1. Go whale Watching at Cape Solander
2. Catch a ferry to Bundeena and see the Bundeena/Maianbar Art Trail (first Sunday of the month)
3. Join one of the Cronulla swimming clubs and go ocean swimming between 5am and 8am (we haven’t road tested this one just yet….)
4. Visit the Hazelhurst Art Gallery in Gymea
5. Play 10 pin bowling at Sylvania (at least its in-doors!)
6. Visit the Brass Monkey Cronulla mid-week. There are always incredibly talented local and international bands playing week in and week out.
7. Spoil yourself and eat at Summersalt restaurant in Cronulla on a clear night (Enjoy that view)
8. Visit the Camelia Gardens in Caringbah and feed the ducks
9. Play a round of golf at Kareela Golf Course
10. Go for a bushwalk around Waterfall

Everyone who attended donated $2 to our Dry July fund and special mention to the Travelscene Cronulla girls who donated $60. Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far, put up with our whinging and encouraged us when we were about to lose it and grab the wine bottle.

For anyone interested in supporting the Price of Wales Hospital – please give kindly. A donation big or small will be much appreciated. Every dollar counts!

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved so far! Halfway through the month and over halfway to our target of $2000 ($1175 so far!).

To donate click here – Booze Free Beach & Bay Realty

To see photos from the day, or see the amazing cupcakes see our flickr site!

In a week we are exercising more, feeling fresher, avoiding hangovers and navigating social situations booze free. We are also eating more chocolate to compensate, complaining quite a lot and reflecting on how alcohol has come to play such a huge part in our daily lives (quite scary!)

I’m finding the challenge quite tough as am in the thick of 21^st season – 2 per weekend with unlimited free bar tabs. It’s not easy that’s for sure, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than dealing with cancer (obviously!) and so whenever I begin to feel sorry for myself, I just have to remember that this is a tiny tiny challenge in comparison!

We have been logging our experience in a daily journal and you can read more about everyones struggles here! I also found this hilarious video a fellow Dry Julyer made (hopefully it doesn’t get to this point!)

Kylie has been full of energy and ideas this week – getting more and more excited about the amount of money we are raising and the impact this will have on The Prince of Wales hospital and the adult cancer patients we are directly helping. In order to celebrate our halfway mark we are organising a get together at Bass & Flinders café in Cronulla next Friday 16^th July. Friends and clients are more than welcome to join us – to share a coffee (not Irish ok!) and a cupcake (famous Cupcake Kitchen ones). We are asking for a $2 entry donation to go towards our fundraising and anyone who has already donated is especially encouraged to come as a thank you!

Cupcakes & Coffee to celebrate Dry July

Where: Bass & Flinders, Cronulla

When: Friday July 16th at 11am

What to bring: Yourself, some positive encouragement for Dry Julyers, $2 donation & money for coffee

Please email info@beachandbay.com.au or phone the office on 9527 0008 if you would like to join us. (So Kylie can bake enough cupcakes!).

Cheers!

Kylie Emans started Beach & Bay Realty with many great ideas. She wanted the agency to be independent of franchises, technologically advanced and with agents committed to ethical practice – honest, hardworking and fair. From the get go Beach & Bay has been at the forefront of adapting to changing technologies, embracing the internet as an advertising medium from the very beginning. Over the last year we have been working tirelessly to improve our website – collecting auction results for the public as usual but also adding more and more features.

In the last year….

Looking at Beach & Bay Realty Offline

• Beach & Bay had a record month in February 2010, selling over $15 million dollars worth of property. Considering only 2 agents were responsible for these sales this is an enormous achievement, if we do say so ourselves!

• Beach & Bay was appointed the exclusive selling agents for Drift Cronulla, a  luxury lifestyle apartment block with state of the art inclusions. Everyone here was absolutely blown away by these enormous prestige properties which set a benchmark not only for Cronulla, but Sydney-wide in regards to apartment living. Starting from $2.25million, built by Sammut Developments, and located in the heart of Cronulla, Drift attracted a lot of attention.

• Kylie Emans was nominated for a Telstra Businesswoman of the Year award

• Yet again we have had another full year of secret sales at record prices, proving that our database is not just a gimmick but an excellent selling tool and one we actually use. Instead of 1000’s of names on a list we work with a handful of value clients.

Looking at www.beachandbay.com.au

• 25,000 people have visited our humble independent website
• You have looked at over 78,000 pages
• 11,165 of you are new visitors – (thanks for stopping by, we love you and hope you come back!)

Auction results

• 12,768 is the number of times our auction results have been viewed. We provide this service for free because we want to be the local experts and we want to share our love of realestate with you. (We were also a bit tired with the lack of coverage of our area.)
• 1344 is the number of times our blog has been read – Don’t be frightened guys, we encourage you to stop by and read more. It’s not all real estate talk we promise. We cover local events, charities, property news, current affairs. And if there is a specific topic you would like addressed, just let us know!

Drift, Cronulla by  Sammut Developments

• Drift listings, blogs and posts on Sammut Developments were viewed over 5600 times on our website alone. Many of you wondered what living in the Drift Penthouse would be like and this listing was viewed over 1200 times.

Fundraising for Teneile

• Natalie Vials put the call out to help a friend and past client whose daughter had suffered from brain damage. We developed a website for Teneile Pawley, hoping to raise money to go towards medical costs and buying her a much needed wheelchair. Online donations came pouring in, Nat’s husband, Steven Vials, ran 250km through the Kimberleys to raise support and we topped it all off with a HUGE party at the Brass Monkey Cronulla. To date we have raised $25,000 in 6 months and will continue to support this great cause.

Fundraising for The Leukaemia Foundation

• I asked Kylie if it would be ok if her front of desk –marketing & social media manager was bald. She asked if it was just a new hairstyle I wanted to try (I’ve been known to do drastic things to my hair) and I told her no, it was for the World’s Greatest Shave. With Beach & Bay’s full support I raised money for the Leukaemia Foundation online and also held a fundraising night at Northies, Cronulla where staff and clients attended. $7500 in total was raised and I was in the top 30 fundraisers for NSW. Kylie did draw the line at the eyebrows (I said I would shave them too if I raised $8000…so close!).

Cronulla Buzz

• We created a new feature on our website that lists upcoming events in and around Cronulla. This is more work for us, trawling websites, actually reading flyers in our letterbox, and always keeping an eye out, but it means you can plan your weekends in advance, and that we know exactly what is going on in Cronulla. It’s just another way we hope to show you that our staff members live, work and play in Cronulla – and that it’s a great place to buy realestate!

E-Newsletter

• We recently overhauled our e-newsletter to make it packed to the brim with juicy real estate news, auction results, local events, new listings and blog rants. Released fortnightly this is something you don’t want to miss out on! Email info@beachandbay.com.au and tell us you NEED to be put on our mailing list immediately.

REUNCUT Interview with Kevin Turner

• Kylie Emans was interviewed by Kevin Turner on REUNCUT ‘The Daily Internet Show for Real Estate Professionals’. They discussed online marketing, the transition from print media to online media, the benefits of social media (twitter, blogging and facebook) and the impact it is having on the real estate industry.

Property Ad Guru

• Beach & Bay Realty was featured on this American real estate industry website with a spotlight on our auction results section.

Ok, so enough bragging. What about next year you ask?

Well, we aren’t stopping here. We are a force to be reckoned with and we are only going to get better.

• Our website will keep developing (we have an in-house (overworked) web designer).
• Our auction results are going to be more comprehensive
• Our support of charities will continue. July 2010 marks Beach & Bay Realty’s first attempt at “Dry July” where staff members are giving up grog for a month to raise money for adults living with cancer.
• We will continue selling luxury real estate and expanding our marketing (we currently offer individual property websites, the only agents doing so)
• We will be doing more project marketing since our success with Drift. Stand by for news on this.

Watch this space.

]]> http://beachandbay.com.au/realestateblog/2010/07/02/looking-back-one-year/feed/ 0 http://beachandbay.com.au/realestateblog/2010/06/21/a-perfect-winter-weekend-in-cronulla/ http://beachandbay.com.au/realestateblog/2010/06/21/a-perfect-winter-weekend-in-cronulla/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:07:55 +0000 Rachael Lord http://beachandbay.com.au/realestateblog/?p=1836 Saturday

Saturday morning started at 10am with a long leisurely walk along the Esplanade with some friends. There was a chill to the air but nothing a warm jacket and scarf couldn’t handle. The sun was out and hundreds of walkers and joggers were making their way up and down the Cronulla coastline.

The surf was pretty decent so my friends and I sat on the wooden fence at the Wall for 15 minutes watching the action. We then slowly made out way down to the Grind Expresso to wake up and discuss last nights antics that took place. Grind is a famous coffee shop in Cronulla, and if you didn’t know that already, you would have guessed it was something special with the line being 20 people deep and out the door. A staff member came along the line taking orders but no one seemed too fussed to wait, especially when there is so much to look at in the cafe. Grinds owner, Richard has a wonderful collection of antique coffee memorabilia, and the photos of customers from all over the world holding up a sign “I’d rather be at Grind” are enough to pass the time.

Latte’s and long blacks were ordered and we decided to head to Shelley Park as it was too busy for our party of 4 to sit inside the cafe. We found a sunny spot on the hill overlooking South Cronulla Beach and South Cronulla Pavillion and watched as families played, lifesavers were on patrol, and the seriously brave went swimming.

On the way home the girls split from the boys and we ventured into Northies to see the Northies Designer Markets – a collection of clothing, accessories and goods by local fashion designers. Stand out brand was “Stevie & Me” which had some adorable children’s clothes. Fortunately I don’t have any children so my fresh wages didn’t take a beating.

Sunday

Sunday got off to a late start as I caught up with some sleep (Ghana VS Australia 12am the night before). Again, I made my way to Grind with a girlfriend and we both got some hot chocolates and took a seat and read the Sunday papers. After we had finished we made our way to the Shabby Chic Vintage By The Sea Markets held in the Masonic Lodge on the Kingsway, Cronulla. I found out about these markets through researching for our Cronulla Buzz website, so I had to check them out for myself! What a treat! These were great if only just to look at. So many pinks and purples and crocheted fabric!

The outside lawn was scattered with beautiful ornate furniture, vintage mirrors and birdcages. Inside, there were clothing stalls, books, jewellery and home decorations. It really was a pleasure to the eyes, prices were reasonable depending on what the item was (some collectors clothing pieces were in the $200+ range) and to top it off there was a cupcake stall!

Entry was by donation and proceeds went to the NSW Down Syndrome Association.

The rest of the day was spent in the mall browsing the various clothing outlets – Rundles, Funky Femme, Flirty, Dutchee Dutchee and the great shoe shop Freelance scored $300 of our money.

The weather was turning a bit cold and as my friend and I don’t follow football (sorry) and Cronulla Sharks were versing St George Dragons we decided to hire a video from Civic in Cronulla Central. Grey’s Anatomy, blankets and more hot chocolate. A perfect winter weekend in Cronulla.

The night was a party to celebrate the fundraising efforts done by Beach & Bay agent Natalie Vials (who helped organise everything), Steven Vials (who ran 250km through The Kimberleys), Beach & Bay (who created a website and raised awareness) and The Pawley’s wonderful friends and family who also drummed up attention and lots and lots of money. $4000 was raised from the event, bringing the total raised so far to $20,000. This money will go towards Teneile’s medical costs and the love and support shown for the Pawley’s has been overwhelming.

The night started with acoustic gigs from a wide variety of musicians. Everyone chatted away and got to know each other, enjoyed the never ending supply of food and stocked up on drinks. Yvette Vials sang her beautiful version of “Fix You” by Coldplay which has been the song on our website. Special mention also goes to Teneile’s boyfriend Hayden who flew down from Queensland to sing a song for Teneile (it melted our hearts!).

Before the headlining act Chunk came on tables and chairs were stacked away and a dancefloor was created (it was needed!). Chunk plugged in and played a high energy, crazy-fun set with everyone hitting the dancefloor at some stage and singing along.

THANK YOU

• On behalf of Beach & Bay I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has been involved. It has been a very humbling experience to help the Pawley’s in this small way – and the generosity from everyone has just been amazing. Thank you to all the clients of Beach & Bay that came along and let down their hair. We know you all enjoyed it!

• Thank you to The Brass Monkey for being so accommodating and letting us host the event. The staff were wonderful and looked after us all night.

• Thank you to all the musicians who performed so well and did it all for free.

• Thank you to Misa & Nadine who have worked behind the scenes on the website and design side of the fundraising.

• And finally a BIG thanks to Kylie Emans & Beach & Bay for getting on board.

Fundraising hasn’t stopped here – if you would still like to support this fantastic cause please visit www.beachandbay.com.au/teneile

He took me to Banyan Tree – a fairly new Thai restaurant in the Cronulla development on Croydon St. The restaurant has a warm atmosphere with lots of red, purple and orange featured in the décor. It’s modern and definitely not your typical takeaway Thai – more upmarket and trendy.

We shared 3 courses and it was a beautiful culinary experience!

Starting with entrees we had the Diamond Bags – a money bag style dish with pork, kafir leaves & lime with a delicious traditional sweet chilli dipping sauce. These were crunchy, full of flavour and a great start. We also had Autumn Rolls – BBQ Duck in rice paper rolls. I’m not a huge fan of rice paper anything but the sweet and spicy dipping sauce made up for it. We ended up eating all the decorative carrot and lettuce on the plate, just so we could finish the sauce!

Our mains arrived promptly (though not fast enough to make you wonder if they just banged the dish in the microwave). I ordered the PP Island Curry which was absolutely delicious. It was a little spicy but bearable (I’m a wuss), and creamy with a coconut milk. There were plenty of prawns and fish pieces and with the coconut rice we also ordered I couldn’t finish my bowl.

Gabe had the barbequed Octopus. Now I’ve never tried octopus and I don’t think I will ever again. I’m writing it off just as I have oysters – because if something has a strange texture, it’s not getting eaten by me! The oysters were rubbery and I didn’t like the feeling of 8 tentacles on my tongue.  I had to ask Gabe if you were meant to swallow them whole because they were so chewy but according to him they were pretty good as far as barbequed octopus goes.

Even though we were both full, Gabe insisted we have dessert so we shared the Banyan Tree Sweet Roti (and I’m really glad we did, especially as it got the octopus taste out of my mouth!)

This dish was delightful. A scoop of icecream with peanuts on one side and this melt in your mouth roti (like a crepe) was cut into bite sized pieces and drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce.

The staff were lovely, atmosphere friendly. A little dark but this allowed for more intimacy I thought. Gabe and I had a lot to talk about though and the open plan table setting didn’t particularly suit us as you are backed on to other patrons. A corner table would have been preferable so we could have talked as inappropriately as we wished but the amazing desert made up for it.

The prices were fairly reasonable for the average human I suppose but a bit expensive for two uni students. The total bill came to $70 not including wine. But I would highly recommend Banyan Tree for a special treat for students instead of packet noodles, or a nice meal for couples and families on a weeknight or weekend. 3.5/5 stars

Banyan Tree Cronulla – Menu

NEW LISTINGS

4 Loch Lomond Crescent Burraneer (Images 1 & 2)

An exclusive 5 bedroom waterfront in Burraneer. Situated on a huge 917m2 block commanding stunning panoramas – just imagine your summers spent here!

1 Lilli Pilli Point Road Lilli Pilli (Images 2 & 3)

As new, 3 bedroom architecturally designed home with luxury inclusions such as in-ground pool.

OPEN HOUSES

• 307 Woolooware Road Burraneer 11:00 – 11:30am
• 111 Kangaroo Point Road Kangaroo Point 12:00 – 12:45pm
• 107 Kangaroo Point Road Kangaroo Point 1:00 – 1:30pm
• 1 Lilli Pilli Point Road Lilli Pilli 2:00 – 2:30pm

Tasks will include blog writing, updating and maintaining Beach & Bay Realty’s website, auction tracking, social media updates and general office administration.

Please email your work experience to the Managing Director at kylie@beachandbay.com.au.

Deadline: 4^th June, 2010