Walk around Narrabeen Lake

Today was the day we walked around Narrabeen Lake; we had planned to do it for a while but with constant house showings and Elaine's knee op, then it was too hot etc.

Today was a perfect 24 degrees, so off we went.  The lake is about 10ks north from where we live so its not too far - I pass it every day driving to work. Talking of driving I had the boss's car for the weekend because he wanted the ute to move some furniture. The last thing he said to me Friday was "don't fiddle with anything and don't take your bloody dogs in my car......."

Oooopppss!

We left the car park and walked around the lake in a clockwise direction past some of the lake side houses.

This one would be the worst house, best street etc and still probably worth a couple of million!! It was a total dump.

I reckon it was going to be about a 12k walk so it was going to be a good test for Elaine's knee

The lake is used by canoeists, sailors, windsurfers and fisherman, it is a lovely but very shallow lake

Sam was very interested in the ducks and geese so we had to keep him on his lead as he would just swim after them and not stop.

Yep we are going right to the far end

Sammy started to suffer in the heat so we regularly had to stop and let him have a swim or sit in the shade for a while

Another thing that really upsets Sam is when he gets twigs and leaves stuck around his bum and of course he makes it worse by dragging his arse along the floor and everything sticks to him, every now and again Elaine has to give him a clean up....no crap just sticks and mud, god knows how he is going to go on the tow path!

Dirty Doggie

Sammy cooling off

Of course there are the occasional 'dogs banned' signs but this one also bans cats...come on pussy lets go for a walk! They are just so dumb.

The walk also cuts across part of Cromer golf club, which was quite nice.  You can also cycle around the lake and I would have to say all the cyclists were very polite, we only saw one wanker in the full Tour De France get up.

Towards the very end you have to cut across the Academy of Sports Ground, there were quite a lot of Cockatoos strutting about.

You have to cut across the sports ground as there is no way round it, by now we only about 2 ks from the car, as we entered the ground there was a huge sign saying 'Absolutely No Dogs Past This Point' - which we chose to totally ignore ... there was no way we were going to back track 10 ks.  I think we would have happily told them where to go at that point !

Nearly back at the car and there is a new section of walk/cycle way which is very impressive, there is even a sign warning of snakes!

I (Paul) am off to the UK in 10 days time, now who am I flying with.....OOPPSS.  

Still waiting for 'the one' !!

Ah well - we are still waiting for 'the one' to buy our house!  The 'Red Hot' buyers seemed to fizzle out quite quickly.  All rather annoying really because they had us do a special open house last Tuesday morning, for the wife and then wanted the husband to come and see it on the Sunday as he couldn't make it to the Saturday open house and she didn't need to see it again as 'she was so sure she liked it' !)

We were going to go out for a long walk on Sunday but when we were about to leave the house in the morning, the band started up next door ... so we couldn't go out and stay out in case they continued playing !  (Next door we have two sons - in their 20's who have been playing the drums for as long as we have been living here (12 years) - the father has sound-proofed the room, so it is not too bad generally but when the whole band arrive, we can hear it and so can half the street)!  So - we were panicking a bit - but it was only 10am - so we were sure they would have had enough by 12.30pm when the guy was supposed to come and view the house !

So - change of plans - we just went to Manly for brekky and a little walk about (it was too hot for our planned long walk round the lakes anyway !) - then we went back home just as the band were leaving .. yay !!!  We popped in the house to light the candles and oil burners and do one last check --- and there was a nice big pile of dog poo on the deck ... sooooo glad we came back !!!  That would have made a nice impression !

Out we went in the car with the dogs - and when we hadn't heard from our Real Estate guy by 1.15pm we were wondering what was going on !  Turns out the guy was running late and they weren't even in the house yet - so we continued to drive around !!

Anyway - after all that - they have decided to buy a place round the corner (which is a dump !) - hey ho .. back to the drawing board !  We have another couple coming for a second look this Saturday and also one coming for another special look tomorrow morning - another morning cleaning - I will be so glad when we sell it and I can go back to my slovenly (?sp) ways !!! Elaine xx

Big Weekend Coming Up

Sunday is the rugby world cup final so it will be another big night down the skiff club. (Not a bad place for a cheap beer or three !)

As the Aussies have been knocked out we will be rooting for the Kiwis, and just in case you don't know, New Zealand is a small suburb of Sydney located off the east coast.  (You could also see NB Waiouru's take on the subject on Fri 21 Oct 11!)

Another open day on Saturday plus Mr Real Estate has got what he calls a 'red hot prospect' who is coming for a private visit with her hubby on Sunday, she has seen the place already but hubby is in NZ and gets home Saturday night. He reckons she loves the house, the street and is cashed up - so this is hopefully 'the one'. If this one falls over then that's probably it 'till after Christmas.  Certainly a few more houses have sold recently in the area so we are, as ever, hopeful.

I went next door to check on the progress of Elaine's car, (it has been in the panel beaters since someone 'jumped all over' it!) ... it has its new roof and bonnet on and is now in the paint shop, but it is a very tricky colour....Pearly White??  so it is still a few days away yet - so Elaine is stranded for another week !

On Sunday (after our private 'open for inspection' !) we might go for a long walk around Narrabeen Lake - they have just made a walkway all the way round it, which makes life easier !  The last time we tried it ... years ago ... (with pushbikes !) - we got stuck half way round and had to carry our bikes through the bush!  Apparently the walk is 6.5 km and takes about 90 mins ... although I think it will take us longer than that !!!  Anyway - it may be too hot - the weather has suddenly warmed up and today is 27 degs ...

GO THE KIWIS !!

The Week That Was

Social Life.....

We went to see Meatloaf in concert ar the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Wednesday, really good concert even  though he missed a few notes, great backing band as well. He came on at 9.00 pm and finished at 11.45 pm! Friday night we took the dogs down to Manly and sat out side the Bavarian Beer Cafe for a couple of beers, Oktober fest and all that, followed by takeaway and home. Saturday we went down to the Steyne pub in Manly and watched Wales get beat by the Frogs :-(   Afterwards we went to  a very nice Thai restaurant and then home to watch Man Utd vs Liverpool. Today (Sunday)   we walked down to Manly to pick up the ute from the night before, then to Curl Curl beach where Curly sound waves was going off. Then we had lunch in freshwater and I am now sitting on the deck blogging in superb sunshine, El is is in a state of vegetation with the dogs. Later this afternoon we are off to the Manly 16ft skiff club for tea followed by the weekends main event....Australia vs NZ in the Rugby.

Elaine vegging out with the dogs

House.....

Another open day Saturday, with a good turnout and according to Mr Real Estate a couple of very interested parties, so we now wait for the offers to come flooding in.  We went and had a look a a couple of places ourselves on the weekend, just for market research reasons, and would have to say that there seem to be  more  positive vibes out there, bloody hope so.

Work....

Elaine has been restricted to working from home as her car is at the smash repairers having a new roof, bonnet and respray after an unknown TWAT carried out his dance moves on the roof and bonnet.

I have been really busy at work with no slowdown whatsoever in the marine spare parts industry.

Animals....

We removed the 1st tick of the season off Sam last night, joy o joy. The paralysis tick in Australia is deadly to dogs so you must check them often and thoroughly.   The rest are all very happy lying in the sun and chasing possums at night.

That's it so Go Aussies in the Rugby World Cup semi final and good luck to Casey Stoner in the Australian Moto GP.

Blogging Away

 

Continuing House Sale Saga

We had another open day last Saturday, but with a definitive price rather than auction or 'offers-over' options.  Out of that, we had one very interested couple, who are coming back for a second sticky beak.  We had three groups through on Saturday and no advertising in the paper for that weekend !  We are back to a few more glossy ads this weekend onward - so fingers crossed !!!  Elaine was in the garden this morning and spotted a car checking out the sign and the house for a long time ... who knows, he could be 'the one' - we only need one!!

At last there is better financial  news coming out of the states and Europe and the Aussie dollar is up again.

One of my work mates put his unit (flat) on the market on Saturday, he lives around the corner from us.  He had it on for offers over $560,000 dollars, It sold after 25 minutes for $590,000 !!! They are still in shock.

I really hope the house sells soon we want to blog about more exciting subjects rather than a bloody house sale.  I want to be whinging about hire boaters and speeding boats etc....Joke :).  I would like to aspire to the great heights of the Northern Pride and Caxton blogs with their positive and upbeat content.

Ah well .. back to work !  Highlight of this week ... we are going to see Meatloaf in concert tomorrow night ... will let you know how it goes !

Auction No Go :-(

No auction result I'm afraid. Real estate man came around the night before the auction and said that 3 people were going to the auction but only 1 was going to bid, he also said that her absolute top bid was going to be $165,000 less than we got offered back in April. That offer fell over because Jaffa the cat had failed his rabies jab so it would add another 1 month to the settlement date, the purchaser couldn't handle that and pulled out.
A very expensive cat!

So after a long deliberation (2 secs) we knocked back her crap offer, so there was no point going to auction.
So now we have gone straight for a sale price and will keep on advertising for a few weeks. If still no offers we will probably take it off the market until the prices sort themselves out. It really is quite strange because Australia is going very well compared to the rest of the world, mainly because our Chinese friends buy all our coal, iron ore and other such minerals as in copper zinc etc, so along as China is OK so are we.
But this hasn't stopped the housing market from being spooked, so it seems that all the buyers are looking for bargains and are trying to help the poor house vendors by taking it off their hands for a fraction of what its worth.


So are we bitter? A little, but as the canals have been around for 200 years I think they will wait a little longer for us to join them.


One person who was very happy was my boss, as we will probably be around for a bit longer.


We told Bombo about the nasty lady that was taking the piss, and what can I say, this is all that's left of her.........

Elaines Dodgy Knee

Elaine has spent the day in hospital getting her left knee sorted out, she will explain the technical details later.

She had the right knee sorted out about 6 months ago, so hopefully she will now be able to walk for miles on the towpath with no pain, you never know I might even get her to come snow skiing with me.

haha -  Elaine here - the day after !  Dunno about that ski-ing lark - just maybe along the towpaths in winter time (with the aid of our two 'mini-huskies').  I've been pretty dopey all day - so have been bludgin' around watching daytime tele - mostly on the sofa with my legs up!  The left knee has been a bit more involved than the right - it had gotten pretty bad as I think has been taking the load from my right knee all these years ! I blame Jane Fonda for the original injuries - which shows that I am talking a few years here !!

This op was also an ilio tibial band release plus removal of a plica and a general clean up - should be as good as new I hope !   I start physio tomorrow and will see the surgeon so will get the full story then !  Wasn't too good last night after the anaesthetic - made a dash for the loo in the laundry when Paul dropped me at the back door - didn't quite make it and - tune out here if you don't want the gory details - but managed to projectile over the laundry door before I could get it open !!  Yuk !  Pretty good today though all considered !!

Our Real Estate guy is coming to see us tonight - not sure if he has any buyers for us for our auction on Thursday - so maybe we will just have to have the place up for sale for a while ... anyway - we will see what he has to tell us tonight - hopefully someone has come up with an amazing offer for us !  

That's me for now --- back to the tele :) Elaine x

Tourists For A Day

As today was a public holiday we thought we would be tourists for a day and go over to the city and have a walk around the Rocks area, which was the first part of Sydney to be inhabited by the white man over 200 years ago.

We started by walking over the harbour bridge ... you can walk over the arches of the bridge but that costs a lot of money plus you can't take the dogs with you!  (In actual fact you cannot take anything whatsoever with you just in case you drop it onto the roadway below)!

So along the free and dog-friendly walkway we went.

The bridge consists of, from left to right ... a cycleway, 2 railway tracks, 8 lanes of traffic and 1 walkway.

You get a fantastic view from the bridge deck.  You look east over the harbour, Circular Quay and, of course, the Opera House.

Just imagine this chap cruising along the the canals...now that's what I call a WAKE!  The bloggers would go into meltdown.

Looking back towards the city is Circular Quay and the Passenger Terminal for the cruise ships. The green and cream boats are the harbour ferries with the larger one being the Manly Ferry, which is classed as a outer harbour ferry. The cruise ship was the Volendam out of Rotterdam. I doubt if there are many cruise terminals in the world where the ships are moored right in the middle of the city. 

You get a nice view of the Opera House from the bridge

The Manly ferry sporting the Go Manly banner from yesterdays Grand Final, which of course Manly won, woohoo !!

We walked back across the bridge and down to the passenger terminal and checked out the Volendam - I think she is based down here for our summer, doing Pacific cruises. Nice looking ship.

We then headed off to walk under the bridge - there are always lots of groups walking over the top of the bridge - they are all tethered on to a continuous cable, so if you have suicidal tendencies forget the bridge climb, you are wasting your money. They also have to wear grey overalls so they blend into the bridge!

We stopped for an ice cream whilst Bombo rolled around in "Bat Shit" - he was in doggy ecstasy !

mmmmm deodorant!

Had to take some pics of the dogs and yours truly with interesting back grounds. 

I see no bridge!

Wot's that stickin' out of my ear !

 
 There was a nice tall ship passing under the bridge (it was built in 1922 in Denmark of danish oak frames.  Its original name was 'Svanen' and she traded as a grain carrier between Denmark and Greenland for the Tuborg beer company until 1969.  She was then purchased in 1969 as a private vessel and extensively refitted to make extensive ocean voyages and charters on Sydney harbour. She first came to Sydney in 1988 for the bicentennial...I think. She is now called Southern Swan).

We only spotted 2 brides today, mind you it is Monday, on a normal Sunday there are shed loads of brides grazing under the harbour bridge and its environs. A few years ago we counted them for a laugh, we got up to 17 groups all looking for that different special shot. Can't really blame them as it is easily the most beautiful harbour in the world! 

Nice day for a white wedding yea

Lastly we went right under the bridge - this is a pic. of the concrete bases and bearings that hold up the bridge - 4 altogether, 2 either side; the bridge weighs approx 60,000 tons.  The pylons either end are purely there for aesthetics.

Last bit of useless information.....Paul Hogan used to work as a rigger on the bridge!

Manly and all that Jazz

Its a long weekend this weekend, plus its the Manly Jazz Festival and today is the Rugby League grand final and it just so happens Manly is one of the teams. The Rugby League Grand final is one of Australia's premier sporting events so this weekend is huge in Manly.

One slight problem re the jazz festival was that last night and most of the morning there was a huge storm and torrential rain.
We had a late start for our walk down to Manly and breakfast,

The sea was angry that day my friends

The sea was rough and the beach deserted! Normally at this time of the day the beach and walkway is packed, with both locals and tourists.

It was blowing a bloody gale as we made our way along the deserted walkway.

Streamlined Sam

The dogs were looking very streamlined

Wot no tourists

El striding into the gale!

Once we got down there the stages were deserted but at least the rain had stopped.

The Corso palm trees had the Manly team colours wrapped around them

We spotted a lonely jazz man looking for somewhere to play.

We got to our regular Sunday breakfast cafe and the lonely jazz player met up with his mates

So we had a lovely breakfast being serenaded by the 4 piece jazz band

  

We walked back home past nearly deserted  cafes, such a shame they should be packed.  

We are now home and the weather has improved a lot, so we are about to have a few beers and watch the Grand Final

GO MANLY!!!!