And the day that just was (30th December, 2003):

Woke up, talked to Ryan, David and Howie, organised outing.

Howie and I had breakfast at McDonald's at 12:25pm (after running into Kaia and Mark in the mall) then met Ryan and David at the station. Looking like the coolest four guys in Hornsby we hopped on a train and headed up the Central Coast, becoming the coolest four guys in each of the towns and hamlets we passed through (no mean feat in places like Wondabyne).

We got off at Woy Woy and caught the Route 60 bus to West Rd, Umina Shops. Rob and I bought a bottle of water to share in Bi-Lo, taking the express lane that turned out to be about 4 times slower than every other lane open in the supermarket.

Sitting outside a takeaway shop I took my shoes and socks off in my continuing effort to become hobbit-footed. We proceeded to walk to the beach which was a painful, but important, growing experience. Almost made it all the way to the beach till I was confronted by a 50 metre stretch of shadeless, boiling hot, black road. Rob also tried the hobbit thing with me ("ahh Pippin") and burnt his feet.

We arrived at the beach and dazzled the locals with our chests and went swimming. The ocean was flat as me Dad's pancakes so we had a game of frisbee in the water which was fun but not all that good. I floated a little.

Post beach, and a bit of laying on the sand and reading of books, we headed to an oval across the road to try our hand at a bit of land-based frisbee playing. We had a little more success but the wind was not really our good friend.

We headed home.

In Hornsby I had a shower then went to community dinner. That was short but very pleasant.

We headed off to the movies to see Lost in Translation which was definitely one of the better movies of the year. Lots of languages I couldn't understand with no subtitles and quiet, mainly stilted, conversations in English. Funny film. Good film. Not in the top three of 2003 though, perhaps top 5.

During the movies the cinema shook twice as if there was an earthquake or something near by. Just a small earthquake mind you. I don't think there was one, but we never found out what it was. Shakity-shake.

There was a security guard at Maquarie Shopping Centre who looked a little sad. I think I would like to be his friend.