Well,despite feeling a bit like a slightly underdone first course for a cannibal with a snot fetish, I went off with Barbs, Jamie, a friend's grandson, and Jamie's nearly 4 year old daughter, out off Prime Seal Island. My excuse is I want use Prime Seal as a setting for part of a book (which I haven't sold). I needed out, being a better real reason, but the fish were sparse. We got I think 5 flathead in all, but were treated to an acrobatic display by the dolphins - around 20 of them, showing off. And a passing seal came and waggled its hind flippers rudely at us. The young lad did get a nice Flathead, and loved the bouncing in the waves too, so all in all, a good afternoon, even if we have not much fish to show for it. We met our local divemaster (who is somewhat to blame for us coming here - when we scouted the Island, 3 years before we moved, before the whole immigration process started, we went and hired some gear from Mike Nichols and when we came back he gave us a cuppa, proving the lie of the South African anti-immigration story that Australians are unfriendly and will only invite you into their houses after you've been there for seven years. Maybe in the cities, or if you're a plonker who isn't prepared to fit in. But it wasn't true here. That, and chatting to him about the marine life, the diving and the island were all major pull factors.) So meeting us today at the slip coming in we got an invitation for a cup of tea and some chocolate cake (or staying to gut fish- guess which lost?) and in chatting he told me today he's got his site up, and I offered to put a link up to it. So: on the sidebar - my new Useful Flinders sites. Go have a look at the pictures http://www.flindersislanddive.com.au/!

Had scuba dive with James on Mike Nicholls' (the local dive charter) nursery reef (a good spot for newbie divers -I haven't done scuba for a long time - and it suited me to be in a dive spot without current and quite shallow - we went to 11 metres - the reef drops off more, but we were erring on the side of caution.) In among the huge limestone boulders the fish followed us like a pair of bubble-blowing pied pipers (it was bizarre - FAR more fish behind us than before us. At one stage it looked like it was raining parrot-fish with their irridescent blue semicircular patterned scales and junior railway official prissy mouths... We saw about 25 different species, including a small shark - about a meter long, and a thornback ray, and an amazing amount of invertebrate life - no crays and just one abalone but many interesting sponges and other beasties.
We were down under in Down Under for about an hour and a quarter... and came back to find the first containter has been delivered. They start unpacking tomorrow, and sadly our James flies out.
We have furniture. I think I'd rather keep the kids and get my dogs and cats. I miss them terribly -especially when I need surrogate kids ;-).