Di takes Mum and Dad down memory lane

 

From Di: 12/6/2021

Hi Lisa 

Re: Places where we lived when Mum and dad first arrived in Sydney

On my recent trip with Mum and dad for Dad’s birthday in April we visited many of their haunts when they first arrived. 

On dad’s birthday on 19th April we went to the Coogee Bay Hotel, which is where he had his 21st birthday many years before. But of course it’s been renovated since then. 

Us at the Coogee Bay Hotel:

 

 

 

 

 

We couldn’t figure out the exact flat in Coogee where Mum and dad lived. I think this was the first or second one they lived in (before I was born, but I think they had you while they were there)

Dad thinks it might have been

Flat 1/12-????? Havelock Avenue, Coogee.

Things have changed so it’s hard to tell. There is a barber shop and other shops there now, with but it seems that it is actually the flats at the back of the shops. We walked down entrances between the shops that took you to the back of these shops, and that’s where the flats where. but there were so many that we still couldn’t figure out which flat it was.

However they are sure it’s that block.

I realised later that I didn’t take photos of the actual flats because we couldn’t figure out which one it was.

However here is a photo from google maps of the barbershop in front of it. 

Then they lived at 36 French Lane Maroubra. I think they shared with other people. By that stage you were born, but I hadn’t been born yet. Here is the house:

 

 Then they moved to a new housing commission flat at 707/3 Florence Avenue, Eastlakes. We went there and it is slummy looking. I was born when they were there. 

 

 

 Then we moved to this place in 21 Queen St Beaconsfield (but Mum and dad call it Alexandria). This is the first place that I remember (though vaguely).

 

 Where we got our cat Angus from the alleyway behind our Queen st house:

 

(Then after the Alexandria place our family moved to Kurri Kurri when we were kids.)

During this birthday trip we went to a few other places, this included the Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Pagewood, where Mum used to work. We had a nice lunch there, it’s members only, but I told them Mum used to work there so they let us in. I didn’t take a photo, but here is one from the web:

 

 We also went to another golf cub during our trip where we scored a free lunch!  Because the club thought we were part of their function, but I ended up donating money to their charity.  This was the St Michael’s Golf Club in Little Bay. No connection to Mum and dad but I wanted to go there because Matt Damon had been filming Thor in their grounds earlier in the week. But they weren’t filming there when we went.

One of the last things we went to on our trip was that we went to the Grounds of Alexandria:

 

 

Then mum and dad had a kiss at the kissing booth: