Day 24....in which we finally see a stonefish

I had more weird dreams. What else is new?

I dreamed Tim is tutoring this woman who's very mean to me. I tell him he shouldn't help someone who is mean to his wife. I read her life story. It says her country finally had free elections. And when they did, the people who were elected into power raped her.

I have no idea what the message of that dream is.

In another dream, a man complains about gifts I give to others. I realize he's mad because I forgot to give him a gift. I feel very bad. Another woman and I sing an apology song to him with microphones. Then we sing "We are Family."

In the morning, I saw a commercial with a man who looked so familiar. I soon realized he was the guy who played Peter Johnson on Mcleod's Daughter.

We didn't spend much time in the apartment that morning. We rushed off for another trip to Manly.

We ate breakfast on the ferry.  A croissant. See? Now we were trying to imagine we were in Paris.

I saved myself a trip to the changing rooms by wearing my swimming suit and using a dress as a cover-up. I know I risked getting another rash, but I didn't wear the same swimming suit that had given me the rash in Hawaii. I wore the one I've worn many times without problems. But still. Maybe it was a little irresponsible of me.

We walked through the Corso to get to the beach. Tim wanted to stop at the discount store to buy a beach mat. We got that. Then Jack wanted a body board. I wasn't keen on the idea. We bought him one last year and he barely used it. Plus, I think it's a pain having to carry it around Tim was okay with carrying it though, and it was fairly inexpensive. We bought it.

We went to the beach.



I think Jack tried the body board once or twice. Then he gave up. He ended up liking the water bottles, I brought, much better. I had brought already-used bottles so we could clean our feet. I didn't want to rinse our feet in the decorative fountain again, so I had brought those as an alternative. I figured we could fill them with ocean water and then rinse our feet that way. In the meantime though, I let Jack play with the bottles.

One of his favorite things was when I filled the bottles and poured water on him.



We didn't spend too much time at the beach. Jack was very eager to go to the aquarium there...Oceanworld. We went there a few times last year. Jack had been very disappointed because the Stonefish exhibit had been closed. I think he even cried about it. He had hope that this year it would be opened.

Before we went to Oceanworld, though, Tim and I insisted that we all take a walk first. We needed to let the sun dry us a bit.

We walked and took photos of ourselves.

One of us was hungry. I think maybe Tim. We stopped at the little snack bar on the beach. I forgot what it's called. They didn't give us any attention or service, though. We felt ignored so we decided to forget about it.

We walked and ended up seeing another beach. Tim wanted to go beyond the beach and see if there was another shopping/restaurant area. Jack and I were feeling hot and lazy. We had little interest in exploring. I told Tim he could walk. We'd stay and wait for him.

Tim left.

Jack and I watched a crab walking on the rocks.

Tim returned. He hadn't found anything too exciting.

We walked back towards our usual way.

We ate at a little cafe called Northern Bites. The food was quite good. Jack has one of those all day Brekkie plates. I had a humus sandwich. I forgot what Tim had.

We did Royal Copenhagen again. I have no idea why. We really didn't like it anymore and there were other ice-cream places around there. What's wrong with us?

Next, we split up. Tim went exploring among the shops and got a haircut. Jack and I went to find the elusive Stonefish.

We saw other fish first.



Then we found the Stonefish!



Jack looked at it for about five seconds and then was ready to move on and look at other stuff.

Meanwhile, I ws completely fascinated with this thing. I couldn't stop staring at it. It's one of the most amazing and magnificent creatures I've ever seen. It's also quite dangerous. Its sting is incredibly painful and deadly. Best that we saw the lovely thing behind glass.

We saw the other infamous beautiful yet deadly creature of Australian waters.

The Blue Ring Octopus.



It wasn't too big of a deal because we see this guy's brother all the time at the Sydney Aquarium. The weird thing is I've read that they have the blue markings only when they're scared and ready to attack. But I think every time I see it, the blue markings are showing. Does that mean it's always in distress? That's not good. Maybe he doesn't like being locked up. Or maybe seeing humans staring at him scares him.

We played with the touch pool awhile. Jack likes touching all the little creatures. I think the coolest thing we got to touch was a sea slug.

Then we met back up with Tim and his new haircut.

We rode back on the ferry together.

Instead of going straight home, we stopped back at the Cook+Phillip pool for more water fun.



I got tired and got out of the pool before Jack and Tim. Then they came out because Tim had seen something gross in the pool. Poop? Vomit? Bird droppings?

I was a bit grossed out.

We left and went back to our apartment.

I watched the news. There was a story about the increase in shark attacks. They said it was due to the Sydney ocean water being cleaner. I guess the Cook + Phillip pool didn't have to worry about such problems.

I have in my notes that Tim and Jack went to the grocery store. I don't remember this happening so early in the week. I guess it did. See.... Tim could not find the Duffy Supermarket. I'd give him directions, but he couldn't understand them. So...eventually Jack took him there. Well, I guess it did happen that day. I should trust my notes. If you can't trust your past self, who the hell can you trust?

While they were gone I watched the Parliament channel thing on TV. The House of Representatives were doing their thing. A man promoted the idea of selling Uranium to India.

Later we watched some of Wipeout Australia and an American TV show--2 1/1 Men.

Okay. Now I see something at the bottom of my notes and I have no idea what it means.

It says fat free SOMETHING sucks. I can't figure out what the something is. It looks like forecamping or forecampery.

What in the world? I don't even remember eating anything that's fat-free. And usually when I eat fat-free stuff, I like it.

I'm so confused, but curious. I want to know what I said!!

What would our world be like if we

knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts