Fishy Bizness

I woke up this morning with my head in full throttle….vrrrroom vrrrooom….y’know how it is when there are 1001 things that need to be done RIGHT NOW. And all before the packers come to pack up our life here. I realised (slow of me, I know!) that there isn’t a lot of ‘breathing space’ between NOW and THEN. Don’t you find that these moments of profound discovery come at the most inconvenient times?! No more lingering sleep-in’s for me. Zip zip. With the husband drowning in paper at home, and E trying to cope with endless late night commitments and exams during the day, and L needing baking for the cake stall fundraiser, that steady stream of goodbyes and all that sort of STUFF….one of us needs to hang a little loose! The weekend seems so long ago now.

Our weekend away to Napier and Tauranga was lovely. Great to catch up with family and friends. Wonderful to connect, celebrate, commiserate, and create….all precious memories worth keeping. We were also thrilled that we were in warm houses, and not back at home in our freezing cold villa! This was the weekend ALL the temps in NZ dropped to sub-10 degs Celsius!! Not quite on par with the North American winter temperatures I realise, but nonetheless, quite a nasty shock for us native Down Underites! Winter has made its presence known very decisively and very early this year.

But before the storm set in, there was The Calm! And in that wonderful stillness, the boys went fishing with the cuzzies.

An unfortunate shark - notice the teeth marks on its side - evidence of a larger predator lurking beneath...

They had a huge haul of fish and the most pleasant of fishing experiences! The ocean was almost mirror calm, and the fish were biting….

E holding his Kahawai. Mossy found it amusing because E didn't like to touch the fish.

E had fun reeling in a Barracuda, and winning. It is no wonder that the Barracuda is often portrayed as The Bad Guy in cartoons and animations. They are ugly, vicious, and large. And their backward facing, razor sharp teeth, leave little room for escape if you are a victim. Not only that, but they aren’t great for eating once you catch them. You definitely wouldn’t want to have them as sashimi, since they are riddled with worms under their skin. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

La Barracuda. Note the fangs!

The boys were thrilled to see some snow on the road verges in the mountains. It may be their last snow for a long time, as there will certainly never be snow in the Sunshine State where we are heading!

~*~

And now this leaves me one last comment.

The Scurrilous Behaviour post engendered quite some email traffic. I am left with little doubt that we are in the dubious position of knowing some very mischievous / naughty / ill behaved / unrestrained ….. but lovely …… friends (of ill-spent youth!)!

I rest my case with the following part-quote received:

“….they merely stole your wallet? I was expecting it to be substituted with a Barbie pink plastic one, foil-wrapped embarrassments placed where they were bound to fall out at the till, or bank cards replaced with ontheBlink cards...”