Julie and I are truly settled in Manly. They say "once you're in Manly, you never leave"... that's not to say people don't ever move from Manly, that's to say people never go anywhere other than Manly for their leisure pursuits; no Sydney, no Bondi, no anywhere. But is that true? Mostly, yes!
We live in the brown brick building on the third floor
Julie and I were talking about the places we've lived and with one exception, our home in Lake Oswego, we have always lived on the water. Well, we don't actually live directly on the water here but we have the harbour to the left, 1 block, and the ocean to the right, 2 blocks. We take our coffee on a park bench most mornings, stroll the beach at night, we even enjoy our dinners (occasionally) in true Aussie fashion, picnicking in the park. We love it.
Our apartment is far better than the apartment we had in Balmain East. The only thing I miss about that place is the balcony with the glorious views of Manly harbour and the Harbour Bridge. Other than that...not much to miss about that place. Here, we have a much larger (even open) lounge (living room) and a better kitchen; still small, but more modern and a bit larger. We even have a microwave now! The bedrooms are also larger with much more storage. Even though we only have one bathroom, it's plenty for the two of us. My favourite part of the bathroom is the toilet seat. You know how kitchen drawers and cupboards are sometimes self-closing? Well, drop the toilet seat and it slowly goes down for you... no clanging noises... just slow and easy. It's such a good idea and remarkably, I like it sufficiently to blog about it? The kitchen has no sit-in dining so we take our meals in the lounge or the dining room. The dining room seats six with a nice service, though, we mostly use it as a place to work.
I'm thinking about starting a food blog about restaurants in Manly. We eat out often enough to try many of the places, and, there seems to be a bit of a shortage of good information on Manly restaurants. Julie works with someone that does a food blog in Sydney and she receives free meals from restaurants anxious for a review -- might be a good way to get some free grub while (hopefully) meeting/connecting with people in the area. Right now, I'm just considering this.
This past weekend we ate at a great restaurant called "Out of Africa". Truly extraordinary food. I'd say it's #2 in our Aussie experience behind only "Sake". Really good though, 2 minutes from our home.
I'll log off for now. I need to get out with my camera and take some photos to share with simple captions. You, my blog stalker, will get a much better sense of our life in Manly. Cheers.
