Yamba Day 10

Sue was out of the blocks early - off for a 40 minute walk up and down hills as per instructions from her Tamworth physiotherapist. I stayed at the unit and finished off washing from the day before and worked on some writing ideas as well as reporting on the closing days of the West Indies v India series on Thecricketragics. I received emails from David Bancroft, the Editor at Grafton's Daily Examiner, with more information about background for a poem I am planning to write. It turns out he was at school with Sue in Maclean during the early 1970's.

The Examiner ran a story last week about a local resident who is taking the local Council to task for not maintaining the graves of 13 boys who were killed in a tragedy in December 1943, A punt they were hurriedly bought across the Clarence River on from the riverine Susan Island sunk in full view of their parents and only 15 of the 28 boys on board survived. It had a profound impact on the town and was the impetus for the building of the local swimming pool so that youngsters could be taught to swim. I have a strong idea of how to tell the story through poetry and David Bancroft is helping me with resources.

The rest of the morning was spent at the beach with Mandy, Joel, Ava and Jack. There was a minor skirmish when an interloping 4 year old crashed down one of the sandcastles in the fort Ava and Jack were making but peace talks began immediately between parents representing both parties and an uneasy truce was negotiated. Ava took some convincing of the need for reconciliation but eventually warmed to the task.

After lunch, Sue and I finally walked out to Lover's Point. It usually one of our early destinations on a trip to Yamba but for some reason it had escaped us until now. It was a perfect day, with little or no wind and brilliant winter sunshine. We watched two blokes body boarding off the point, one wearing a helmet camera but it was too nice a day to stay still for long. We returned in time for Sue to have her third physiotherapy appointment of the trip for a sore neck and for me to put a pitch to the practice to purchase five of my photographs for their surgery walls. We'll see. I never take encouraging interest for a sale these days.

We had coffee and then did the obligatory shopping before retiring to the Pacific for our sunset drinks, only to be surprised by the other remaining members of the family who were planning to have dinner. We joined them from courtesy, although the Pacific is not one of my favourite dining places: too expensive for the quantities that are served and in this case, my fish was a tad over cooked. Still, the chance to commune with family should always be taken.

The remainder of the evening was spent watching "Young Frankenstein" ... Sue's first viewing of the Mel Brooks classic.