Day 322! Well, spoiler alert, I got a text last minute saying I had the day off. So I got a lot of my to do list done in the morning and had the rest of the day to relax. I got to surfing and more jamming, my life in Yamba is shaping up very well and I’m thoroughly enjoying it!

I woke up this morning at 7:30am to my alarm. I wanted to get up and moving to get a surf session in this morning. But, I wanted a bit more sleep, even after going to bed at 9pm. So I snoozed my alarm for another 30 minutes and then got up and at ‘em.

I have been itching for another surf day and today I was going to finally test out my bike’s surf rack! It was drizzling outside, but I was going to get wet in the ocean anyways. So, I hauled my board down to my bike and worked at getting it fitted properly.

It looked like it was all good to go, so I set out into the drizzle to Turners Beach.

However, due to the weight of the board, it made the holder swivel (as you can kind of see from the picture above), so it wasn’t sitting parallel to the bike… thankfully on the way there this didn’t cause any issues.

The ride was super easy to Turners and it’ll definitely be my go to beach for learning how to surf and getting sessions in early in the morning.

I remembered to bring my rash guard this time and ended up surfing for about 30-40 minutes! There was a handful of other surfers at the beach, so I wasn’t alone either.

The first 15-20 minutes were really fun! The waves were easy to catch and I was getting my pop ups better. I even had a ride where I messed around with turning the board and I felt like I had a feel of what needs to be done. But I have my first surf lesson tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get some refining in on everything I’ve done so far!

But after the first 20 or so minutes, the wave period picked up (or I guess technically lowered), so waves were coming every couple of seconds. The wind had picked up, causing the waves to come crashing down repeatedly. So after I caught a wave, I set back out to catch another but just kept getting smacked by waves. After getting smacked by about 5 or 6 waves, I decided to boogie board my way back to the shore and reassess.

I decided the waves didn’t look very catchable anymore and by this time, there was only one other surfer as well. I think everyone decided the same thing, because just after I finished, so did the other surfer.

I got to chatting with the other surfer a little bit while I was cleaning off my board. He was a nice old man… in a Speedo… but as I continually say, just another example of how lovely this community is in Yamba. You’d definitely get less niceties in the city and I experienced that coming from Melbourne to Yamba.

I then set off home on my bike which is when I started running into issues… the bike holder started shifting a bunch and the prongs holding the surfboard were moving causing the board to wobble a lot. So I had to hold the board while I biked to make sure it didn’t hit my back wheel or the ground… also with the wind picking up, it made the ride a bit sketchy.

I later realized the bike holder is meant for a shorter board… I might need to try and sell this one and invest in the correct one. We’ll see what I decide to do! For now, I’ll need to make this work.

With surfing checked off, I showered and sat down in bed. I decided, instead of taking a nap, to go check off my next to do of the day, getting a haircut.

As I’ve done in all countries, it’s time to compare this haircut and price to the others! I’ve already had one haircut in Australia (in Melbourne) and it was $35. That was an alright haircut and didn’t stand up to the others I got for cheaper in SE Asia with the price and quality of the cut.

Today’s haircut was $40 and I left a $5 tip since I paid in cash.

I got the haircut at Lionheart barbershop, a local barber just around the corner from my house. The atmosphere was super friendly and my barber, Leon, was fairly good as well.

Again, I’d say the cut price vs the quality of the cut, just can’t compare to the price and quality I got in SE Asia. But I think this haircut beats my one in Melbourne for sure. The one in Melbourne made my hair uneven in a number of spots and this barber fixed it all up!

With task two done, I had two more to go before my alleged work shift at 5pm (foreshadowing)…

I was fairly close to task three, so I bit the bullet and walked (instead of riding my bike) to the library. It was only a few minute walk, but riding my bike would’ve made it faster. I had a book on reserve and needed to pick it up today or I’d lose the reservation.

I asked them what the renewal policy was on books and they told me as long as no one has the book reserved, the book you have automatically renews for another month! I thought that was a bit odd, but works well for me since I’m still chugging along through Words of Radiance!

I walked back home and finally had breakfast.

While I was eating, I got a text from my manager telling me he had to take me off the schedule and reduce my hours a little bit. I guess someone in the office wasn’t too happy with how much I was being worked and I guess there’s some rule about not working 10 days in a row without a day off… but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to working more soon!

I guess more time to surf and play music now!

After eating I took a power nap and read a bit, then decided to head out on my 4th and final item of the morning: biking to the grocery store!

Round trip, it took me about an hour, a 14 minute ride there, 30 minutes gathering my groceries, and then a 16 minute ride home.

The ride there was fine! The overcast day made for nice bike riding conditions. I also was able to narrowly escape the rain on both ends of my ride!

My ride back though was much more difficult. I had run out of almost everything food and condiments wise. So I was carrying kilograms on top of kilograms back with me. At least I got good exercise in this morning!

This was my most expensive grocery store run yet, close to $100. But, with the couple of times I usually go to the local grocery store during the week, it probably cost the same as usual.

I was very happy to have my fruits and vegetables back and have more than just plain oats and toast.

With my newly bought groceries, I made myself lunch before heading back to my room to read more. I didn’t have anything else to do with my afternoon, so I made plans with my friends Sam and Paddy to jam with them later in the evening.

But with no work, I was able to squeeze a FaceTime in with my parents today!

As always, we caught up on the week, I told them about how my day was going (since I hadn’t wrote about it yet), and I got to hear all about their week as well! They have travels of their own coming up soon, so it’ll be fun to hear all about them and also SEE THEM!

After our call, I got back to reading until I heard a knock on my door. One of my roommates is a cleaner at the hotel and one of his roles is to clean the workhouse. So he was wanting to know if he could clean my room. Very nice of him (I’m glad he’s getting paid).

I ended up reading until dinner time, where I cooked up some pasta, chicken, and cut up some cucumber to have with hummus and a discounted “fancy” Bree style cheese.

But soon after eating, I was being flagged down by my friends to come downstairs and hop in their car to jam!

Originally I thought it was just going to be the three of us, but Paddy’s girlfriend and my manager, Simmo, were along for the ride too.

While we were jamming, two guys with sheds nearby came over and hopped in for a bit as well! I believe they knew Simmo already, but yet again, another testament to the nice people living in the Yamba community!

I told them I needed an early night because tomorrow I had a surf lesson scheduled at 7am! I still ended up going to bed around 11pm… but better than 2am!

I’m looking forward to finally having a surf lesson… but we’ll see what happens tomorrow!

– Elie