Not just any long weekend

This was how the beach looked at 6:30 this morning

I got a distance glimpse of some early starters (the Drinks Express)

And a little closer

And the man himself leaving the water a bit later on

26 January is currently celebrated as Australia Day

The original human inhabitant of this generally refer to 26 January as Invasion Day or Survival Day. Something for us to turn our minds to, I believe.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd from a creative perspective, this from regular swimmer, WOW Georgina Hart. Wow indeed

Belinda greeted me with words from the latter perspective, and brought her indigenous hair to the swim

While JK and Shelley took the black armband concept to the next level with Karen looking on admiringly. Very elegant

A very impressively inked back

Belinda again with photobombing Clare. A few people in contention for the blog tart of the day award

Fellow bloggers Lainey and Elizabeth also in contention. Today is Lainey’s 9th anniversary of swimming with the Bold and Beautiful

Being part of the B&B blogging community is so special. My fellow bloggers always inspire me with their perspective, commentary and photography. I like to think we push each other along.

Everyone point to the newbie (one of 34, of 660 swimmers, that’s lots!) And while on the subject of stats the water was approximately 23.2 degrees.

Lisa, Cheryl, Clare

Proud grandma Pauline with very gorgeous Mason

So nice to see happy friends and families!

 

A small subset of 4 families who arrived together for the swim

Colby, who is everybody’s friend

On this day we hold an Australia Day ceremony

After hearing a speech from Izzy, we sang the national anthem with Cathy (I must say I feel hypocritical about the boundless plains bit, so don’t vocalise it)

Then on to the water with stops for obligatory blog tarting

The A team, well some of them

Lainey and Edwina

Kudos to fellow blogger Edwina, she dived down to the sand off the point to retrieve this plastic bag. It’s pretty deep and she did it with no flippers. Legend! With fellow legendary literary blogger Elizabeth

Ocean Shenanigans

The water was not clear today and I had to get close up to capture these mermaids (photogaphically that is, mermaids are way too cunning to ever be caught by mere humans)

Can you see the fiddler ray in amongst the churned up sand and rubbish? Thought not, but it was there. There was lots of rubbish. Be like Edwina and many others and please bring rubbish out of the water. Special call-out to Upper Management Ian who brought a bright blue plastic ice cream container from the middle of the bay all the way back to Shelly. On his head. Impressive.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe shower scene

Stand up and be counted with your body art. No censorship here.

That was Bronwyn’s newbie friend Michael

And Colby again, giving the blog tarts a run for their money

And why are pieces of 8 called pieces of 8? They just arr

The Monthly Dinner – 11^th February 2020 – Guest Speaker

The first B&B monthly dinner for the year will be held on Tuesday 11th February at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Restaurant. Our guest on the night will be Julianna Kadar, who is a PhD student at Macquarie University. She is also a member of the Homeward Bound Program which is working to build and upskill a network of 1,000 women in STEM over ten years. Julianna will talk about her study on the Behaviour of Port Jackson Sharks. Her work involves finding out more about the activity patterns of the Port Jackson shark using bio-loggers. Her study includes both captive and wild experiments and aims to analyse distinct shark behaviour signatures. Her talk will cover variation in behaviour, social networks and migration of our lovable PJ.

Please book early for this event as it is sure to be popular. The cost of the dinner is great value at only $25 a head, which includes shared entrees, and a selection of mains to choose from (including a vegetarian option). Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential. To avoid disappointment and secure your spot please book atwww.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/bb-bluewater-monthly-dinner.html .

New B&B Merchandise

Fancy a new item of B&B merchandise to brighten up your wardrobe.

Check out B&B’s new T-shirt for summer (also available in white type)

Orders are available online along with all of our fun B&B merchandise at: https://www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/clothing.html 

Taking a leaf out of Elizabeth’s book today, and will mention books (well one book) not music. I’m currently reading Blind Vision, an autobiography by James Pittar, a distance swimming athlete who swims with us occasionally. Oh and by the way he is very vision impaired (retinitis pigmentosa). It reads like a boys Own Adventure, so much that you forget the challenges he faces just to do the things we take for granted. You can buy it from www.inspiringbookshop.com and on Kindle

Have a great and safe day, see you next time.