Day 354! Alrighty! It’s time for a day of beaching with my friend Sammy who drove all the way from Melbourne to hang out. We ended up going to multiple beaches before I had to part ways and work at the hotel. It was a fantastic day and it’s been nice having Sammy around!

I may not be feeling 100%, but now that Sammy is here and he has a car… it’s time for a day of beaching!

We woke up bright and early at 8am and set out pretty much immediately to Pippi beach.

Sammy wanted to try his hand at surfing so we squeezed my surfboard into the car. We also brought along the two chairs I just bought and our guitars! It was going to be a fun morning.

We set up in the shade on the far north side of the beach. I still can’t get in the water, but I was happy to be so close to the ocean and in the shade!

While Sammy swam, I sat and read my book. We also jammed on our acoustic guitars together and got a lovely compliment by a lady sitting near us. Sammy eventually went into the water with the surfboard… but even with there being offshore winds (which usually creates a good surf day), the surf was really bad and not good for learning. But he tried anyways for a little bit.

We chilled out on the beach till around 10:30am before we packed up and headed into town for breakfast!

We went to a restaurant just down the road from my house called Caperberry Cafe. For the price, it was actually really good! My breakfast burrito was soooo much better than the one I had (the day I fractured my foot) at the restaurant caddy corner to it.

After breakfast, I was in dire need of a nap. So I went home for a 30 minute power nap and Sammy went wandering around town. He ended up walking to the end of the break at turners beach and back by the time I woke up.

We met back up at my place and then set back out to another beach, this time Yamba Main Beach.

We found a spot up in the park that I haven’t noticed before. It’s a beautiful, shaded spot surrounded by trees and overlooking the ocean! It also brought a strong breeze which cut away the heat of the day.

I read more and we passed the guitar back and forth. While we were sitting here, we spotted a pod of around 5 dolphins! My second dolphin sighting in Yamba.

Eventually, it got a bit chilly. So we made our way down to the sun along the beach. Sammy went in and out of the ocean over the next couple of hours… but of course, I can’t swim quite yet. So I just sat around and read.

Time passed quicker than I realized and it was time to hop back home for a very late lunch.

I made us some tuna wraps before having to change and head out for work at 5pm.

Tonight was finally a busy night! I’m guessing it’ll get much busier than this throughout the summer… but it was very nice to have a weekend night that was actually a little hectic. I worked till my break and had a small dinner since I had such a late lunch.

Sammy came up to the Pub later in the night and ended up hanging out with my main crew of friends (Will, Paddy, Bella, and Katie). I was glad he had people to hang out with while I was at work.

The busyness didn’t stop till we closed the bar at midnight! The shift flew by tonight and I think, on top of the amount of people, having a really solid band playing helped a ton.

After cleaning up and clocking off, I had a ginger beer, played a game of pool, and then hobbled my way back home. I was exhausted and ready for bed. The “cold” I have is just lingering, so I’ve had a slight sore throat and exhaustion for the past few days… which is frustrating. But hopefully it doesn’t get any worse and doesn’t persist for much longer!

Tomorrow, I have an early start to work and then a long day of work after. But once that’s done, I’ll be able to hang out with Sammy the rest of the evening!

– Elie

(I just thought of this after writing this post… me being sick while Sammy is visiting me is very reminiscent of when my cousins visited me in Thailand and I got sick)