Brisbane Trip Day 28: Newcastle

Once again I was up first and went for a walk to the beach. The water was clearer today, less seaweed and no muck. It was sunny and beautiful in a different way to yesterday. There was one surfer in the water and I decided to go in - the undertow was strong and the waves were breaking fairly close to shore. I thought about going past the break but didn't feel confident given that I was there on my own. I stood in waist deep water for a while and it was lovely, then hopped out and kept walking. I walked to the end of the beach and all the way out to the end of the break wall. There was a big swell coming into the channel - it was really cool to see the waves from behind as they rolled past me. There were some good splashes on the edge of the break wall but nothing really breaking over onto the path.

I chatted for a while with a couple and their dog (the dog didn't want me to come too close to it's humans, until we started talking and then it came over to me for a pat and was quite happy), then wandered back home. I had a shower and some breakfast and chatted to the kids as they woke up.

At 10 an old friend from BHP came to visit, we sat out the back and talked for a couple of hours, it was fantastic to spend some time with him. After he left I tidied up a bit, talked to a friend from home on the phone, then we had lunch and got ready to go out to see another friend (Caitlin's godfather).

We drove down to his house in Wyee and had a lovely afternoon chatting, looking at his garden and the work he's done in the yard, talking politics and lots of other topics. The kids played with his girls and came in and out of our conversation. They played Uno and hide and seek and read books and played with stuffed toys, then Amelie and his girls watched TV until we left. Just as we were getting ready to go his wife came home from work, I'm so glad we got to see her as well.

Back home and the cousins were out at the beach so we relaxed for a while, when they came home the kids played on the trampoline and chatted. The youngest cousin was here and she and Amelie danced to Moana again. My BIL set up a fire in the backyard and the kids sat around that and ate their dinner, some went inside afterwards to watch tv together, some stayed outside. I chatted to the other adults and it was a lovely quiet evening. After the little one and her mum and brother had left, the kids all stayed inside and my BIL sat outside near the fire until quite late, talking about lots of deep topics. I had thought about packing some of our stuff tonight, then decided the conversation was more important.