Giedre tyttö Ozista

Ode for the Ocean

Last Friday we finally signed the lease for the Wollstonecraft apartment. So it is 100% certain that we'll be moving there on the 17th of March. A relief of sorts, but I'm secretly happy that we still have a couple of weeks left living at Coogee.

I fell in love with the ocean, you see.

There's something so incredibly magnificent about the raging water and rocky shoreline, waves crashing onto the cliffs, water foaming and soaring upwards, and on a sunny day, staring at the impossibly turquoise water can hurt your eye!... I use any excuse to go down to the waterfront, at any weather. I started running along the shore, rain or shine. Last Friday I even volunteered to pick up pizza takeaways, because it gave me a chance to walk by the ocean for 20 minutes while pizza was baking in the oven!

But we haven't been surfing yet... We still haven't got our boards and wetsuits from NZ (Kaj got his birthday board though!) and this weekend the surf was way too big for us. I'm reaching the state where I want to paddle out so much, that I'm not being completely rational, i.e. I was thinking just couple of hours ago that maybe those waves in Bronte beach were not all that big and maybe the wind is not that cold, so maybe I don't need a wetsuit...

But I do, really. And I must be mad to even contemplate going out when the ocean is like this. The whole Bronte bay was whitewater yesterday. There was so much water pushed in, I don't think I would have gotten much further than some 10 meters from the shore and made a "laughing stock" of myself...

If only I could get out somehow so that I can lie on my board and watch the waves rising, curling and pealing, water spraying back straight into my eyes (well its onshore now, so not sure how much of spray there is). I don't even mind not catching waves, I just want to look. As there is really nothing more beautiful. Trust me...

Our current apartment is really nice and feels like home. Given that the ocean is 15 minutes away, it kind of makes sense that I kind of look forward, but not really, to move to North Sydney.

You see, North Sydney is also nice, but in a very different way. It is tidy, safe and cute. It has parks and the streets are quiet and leafy. There are heaps of cool restaurants and cafes. But it doesn't have even a hint of harshness and elemental beauty that the Eastern shoreline has. It is also a car drive away from the Northern beaches... So... I guess, I have to take full advantage of being here now. I better head off to the beach NOW!