Day 19

Went up to Pyrmont Point Park today, jumped off the pier. Was another fun day, did some funny jumps off, tried not to think of sharks hiding under the pier, haha.. If the underneath of Sydney harbour were like the David Jones window displays, it would be fun, singing starfishes and all that :)

Day 18

Went up to Shaun's for his 21st, it was a "white" theme. Funny that, considering that Shaun is the whitest boy around. Nothing scandalous took place as it was a family affair, but Shaun being Shaun of course he did back flips and took his clothes off. Not necessarily at the same time although I can't vouch for this. This is by far the funnest photo I've taken in a while. Let your imagination go wild with what is taking place.. Happy 21st Shaunie!

Day 15 - BW

Was feeling a little arty...enjoy.

Day 16

They had some christmas stuff at martin place and hyde park today, mostly concerts for the kids. I'm not sure if Bananas in Pajamas count as being on the B-list, even if they are an australian institution. As the announcer said, "It's just like a barbecue in my backyard!". If your backyard is several acres large, surrounded by several banks and posh hotels and has a stage in it...

Day 15

Finally made it out to the beach for a short swim. Trying to do laps with a digital camera underwater housing is like swimming with a brick attached to my wrist. Must find something to anchor camera underwater while I swim - or I could just leave it in my bag? Just that there are more weird guys walking around with silly boxer shorts and when I do laps, my bag is the last thing I'm looking at. Guess some people had a big weekend, losers left a used condom at the steps above the pool. Otherwise it was a nice day, a dad pointed out an octopus in it's hole in the pool. As I was standing in the pool I felt little fluttering on my legs, that usually means that some fish have found my legs irresistably delicious. There were small and not at all shark-like, so I thought they were kind of cute (for leg-nibbling fish) and took a photo. Walked back to the beach, it went okay until I put one foot on a slimey rock off the path. So right foot slipped and left foot got lacerated. Realised that half the rock was ok, but the other half was slimey. Didn't notice wound until I walked about 10 steps down the beach and all the sand balled up into the wound and started hurting.

With all the sand in it I couldn't see how deep it was but an off-duty lifesaver that very coincidentally was sitting 2m from me helpfully carried sea water in his goggles to rinse out my wound until I could put my shoe on. Hobbled home and spent ages trying to get sand debris out. Realised it was rather deep and jagged and I could see flesh. Sigh. Will disinfect foot again tomo. Wonder if I can hobble to clovelly tomo? It's only... 6km? Grrr.

Day 11

Another hot day today. Sunset swim was exceptionally refreshing. The water wasn't that warm but the tide was really low and the seas were calm. The rocks that form the barrier between the pool and the ocean was amazing, it had a green underwater forest of seaweed at the edge of the stone stairs leading up. Unfortunately once you climbed up, the surface is covered with barnacles. If you've ever tried chinese foot acupressure therapy..well this is similar to it. Tread with care or risk ripped skin. Walked home in tints of rose. Crickets singing, the smell of jasmine in the air. Warm summer air.

But nothing really brings home the fact that it's summer, than when the rainbow parrots use my balcony (and my orange slices!) as a pick up zone and place for fornication. One parrot came back later and squarked loudly into my open balcony doors, asking for "MORE ORANGE!ORANGE!MORE ORANGE!" Cheeky parrots...

Day 10

A day of extreme weather, it started off really hot, then a lightning storm, with a few drops of rain (but no rain) and wind and...sun? The water was cool but still swimmable in a bikini :) It wasn't a crowded as it could on a Friday, probably because of the weird weather. It started off rather strangely when this granny came down and started telling this father that he was irresponsible to let his baby go around with no clothes in the pool because of all the paedophiles and their cameras around. He didn't really care, so she got more upset and started insulting the other granny and calling them idiots, so it ended with the dad telling her to watch her language and if not he would throw her out to sea. Errmmmm... anyway, it got better after she left. A few other babies came by stark naked afterwards - nudie run! hehe

I took turns with a little girl at the pool taking pics. I took a pic of her too, but I'm not going to put it online because I'm not a paedo :p

A nice swim otherwise. A bit of stretching afterwards. I found it slightly ironic that while I was listening to a podcast about synaps firing to convey signals to the brain, I was trying to ignore the signals from my screaming muscles as I stretched them. Still... things are much better now.
Professor Paul Bloom - Yale Introduction to Pyschology Podcast

Day 8

Goddamn it's hot today. Actually it's not that bad, but lugging wet gear up a bunch of hills felt a little more difficult in 30+ degree weather at midday. Cookies and cream ice cream, salad and cold water tastes especially good today...

The waves are still around, working off this shallow reef off Gordon's Bay. I saw dolphins! But they disappeared when I sprinted up the point, I refuse to believe that I may have seen sharks with dorsal fins :p Visibility underwater was non-existant, I could barely see past my own feet and water was a little choppy. So just finned around clovelly for a bit, dodging seaweed, seagull feathers and sushi wrappers.

A young couple were using me as a human marker as they followed me from the swim from the deep end to the beach, it was quite funny. I should have started screaming "shark" and then disappear kicking and waving my arms as if being dragged underwater... but of course such genius ideas don't occur to me until after I get out of the water :p

Anyway the water will calm down next week..

Day 7

Yeah I didn't go to the beach today. However here is a photo of some noisy birds who came on my balcony. No big storm, but it's forecast to have +30 celsius (up to 40 in the west) for the next 3 days. I suppose it's time to feed the fish again.. I like the idea of stepping into a giant "aquarium" to feed the fish :) With bread, not with me!

Day 6

Didn't quite want to get out today but reckoned a bit of a jog would give me some energy. Also the stupid software I'm learning had missing files and I spent a good 1/2 hour trying to find them, so thought I should get out before I hurled my laptop out the window...

Forecast storms tomorrow, you could see the weather changing. On the way to the Baths I saw this young girl 1/2 her dad's size pulling exactly what dad was pushing and dad was yelled at her (encouraging yelling?) when she let the surfcraft drop a little. He saw me staring (disapprovingly, probably) at him and then was a bit gentler with her, but she was really determined by then, bit her lip and just kept on going. Really strong spirit, she's going to kick some ass when she gets older.

There's a big swell pushing through, created some interesting situations at the Coogee Bath. People would arrive, get into the calm water and then a few minutes later a big set would come through and transform the bath into a foam bath. Everyone gets out straightaway, leaving the bath empty and the water calms down... and then the next group of people arrives :D

Coogee Reef and Wedding Cake Island is breaking, it's beyond my skill level but Coogee inside breach break would be worth sniffing around tomorrow. I hate crowds... Crickets singing outside, lightning storm has passed over. 6-legged wings fluttering past my forehead. Humid air.

Day 5

Sculpture by the sea, last day. Woke up really early...waaahhhh too early. I started walking from Coogee to Bondi (Eastern Suburbs Coastal Walk) as it's the best way to see Tamarama to Bondi for the sculptures. I hate cemetaries! Even if they are next to the coastline and one of Sydney's tourist attractions. The coastal boardwalk is done now, it's much better because before we had to walk through the cemetary and came into dead ends and had to go through and over tombstones.

Nippers are so cute! Nippers is a name for kids as young as 5 years who go into a lifesaving program...definitely great way to learn about the ocean. They looked like little birds running all over the beach in matching costumes.

But even though I started at 8am it was already really crowded, so I guess that it would have been worse later on... It was quite good. Some sculptures were rather banal, typical "lets-blow-things-up-to-giant-proportions" sculptures and "funny-curvey-shapey" sculptures, but considering that everything has to be kept family-friendly, it was nice. There was also a large scale Damien Hirst skull, but with metal mesh and covered with recycled plastic bottles, a cynical response about materiality in the art world or an ecological statement? Hmm.. (makes stroking action where imaginary beard should be..) The Bird Man of Bondi has gone now, he was living in a cave for 10 years but he was arrested 2 weeks ago for raping one of the women who was visiting the Sculptures by the Sea (she thought she was going to feed birds at his cave).

Went to the Gertrude and Alice cafe/ 2nd hand bookstore, was really good, they have a good selection of books and good coffee :) Bondi is way too showy for me, everyone there is there to be seen and the men are checking everyone out, in an alpha male kind of way. But it was a nice change..

And went for a dip, the water was great! Definitely bikini temperature :) The best thing about Bondi is definitely the crystal clear water, pity about the inflated egos on land...Boardies are sooooo last season dah-link.

Day 4

Woke up late today, was really knackered. But was really glad I went down the beach, the water was perfect today! Dove off the rocks at the Coogee Baths, the water was clear and there was a happy group of people diving off as well. I remember an episode from "secret Diaries of a Call Girl" where a S&M dominatrix said that the best way to keep from getting marks on the flesh was to build up the impact of beatings to encourage blood vessels to get to the area. In that case, I should have a very very strong back because I kept on landing on my back doing those backflips..

All in all, yet another good day :)

Day 3

Jogged down today, was good to get out. Explored the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs, wasn't as unexplored as I hoped as there was some grafitti and a broken bottle, but I'll be back. I have to go see Sculpture by the Sea before it finishes this weekend!

Day 2

Yet another sunny day. Was really excited to see more of bluey and snorkel some more before the weekend when everything becomes really busy and crowded. The tide was lower than I'd ever seen it, some parts were actually waist high deep!

I brought some leftover bread for the fishes today, the little fishes really went mad on that. But the groupers took one whiff and decided that it was not to their liking. Today was good, saw 3 regular groupers, 2 brown and 1 big blue, that I found out (through the internet, how else? I don't know how to check a fish's sex) is a male, they kind of hovered about doing fishey things. Sometimes you'd be swimming under the surface and look back and there would be a grouper behind you, like an invisible shadow. Or a shy stalker, who immediately swum off when you turned around.

I had a real face to face experience with big bluey when he came very very close to me and stared me down! It was pretty intimidating being stared head on by a very big fish, you can see how close he came to me in the photo below. Of course to me, he looked 30% closer because underwater, everything appears 30% bigger! He never stared at me like that again afterwards, I guess that he was just asserting his authority the first time.

Soon I noticed 2 guys doing something interesting around big bluey, he was overturning rocks and big bluey would peck on the underside, letting the guy pet him on the body as he did...

The 2nd guy picked up a rock and started crushing sea urchins, exposing the flesh inside. Immediately a cloud of small fishes that follow big bluey around started eating, followed by big bluey, who occasionally chased away other big groupers who came too close. I got to pet bluey a few times, who was both slimey and firm...like a fish! haha..

It was a great day out...Now clouds are rolling over the horizon and thunderstorms on the horizon.. Now where's my chocolate chip ice cream? mmm