Day 330! Well, here we go! Time to spend the next few weeks in a boot. So far, life’s been fairly unaffected by the boot… but the lack of surfing and swimming in the ocean is very sad. You can take the boy from the ocean… but you can never taken the ocean from the boy! So I joined my friends on a little morning beach trip and spent the rest of the day relaxing and jamming!

I was able to sleep in till around 9am this morning! I ended up wearing my moon boot to sleep and woke up a couple times in the middle of the night because of it. But for the most part I was able to sleep quite well.

Once I got up, I slowly got ready for the day… but I had nothing planned since I was taken off the schedule for today.

While I was eating breakfast, I got a text from Will asking if I wanted to go to the beach with him and Pat. I was hesitant at first… did I really want to get my boot all sandy already? And then I thought… duh!? Of course I want to go to the beach.

So I scarfed down breakfast and they came and picked me up.

We went to Pippi’s beach and I found some shade by the rocks on the north side to sit and read. Walking in the loose sand was a bit difficult with the boot, but I made it work.

Will was trying out a surfboard, that he was thinking about buying so I watched him a bit too. It’s pretty sad I can’t surf with him, but in a few weeks I should be back and ready to go!

While I was watching, I saw a surfer pretty far out and was a bit confused why they were… but then, I saw fin come up and down in the water… and then two more! I quickly realized there was a very small pod of dolphins having fun in the waves! I have heard stories of the dolphins in Yamba catching waves with the surfers but this was my first time seeing it!

After Will and Pat wrapped up their time in the ocean, we headed back into town and made our way to Wishbone Eatery for Pat and Will to snag an early lunch.

Wishbone, known for their southern fried chicken, just started selling kebabs. So Will and Pat were trying them out. I ended up getting a piece of fried chicken as I sat with them and helped Pat finish up his kebab.

They dropped me off at home afterwards and it was just in time to catch the KU basketball game! Today the men’s team was playing Duke in Las Vegas. It ended up being a VERY intense game, with one of our crucial players getting ejected on a flagrant 2 call!

At halftime, I grabbed the book I just finished and went on a little walk to the library to drop off the book. I also checked to see if the next book of the series was in yet for me and they said to come back Friday.

After the library, I made my way to the local grocer to pick up a couple items for tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch. I got myself a couple tomatoes, a kiwi, beef hotdogs, tuna, and some bread.

When I got home, I scheduled a delivery of my regular groceries from Coles for tomorrow! It was only $2 for the delivery fee, so this will be perfect since I can’t ride my bike for the next while!

I’ve never done an online grocery store delivery before… we’ll see how it goes.

I finished watching the KU game and it got dangerously close… BUT KU pulled through in the end. I love watching college basketball! Especially when KU wins.

For the rest of the afternoon, I read more of the second Dune book. As the first one, it’s started out a bit confusing… but has already started to pick up and grab my attention. This one is under 300 pages, which is very welcome after the 1000+ pages of the Stormlight series.

For dinner, I cooked up a pot of rice and made a few of the hotdogs I bought. I also threw in a tomato, and tomato sauce.

After eating, I went right back to reading my book until I got a text from Paddy. He wanted to know if I wanted to jam, and with nothing else to do tonight besides read, I of course said yes! The amount of music we’ve been playing has been a blast!

Before I left, I took a shower and had to take my boot off.

There’s still no bruising and I believe my foot looks far less swollen already! Still definitely going through some more “painful” moments than others but for the most part it’s been very manageable. This morning it hurt a bit but once I started moving it was back to how it had felt yesterday.

Paddy and Bella came and picked me up and we made our way to the shed.

Our jam was another nice, 2 hour session. We’ve started putting together a small set list and are practicing it and slowly growing it as we get better at each song. It’s a fun little project we have cooking.

Around 10:30pm, we made our way back to town and I got dropped off. It was time for bed, so I propped up my foot and called it a night!

I got a call today about my next doctor’s appointment in Grafton. It’ll be next Friday, so until then I’ll be doing what I think is best for my foot and hopefully they’ll give me good news about the progress!

– Elie