Surfboard repair

Tuesday night I met Eric down in Cronulla for our regular after-work surf. However, we were getting a little taste of winter after two weeks of the hottest weather we've seen in Sydney. It was really windy, freezing, and raining, and the waves were huge. Eric found us a little cove that was a bit more protected, and we decided to give it a go. Eric and I both took off on the first wave and COLLIDED. We untangled ourselves and continued surfing for about 30 minutes until I was exhausted with getting tumbled. It was just too rough. There were some nice serene moments in the interim, though, staring out to sea through the rain. Getting the crap beat out of me in the rain still looks good compared to work. Anyway, when we got back to the car, we started examining the damage we'd done to each other. It was extensive! At least we did it to each other and not some Bra Boy. To make a short story much longer than it needed to be, Eric wanted me to be sure I let Dad know that the kayak repair skills he taught Eric in Minneapolis are coming in handy -- turns out surfboard repair is pretty similar!

Wednesday I had to fly down to Melbourne for work. The fires have been all over the news, but I didn't realise just how close to the city they are. I didn't see any smoke until we were well into our descent. The client I was meeting with has lived in Melbourne her entire life and was talking about how each place we hear about on the news is somewhere she and her family have memories. Her partner owns a holiday home in that area, and he's been allowing displaced people to stay there. On the flight home, the flight attendants were collecting donations for the families who've lost their homes, which the airline was matching. That's pretty amazing in these tough financial times.