Boxing Day

You know, I'm beginning to understand why so many North Americans head to tropical places during the winter. :-)

We had a wonderfully lazy day today. Both Jen and I slept in (not as late as we'd've liked to, because of the birds) and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We helped Ruth finish cleaning up from the party yesterday, including mopping the kitchen floor (for some reason, the kitchen was smelling really strongly of dead prawns, and it took quite some time to figure out where the smell was coming from... in the end it turned out to be the drip pan from under the fridge). We were really killing time until it was time to contact our families back home via web cam. I'm very proud of my parents - we got through to each other on the very first try! It was great to be able to see everyone in Kitchener and to be able to exchange Christmas greetings. Thanks to Dad and to Aunt Roseanne for helping me to set that up.

After a lunch of Christmas leftovers, we headed back to the beach for the afternoon! Of course the boogie boards went with us. This time, I really got the hang of it! If you push yourself off the bottom at just the right moment as a big wave is approaching you from behind, the wave will push you - and your board - all the way to the beach! COOL. This was way, WAY more fun than the splashing around we did yesterday - and I thought yesterday was pretty darn fun. Poor Jen... it took her quite a while to figure out the trick. It was kinda funny - for once, I was the expert (having boogie boarded once before, eight years ago in South Carolina), and Jen was the newbie! I know she was getting frustrated, but in the end she figured out the trick too!

After we'd been surfing for about 45 minutes, we went back to shore to take a bit of a rest. The ocean really does taste pretty bad... I was glad I'd brought my water bottle so I could swish my mouth out. When we headed back into the water for a second round, we encountered a nasty surprise - a portugese man-o-war (or, as they're known locally, blue bottles), which was being washed in on the surf! Fortunately we saw it in time and got out of the way as it was coming in. For those of you who aren't familiar with man-o-wars, check out the AVRU website, which has some good information and pictures. The blue bottle packs a nasty sting (as in horribly, horribly painful but not fatal) and we didn't want to leave this one floating around in the surf. So I scooped it out of the water on the far end of my boogie board and carried it way, waaaaay up the beach, far out of the way of foot traffic.

Yes, we did go back into the water, and we played around for a good long time before we finally decided we were cold enough that we needed to go in. And no, we didn't come across any more jellies. Thank goodness! The reality is, in surf like what we were swimming in, if a blue bottle got dumped on top of us, we'd never see it coming. So since we'd only encountered the one, and there was absolutely no sign of anyone else having any problems in the water whatsoever, we decided it was safe enough to head back in. No Mom, there are no deadly jellies in this part of Australia. That's only up in Queensland, where I'm taking you when you come to visit. :-)

Suffice it to say that boogie boarding is a blast and we will be carrying our boards with us when we head to Perth!

We had been invited up to Chris and Alan's apartment, which overlooks the beach, for afternoon tea. (Alan is Ruth's son.) So once we'd had our fill of the beach, Ruth, Jenna (Carroll's daughter, who'd joined us for the day), Jen and I headed over and up. Let me tell you, Chris and Alan have a beautiful view of Cronulla beach from their flat, which is on the 4th floor of a condo building literally across the street from the beach. We enjoyed some wonderful green tea and Christmas cake (yes, Mom, I ate Christmas cake... I even went back for seconds and thirds, it was yummy!). Alan and Chris are really fun and entertaining and we ended up talking with them until well after 7pm - at which point we figured we'd better head home so we could make poor Bill some dinner!

Tomorrow is a travel day. We'll be leaving Ruth's house mid-morning and heading to downtown Sydney to catch the train to Canberra... and the next stage of this journey begins.

Thanks, as always, to Ruth, Bill, Carroll, and everyone here in Sydney who have been so kind and hospitable to us. This place really is beginning to feel like home!