the beach house

I had the good fortune, once again, to be invited up to the Menyharts' beach house at Norah Head for a couple of days. It's a huge house right on the beach - I mean right on the beach, you walk out the back door onto the sand. They tend to rent the bottom floor out to holidaymakers each year, but the family uses the upper floor and I've visited there a number of times. Jake, Jackie and I headed up there on Wednesday and spent a lovely two nights there.

• I taught them Bohnanza (and won)
• We played Scrabble twice (and I won - even got a bingo, that rarest of rarities)
• We listened to a bunch of music, including my playlist of new stuff, much of it stuff that I've been collecting on Guan and Karen's recommendations (and it was very well received - actually, it's a great playlist, remind me to post it sometime)
  
• We watched Spirited Away and I LOVED it (thanks K)
• I finished reading a book
• I wrote and wrote and wrote
  
• We walked on the beach
• We ate lots of great food, including a delicious pumpkin soup made by Jackie's grandmother with pumpkins from her garden
  
• We braved Tuggerah Westfield, missed out on the movie we were going to see, but ended up buying shoes
• I got up at 5am to take photos of the sunrise, and am glad I did

So seeing as I wasn't planning to Go Away in the holidays, it was really quite a good impromptu break! And it was wonderful to spend time with two people I love very much, even if we were all a little subdued and melancholy at times. It's good to be with good friends at times like that.

Here's some photos of the beach and the sunrise for your enjoyment.