Once some jolly swimmers…
Over 500 top blokes and good sorts turned up in their Australian work boots (thongs – or flip flops for you European bludgers) for a bit of a wet walkabout to Shelley.
115 Cleanskins decided to brave the blueys, leave the boogie boards in the car and have a proper crack at it with the rest of us… No-one had to chuck a sickie, except for those real estate mongrels who normally work Saturdays…
A ridgey didge thanks to Lesley, John Kelly, Ian Foster, Jalna for helping out with the folders and organisation, etc..
Who woulda thought that Rainer would have a brother who is better looking than him?? …and Storchie.. you are HALF the man you used to be (go easy on those lattes 🙂
This bloke (we are told repeatedly) is quite influential and good with money – brought his son Mike along…
Gathered at the Surf Club…
Under the shade of the Manly pine trees…
And they sang as they ticked…
Good on ya Greg… your blood’s worth bottling, son, and you’re prettier than the Prime Minister 😉
And then they swam out to the point….
Who’ll Come a swimming to Shelley with me…?
It was a great swim over this morning and more fun for the 500+ people, a lot who we met mid swim 🙂
At first we thought this bloke might’ve been havin a chunder but he was actually doing pushups…
…and it’s good to see George Lazenby is still getting around! ….
Welcome back shazza – I can call you that on Straya Day 🙂
Happy Australia Day everyone!
Swimmers: 500+!!
Blueys and Jimbles: 0!!
Temp: Bloody nice
Good Sorts: Plenty!
Barbies: Everywhere!
Bondi Cigars: None!
Budgies: Lots!
Mates: Lots!
Pommies: A few!
Dunny Budgies: None!
Show Ponies: A few (you know who you are!)
Sickies Chucked: None (it’s Saturday!)
Tall poppies: a Few (again… you know who you are!)
White Pointers – None this week!
To read Michael’s tips on how to stay safe in the surf please click here
Until next week… Crikey and Good on ya!
***
Steve Coulter has set up a Bold and Beautiful team for next week’s Cole Classic
– If you re one of us you can link to this team through the www.iswimtoo.com site: Click here
-Also there is a $10 discount that Steve has negotiated to enter the Cole Classic through www.iswimtoo.com
***
-Team Aidan-
20 kids aged between 9 and 12 have joined a team called Team Aidan to swim the 1 km Cole Classic at Manly on 3 February 2013. Team Aidan raises money for The Kids Cancer Project the largest funder of research into childhood cancer.
20 kids aged between 9 and 12 have joined a team called Team Aidan to swim the 1 km Cole Classic at Manly on 3 February 2013. Team Aidan raises money for The Kids Cancer Project the largest funder of research into childhood cancer. http://www.thekidscancerproject.org.au/
A 1 km swim in open water is tough for an adult, imagine how it feels for 9-12 year olds. The team has been training in the pool and at Manly beach for the race. The kids have been courageous, braving the deep dark water, bluey’s, sea lice and the ‘s’ word that we do not talk about. On Saturday the swell was rough and we were inspired by their determination.
Team Aidan was formed 2 years ago by 5 boys who were raising money for The Kids Cancer Project in support of Harrison Fisk’s brother, Aidan (5) who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in 2010. The following year the team was doubled to include boys and girls from Seaforth Public School who had reached the age limit for the race. This year, the team has doubled again and we hope that Aidan will be able to join us when he is old enough next year to swim the Cole Classic. Refer to the attached link for coverage of the teamhttp://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/-/watch/28203538/young-aussies-swim-for-aidan/
Aidan who is now 7 finished his chemotherapy in August 2012 and is slowly removing the toxins from his system, regaining his strength and co-ordination and building his confidence. Aidan’s survival is remarkable. It is a tribute to his courage and strength, the quality of care at Westmead and the dedication of researchers who have improved survival rates of kids in Australia. Terribly, not all families are as fortunate, 3 kids die each week in Australia from cancer. This is why we continue to raise money for research.
I hope that you will generously support Team Aidan with a donation in the name of Team Aidan. Please click here for the team webpage. http://www.everydayhero.com.au/team_aidan_2013 . Your support makes a difference to kids with cancer.
46 comments
lesley
26/01/2013 at 12:44 pm
Bloody marvellous job Nickstar!! Good fun!
And big job doing the blog on a busy day….I bet you were flatout like a lizard drinkin!
Hope you don’t get crook! 🙂
Thanks also to Drinky and Simon and all the others who helped us. And all the regulars who stayed at the back of the herd!
Robin T
26/01/2013 at 12:53 pm
Thanks Deb, Vicki, Anita, Cyn, Liz, Claire, Michelle, Jess and Libby for doing a 6km in the bay with me this morning.
They were brave and stoic enduring bluebottles and rough conditions.
Definitely a 6km that will be talked about by those heroes for years to come.
Little Tiger
26/01/2013 at 1:04 pm
Great swim today.
Mr Kelly & co. did a marvellous job in making everyone feel welcome.
A wonderful group to swim with, have a great day.
Little Tiger
26/01/2013 at 1:05 pm
Super Blog!!!!
Chris Noone
26/01/2013 at 1:29 pm
A big thank you to everyone who supported Team Aidan in their swim with B&B today. Anna & Nick for the blog mentions, Ian for smoothing the registration process, Drinky, Shaun A. and Slowest Shaun for keeping an eye on the back of the pack (perhaps Slowest Shaun was just swimming normally, I’m not sure) Also to the people who have already supported their fund raising efforts. If you want to join them, click here:
http://www.everydayhero.com.au/team_aidan_2013
Pacific Jules
26/01/2013 at 1:37 pm
What a bl..dy awesome blog Nick (loved the sign off too)! Good on ya mate 🙂
It looked like a wonderful morning with everyone and Greggie on the trumpet as always, I can hear it now, beautiful.
Great to see Team Aidan swimming with us for what I think is their 3rd Australia Day in a row now 🙂 Good luck in the Cole Classic all.
WOW – THE CAKE ! How cool is that !! Who made it ?? When should we expect our pieces to arrive in the mail… you can send cake in the mail you know !!
We had a lovely swim from Port Beach this morning with the Polar Bears. I enjoyed 3km and Michael kicked on for at least another 3. There were about 40 of us, followed by an egg and bacon roll and a great fair dinkum aussie sing a long.
A tonne of fun with lovely people, BUT… THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME ! MISS YOU ALL and Happy Australia Day XXX
Pacific Jules
26/01/2013 at 1:38 pm
The only boy hey, gosh it’s tough being you 😉
Nick D
26/01/2013 at 1:41 pm
Thanks Lesley – might have to chuck a sickie tomorrow!
Greg
26/01/2013 at 1:41 pm
Great to see the young’uns having a go with family and friends. What a great introduction to the development of their adult participation and company.
lesley
26/01/2013 at 1:56 pm
Julia (belly dancer/beautician/always looks good after swim) made the cake AND lamingtons!! THANKS JULIA – great job! It even had little swimmers heads in silver going up the ‘pacific challenge’!!
lesley
26/01/2013 at 1:59 pm
sigh…40 people …I’m so jealous Jules!!! :-p
BUT what did you see on the swim? is it just sand? rocks? great whites??? What’s the route the swim takes? What do the polar bears think of Michael? hehe
I think u need to start another blog !! Noooooooooooo!!
lesley
26/01/2013 at 2:01 pm
Ps. well done to the brave newbie girl who got bluebottled!! on both arms! Hot water worked a treat on her 🙂
Lindsay & Richard
26/01/2013 at 2:12 pm
Great swim and a great blog.
Was missed off the attendance list, but I was there – honest!
L
Pacific Jules
26/01/2013 at 2:13 pm
Fantastic ! Well done Julia it looked bl..dy beautiful – yet another talent 🙂
Michael [ex CI]
26/01/2013 at 2:17 pm
Congratulations to you all. It looks like a fabulous day!!
Also congrats to the group that did the bodgy 6k over there. I was with you all in spirit,except I actually did do a ridgy didge, dinki di, fair dinkum six k. It is Australia day after all.
Lindsay & Richard
26/01/2013 at 2:17 pm
When I say I, of course I meant we. Baby G (in utero) and I need to clock up as many Pacific Challenge points as possible before our enforced rest at around the end of March…
michsparkes@gmail.com
26/01/2013 at 2:21 pm
Hiya Jules…missing your good face and loving hearing you checking in…and swimming…watch out Freemantle…the B&B bomb has dropped on your fair soil…or sea to be exact.
Fun day…and excellent blog Nick…love the Stevie Irwinism…suits you…and the stats…great stuff…thinking that logging 500+ names for attendance could be stretching the friendship…? Cake care of the lovely BD (belly-dancing) Julia. Blog commenting by PC so much easier than by smart (not!) phone.
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY everyone…how good is this country and how blessed are we to be in one of the best parts of it!!! Recommend Symphony in the Domain tonight if you’re happy to share the grass with 1000’s of other sydney-siders…thanks Clover…Sydney definitely gets some things soooooo right! Cheers everyone
Pacific Jules
26/01/2013 at 2:21 pm
Yeh… I was actually thinking about blogging it as I was swimming this morning… Yikes – what was I thinking !? But… thankfully for both you and me I don’t have an underwater camera here (yet). So… you’ll have to take my written word for it.
We saw… now wait for it… lots of beautiful white sand creating gorgeous patterns through the crystal clear blue waters… oh and a couple of cute jellies that thankfully I didn’t get close enough too to find out if they stung.
But… yesterday we did see a cute as baby shovel nosed shark 🙂
OK, so it’s not an aquatic marine reserve like our one and only Cabbage Tree Bay, but it really was beautiful swimming: warm, clear and flat, with not a cloud in the water or the sky… basically bl..dy lovely 🙂
michsparkes@gmail.com
26/01/2013 at 2:26 pm
Hiya Jules and Michael…missing your good faces and love hearing you checking in…and swimming…watch out Freemantle…the B&B bomb has dropped on your fair soil…or sea to be exact.
Fun day…and excellent blog Nick…love the Stevie Irwinism…suits you…and the stats…great stuff…thinking that logging 500+ names for attendance could be stretching the friendship…? Great cake care of the lovely BD (belly-dancing) Julia. Hmmm blog commenting so much easier by PC than by smart (not!) phone. HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY everyone…how good is this country and how blessed are we to be in one of the best parts of it!!! Recommend Symphony in the Domain tonight if you’re happy to share the grass with 1000’s of other sydney-siders…thanks Clover…Sydney defintiely gets some things soooooo right! Cheers all
PS. apologies if this appears x2…tried to “reply” to Jules but didn’t appear so having a 2nd go here…yeah yeah…me and IT…
john S
26/01/2013 at 3:03 pm
Well said Greg, well said.
Congrats to all the kids including team Aidan who had a go today.
Go Jesse Noone!!!
Anyone who can, get behind team Aidan and support these kids with your $. They are doing a very worthwhile thing for a very worthwhile cause.
What a great swim/frolic today! How lucky are we!
'The Lips' formerly known as Rainer
26/01/2013 at 3:11 pm
Spot on Michelle! You can say that again!
john S
26/01/2013 at 3:12 pm
Sparkles your a wizz at this!!!!
Nick great blog and thanks for the lovely photo with Jenn (one of our sponsors), Maki and Jack!
Maki joined the pink caps a week ago and already he’s swum a bolderdash followed by a Shelly. What a bloke!
'The Lips' formerly known as Rainer
26/01/2013 at 3:23 pm
Fantastic blog Nick!!
What a great morning! My brother was well impressed. I think he’s applying for permanent residency as we speak.
Julia, loved the cake! You rock!!
John
26/01/2013 at 3:25 pm
Good to see that you are still putting in the k’s
Happy Australia Day, Julie and Michael.
DWSS
26/01/2013 at 3:54 pm
Again, what. A bottler start to the day.
Great blog Nick, your a champ.
Good on ya Noonie for looking after the whipper snappers. Bonza job your doin there!!
Lips, Paige is giving you a run for your money. Blue bottle sting today, on Austrlia Day, on her top lip that the ladies from the shire would be proud of. Hope you go ok this arvo Paigy.
Lips, thats my daughter Nicola photo bombing you and your brothers photo on her first swim. Lucky shes not too serious or you would have some serious competition there. Haha
I don’t know if many noticed but Julia also persuaded her sister Renee to swim today for the first time. Welcome Renee. Julia and Renee, thank you for going to the effort with the cake and lamingtons. Your bloods,worth bottling.
Good luck to the BandB Palmy crew tomorrow.
Today could only have been better with a few dodgy mugs from Hong Kong and a few larakins from Perth joining us. Oh well, next time.
I personally am very appreciative that we have such a great area to swim in as the bay and such a great mix of people as the pink cappas.
DWSS
26/01/2013 at 4:00 pm
Julia, I think South Australia is a bit out of scale!!
🙂
Paige
26/01/2013 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for the shout out (in concern) re my bluebottle sting. My lips haven’t gotten any bigger, which is fine with me as they are already big enough! But I’m feeling 100% Aussie now as I’m able to say I copped a bluey sting on Staya Day!
Nick D
26/01/2013 at 5:22 pm
Apologies to anyone I ever miss to thank for the wonderful job we all do making this the best pastime ever… it’s just Saturday… I love it! xxx
B&B wannaB
26/01/2013 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for the Bondi Cigar stats.
Had never contemplated this aquatic hazard in the pristine waters of Manly. My usual aquatic habitat is indoor, chlorinated, 24 degrees with hot showers.
Shall stay clear of it’s known habitat.
For anyone who needs to be informed:
BONDI CIGAR
Usually found in the waters of Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, the Bondi Cigar is excrement, usually human, that inhabits the waters seeking out victim swimmers to bump into. The excrement usually resembles a brown cigar, hence the name, although a wide variety of shapes and sizes have been known to exist. Swimming into one of these cigars is usually an unpleasant experience and can leave the victim in a state of shock. Bondi Cigars are usually serial offenders who prowl the Sydney waterways looking for unsuspecting interstate/international tourists which to assault.
Michelle H
26/01/2013 at 5:49 pm
Thanks team for the support on the 6k today. It certainly was the toughest one I’ve done with a big swell, jimbles and bluebottle swarms. Not sure my body will ever recover. At least they waited until we were out of the water before setting off the shark alarm!! Certainly would have walked on water if that had of gone off sooner…
Can Jess Harris be added to the list of 6ker’s..she missed out!
B&B wannaB
26/01/2013 at 6:08 pm
Sydney’s urban sprawl:-( (or is that Canberra?)
Deb
26/01/2013 at 6:12 pm
What colour hats Jules ? Think you can convert them to pink?
Long tough 6km plus swim today! I scored a few minor stings but poor Jess and michelle were very popular and were wrapped up in a web of thin blue nasties a few times! Thanks To robin who came to her rescue and untangled shell! Happy Australia Day Jules and michaelyour great team did a great job today. !
Nick D
26/01/2013 at 6:16 pm
Haha that’s why the count was NONE… Just like the Dunny Budgie count… another favourite!
Deb
26/01/2013 at 6:17 pm
Big thank you to Bec Crawford today a little girl was a bit upset dad was coping well with her but Bec paddled across straight away after I called her and stayed next to them and encouraged the little one to get to Shelly. Thanks Bec!
B&B wannaB
26/01/2013 at 6:19 pm
Hello Jane,
If you’re out there, can you help me with the apricot coloured jelly like mass I was looking at today. It had lots of tiny fish under it. Couldn’t make out what it was with myopia, astigmatism and foggy goggles. The Cabbage Tree Bay volunteers on duty today weren’t familiar with it and we couldn’t find anything resembling it in the flip cards.
Thanks
Jane
26/01/2013 at 6:36 pm
Really hard to say without a photo. Did it have tentacles? Being apricot coloured, maybe a lion’s mane jelly – see Stephen’s gorgeous pink photo in Blog of Jan. 16th. I love the idea of all the tiny fish under it – sounds as if they were sheltering, unless caught in the tentacles?
Jane
26/01/2013 at 6:36 pm
Oh, and I meant to ask what size it was……
Stephen Coulter
26/01/2013 at 7:07 pm
Awesome blog Nick, well done! You’ll have to explain the George Lazenby comaprison. I normally get Sean, George or Brad!
Michelle H
26/01/2013 at 7:11 pm
I saw that jelly on one of my numerous laps today as well. It was about dinner plate size but did not seem to have any tentacles..Was just pleased it wasn’t something else trying to sting me!
B&B wannaB
26/01/2013 at 7:15 pm
Tentacles weren’t obvious (remember my eyesight’s not good. The tiny fish certainly weren’t trapped, they appeared to be swarming and nibbling on the underside. Definitely not ‘fake’ pink as in Stephen’s photo. Not as flat either, more of a rounded mass about six inches across and three inches top to bottom (vintage measurements).
Oh…..maybe it was just a mass of dead something that the fish were feeding on as someone suggested to me!
B&B wannaB
26/01/2013 at 7:21 pm
I’m glad I saw it before I ran into it! The curiosity of it took my mind off all the other jelly things I’d recoiled from!
Nick D
26/01/2013 at 7:58 pm
Haha I think everyone can google it 🙂
Michelle H
26/01/2013 at 8:16 pm
Thanks so much for your support and being brave enough to unravel all those tentacles!! Must have been the biggest bluebottle ever. Not sure I want to face any of them any time soon!
Michelle H
26/01/2013 at 8:17 pm
Now it was definitely alive and swimming!!
Claire R
26/01/2013 at 10:41 pm
Thanks to all the amazing and stoic 6km B&B swimmers this morning for your support! It was my first time and what a washing machine ride it was! I hope all -ESP Michelle and jess that got savaged by the bluebottles feel ok now. An unforgettable and delightfully pink austraya day 🙂 thanks robin for being our fearless leader too!!
dodgy mugs from Hong Kong
26/01/2013 at 10:42 pm
luv ya too, Shauny Boy:) We hope to meet Nicola, Lips’ brother and all the other newbies in 7D!
Julia, Jon’s glad to see the forgotten state getting its due recognition:-)