A happy birthday breakfast in Cronulla

It’s my birthday in a couple of days and, because we can’t get time off work and do enjoy a good breakfast, my family took me off  for breakfast at The Nun’s Pool opposite Shelly Beach, South Cronulla this morning (this morning being Sunday). We showed up at 10am and… it was packed full of similarly inclined people. A good sign though disappointing. Not to worry though, they put us on the waiting list and suggested 15 minutes was all that was needed.

With a park and a beach just across the road, waiting wasn’t a problem (though we were all hungry – 10am is a late breakfast after all). Shelly Beach is one of several in Cronulla, is south of the main Cronulla Beach and helps to form the landfall side of Bate Bay. There’s a busy footpath, The Esplanade, that stretches from Cronulla Beach around to Bass & Flinder’s point at the opening of Port Hacking. It’s full of walkers, joggers, pram-pushers and bicycle riders any day of the week and in any weather.

My hubby and I had stopped at The Nun’s Pool for take-away coffee two weeks ago and drank it while watching wild surf roll in and over the rock pool. Today it was much calmer and the sun was starting to peek out. There were even people swimming in the pool. Two! And one small family on the beach. We ventured a toe into the water and found that, while not icey, it was too cool for a swim in our opinion. Just as well, really, we hadn’t brought our swimmers with us.

So the water was lovely, clear and cool with two swimmers. A few straggly waves broke the wall and further out was enough surf to maintain the odd surfer or two. Boats with fishing rods prickling across their sterns lined the bay. I could see my hubby’s fingers itch (he hasn’t taken his boat out for a fish in months). Obviously, the fish must be running with everything from tinny runabouts to fully-decked out “recreational” fishing boats from Boat Harbour (Kurnell) to Jibbon Point (Bundeena). Nothing for it but to go for a stroll in the park.

We duly filled in 15 minutes and headed back to the restaurant, deciding on the way that we’d head back into Cronulla central for breakfast if we couldn’t get in. Happily, we were sat down in a corner while a recently vacated table was cleared and then ushered to a position on the covered deck. A good spot as it was still crowded and fairly noisy further in. We ordered coffee, tea and freshly squeezed orange juice to get us started and Eggs Benedict and The Nun’s Breakfast to keep us going. The Nun’s Breakfast consisted of sweet corn fritters, sauteed spinach, avocado, smoked salmon, grilled tomato topped with sour cream.  Devine! So good, in fact, that I ate a little too fast. Hubby had the eggs. He managed to control himself a little better than me but assured me they were the best eggs he’d eaten. My daughter had the Nun’s Brekky too and was just as happy.

Great food. Pretty good coffee. Opposite the beach. Also, nice beachy atmosphere that’s modern and trendy without being too modern and trendy.  And I just love being in Cronulla. It’s one of the best beach suburbs in Sydney if not the whole of the state. Lots of beaches, rock pools, walks, parks and, of course, cafes. I actually also spent Saturday afternoon in Cronulla as well; visiting all the gift shops and boutiques in the Plaza with a friend.

After breakfast, we did a little more shopping in the Plaza then wandered home for a well-deserved after-birthday breakfast nap.

Overall, a pretty darn good weekend! And it’s not even my birthday yet

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North and South: a book review

I finally read the book (see earlier post: North and South: is the book as good as the film?) and loved it just as much as the mini-series. I’m keen now to read more of Elizabeth Gaskell’s stories. Her characters were wonderful, believable, real people. John Thornton has far more depth to his personality than Mr D’Arcy or Mr Knightley. Elizabeth obviously knew men to a much higher degree of intimacy than Jane Austen. Austen’s men are all wonderful but their characterisation only hints at their real thoughts and feelings compared to Gaskell’s Thornton who not only “really” feels but does not try to deny those feelings.

I’m in love all over again!

Of course, John Thornton isn’t the only character of note in the book. Margaret Hale is just as good on paper as on film; a worthy heroine in anyone’s book. Higgins is quite different – certainly harder to understand.

My only gripe with this book is the heavy accents in the dialogue of the Milton workers. It doesn’t usually bother me. I’ve written stories using dialect as well, that Milton accent though was something else. Having now griped, I will admit that I kind of figured it out half way through. Bessy was a good strong character as well, in touch with her god and her forthcoming death.

Actually, I have two gripes, the ending was not a patch on the film. The feeling was there, but the big romantic kiss at the railway station was not. <sigh>

If you haven’t read North and South yet, see the film first – having Richard Armitage as the visual for John Thornton is an extra benefit!

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Aross the ditch: I love New Zealand

Okay, so it’s only 3 hours from Sydney to Christchurch, one of the main reasons we chose New Zealand as our first family holiday overseas. What you quickly realise is once you add the hours you need to be at the airport before your flight leaves, the hour or so you need to allow in getting to the airport in case of traffic and then the time it takes to get through customs on the other side, pick up your hire car and drive to your first night’s accommodation; your whole day is completely shot!

4.30am we had to get up to catch a 10am flight (mind you, we didn’t really sleep prior to that anyway – I was awake all night long) and we checked into our hotel south of Christchurch around 5pm. That’s a long long day!

But you know what? New Zealand is worth it!

We spent our first night in Ashburton about an hour south of Christchurch and, we hoped, far enough away not to be caught out by random earthquakes. Who knows when these things are going to hit? Not us. Christchurch airport is fine by the way, nice and compact, easy to navigate. The hire car area is right outside the main door. All nice and easy in an open plan sort of way.

Our excited, though very tired eyes, were fascinated by the NZ need to hedge instead of fence paddocks and the very short distance between airport and totally rural region we found ourselves in. The hedges are very high by the way, not your usual English garden type of hedge. After a few kilometres we noticed the sheep and a few cows sheltering from the cool breeze (okay, it was a fairly cold wind) beneath the hedges – wind and weather shelters perhaps? At any rate, the hedges were different, as were the driving styles.

As an Australian, I think myself fairly laidback, but one thing I’ve learned is that the New Zealanders are probably even more laidback than Aussies!

Take the issue of personal space. Drivers come up close behind, overtake and then cut back right in front of you. Coming from a 3-car lengths kind of world, this took a couple of days to get used too. In shops, people push past you, squeeze in close to you and generally don’t seem to care that you’re standing there at all. For awhile there I thought I was invisible. We figured it out though, and made allowances, but it was a bit of a culture shock at first. Mind you, at that point we still had a lot to learn. Personal territory might be reduced for New Zealanders but it’s non-existent to people from other parts of the world. I’ll get to our Milford Sound experiences later though.

Our overall travel plan was a circle encompassing the southern tourist route and then cutting back in to Christchurch just past Hokatiku (I may have spelt that wrong, it’s been a few weeks). It was a bit of a grey day and cold, but we’d been expecting lower temperatures. Our first real day of travel we spent mostly in the car with liberal stops along the way to eat, drink and stretch our legs. We found a lovely heritage place at Oamaru (I’m pretty sure that’s where we were) with an interesting art gallery of sorts at the Steampunk HQ. The building was closed, but interesting sculptures could be seen over the fence such as a skeletal truck driver and oddly-decorated steam engines, etc.

Next door to this was a beautiful garden that followed a river along until it reached the beach (not far off). The other side of the river looked like the industrial area. It was all a little random really, but very interesting. To think, we found it completely by accident!

Steam Punk HQ

We spent a couple of hours exploring and then hit the road for Dunedin. Lovely drive down the coast, but that’s a whole other blog post!

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