A walk on the Beach

Tuesday 15th July 2008
The weather overnight was horrendous, the wind and rain pounded the house all night and then carried on into the day, it did clear up in the afternoon though and turned into a pleasant evening.
Carolyn cleaned and hoovered the house and then set about giving people lots of grief on the phone. First she started with the people who are supposed to be delivering Frasers bed, when we ordered it they told us it would take three weeks, today is three weeks later. When she asked the guy when it would be arriving, he told her it doesn’t really matter because she can’t have it until it arrives anyway. This is like showing a red flag to a bull, Carolyn gave him an ear bashing about how her son had been sleeping on a camp bed and wasn’t going to do it indefinitely. He gave in and said that he was waiting for it to arrive from the Far East (Sydney or somewhere similar), when it arrives in Perth it has to go to the transport company he uses and should arrive in Busselton no later than Friday 25th July.
What a load of old rubbish, we might be green but we’re not cabbages, this guy must think we’re totally stupid, he is obviously holding up the shipment so that it doesn’t cost him too much in transport costs.
Well if there are any more delays we might have to resort to naming and shaming, the time it has taken we could have grown our own tree, chopped it down, turned it into a bed and still had time to pluck enough Ducks to make a comfy mattress.
Carolyn then rang Camtec, the Fridge/Freezer warranty engineers to give them a mouthful, for some reason the girl that normally fobs her off with assurances that an engineer will be here shortly, didn’t answer the phone this time. The person who answered the phone was the engineering Manager, when Carolyn explained the problems we had been having he was not a happy chappie and assured her that he would sort it out. This afternoon Carolyn got a call from a slightly embarrassed sounding, apologetic young lady who informed Carolyn that an engineer will be here on Thursday.
After all the wind and rain over the last few days, when it brightened up this afternoon we decided that we would go for a walk along the beach when Ian got home from work. It was still nice and sunny, although a bit cold, as we walked along the beach. The seas over the last few days must have been very high because everywhere a footpath or road met the beach, it literally met the beach, great big lumps of tarmac lying on the sand where the water had got underneath it and washed away the sand beneath.
We normally see Cuttlefish lying around on the beach, normally with Shark teeth marks in them and always looking like the ones you would put in a Budgies cage, well today we saw one that still had its skin on. We’re not sure what we expected a Cuttlefish to look like, but this wasn’t it, it had a Purple Skin, although it was quite chilly on the beach and it was most definitely quite dead which may have had something to do with it, so we will not assume that all Cuttlefish are Purple. The skin was thick and rubbery and overlapped the shell bit that you would normally see, by about two inches all round. The back bit, or possibly the front bit, because we don’t actually know what they are supposed to look like, may or may not have been nibbled, it might just be an ugly fish, so ugly in fact that even a Budgie wouldn’t be interested in it with its skin on.
Further along the beach we came across some trees which although not looking well were firmly rooted, we thought we hadn’t noticed these planted here last time we walked along, and then realised that the tree would have been sitting just behind a dune in the bush last time we came past, now it is just part of the beach furniture. A little bit further along and we saw an Octopus washed up on the beach, in truth it was some of an Octopus. The tentacles which would have been fairly big had been nibbled, you could still see most of the body but whatever had killed this was definitely more interested in the tentacles.
There were also quite a few large planks of wood on the beach which we wouldn’t normally expect to see, so presumably something has fallen down. Unfortunately all this wood on the beach, both planks and ex trees are no good for firewood or building otherwise we might find a use for some of it.
We were going to walk past Stilts for a change but the beach beyond there was absolutely covered in seaweed, so we took the easy option and went for a drink instead.
While we were there the kids met up with some friends and played in the playground, we just sat at the bar trying to work out why on a Saturday when they have lots of guests, the place is freezing, and today when there are not many people around it is warm.
While we were there Ian got a call from his oldest daughter, she has been in Oz staying with Ians sister for about 11 days now. We were hoping that she would have been able to come down and see us but she goes home on Thursday and has already arranged to do something else tomorrow, maybe next time.
We have decided not to let the kids know that she was over here because they will be devastated that they didn’t see her, one day they will find out but hopefully that will not be before she comes over again and we do get to see her.
When we got back from Stilts the Corn on the cob that Carolyn had put in the oven for dinner had been slightly cremated, we nibbled at the bits that came back to life when you covered it in butter but left the rest. While we were eating Ians sister phoned up and spoke to Carolyn for the best part of an hour, Ian thinking that after all that time there was no way Carolyn would eat her Corn, threw it away. Needless to say, when Carolyn got off the phone she wanted her Corn, Carolyn would never eat cremated, cold vegetables as a rule, she is not pregnant, but because Ian threw them out she wants to eat them.
People just don’t realise how tough it is being a man nowadays, not only do we have to go out and work our socks off to feed the family, we have to cook it as well, be psychic enough to get it right and still be in touch with our feminine side so we know how it feels.