The night was lovely so we decided to walk and we started off by having a pre dinner drink at the West Village in Petersham, a very appropriately named pub. It's been gentrified into an uber cool style hangout on a quiet street in Petersham. 

From the West Village we headed to Six Penny in Stanmore. Six Penny is a pretty fancy place which only does degustation style meals in a farm-to-table type concept. We went all out and got the eight courses and I got matching wines. It was a quaint little place and the entrees and mains were very good. The duck was smoked which was a little different. We both found the desserts a little to fancy. I much prefer simple things however they'd come out with quite complex desserts which didnt really appeal to me but am sure some people would love them. 

Overall a really great night out.

West Village

Stanmore, such a quiet place between incomming planes

Six Penny

Smoked Duck

Six Penny

All In All It's Just Another......

One of the key features of the reno was completed this weekend and I would have never of thought I'd get so excited over a brick wall. We're trying to get a bit of an industrial theme happening and one of the key elements of the brief was having a feature brick wall. The look I wanted was similar to the exposed brick we had in our apartment in the East Village. A sort of red clay style brick. After countless trips to used brick yards all over Sydney I finally found a material I was looking for.

The construction started two weeks ago and it was amazing as they managed to get through three quarters of the wall in one day. To give you an idea of size it's four meters wide by five meters tall. It's a feature in the void area and something we hope will break up the clean white lines in other parts of the room.

We'd designed in an English bond on every ten rows. That's where the head of the brick (short end) is exposed. I did have to Google that when it was first mentioned. Also put in a few white painted bricks to break it up a bit.

The final touch was done today with a pressure hose clean. We didnt end up acid washing it as was afraid this would remove to much of the character from the bricks. We absolutely love where we ended up with it. Almost feels like it could have been there 100 years. A big thanks to the bricklayer, Ashton, he's done a superb job.

The bricks in the yard. The two middle pallets and half the back one at the top are the bricks we used.

And we're off with the first row of bricks

And more

And even more

Not a bad days effort making it 3/4's of the way up

Almost done, one small corner to g

And we're done (without the clean)

 And now introducing the final product

Week 7 and 8 - The Start of the Frame

It's been a really productive fortnight onsite. Now that the steelwork is up it enabled the team to start on the frame. A run of pretty decent, albeit hot weather has enabled work to move along at a steady pace. During week seven the downstairs frame and first floor went up and during week eight the upstairs frame and roof joists were started. It's really cool as you can get much more of a perspective of the build now. 

The single most exciting thing to happen this fortnight was the brick wall went up. I'll save a separate blog to go into intricate detail on this topic.

The 'district vistas' from upstairs

Future ensuite window

Sunset over the flour mills from our bedroom window.