We present to you all the photos we have received during the last week for our I’d rather be at Cronulla/Grind Competition. Enjoy!

Kylie from Beach & Bay and Richard from the Grind are catching up tomorrow to choose the winner. Good luck!

Thanks to the participants
Ben McGrath, Brendan FitzPatrick, Donna, Eliza Barr, Hayley Levick, James Diggins, Jane Vidaic, Jeremy Peek, John Morton, Jonny Myatt, Karmila, Katie Morton, Kellie Urquhart, Lillian Lyon, Michelle Wright, Renny Gyorgy, Rhiannon, Rita Emiliani, Rita Longo, Robyn, Robyn Jordan, Shelley Barr, Stephanie Madonis, Steve Core, Susie George

Please note that because we have received so many photos over the week it is possible that we have missed one or two. If scrolling through the photos you have noticed that photos you have emailed us have not been included, please email info@beachandbay.com.au and we will fix this for you.

You’d have to be hiding under a rock not to know that it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday. There are no excuses this year, buy your mum a present! In Cronulla you are spoilt for choices. I Love Cronulla likes to support local so if you are an uninspired individual (probably male!) here’s some options to make you the most popular!

• Dreamshack, an iconic Cronulla view on canvas
• A winter scarf from Blue Illusion
• Winter PJ’s from Velvet Jane
• South of the Border dress or South American shawl
• Eclectic gift voucher so she can choose her own
• Hazards swimwear for that northern hemisphere summer holiday
• Brunch at Cronulla’s many restaurants and cafes including Sealevel, Alley Break, Zimzala, Simone’s On The Park, Papa’s, The Old Library, Summersalt, Matthew Flinders and La Cucina
• Surf lessons for the ultra cool mum at Cronulla Surf School
• A bunch of autumn flowers from Harper’s Florist
• Or pampering at the many hairdressers or day spas in Cronulla

Shop openings and closures

 In the last 24 hours, 2 shops have opened

• Days Like These
• A Touch of Eden

Days Like These sells mens and womens clothing and has opened up in the previously CharBella shop in between Bang On and HAM Cafe. A Touch of Eden which is a combination of vintage and coffee shop has opened today next door to South of The Border and opposite Monro Park.

Cronulla’s latest restaurant, The Balkan on Gerrale St (next to Vinnies), is open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner and also Saturday & Sunday for lunch. It seems that the Code Orange store that has been vacant for ages next door to Noodle Inn will soon be the new location for Flex Nutrition.

Two businesses that have closed in the last few weeks include EAT restaurant next to La Cucina (opposite Cronulla Park) and Ocean 7 in the Mall.

PS: If you won the Lotto this week ring us because we have some stunning properties that we are marketing at the moment – make it a Mother’s Day that your mum will never ever forget and buy her a new home!

Cronulla is the perfect location for a beautiful Mother’s Day breakfast, lunch, dinner or all 3! Zimzala & Summer Salt have some great Mother’s Day offers this Sunday.

Zimzala

• Early bird breakfast (7:30am – 8:00am) – $35
• Late breakfast (8:00am – 10:30am) – $40
• Children’s breakfast package (12 and under) – $15
• Lunch (3 courses) – $75
• Dinner (3 courses) – $75
• Children’s lunch/dinner package – $15
• Click here for Zimzala’s full Mother’s Day menu including choice of entrees, mains and desserts.

• “Spoil your Mother with a flute of Chandon Brut for $10″
• 3 courses – $85  per person
• Click here to view Summer Salt’s Mother’s Day menu

Simone’s On The Park

• Enjoy a lovely Mother’s Day Lunch looking out at South Cronulla
• Contact Simone’s On The Park for more details – 9527 4222

If anyone knows of any other breakfast, lunch or dinner specials/functions in Cronulla for Mother’s Day, contact us and we’d love to include it in our blog!

Don’t forget Cronulla CBD’s Mother’s Day competition!

So far we have received a number of amazing photos for our Grind competition!

Here is a quick sample of some of the photos we have received. Remember that you have until Friday to send us your favourite shots of Cronulla for a chance to win Grind’s new Xtracted book!

Please remember to email your photos to info@beachandbay.com.au. All entries posted over Facebook will not be included in the draw.

Richard from the Grind loves Cronulla and has donated one of the Grind’s Xtracted books to give away to ONE lucky winner! This book showcases the history of the Grind and is an absolute must have for their thousands of die hard fans!

Unfortunately for you all we aren’t going to make this competition as easy as “like this status to win!”, instead we have decided to promote both the Grind and our lovely Cronulla at the same time….

RULES
In order to be eligible to go in the draw for GRIND’s Xtracted book you must take your favourite photograph of Cronulla (whether that be your favourite beach, park, location etc) and email it to us at info@beachandbay.com.au with your name and contact details. Best of all you can enter as many times as you like (as long as you’ve got a whole heap of photos to send us!) Be creative, go crazy, use Instagram or keep it original, you choose! Richard from the GRIND with the assistance of Kylie from Beach & Bay will be choosing ONE lucky winner from the pics.

The competition starts NOW and finishes next Friday 11th May.

If you have any questions please contact us at info@beachandbay.com.au. Please don’t post photos on Facebook as these will be deemed ineligible.

Looking for motivation? It’s never too late to act on your health! The 8 week fitness challenge starts with Activ8 Health & Fitness at Dolans Bay starts on the 9th of May.

Cost?
$250 per person or convince a friend to come along and it’s $225 each

What do I get?

• 2 one-on-one personal training sessions (includes before and after photos, before and after BIO age, nutritional program set-up and measurement)
• Unlimited gym access for 8 weeks
• Unlimited ‘Saturday’, ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Sunset’ group sessions (48 sessions available – imagine how good you’ll look after that!)
• Online Nutrition Program
• Awards & Dinner night to celebrate your achievements

Interested? Great!
Email: trent@activ8fitness.com.au
Visit: 72 Parthenia St Dolans Bay
Phone: 8004 5343
Website: www.activ8fitness.com.au/
Facebook: Activ8 Health & Fitness Pty Ltd

Spend $50 in a single day at a Cronulla Beach CBD business and you’ll have the chance to win one of the following prizes for Mother’s Day!

• 1st prize: 2 hours of home cleaning once a fortnight for a YEAR – that’s 26 free cleans! Plus a $50 Surfeit Deli Cafe gift voucher! To be eligible you must be located in the Sutherland Shire, Kogarah, Rockdale, Hurstville or Bankstown Council areas
• 2nd prize: $250 Tamarind Day Spa Package PLUS $250 Shoe Superstore Cronulla gift voucher
• Runners up prizes: 4 runners up will each receive a $50 voucher for Syltoria Hair Glamour in Cronulla

How do I enter?

Customers who make a purchase of $50 or more in a single day (multiple purchases at different businesses are allowed) are eligible to enter (maximum of 2 entries per day). Customers need to fill out an entry form and place it in the barrel outside the Cronulla Beach CBD office (7am – 9pm) or outside Essentials for Home (9am – 5pm). Most importanly as always you MUST retain your receipt as proof of purchase until after the prizes have been drawn. Entries opened at 9am Monday 30th April and will close 9pm Sunday 13th May. Unfortunately the competition is not open to staff or their families of businesses within the Cronulla Beach CBD.

This is a perfect opportunity to support local businesses, get behind it everyone! For more info visit Cronulla Beach CBD.

The Avengers, the superhero film to end all superhero films, produced by Marvel Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, hits Australian cinemas on April 25. Written and Directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Serenity), and featuring a stellar creative team, The Avengers is the sixth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The stories of the eponymous superheroes in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America have all led toward their involvement in Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative and The Avengers. Hyped as one of the biggest movie events of 2012, I am very pleased to say that it is one of the best blockbusters – in terms of story, character, visual spectacle and entertainment value – to grace our screens in some time.

In the opening sequence of The Avengers, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), having been banished from Asgard at the conclusion of Thor, makes a deal with an alien race of warriors beset on ruling Earth. Via a constructed portal, he steals the heavily guarded Tesseract, a Cosmic Cube capable of supplying its owner with unlimited power, from American Peacekeeping unit, S.H.I.E.L.D. Transforming Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard, reprising his role from Thor), chief Tesseract researcher, and one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s operatives, Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) into his minions, Loki attempts to harness the power of the cube to open a portal between worlds, allowing his army to enter.

Recognising the threat of the Tesseract in the hands of Loki, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D, with the help of Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) recruits Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) from around the globe, to come together in a united fight against their powerful new foe.

Where The Avengers surprised me was the way that these rich characters, which have all been introduced and developed in their own films, are taken even further here. They are all given interesting arcs and individual time to shine. They are all flawed in their own way, as both humans and superheroes, and assuming they will all be able to work together is a big risk, taken by both Nick Fury within the film, and on a cinematic level by Marvel Studios and Joss Whedon. The film, full of epic action and visual spectacle, actually feels character-driven. Loki’s motivations are made clear, while the Avengers are all forced to overcome personal conflicts and their own limitations – none more so than Banner, who at one point presents more of a threat to the safety of the team than Loki himself. A lot of the film’s tension actually comes from within the team.

The performances are all better than they needed to be too. We know that Downey Jr., Evans and Hemsworth were all perfectly cast in their roles and gave great performances in their individual films, but they continue that strong work here. Downey Jr. is wonderfully over the top, while Hemsworth’s delivery is even more comic. Ruffalo, who keeps Banner’s social awkwardness consistent throughout the film, is always solid, but the one I was most impressed by was Scarlett Johansson. This is one of her best performances. The excellent Tom Hiddleston is also the right blend of clever, smarmy and merciless – a genuinely fearsome and unpredictable villain.

The scale of the film is enormous, and this is something that Joss Whedon has proven in the past with his fantastic television show, Firefly. After an exciting opening car chase sequence, and a scene of destruction that has to be seen to believe, there is a huge action set piece aboard a flying vessel. The film climaxes in a tremendous struggle staged beneath Stark Tower in downtown Manhattan. I didn’t think it could get any better. These set pieces are truly spectacular and display impressive use of the very-entitled mammoth budget. There isn’t a cent wasted here, and this is a testament to the studio.

Seamus McCarvey (Atonement) is the cinematographer, so not only are the action sequences well staged, but expertly captured. The visual effects (from a team made up of Oscar winners, some of whom worked on the two Iron Man films) are awe-inspiring and outdo almost everything that has preceded it.

While a couple of early sequences don’t quite hit the mark – purely because they are exposition and set up for those unfamiliar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe – I found there to be nothing to criticize about The Avengers. The blend of jaw-dropping action and visual effects, a compelling story, an excellent villain and richly layered, likeable characters makes The Avengers, unexpectedly, not just high quality popcorn entertainment, but extraordinarily satisfying cinema.

The Avengers balances genuine tension and stakes, with a cartoonish atmosphere and clever and funny self-aware humour. In short: The Avengers is a geek fest sure to please die-hard fans, but it transcends the genre and is sure to be enjoyed by just about anybody. It is the finest superhero film I have seen to date (sorry Dark Knight fans), and once it hits cinemas, I will be eager to check it out again.

The Avengers is now showing at Cronulla Cinemas. I rate the film 4 ½ Stars.
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You can read more of Andrew’s reviews at his weekly updated blog: Andy Buckle’s Film Emporium

It’s here again, the perfect opportunity to throw out what you don’t need and save on skip bin fees! Sutherland Shire’s Council Clean Up kicks off in Cronulla at 5am Monday 30th April.

Things to remember:

• Council asks that you DO NOT place items under trees or power lines or in gutters
• Place clean up material on the outer edge of the footpath
• Clean up starts at 5am
• Council does not pick up chemicals, building materials or thorny branches or bushes
• Council will not pick up items that can not be handled safely by 2 average size people

Due to safety and other reasons not all materials are able to be collected, but these CAN be collected:

Council asks that your materials not be placed out before Saturday 28th April, this is not just because your neighbours don’t like having to look at your discarded treasures on the street for weeks beforehand but because it decreases the chances of bad weather blowing furniture onto the street, hitting cars, people or pets!