So this morning I received a text from Nina cancelling Castell’s dance lesson.  I told him and that I was going swimming if he wanted to come.  He wanted to chill for a bit but said he would come out for lunch with me later.  Off I went swimming and completed my twelve laps – it might not seem like much but I am getting more full crawl lengths in rather than stopping part the way along coughing a spluttering because I have inhaled water!
After swimming I decided to go to Ballina for lunch and a walk around the shops.  Castell came with me and we went to a pub recommended by Alice in Ballina called the Shaws Bay Hotel. We were taken on a detour so ended up at the Hotel before driving through the town. It didn’t look much from the outside but once through on to the veranda and the garden it was very pleasant. We sat looking out onto Shaws Bay. Castell had prawns kebabs on rice and I had barramundi and chips. 

  
  
  
After eating we sat back to relax for a bit and while I was looking at the water I am sure I saw flying fish – not once but twice.  These are sea mullets and often do it so they can fill sacs in their throats with air which enables them to swimming in oxygen reduced water!

While we were there Jon text to ask if I could collect Elsie from school around 5 which was fine but it meant we needed to get a move on if we were to do everything.

We drove into town and found an ATM for money, a white t-shirt for Elsie to give to Castell for his birthday (his had been ruined by a bottle of suntan lotion which had leaked), cards for his birthday, baby changing mat for Ash (finally!) and a memory card for the waterproof camera. I thought we had begun to run out of time and that we were running late but when I got into the car I realised that I had misread my watch (face glass ruined by same suntan lotion) and we were actually an hour early! So we took a leisurely drive back without rushing and I dropped Castell in Byron before collecting Elsie.

When we got home Alice said that they were planning to come out for dinner. I wasn’t hungry after a late large lunch but didn’t want to stay in so I went with them. Castell when back to the hostel to chill out. We ended up at the Italian restaurant and I just had cheesy garlic bread and four ciders that went down a little too quickly! Alice was able to have smoked salmon pasta for the first time in ages and Jon had chicken schnitzel and chips, Elsie got a bit of everything and Ash slept through the whole thing!
I had a mellow evening and sorted out a bit more packing and did some knitting.

Quote for the day….