Thursday 26^th January

Welcome to another beautiful new baby – Solomon George Wood, born in Tasmania to Simon and Sarah, a grandson to Chris and Angela, a baby brother to Sebastian.

The weather gods are being kind to this part of Queensland today.  No rain…yet!!  And it is 5pm so many Australia Day festivities have been held without monsoonal deluges.

It has been very hot and Pete decided that he would like a swim – yes it must have been VERY hot.  And he was very hot as well from struggling with the last bits of throttle-cable-assembly.  So we packed up a big pack of dirty washing – oh we are lovely guests – and went off to Cam and Del’s to swim in their pool and to avail ourselves of their washing facilities. 

Amy, Cam’s granddaughter, is still there.  While we were swimming up and down the pool together – it was, for me, a bit like swimming with a hyperactive pink and purple dolphin because Amy was more under than on the water – she revealed a fervent wish: to swim in the sea before she goes home on Sunday.  “How about right now?” I said, so off we trotted,, just across the road to the Broadwater.  The sea was warm and inviting but very muddy and brown, from all of the floodwater.  We nevertheless had a lovely time allowing ourselves to be swept down the beach by the tide, and pretending to spot and fend off sharks.  You probably heard Amy’s shrieks in Tasmania… Then we walked along in the shallows, chatting about this and that.  Amy told me that her school song is Lean on Me – what a good idea, having such a meaningful song instead of It’s Good to See the School We Knew and other such dirges more commonly in place as school songs.  And then – oh no, how could I be so foolish as to walk through dirty Queensland water without my sandals on!! – I stepped on something sharply piercing and extremely painful.  Not fun at all!!  It is 5.00 and the pain is subsiding now, and there is nothing to show except for a bit of redness, so I feel like a bit of a fraud… Cam upended my foot and got out a sharp needle and a magnifying glass; I think he must have decided I was what Michael and his army mates call a “linger” – ie malingerer…

Pete is fast asleep but I will have to wake him because we are going back to Cam and Del’s for a BBQ with Tim and Sally… All of the throttle-cable thing was very exhausting, and I think he hasn’t been sleeping properly, most unusual for him.  Much fretting about the weather… He rang the Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) at Ballina this morning, to ask about the possibility of sailing in through the bar.  They said, “Don’t even think of it!  Much too dangerous!” which is extraordinary – the VMR NEVER give advice!!  It is OK today but the weekend forecast is ferocious so I think we are Gold Coast residents for a while longer.  Lucky Cam Del Tim and Sally!!!