Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Wave riders and Watersheds

Sunday 23rd March 2008 Easter Sunday
After a slow start to day we headed out towards Margaret River and then on to Prevelly which is supposed to be one of the top surfing areas in WA. We thought that there would be a beach but it was shallow rocks up to about 200 yards out and beyond that was where all the surfers were sitting waiting for that one elusive wave. We were quite high up on a cliff and had a really good view of it and some of the waves were quite impressive bearing in mind that the water was not particularly rough today but it was keeping the surfers busy and it was fun to watch.
After about 30 seconds the kids attention span had passed and they had decided that they would much rather be in the water themselves than be watching somebody else in the water, so after about ½ hour we moved on to Gnarabup beach about a kilometre (5/8 mile), we came here when we stayed in Margaret River last time.
When we went there last time the kids really enjoyed it and today wasn’t going to be any different, straight away they were in the water, swimming, using their wave riders and getting dunked by the waves on a regular basis. Fraser made a friend again today although this time it was a boy about the same age as him who we think had seen him so far out from the beach that he assumed that he was struggling and went out on his surf board to help him, Fraser was quite comfortably swimming quite a way out and in no danger but took the opportunity to have a chat out there and then get a lift back before playing together for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately like most friendships made on a beach it is not ever likely to go any further because this boy is going to be flying out to Hong Kong tomorrow.
We left the beach at about 5pm and drove back on the coast road which took a little bit longer but was far more enjoyable than the main road from Margaret River and you wouldn’t believe how many vineyards there are on that one stretch of road from Gnarabup to Yallingup, at one point every field appears to belong to a different vineyard but these places obviously do alright for themselves because some of the visitors centres are absolutely magnificent and must have cost a fortune to build.
When we got home we had a nice healthy chicken salad, when I say healthy chicken salad I don’t mean that the chicken was healthy because obviously it wasn’t as it was dead and had been cooked, I meant the salad was healthy and we had chicken with it. Sorry if I’m waffling on a bit but when I read healthy chicken salad I get this vision of us ripping apart a nice healthy chicken that just happened to be passing by, wrapping it in a lettuce leaf and devouring it and feel the need to make it clear that although we have moved to Australia we still eat our chicken cooked although in this part of WA everybody seems to sell cooked chicken and I am starting to wonder if they were ever alive in the first place or just come out into this world already cooked to please the Australian appetite.
After dinner we put the kids to bed and then sat and watched about 4 hours of adverts with clips of the film Pearl Harbour in between, the adverts don’t get any better although they do seem to be getting more frequent and more amateur in the making but we shouldn’t knock it too much because one day we might decide to make an advert for the Olde Chapel Café. If you have any ideas for an advert for the Café let us know but please take into account that they will be shown before the watershed whatever a watershed is.
I have often wondered what a watershed was, it sounds like it should be somebody’s personal reservoir that they keep at the bottom of the garden with the lawn mower and tool boxes in a wooden hut but it has got to be something more important than that and it is obviously very moralistic because some things can’t be shown before it. If anyone out there knows what it is and why it is called a watershed could they please let me know because I have been worrying about this for years and now that I am living in a country with no worries I don’t want to feel like the odd one out?

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