Balmy Beach Break

Eyes blink open — 4:45 am — all is calm, all is still.

Not long ‘till seven o’clock and Kawana Beach parkrun... I can’t be late!

6:15 am eventually crawls along. Experiencing a faint twinge of guilt sympathy, I gently wake my dreaming daughter. With only one key to the cabin, she locks the door after my exit. I definitely don’t want a repeat of last year’s fiasco in Sun, Sweat and Surf.

An arm’s length away, I spy a neighbour studiously ignoring me on her porch. Showing rare restraint, I refrain from greeting her and leave her in peace. Gear is piled into my temporary vehicle — cute ‘bubble’ car — Snowy.

I run a mental inventory:

Red running hat, body board, swimming togs and towel… yes.

Oops! I forgot my trusty water bottle… it’s my ‘Life Saver‘ after a run.

Tossing car keys onto the driver’s seat, I scoot off to summon my beleaguered daughter to grab my water bottle.

Hurry up… Time’s flying! I toss a comfy cushion on driver’s seat. All set! I plonk into the car…

Barp! Barp! Barp! shatters the gentle birdsong; scatters those unsuspecting birds; shouts across the once slumbering holiday park. Shock sets in. Confusion consumes. Agonising Hours minutes later, in desperation I leap out of the car to again enlist my darling daughter’s help.

Wait!

Perfect peace and calm wrap their reassuring arms around me once more.

Phew!

Now, where are the car keys?

Hidden of course!

Where?

Under the cushion!

I’m sitting on them and have inadvertently pressed the button my daughter has never felt game enough to try out… how I wish I had a smidge of her wisdom!

Winding the window down, I murmur an apology to the traumatised neighbour now grinning like a Cheshire Cat, futilely trying not to smile… Did we just become Besties?

Snowy and I finally sally forth and still arrive with oodles of time to spare. My good old friend Plantar Fasciitis reminds me of its presence with a stab in my left heel. Aimlessly milling around ten minutes before the start, I suddenly twig that my precious AirPods are still chilling in the car and not my ears… the ‘silly’ things were invisible hiding in plain sight: black on black.

I hot foot it back, lickety-split. I really need them today as the far more appealing beach run doesn’t start until next week. Today’s just the regular course on the concrete path alongside beach. Maybe that’s a good thing though… it’s almost high tide & my whinging plantar fasciitis would jib at running on soft sand. Besides, what a catastrophe it would be if my sole pair of joggers ended up wet and sandy.

281 hardy souls amble 500m a tediously boring distance to the starting point. Gorgeous beach views repeatedly lure my attention from the path making the run hazardous ‘interesting’ with numerous low hanging casuarina pine needles brushing my sweaty forehead.

Confidently, I tap my left AirPod to activate ‘Hear through’ mode. The sound of waves breaking will enhance my nine hour playlist of exercise music. No! I don’t plan on exhausting the entire playlist on the 5 km jaunt. I’m not that slow!

My reverie is suddenly broken…

“Please select! Connecting to customer enquiry or to Elizabeth” (my niece travelling overseas)!

NO THANK-YOU!

Hastily snatching my errant mobile from my pocket, I power it off, to foil further attempts to embarrass me.

The track climbs up to picturesque Point Cartwright but I barely have time to take in the impressive views across to Mooloolaba. We race around the lighthouse before the long downhill return trip to the finish line. These days I’m happy to finish anywhere between 36 and 40 minutes… so I finish Happy!

Grabbing my swimming togs from the car I realise I neglected to use the steering wheel lock!

Oops! Hope my daughter doesn’t find out! Good thing the car thieves slept in.

Now, for the best part… off to the beach for a refreshing cool off in ocean. I reckon it’s easier to rope a calf than wrangle swimming togs onto a hot, sweaty body.

Surveying the incoming tide with its aggressive ‘Dumper waves’, I jetison my plans of riding them on my body board. Getting ‘spear tackled’ into the ocean bed is one drama I’m keen to avoid today… I’m rather fond of my neck. So, just a quick cool off dip and I’ll be on my way to Eumundi Markets before the day heats up and the crowds pack in.

My ‘quick dip’ was indeed brief. What a struggle to stay upright in knee deep swirling salt water! White monster waves froth angrily. I concede defeat and high tail it back to the cabin… vanquished until sunset, when a less turbulent swim calls to me from Alex Beach.

*

The weekend continued in similar fashion… on pulling up at the markets:

Where’s my red cap? Oh no! I must’ve left it behind in the cabin. I need it!

A trio of heart beats later, my daughter glances over, reaches behind my head and flips the culprit onto my head.

Later, we relax on the beach front at twilight, munching scrumptious fish burgers, as an aluminium dinghy drifts silently past… a border collie darkly silhouetted on its prow. Sadly, one of our fish burgers mysteriously morphed into a chicken burger. Clearly a harried new worker.

Next, we raced the clock, 32km up the coast to collect Junk Fried Rice (to freeze and spirit away, for tasty meals). I sprinted in with eight minutes to spare before closing time. A black clad male greeted me and asked if he could help. After explaining I was there to collect a phone order, he stared at the street behind me and took off running down the laneway… never to be seen by me again. Weird! I thought he was staff! Did he have a flight to catch, or an upset stomach? Wordlessly, the chef handed me the food.

*

To top the day off, later that night a stab of paranoia saw me checking the security of shared WiFii in the Holiday Village. In my typical style, I was typing this saga on my work iPad.

What’s this strange device connected to the iPad?

Zagg keys?

With barely a moment’s hesitation, I recklessly hit Disconnect.

Isn’t that your keyboard?

My daughter queried, seconds too late!

Ooh! No!

So, this took eons longer to painstakingly type, than it should have. The next night I became desperate enough to Google a solution. With a little help from my friend daughter, my useful keyboard is again closely connected… for now and forever.

*

Sunday found us in the mountains at Monteville… wandering through various art galleries and quaint craft shops. Benny the Bookshop Beagle barely opened an eye, as we carefully stepped over him, lazily lounging on the stoop of his closet-sized store. Yes, he scored far more than his fair share of pats! If he broke even with pats and book-sales, he’d be sleeping on a gold mine! Later, brunch slid down smoothly in the ambience of Poets Cafe on the escarpment.

All too soon, Snowy was chewing up the kilometres between the coast and home. There are lollies to make and presents to wrap!

Christmas is coming!

*

Hurray! This is my 200th story since plucking up the courage to start writing on Vocal two years ago. I initially joined in 2022 to read my daughter’s stories.

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