Byron Bay Saturday 3/8/08

Now, let’s see if we can figure out this beach thing. The sun is shining and we are in one of the primo beach spots in Oz so if we don’t get it here, we probably won’t. It’s fruit and breakfast bars in our apartment before hitting the beach for a walk mid-morning. The beach is already getting crowded with the weekend visitors, the little kids are busy digging and the surfers are out in force. We walk/wade down to the end of the beach and back which takes most of an hour and we’re starting to remember what we like about the ocean.

The one thing that sticks out, so to speak, is the lack of self-consciousness the Aussies have about body image. There are government programs here for almost everything and we have heard radio discussions about how one department is working on the problems of childhood obesity while another is trying to resolve the issues young girls have with trying to be skinny. It’s all out the window here. There are fat girls, skinny girls, old men, saggy women, pregnant women, surfer studs and little kids, all wearing the absolute minimum amount of fabric required to stay in place. A couple middle aged ladies of opposite proportions have decided it would be easier to just leave the top at home. For us Midwesterners who tend to go baggy to hide any unwanted bulges this is (pardon the expression) eye opening. Everybody is having fun without the hangups, so good on 'em.

We poke around town a bit and get acquainted with most of the six square blocks of business area where every other business is either a cafe/bar or a surf shop. We find a nice little sidewalk cafe for lunch where Mary has a very good warm chicken salad and John has a Morrocan sort of open-faced chicken sandwich that we wash down with beers. After another short walk we return to the apartment for the next round of laid back day which includes lounging around the pool with a book. We continue to improve at doing nothing. There are some young folks around the pool and a college student from Seattle asks Mary to fill out a questionaire on global warming for a report she is doing. John claims he is absorbing all of the sun's rays into his body in order to keep them from melting the polar ice cap. Taking one for the team.

In order to rest up from nothing we grab a little late afternoon nap before dinner. On our way to dinner we walk through a canopy of trees that separates the beach from the street and the sunset noise from the resident birds is rock-band-loud. We have booked "Fishheads" for tonight which is right on the beach and while it has clouded up there is a nice breeze off the water and it is a pleasant spot. Mary has a roast chicken that is served with spinach and fingerling potatoes and John has the fish special, a blue-eyed cod with a roasted red pepper salsa and potato gallette. This is a BYO restaurant so we have dug a little deeper into our stash from the Hunter Valley for our shiraz. George Clooney is cooking in their open kitchen so we give him a thumbs up on the way out.

At 9:00 PM this burg is buzzing. The streets are lined with an unusual number of young ladies wearing gold lame, old hippies, mobs of surfer dudes and an old couple from Minnesota. There are at least four clubs in these few blocks that have big rock bands tonight and dozens of street musicians providing the score for all the action. We stop at the bar at a hotel that has a band in a different lounge and as we walk past the bouncers at the door we can feel their eyes roll. No worries Mate, we know our limitations and we have a pint and go home. We also know our talents and we find that if we try, we are very good at doing nothing.

Today's local headline: Australia's Sundance flickers into action The Byron Shire Echo (The newpaper slogan is "even grubs can spin silk")