beach | Semantically driven

Full-on holiday mode

January 12, 2010 by Jen

As my holidays roll into their fourth week I’m finally properly relaxing. It’s been quite warm here, and in fact the heatwave has been replaced by rain and humidity so swimming lessons this morning will be wetter than normal.

On Saturday I’d arranged to visit some friends who live about an hour down the coast. Some other mutual friends had also made similar arrangements so we all converged at their place early Saturday afternoon.

After a lovely lunch we spent about four hours at the beach and I had my first boogie boarding experience and I can’t wait to get more. I bought my son a boogie board for Christmas and he actually let me borrow it a bit.

Not sure what this look is all about but it’s the only photo like this that I took which is a lesson in taking more photos of the same thing!

By the time we got back at 7pm and had dinner it was getting quite late so my plans of driving the hour home were thrown out the window and I sat back, relaxed some more and spent the night there (along with all the others). Bless my friends for being so accommodating.

Afternoon at the beach

January 5, 2010 by Jen

Just to get out of the house yesterday we went to the beach. This served three purposes in addition to getting out of the house:

Exercise the kid
Exercise the dog
Take some photos

Apart from calling my dog Monty (as is her name) I also call her Lady Monty. Note the crossed paws at the front. She is wet but not because she swam with us but because she’d go into the water to follow us then the slightest wave would break and she would be off to go and roll in the sand.

While I’ve got some time to take photos and then blog about them my 2010 affirmation of taking more photos is absolutely fine. The proof in the pudding will be when I go back to work and the daily routine starts up again.

Water bunny

January 20, 2009 by Jen

During our mini-holiday at the end of the larger not at work holiday we went to Carrickalinga and stayed not very far from the beach. The first couple of days we were there it was a bit windy and cool and not really conducive to going in the water, not for me anyway.

That didn’t stop my son, however, as he was in every day. The day I took the photos below, was a bit warmer and I took them before I finally went for a swim myself.

He borrowed a friend’s boogie board. I must get his own as he really enjoys using them and this time he stayed out there for a bit.

There were a group of other kids not too far away and maybe he was copying what they were doing but I admired his patience. I can just see him looking for a bit of a wave.

As you can see the waves weren’t very big but at least I don’t panic when they are only this big. He doesn’t mind the bigger waves though and knows how to handle them.

When I went in I took my friend’s daughter who’s nowhere near as confident in the water and was very wary of the waves. I showed her what to do and she ducked down for two of the waves and was very proud of herself. Hopefully that will give her the boost she needs for next time.

Making the most of it

January 9, 2009 by Jen

Yesterday was a day that epitomises being on holiday in my own town. A friend organised a get-together down the coast on a beautiful beach I don’t go to that often, probably because I go to other beautiful beaches in the vicinity. We’re spoilt around here for beautiful beaches.

It wasn’t a really warm day but that didn’t stop the kids going into the water while us adults supervised and chatted amongst ourselves.

It’s a beach that cars are allowed to drive on, for the moment anyway. For the most part, people are fairly sensible with their driving but some went a bit too fast when driving past our group which is just silly when there’s people walking around and kids running back and forth to the beach.

After the beach I dropped JJ at my sister’s place and met a friend to see the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The Director, Danny Boyle, who directed this also did Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and The Beach.

I’d heard lots of good reviews about Slumdog Millionaire and I’d recommend going to see it. It was a bit confronting which it needed to be to be true to the lives of kids growing up in the slums of Mumbai and three people left the cinema during some more confronting bits. The rest of us who stuck through it thoroughly enjoyed it. If you go and see it you might cover your eyes up for some of it but hang in there. It is written.

We enjoyed a Malaysian meal afterwards.

I can certainly say that yesterday was one of the great days I’ve enjoyed these holidays.

First day of holidays

September 30, 2008 by Jen

The first day of our holidays together we got up at 6.30am and took Monty to the beach. This is the time I normally get up when going to work, not on a day when I’ve got nothing else planned.

On the way to the beach it was obvious that it was going to be a warm day and it felt good to be up so early. I always feel quite virtuous when I’m up way before I have to be.

For a change we didn’t come home with a bag full of shells, just this one.

Both my son and my dog love the beach. Actually I do as well, but here’s JJ in a moment of quiet reflection.

Monty adores rolling in the sand. I just need to keep an eye out for her rolling in seaweed. That’s not pleasant for the car ride home usually.

This is looking towards Glenelg (a very touristy area) in the distance. The good thing about being out so early is that there was hardly anyone else around. Just a few people walking their dogs like us.

Here’s the last picture I took before we left.