sun, sand, surf and sniffles

we live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. there is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. ~ jawaharlal nehru


what started out as a great week. an excellent week actually - turned, well, quite overwhelming when it came to the demands of my nose. first off - promptly after finishing my surfing lessons last monday at 8:30 a.m.(december 7, australia time) and anika and i settled on the beach, i phoned malin. i told her of the news of how i had immediately fallen in love with surfing and couldn't wait to get my own board. we planned on meeting up later that afternoon to do a little surfboard shopping.

we met up. malin took me to a shop of which she frequented. meaning - she knew the people working there. meaning - she gets regular discounts. meaning - she could help me get a sweet deal. i did. i scored a board and wetsuit within my budget and i was stoked. we got the fins put on, the board waxed and malin did not buy the shorts she wanted. defeated common sense when she was leaving for sweden in a couple days.

anyway, the following day, malin, shaun and i headed out for some surfing. we ended up in bronte and we stayed for the next couple hours riding the waves (she did most of the riding... i more or less did a continuous session of falling off my board) -- then we baked in the afternoon sun. the next day i surfed. again. alone... well - plus the 20 or so other surfers out at 6 a.m. riding the waves. it was beautiful. i loved it.

that night i caught myself a nice little cold. the next few days consisted of my blowing my nose into toilet paper - using up a total of 5.... yes, 5 rolls of toilet paper. had to take a day off work it was so bad. that and i don't think my boss appreciated me blowing my nose infront of a customer while i took their order..... that kind of scene drives people's hunger away faster than food poisoning.

so i got sick. and then i started to get better so i figured i should sweat the rest of the cold out. the solution: ariana and i played tennis. we ran around the courts untill they got too slippery from the drizzling rain and then we went home. nothing like playing tennis in december to remind one it's december.... maybe.

that was yesterday. today ashley, anika and i headed out on a mini-roadtrip. to the blue mountains. we were stoked and by the time we got there we figured it would be an awesome day of hiking to see the "three sisters." we went along the ridge untill we got to them and the infamous steep staircase leading up to them from the valley below. we ate some chow and then figured we'd descend the stairs to oblivion, thinking we were smart as everyone else was huffing and puffing going up them. if only we had remembered we would have to come up the other side to get back to the car. this we did not think through.

it was a gorgeous hike. cockatoo birds flew free in the tree tops. the clouds lifted the heavy morning fog as the day went on. the forest, lush as a jungle muffled noises of nearby waterfalls and croaking frogs. we loved it. untill we got to the stairs on the other side. and then we felt the burn. we huffed and puffed up those stairs thinking that surely, this would be the last set. only, once at the "top" we would turn around the next rock face to find the next set of stairs gleeming proudly in the sunlight.

at the top we basked in our glory of finishing our hike and set off on a woman-hunt for some ice cream. some classic, scoop from the bucket ice cream. surely we would find some on our way back home as there were towns, villages and small cities littering the edges of the main highway. there is ALWAYS an ice cream shop nearby at those places.

there wasn't.



so we went home anyway.