So begins another journey around the sun

2011 has started well I think. The first day of the year was filled with rain and a trip into Ballina for groceries and a rare meal out at the mall food court. I bought myself a pair of sunglasses since the arm on my old ones snapped off and no amount of glue (the stuff we've been using to put the walls up at work) would keep the two parts together. Now, is that promising for the walls or what? can't even hold together some crummy sunglasses.

Today has been even better since the sun came out to visit and I got to spend the day where any self-respecting resident of a sea-side village would, at the beach. So I spent the majority of the day sacked out on a boogie board on the sand, slowing frying myself a slightly pink color because I forgot to reapply sunscreen after my trips to the ocean.

Now, the ocean is still recovering from all the floodwaters that have been making their way to the coast from inland. I don't know if you've been following the floods in Australia, but some of Queensland is under water and that water has been emptying into the ocean near Lennox, bringing dirt and other various toxins. All this healthy pollution translated itself into heaps of foam washing up on shore, which the children here on holiday seemed to think was their own personal Christmas present and exuberantly slathered the stuff all over them in delight. Anyway, the foam has disappeared, but we've still got some floaty bits in the water here, which I decided to brave today since I was melting. It was really quite enjoyable and I was having fun watching the kids have a blast, until the little boy right next to me pulled his swim trunks down to his knees, popped a squat and did his business right there. Needless to say, I booked it out of the water pretty quick after that and stayed out of it for a while afterward.

This evening I decided to be industrious and headed to the other end of town to climb up to the headland, which overlooks the entire town and 7 Mile Beach. It was going pretty well until I came to the end of the paved path, and was promptly reminded that it has been raining for the last week and a half. (I don't know how I forgot) I thought I could avoid the mud, but in sandals it was kind of impossible and I ended up flipping mud across the back of my shirt and into my hair and had to walk back through town conspicuously covered in muck past all the tourists eating dinner, who were probably wondering where I found a mud hole in town. I swear, I am just that talented.

Tomorrow, it's back to work for Suz. I think this is the last week of that and I am excited. It's actually coming together quite a bit. We painted the walls and now the different sections of plywood don't look so horrible. Still not professional in any way, shape, or form, but not nearly as bad as before. This week we're re-painting the ceiling, scrubbing the floor (whoopee!) and then painting that. Should be fun.