charity, eels and a good deed

I am sure you are not supposed to be amused by the discomfort of others and that goes double for your wife but sometimes I just can't help myself. Mara had asked Sal, and later me, if we would like to help out with a charity auction that was being held somewhere in Sydney's Eastern suburbs and by the time I was asked I knew about the Australia vs. Bahrain match and had a better excuse than the one I would otherwise of gone with; I don't serve canapays to stuck up folks. So I started a gentle wind up that got less gentle when I heard the ladies were to wer black skirts/pants and white shirts/blouses. Sounds a bit like waiting unifroms to me, but the task at hand was to usher folks in, deal with name tags and sell raffle tickets. Easy. Anyway, Sally, Mara and Kate got back to the flat a while after the football - disappointing performance, but 2-0 with one great goal, another disallowed and the bar being hit. Sally was giving it the death eyes and spent the next hour venting about being treated like a servant by Eastern suburbs stuck up folks, having to model a real ugly scarf and something about a wand and general stuff about being treated like crap while volunteering to help with the night. I decided not to say I told you so. I was amused though, even if opinion was divided on just how bad it was. I think Sally's charitable days are over.

The morning run that followed was fairly standard up until I stopped to look at the carp in a lake and saw not only carp but eels. Lots of eels. Free swimming bloody great eels. I mean thick as your arm and twice as long horror movie big eels. Very impressive. Wonder what they taste like? I do like unagi. Hmmmmm.

The afternoon passed with the signing of my contract with Westapac and news that I am starting not on next Wednesday but the following Monday so I have one more full week of unemployment. Quietly chuffed I celebrated my return to the Australian workforce with a coffee and lamington. Contract signed and with loads of reading material collected - likely be surmised as "do the following in order to get paid" and "just don't be a twat and it will all be fine" - I got back on the bus and headed straight for the ocean. Damn I'm going to miss unemployment.

A word on buses. Specifically the 339 Clovelly Beach to Millers Point bus. They are actually quite good. I have never really liked buses, but when you live 4mins from the stop and have a timetable they seem to stick to magnetted to your fridge they become tolerable. Never thought I'd say that. Anyway, back to the ocean. For a change I decided to head 200m south across the car park at Clovelly Pool and go to Gordon's Bay. It looked flat and lovely and there were a couple of people swimming and a couple of freediver looking kids getting out. I think I overheard one say he thought it was rather cold and I maybe should have listened more because he had a wetsuit on and I had boardshorts and I decided to go in anyway. Regardless of what he said the water was quite a way from warm. The surface was chilly and when I duck dived I came to realise that the surface was the warm bit. Not wanting to admit defeat so early I snorkel swam for a while across rocks and sand, dived down to get a decent look at a blue grouper and then headed back to dry off in the nice warm sun. On my way from the water I'd nearly swam into a couple of rotund ladies in for a snorkle of their own. They later provided me with an opportunity to be a knight in shining order and a gentleman (their words!) On their way out of the bay they seemed to be in some difficulty so I popped down to see if I could help out. They'd been knocked over into the rocks a couple of times but seemed OK with that. Seems they'd lost a fin. What is it with people attaching value to little bits of plastic when their safety may be compromised? Sheesh, get out of the bloody water, hand me a mask and I'll go search for the fin. Of you stand there and get a bit more battered, up to you. So I went back in, got the fin and no, the water had gotten no warmer. I can now be a bastard for a while cos I have done something nice.