I imagine that one of these full would be insanely heavy

I learned a lot in those 2 hours, particularly that collecting money for the lifesavers (or anyone for that matter) is hard work. Here’s why:

1. Some people will avoid eye contact with you at all costs, even if it means they almost walk into a pole (laughing at them is permitted in my opinion)
2. Some people will provide the most lamest of excuses on why they can’t donate to you (“It’s a cashless society nowadays, what’s this coin business?” If only we had direct debit forms available huh? Bet you still wouldn’t donate)
3. It gets incredibly boring (I couldn’t remember enough song lyrics to keep myself entertained)
4. Standing up for 2 hours can hurt after a while
5. Friends may come past to jeer at you, even if they donate money, and take photos of you while you try resist swearing at them and giving them the finger

Ahem...thanks for the picture Dan.

After 5 minutes of doing the collecting I wanted to kill myself. Not literally, that would be pretty dramatic (no one tell me to call beyondblue thanks). The first few people I dealt with either ignored me or gave me a bad excuse. I felt incredibly lonely, stuck out like a sore thumb and was bored.

By the end of the shift it actually wasn’t that bad. I had met some pretty cool people, including one elderly lady who after emptying the contents of her coin purse into my tin proceeded to sit on the nearby chair and berate the people that didn’t donate. I also had a lot of compliments from people thanking me for volunteering my time, and for the wonderful job the lifesavers do. Amen to that, there are some incredible lifesavers out there and they all do it on their own time.

I know my club needs all the money they can get, so I daresay I’ll put my hand up for doing this again. Every little bit we can get counts. Besides, if it wasn’t for my club I wouldn’t spend hours at the beach and experience beautiful days like this:

Admit it, that's a beautiful view

 So the next time you see a volunteer trying to collect some money, remember this:

We don’t want your lies, and we don’t want any bullshit. If you can’t spare the money that’s fine, we don’t expect anything, but we appreciate everything. Even a smile helps, and makes us feel a lot better. It’s hard getting turned down time after time.

To all the people that have donated in the past or will donate the future, thank you. To the people that can only offer us a smile, thank you. To the people that ignore us, or make us feel like scabs, screw you. Just remember who it is that might have to come to the aid of your friends, family, or even yourself. The person who rescues you doesn’t ask for anything back, so treat us with some respect. You never know when you might need us.

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I’ve still got my cold, but I’m not letting it stop me from doing anything. That being said, I’ve probably allowed it to get worse again by not staying home. Last night I went to a Brisbane Broncos vs Gold Coast Titans game at Suncorp Stadium, and thankfully took a poncho as it began raining during the game. We were sitting high enough that we were technically undercover, but when the wind blew we still copped a bit of the downpour. I had three layers on, so apart from the tops of my legs and my hands, I was relatively warm.

This morning I’m heading to the beach for the IRB state championships (Inflatable Rescue Boats, or more commonly known as rubber duckies). They asked me to take photos, but given the weather I’m a bit nervous about taking my camera gear down there. I don’t have any protective covers or anything for it, and the last thing I want is for it to get wet and ruined. I think I’ll take my camera but leave it in the car at first, and just see what the case is down at the beach, if there’s any tents that I could stand in and take photos from the shore. I wonder if I could “modify” my clear poncho from last night and cover the camera (except the lens) with that? I’m also scheduled to help out tomorrow with preparing lunches for all the officials, so at least that’s an indoors job. Thank goodness.

I’m going to love my hot shower at the end of the day.

Oh, and I have tons of washing to get through and that’s just not going to happen with this weather. Blah!

I suppose I’d best stop procrastinating by blogging, and get ready to go stand in the horrific weather all day. I wonder how many layers I can get away with before I start looking bulky?

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I can’t decide if I’m happy with this photo or not…maybe if I had gotten a bit lower to the ground, closer to the rocks perhaps? It was my first night out with the 550D where I properly tried long exposures, thankfully there was a break in the rain that allowed me to get out and about with it. I’ve discovered how much I need a remote release for my camera though, can’t use bulb mode without it! I’ll add it to the evergrowing shopping list.

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Went for a walk after work today and snapped this pic. It was a beautiful afternoon, but I preferred this pic in black & white

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It started off with having a sleep in (excluding the extremely early hour my dog woke me up for his breakfast), followed by lazing around in my pyjamas for a few hours. That was a win already – any day that starts like that you know it’s going to be a good one. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and a mate of ours, James, popped his head in. “Came over for a cold one!” he yelled.

An hour later we decided to head down to the local tavern for a bite to eat for lunch and have a couple of drinks. Unfortunately being the driver, I opted for the non-alcoholic beverage of diet coke, but I’m tough. I could handle it. The boys downed a few bourbons, and James having the excellent contacts that he does, got the first few rounds for free. Turned out he used to be the manager’s boss, and she had always been sweet on him. Another tactic to woo him over I guess (James is a pilot and determined to be single for another few years yet).

Also to the boys’ advantage was the backyard cricket match running live across the road from the tavern. It included girls in bikinis running, and for my viewing pleasure, men without shirts on. Unfortunately, none of these men carried a six pack on their stomachs; they each had at least a carton. Hence I turned my attention back to the tennis playing on one of the numerous tv’s scattered around the room. Much more appealing eye candy there.

After a while, we finished up and decided we would grab the dogs and head down the river for a swim. We switched from our little Suzuki hatch into our Suzuki 4wd, put the dogs in the back and headed to North Shore. We had packed a cooler bag full of drinks for ourselves, so first order of business after we’d arrived and set up was to get drinks. I served the boys their boubons, then made myself a fruit tingle.

A very wet Turbo on Australia Day

Unfortunately, Turbo is not well enough trained to know not to run away when we take him off the lead. Thus, he had to stay on the lead today while we were playing in the water. Generally it was fine, the only problem was when other dogs came along and he wanted to run off and play. He’d pull on the lead, get in trouble, then cry….that whole routine was repeated several times during the day. Other times it was great! We would say the magic words “do you want to go for a swim” then we’d walk into the water and he’d run in after us and start paddling in. James’ dog, Hunter, a great big doberman, was there as well but he’s much more obedient than Turbo. James had brought a ball for Hunter to play with, and took to throwing it out into the river. Hunter would then race in and swim out to the ball, grab it with his mouth, and swim back again. After a while Turbo had picked up on the game, and we were able to let go of the lead while he swam in after the ball, then came back. It was great while it lasted!

Overall we spent about 3 hours down at the river, during which time I’m pleased to say I didn’t get burnt. I had put on the good ol’ 30+ though, so it’s not really surprising. Around 6′ish we packed the dogs back into the vitara and headed home. We had timed it perfectly, to hear the last few songs in the Triple J’s Hottest 100, which we’d tuned into several times during the day (alas we didn’t have a radio to bring with us onto the beach). Along the way home the boys insisted on going via Mooloolaba, obviously to check out the “talent” aka women. They had a bit of drink in them at this stage, and tried to tell me they just wanted to see “the scene”, which was really just a thinly veiled attempt at trying to convince me otherwise. We ended up driving down the spit, at which point John Farnham’s “You’re the Voice” came onto the stereo. Mat immediately turned it up to an insane level, and they hung out the windows singing at the top of their lungs. Being the driver, I should have been more stern on them, but really it was just hilarious to see. There was a large number of people at Mooloolaba Spit at the time, and I’m fairly positive almost every single one of them turned to look at our car. I hope we brought a smile to someone’s face at least.

I dropped the boys off at James’ place (along with Hunter) for a swim in the pool while I came home to shower. I bathed Turbo as well to get rid of all the sand scattered amongst his hair, threw in some clothes for Mat and rejoined the boys. More drinking ensued (mostly for the boys, only one more drink for me being the good sensible non-drinking-driving girl that I am), along with a trip to McDonald’s for dinner. We’d left dinner until 9.30pm, and everything was shut at the time except for Mickey D’s…so that was on order. Got home at ate, then Mat and I decided it was time to depart and return home. After all, we had to work the following day!

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable day, and I think it really summed up the Australian way of life. We’d managed to tick every box for Aussie priorities. Having a drink, hanging out with mates, going to the beach, and cricket. What more could you ask for?!

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But he was up early, made a packed lunch and was ready to go before 9.30am, which for Mat is impressive. Figuring he was serious I packed up the dog bowl for Turbo (even he was invited) threw in more water and snacks for him and off we went.

The weather was amazing! Clear skies, aqua water and golden sand, it was fantastic. We had caught the barge over to double island point and proceeded to drive along the beach right up to the point. There we stopped for lunch, turbo had a swim (and ran away at one point to play with other dogs) and generally sat on the beach and relaxed.

After a few hours we drove into rainbow beach and caught up with a friend we hadn’t seen in a while as he had moved up there for some work as a pilot.

He showed us a spot we had never seen, it brought us to the top of one of the dunes. We had such a clear view over the hinterland in one direction, and the ocean in the other. It was called the blow hole, as it was a flat spot in the dunes where the wind blew directly through. It was all sand and looked like something you would see out of a coca-cola ad with everyone sandboarding down the dunes. I will have to try that one day. I got some great shots with my camera which I will have to upload to flickr tonight.

Finally it was time for us to head home. We had left it a bit late since it was only a few hours until high tide. We decided to take the road way home which meant going through gympie aka 2 hours of boring road opposed to 1 hour gorgeous beach. We finally arrived home at 7pm, eating a feral take away dinner and eventually falling asleep on the couch.

For a treat, here is a pic of my view of rainbow beach, taken with the iPhone (side note – I had reception the entire length if the beach – I never used to get reception there at all!)

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