Mental Meanderings

Sun, Sand & Surf

My sister dragged me and the kid out to the beach today. I might be Australian but I'm not really a beach person. I was raised my whole life with a brother who couldn't go out in the sun and I didn't have the chance to learn to swim properly because of ear infections. Add that to the fact that my skin is white as milk and curdles as effectly when left in the sun and you have some very good reasons to avoid one of the countries most quantiful resources.

But from time to time I let people convince me to brave the elements and spend the day in the sun. I prefer the beach when it's raining. But my sister looks at me strangely when I say that. She's one of these people blessed with skin that always tans and a body that looks incredible in a bikini. I don't understand how we can share even half of the same gene pool.

Anyway, I gave in and the four of us went to the beach for about an hour in the morning. Despite not being a very strong swimmer after the innitial shock of cold from the water I enjoyed paddling with baby boy who liked to get me in up to my neck where I had to tred water and scramble to keep my feet so that we didn't both end up under. He's fearless and has to be held back where he can swim or risk being dragged out to sea.

His sister keeps not passing the first level of swim school. She's not confident enough in the water and until this year didn't much like it at all. More recently she's come to like water and be a bit braver about it all but she's still can't swim. My sister threw her onto her back and took her out into the deep water where even her almost 6 foot height couldn't touch bottom. There was a pontoon out there with a slide and the two went on that, my sister catching my girl as she landed into the water. Can't say I was too keen on the idea but I watched them and other than nearly drowning on the swim back they were having a lot of fun.

We built sandcastles in the surf where the waves kept knocking down our sandwalls and flooding our moats and demolishing our towers. We dug big holes and let the waves come in to fill them up like mini swimming pools and a lake for the princess. Eventually we had to wash off the sand and get some lunch. While our orders cooked the kids ran around on the grass and collected rocks and sticks and nuts.

It was a good day out and for the most part I'm glad we went. The kids had a ball and both survived the sun. They faired better than I did. I can feel the skin tingling from sunburn and move carefully to prevent my shirt rubbing against it. *sighs* I have to go shower once I've finished blogging because there is sand in places sand certainly doesn't belong. The salt is keeping my skin dry.

Next time, I'm demanding we go to an indoor swimming pool. No sun, no sand, no surf but still the fun on swimming and paddling in the water. A much better option as far as I'm concerned. Oh, I forgot the fish and seaweed. Ick. I hate seaweed. And we had fun chasing the little fish, shame they weren't anything near big enough to bother catching. Makes me want to go fishing however. An advantage of fishing is your best not to do it in full sun, dusk and dawn are the times to go fishing. Or when it's raining. See, there it is again, the beach is much better in the rain.