at last, a surf

Niall, an Irish lad from work (all round good egg) and I sit back to back and talk shit most days. Shared background shit, despite his sort planting bombs for my sort when we were younger and before those pesky Islams took over the franchise on that terror nonsense. Ahem.

Anyway, in a moment of not talking shit he asked if I was interested in a surf lesson at the beach at the bottom of his street. He lives in Dee Why, and I am pretty sure he just wanted to rub that in and half sure he asked because we are, as well as colleagues, mates. Of a sort. So I agreed and we met at 07:00 this morning out front of Line Up Surf in Dee Why, looking out at the all-but-flat Pacific Ocean. Hey, we're learning, very small waves for thirty-somethings suits us just fine.

So, we had our lesson in the warm water and the very warm air; clear blue skies, hardly a breath of wind summer stuff. Terrific. I was fun and we're both incredibly amateur, as were the three other grown men in the group. The twelve year old girl was quite good though, far better than us grown ups. I stood a few times, wobbled and fell. I buried the nose and bought it, I fell of sideways and fell off the back of my board.

My board.

Yes, my board. The board I bought in 2003 from Marty Moose, friend of Nige the brother in-law. The full yelloe 7'2" Screaming Lizards MiniMal. OK, so it took me five years to get the thing in the water (I did once, and only once, and around five years ago, take a sickie and drive up and down the northern beaches with said board in the back of the car...where it stayed as I chickened out.)

So there you go. Went surfing, had a giggle and then had a bacon and egg roll. What a marvellous start to the weekend.

The day then featured a domestic interlude as I dropped my lawnmower in for a service and then wen to collect a baby-carrier-backpack, the Macpac Possum, that I had won in a Thursday night eBay auction. Before I go on...note to Macpac. If I search for "Macpac Possum" in google your website should not be half way down the third page of results...sort it out guys. The rucksack itself is damn near new and at 190 bucks about half what I'd pay for it new. ZZZzzzzzz....OK, I'll move on.

Right, dull stuff done and temperatures now into the 30s Sal suggested we drive to Clive Park so the dogs could have a cooling swim and not have to pant through an exhausting walk. Having been in the water once already, and knowing it was nice and warm, I decided I'd jump in with the boys. Now that was cool. It did cross my mind that one of the ways to avoid getting eaten by a shark is to not swim with your dog. A little overstated maybe...I seem to have survived.

Bonds Corner lunch, a few more domestics and then, as Sal pondered the wisdom of the lunchtime fishcakes, I went for a 15km run to Cremorne Point and back to make the most of the far cooler southerly breeze. So I deserve my glass of wine...

I like days like today.