New friends

What a lovely sleep last night. Peaceful and without interuptions. As per usual I was awake before sparrows, but after lying around ordering my thoughts I fell back into slumber. Ingrid got out of bed before I did and although I do not go back to sleep, I like to just lie in for a bit, in this case for about 45 minutes.

I got out of bed and reboiled the kettle for my coffee and picked up my phone to read that Andrew would be coming to pick me up to go and pump prawns. Nice joke Margie Young! Low and behold there came the little bakkie (pickup) down the road and Mr Andrew was in his prawn pumping gear, a pair of swimming trunks and a t-shirt with the obligatory hat for the sun. I had not even had a sip of coffee yet and asked for a 5 minute get ready respite. 

Into my costume and t-shirt with hat and goggles (sun glasses). Andrew asked if Ingrid was going to join us and she was ready in a jiffy. He did not have to ask twice. Andrew got into the drivers seat and I sat in the passenger seat with Ingrid on my lap. I was her safety belt with my arms around her waist. To the river and beyond!

It was a beautiful morning and Andrew pumped while I caught the mud prawns (used for bait for fishing). Andrews stategy was random selection and he had an advanced prawn pump. Usually it is a long pipe with a suction piece in the pipe (similar to a bicycle pump). I could describe it as an opened jam tin with a shaft and a handle on it. When you push the 'jam tin' into the ground the pressure forces water through the tunnels made by the prawns and they are spat out of one of the holes in the tunnel. My job was to collect the lucky few and place them in the bucket. We did not score heavily in the hour or so of our efforts and spoke to another couple of men still using the old pump system. Their stategy was simple, to bascially take a slice of the estuary and pump that whole piece from one corner to the other. 

All good. Prawns in the bucket and Ingrid once again on my lap and back to Andrew's for a cup of coffee. Margie was working on her laptop and took a break while we were there. Andrew's mother and significant other arrived and we sat and had a bit of a chat. Andrew had big plans for us to go fishing at 3 pm and mentioned that a few times before he dropped us off at Jackpot. Seemed like a good idea at the time. 

After an initial laze we drove Dusty to the supermarket and got some groceries. A little more than usual this time as we were running low on a few things. Ingrid wanted to go the health shop where they stock all sorts of lovely natural goodies and remedies and things. Her shampoo was also on the toss in the trash list and she wanted a suitable substitute. 

Back at Jackpot I was still not 100% over my yesterday as I refer to it, burnout relapse, so when Ingrid went upstairs for her nap, I chose the bunker and slept like a baby as did she apparently. Kettle boiled and tea in the mug. Time to sit down for a well needed cuppa, or so I thought. I had messaged Margie Y that I was not going to go fishing as I had my weekly paddle at 5pm. I thought all was said and done. Andrew pitched up at the door with his bouncers (son and his girlfriend) to twist our arm into going for a body surf out in front of thier house. It did not take a lot of convincing and the 6 of us were soon walking over the dune in front of their place to the waterline.

To our right there seemed to be a bit of a crowd around a fisherman. We thought nothing of it and had our dip. Not a long one and the inquisitive part of us drew us in the direction of the fisheman and his crowd. The young man had caught himself a shark. On closer inspection it was a Ragged Tooth shark of about 2m. A beautiful animal it was with a lovely goldish brownish colour that glinted in the sun. No sooner than we were close by, the fisherman set about realeasing Raggie back into his natual environment. 

We walked back to Andrew's and he drove us back to Jackpot so that I would be in time to go for my weekly paddle. I caghned into my padlding gear and before I left I made the remark, "I am not going to paddle, but to drink beer. See you later". Somehow I felt a chord being struck. Upon arrival at the designated start point there were 2 other paddlers waiting. We were waiting for the 3rd. 3rd never pitched up and 2nd was a bit weary of the conditions and I thought that I would skip if 3 and 2 did not want to paddle. Time for a beer in once again perfect conditions. Yum.

I got to talking to the 2 other men and found out a little history about them and their previous lives (work that they did). Quite interesting they were. Just in case you did the math 2 men + me + nr 3 = 4 persons. 3 did not pitch and that meant that 4 could not paddle as he was going to sit in the double with 3. An interesting question was put to me, Have I made any friends since I had been here? Well I gusss that you could say today we made friends with a lovely couple so yes, but in general no. 

I thought that I would be more into the making friends and gettin gout (lovely typo, LOL - should have been out) and about, but somehow I have not been triggered to do it. Just like reading my book... I still have not picked that up yet. Day before last we were talking about perhaps having reached the turning point of having spent enough time doing "nothing" and now would be the time to look at other options and now we have a set of friends and doors are opening.

Short summary. Life is good

PS. I still like my old friends.