it was the best of times...

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day two in sydney involves a heavy dose of the beach. first however, we have the lovely wake up call i received from every bird in a 30 miles radius of kade's house. i woke up at 4am (i went to bed at 1am. i shouldn't be awake yet). i managed to fall back asleep about 445am but as soon as the sun started to come up (around 530am), the birds began performing a dreadful opera. i'm not sure what the story was about, but the message i gleaned was "wake up". so i did. kade was out cold still so i snuck out and went for a walk.

i realize how cheesy it is for me to wax romantic about flowers and trees but, seriously, everything is opulent. there's a tree in kade's backyard that houses my new favorite flower: frangipani. which, when kade first said the name, i heard as "fragile penny". luckily i didn't run around repeating this. but he told me to pick one to wear in my hair (and to see the "milk" that comes out when you snap one off its stem). smells like islands and makes me relax just looking at it. so, my walk made sure my day wouldn't be ruined by waking up too early and continuing on with far less sleep than my body needs. saw some of the birds that woke me up, presumably, and although at dawn i wanted to throw bricks at them, i couldn't stay mad at them since they all seem to have had a seizure in a box of crayola. lorikeets especially.

kade got up shortly after i got back and we decided to go to the beach after breakfast. slathered myself in 85spf and headed out for breaky. stopped by the bank on the way... the bank allows you to walk in with no shoes. ate smoked salmon for breakfast (surprise, right cara?!) and am loving that oz seems to be as in love with coke zero as i am. headed to narrabeen beach from there.

right. so. the eac. really strong.

surf was rough. very rough. not the biggest waves, but the rips were very strong and i've never been in water like that. the current is either pushing you in or pulling you back out constantly. and it's not a gentle nag. like, say, ocracoke. so, obviously, i was all about it and swam around. wears you out rather quickly and i'm still not used to my new eyes yet. i have to keep reminding myself i don't need to be careful of my contacts every time i open my eyes after a wave. eventually i got the hang of it and could dive under and push up through a wave and be able to open my eyeballs right away without the previous obligatory eye swipe that tended to get me douched with a second wave by the time i was ready. kade seriously plays in the water like a little boy. or campbell. it's very funny. he's just bobbing around and splashing. (though, to be fair, he doesn't eat his splashes like cammy). i had no intention of laying out on the beach sunning myself.... but when there are surfers in front of me, it's rather like the death star. i can't move away. so i sat there, until i got too hot and needed a splash, and just watched.

kade headed to the local pub, sands, across the street to meet some boys. i stayed and watched the surfers and played in the water a while longer. eventually dragged myself away from the death star's grip and went to the pub as well. although they didn't stay long so we headed back to the beach and met up with kirsti and justin. despite my sunscreen (which was liberally applied every hour), i'm already brown. no sunburn though.

after the beach we headed home, showered, and headed back out to scott's house for dinner and a movie: striking distance. classy, hey? hung out with scott and his roommate brooksy, then headed home around 12:30am.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY WREN!!

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Comments

[John]

Sam and Jack really liked the bird picture.

[kim]

green
even though my name is now green, it also describes the color of my envy at you being at a great beach while i suffer in the cold rain over here. such a bum you are!