The Balmoral Lifestyle

I’ve made it a mission to explore areas of Sydney outside the tourist/uni student bubble. I have a list of neighborhoods still to check out. But with autumn rain clouds hanging overhead for more than a week, not to mention a few thousand words worth of research papers due, it’s been harder to get out these days. Finally on Sunday, I set aside a few rainless hours to visit Balmoral, an area of North Sydney brought to my attention by Not Quite Nigella.


I noticed a few things about Balmoral (pronounced BAL-moral, not bal-MORALE, as I originally wanted to call it). First, everyone smells like coconut. Second, everyone has kids under age five or is pregnant. The area is beautiful and so are the people, their modern houses and snazzily dressed kids.


I wandered through the hilly residential streets with my friend Becca, admiring the homes and thinking of Malibu. We eventually found our way to The Esplanade on Hunter’s Bay. As per Not Quite Nigella’s recommendation, we stopped at the Bather’s Pavilion Kiosk to grab a snack, which we ate on the small headland park, surrounded by young couples and their kids.


Ah, the Balmoral lifestyle.


In town we saw several children’s clothing and maternity wear shops. Becca and I stopped in a few home stores to look at kitchen gadgets and gourmet non-perishables.

I decided Balmoral would be a fantastic place to get married, buy a house (like this one) and then make tarts and babies for the next few years. Of course, I’d have to find that coconut scent everyone was wearing.

Sydney Birdies

I’ve been big on birds here. Part of it is that so many exotic looking birds are quite common in Sydney. The other reason is they’re easy to get up close and photograph. (Sometimes too close.)


These photos are from a trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park, but I’ve seen them all in the wild, and by wild, I mean public parks in Sydney. Up top is the crimson rosella, followed by an inquisitive rainbow lorikeet.


Cockatoos are more common than the others around the Sydney CBD (central business district). They’ve got a loud squawk and of course, their natural habitat seems to be the trees just outside my window every morning.


Kookaburras also have an interesting call. They’re often called “laughing kookaburras” because, well, I’m sure you can put two and two together. You can listen to their laugh track here.

I might as well throw in this GQ shot of what I think is a noisy miner at Hunter’s Bay yesterday.


And one more seagull photo to add to the collection.