Day 353! Well, unexpectedly, my friend Sammy came in town for a visit! I’m very excited to have him around since it’s been a couple months since I’ve seen him! The rest of my day was pretty much the same… but I think I’m starting to come down with a small cold. I hope that’s all it is because this is not the best time to have one with how busy we’re supposed to be getting!

I woke up late this morning and when I opened my phone I had a message from my friend Sammy, who I stayed with in Melbourne.

It said “I’ll be up in Yamba around 6pm. What are your movements today?”

My initial response was…

“You’re coming today?”

I had known he wanted to come visit at some point before Christmas Day, but he never told me the day! So looked like I was going to have to get into host mode.

I felt like I was coming down with a little cold last night and this morning I felt the same. Just a slight sore throat and feeling tired. So I took a nice warm shower, had breakfast, and then got my room ready to share it with Sammy.

Now unfortunately, I’ll have to work the entire weekend, but when I was in Melbourne he was working too. So it’s all okay!

I went about my morning as usual. I started with reading in my bed, but then decided to take my new chair for a spin and head up the hill to read in the sun overlooking the beach.

This is such a great spot to enjoy the beautiful weather and devour a good book. I spent a solid hour and a half reading, but I had to move around periodically because it was actually a bit chilly! There was a solid breeze today so I had to keep moving to find a spot not too sunny and not too shady.

I made my way back down the hill to have lunch and get ready for my work shift which started at 5pm. By this point Sammy’s ETA was 7:30pm, so I told him to come straight to the hotel.

Work was unusually slow… it’s the summer time! I heard it’d be crazy! But I guess people are waiting until after Christmas, so we’ll see if the alleged craziness of Boxing Day is true (apparently we pack in around 800 people into our hotel… crazy)!

And around 7:30pm I saw Sammy walking up!

I went outside and gave him a big hug, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other. I was able to take my break then too so we sat down, caught up, and had dinner together.

There’s lots of new stuff going on with Sammy and his family. He went to New Zealand, his sister got into the Houston, Texas Ballet, and they’re finally moving houses (just to say a couple examples).

Unfortunately for Sammy, there wasn’t much to do or people to hang with because the hotel was so quiet. So he left for a bit to explore and then came back later once the live music started. At this point I introduced him to some of my friends who were hanging around. But he eventually went to my place and went to bed.

I, on the other hand, worked till close. The bar at one point was eerily quiet… there were so few people for a Friday night! Crazy!

I finished up my shift and skipped over having a knock off beer. I wasn’t feeling the best and was ready for sleep.

It’s great having Sammy in town for a few days (he’ll be here till Monday night). But… it would’ve been nice for a heads up! Anyways, it’ll be a fun time and we’ll be sure to make use of his car and go to the beaches. He’ll also be trying out surfing with my board, so even though I can’t swim yet, I’ll watch him test his luck!

– Elie