Port Macquarie-Hastings

A few highlights from August.

I woke up one morning with a massive puppy in the hostel. It is fascinating how much my mood can boost just by seeing a massive doggo. He was adorable, I was very happy.

A couple of days later, I decided to fall over. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I ended up busting part of my knee up. I scratched the bottom half open and badly bruised it. I would not recommend it. Thankfuly, it healed nicely but took about 2 weeks before I stopped limping.

We finally finished a puzzle that we'd been doing for weeks. The colourful part was easy but the blue was near impossible. It was all one shade and high dull to do.

I spent the first two weeks of August doing the close. My friend Ellie, who usually does it, was on holiday in Europe for 2 weeks, and they asked me to cover her. I can not say it was really fun. The actual closing of the hostel was easy, but having the emergency phone was not. The hostel is usually very quiet, but I got unlucky. I guy called at 3 am asking to check into his room, which he never booked. A day later, a guy was wandering around the hostel on something and destroyed a bunch of plants at midnight. Needless to say I was very pleased to give the emergency phone back to Ellie when she returned.

As everyone left at the end of July, August was very quiet, and I have spent a few mornings taking myself on solo dates. On highlight was the pancake place. The service here is a little lacking, but the pancakes make up for it. I got the raspberry and white choc stacks and read my book. The pancakes were amazing, and this book is truly incredible. The book is my book club book for this month, and it is one of the most beautifully written stories I have ever read. I highly recommend and will be buying my own copy.

Due to having more free time to myself, I've taken on reading more again. I have also taken a liking to Matcha iced lattes, and the sun here is the best part. I have spent many afternoons by the beach with a match coffee and a book.

Alex and I spent the together just before she left. We read on the beach for a bit before going to lunch. We went to a Thai cafe that does Asian and western fusion food. I got a salad, and Alex got a curry. It was ok but far too sweet for me.

Alex likes to draw, and she created us all these drawings of our star signs and something like us. This was the one she made me.

On one of the last days Alex was here, we went down the beach and spent almost all day in the sun. Around mid day, a strange looking cloud appeared. By late afternoon, a massive block of smoke was spread across the horizon. A wild fire had started from the forest a few miles north of the port and had spread. The wind was pushing the smoke eastwards and creating a block in the sky. Despite the strange view, we had a lovely day.Read more