It feels great to get unpacked. I personally haven’t been unpacked since D.C. in December. It also is reassuring knowing that I am employed. I will be working along side the director of a building firm called Paramount Property Group as a project manager for a development in one of Sydney’s oldest areas, Redfern. Quite exciting. Yes, that is E-M-P-L-O-Y-E-D!
Since we haven’t received any paychecks since December, this coming week will be huge for us. Elizabeth gets paid, we receive reimbursement for our Visa expenses, & I will get paid for the tennis coaching I’ve done here (oh yeah, part time and about 5 minutes from the beach). Elizabeth traveled to Perth on Thursday and Friday and I spent the better part of Friday cleaning our place. The agent told us it would be cleaned but we found the oven filthy (as if the Thanksgiving ham had exploded) and the windows caked with grime (I used up one roll of paper towel and nearly a ½ bottle of Windex getting them to look somewhat decent) Can you say black?. Saturday we had a fantabulous morning. We went running with Elizabeth’s colleague Anna and her husband Matt. She is a CRA like Liz and he works in Merck’s finance department. They took us on a hilly run around some fun neighborhoods and into what was one of the most amazing bays we’ve seen here. It looked like something out of Georgian Bay in Canada. Crystal clear water, about 10 feet deep, and a few old timers swimming (they reminded us not to tell anyone about the area), and children playing on the sandy shore. We jumped, swam about, and proceeded to walk back. Starving and exhausted we sat around and had mueslix with honey and fruit, juice, and avocado and tomato on toast. A very awesome Brekki* We said goodbye to our new friends and spent the next few hours at the beach.
The surf was very rough and the lifeguards were out in full effect. Elizabeth and I spent a great deal of our time perusing the clientele who were more than content sharing with us their topless nature. We compared “it” to being in an exhibit in a museum. “Folks, here you have what is known as the “boob”muda triangle,” which we were definitely caught in. Chris came over for ceviche and menestra and we hit our pillows hard.
I got a chance to hit the surf on Sunday. Shannon, our friend from the states, let me use her board. The swells were pretty big (mainly wind created) and it made for a difficult paddle out, so I didn’t. Instead, I decided to go out to the point and jump in off the rocks. I caught some great waves and they were close to some of the biggest I’ve been in. But the waves weren’t the only abundance. Blue Bottles were all around me. I got stung worse than I had previously and found myself catching the next wave in. For the 45 seconds I was riding this wave I didn’t feel any pain. But once I made it all the way in to shore it hit me hard. My chest grew tight and I felt like throwing up. Elizabeth saw my plight and gave her support. There was nothing I could do to make the pain go away. I washed off with fresh water and crawled onto my beach towel. I must have paddled through a school of these things because my chest was bright red and in pain. I liken the pain to having your chest scrubbed with a wire brush, so hard in fact you feel as if you are going to pass out or go into shock. The girls (Shannon and her mates) told me that if you get into a shower and turn the water on as hot as you can stand it, then you will kill the poison from the BBs. I did that and it helped a little. I was still in pain and red all over (wasn’t sure if it was from the third degree burns and the boiling water or the BBs).
We went home. I was in pain and Elizabeth was quite sympathetic. Her amazing stir fry and salad took my mind off of the pain. We watched Mesquito Coast and prepared ourselves for a week’s work.
Cheers, Logan and Elizabeth
