Yes, we are still here (sort of).
Still in Sydney. Still working long hours, still working 6 days a week.
The only change was that I managed to slip away for a few days around Xmas and get up to Matts family’s beach house (on his mums side) at Avoca Beach.
Best few days I have had in 10’s of years. I cant recall the last time I took time off to do nothing.
Dont get me wrong, taking the time to help Dan build his place, Dad frame up inside his house, me to rebuild the bike, clad the house at Yendon and so on were breaks, and I am glad that I did them, its just that I cant remember the last time I did nothing for 4 days.
Matt has been at me for years to go fishing with him. The fact that he lives in Australia and me in California never once dampened his drive to make it happen, who could have planed me at no notice heading to Sydney to work on this job, that it went 3 weeks longer than we thought and thus I could find myself standing on Avoca beach, next to my mate Matt with a surf rod in my hand;
A shoved nosed shark, took the hook out and let him go. We also caught a baby sting ray, same deal, remove hook and set free.
The biggest kick was catching dinner. I caught a whiting and Matt caught a flathead.
We stuck them on the barbi and ate them up yum!
Xmas day got off to a great start, left the house around 5ish and walked the length of the beach. Not my usual power walking, but a rare treat walk, a dawdle. Watched the surf crash into the rocks at the other end of the beach (about a couplula kays at a guess), and dawdled back. Hung out with the Matt family for an hour or so, then they took off to Sydney for the family dinner.
I had the whole place to myself. Slept, talked with Freddy on the phone, did my washing, watched the Australian Rally Championships stage wrap up (its been 4 years since I last saw it, had forgotten how much I love the idea of driving rally cars through the Australian bush), slept some more and went for another walk, then to cap off a fantastic day, headed down to the beach with my camera and ended up taking one of Matts favorite photos of mine. Day 52 of my 365, check it out on Facebook.
It was just a really nice day. Its been a long long time since I have been so alone, so peaceful and so relaxed.
The last day there, I headed down to the beach at 4am to try and catch a gimps of comet Lovejoy in the pre-dawn light. No such luck. It was cloudy, but the hour of just sitting on the beach (I was the only one there) watching the sun rise was worth every cloud.
Sad that it came to an end, really could have used some more time like that…. Hope its not 20ish+ years before we get a chance like that again.
