Friday April 07, 2006 6:00 am Ballina NSW

A. Morning Musings

6:00 am

Chores: Virgin Blue reservation, Sydney hotel, pick up watch from Byron Bay

C. Actual

3:15 PM This morning was another good day walking and birding. We saw a Silvereye (a lifer) and a Ringed Plover (another lifer). The latter is a bit rare but we took a picture of it although at the time we thought it was a Black-fronted Dotteral (which we have previously seen a few times). To get two new lifers while taking our regular morning walk is definitely a great way to begin the day.

Ringed Plover

We continue to make progress. We changed our air reservations with Virgin Blue to give us an extra day in Sydney. We now have a confirmed reservation for the hotel in Sydney. That takes care of the last of the details for our trip home - still a full month away. We have catalogued, packaged and mailed our last two boxes of books to Canada. And we had a "buy one, get one free" cappucino at Pelican 181. All in all, a very good day. Our unit has been rented out for 10 days beginning on Monday, April 10 so that will reduce the amount we are to pay the realtor. And we are optimistic that the following two weeks will also be rented out as it is the Easter break and school holidays.

Most of the packing is also complete. We have boxes ready to take to our new home, boxes to store for our return in 2007, and three suitcases partially packed for our trip back to Lethbridge.

Now to make a decision on whether to focus on reading a few books that have yet to be sampled or drinking a few bottles of wine which also need sampling. I will likely opt for both - this need not be an either-or situation.

D. Reflection