The joyful life

I have tried to embrace living by the beach as much as possible, but even then I think I have taken it for granted at times.  It's such a privilege to have the great beaches of Sydney at my doorstep.  Over the last few weeks, I had tried to go to the beach as much as possible and my tan was turning darker and darker.  My routine was generally quite set.  I would start off by walking to Coogee beach and then having a quick swim.

I would then make my way across to Clovelly, where I would bake on the concrete of what must be Sydney's greatest natural swimming pool.  More often than not, I would have a milkshake as well.  It was a weekday, so it was relatively quiet, even though the weather was spectacularly good.  To my right there was a photo shoot going on, so a smallish crowd gathered to gawk at them.

The concrete would warm up in the sun, and so laying down on its hot surface with the sun above was akin to being baked on a pizza stone.  I moved between swimming and sunbaking for a few hours.  Back and forth I went between swimming and sleeping.  Eventually, I had my fill of this so decided to start heading back.

The walk back home past Gordon's Bay would always be slower and more relaxed than the initial walk out, but I was always half asleep so it didn't matter.

As I walked back up Coogee Bay Road, I stopped in at Tropicana for a coffee.  The waitresses had grown used to seeing me wander in and already knew my order.  It's nice having a "local" and it seemed to create an additional feeling of welcome.

I sat back with my coffee and read the paper.  There was nothing else to do and that was completely fine by me.