Reporting for today is dire. There should be stuff for tomorrow (we now have two school interviews set up for tomorrow, and one for Wednesday), but today we did nothing but the usual boring Beach Work Beach scenario and pretty tame at that. The Ocean Baths closed early today for cleaning so in the evening we just went to the beach - and the lifeguards had packed up and gone home but there was an announcement just as we got there that sure you can swim at your own risk but that there were strong currents today and lots of 'bluebottles' in the water (a rip current in this particular direction always brings them in). 'Bluebottles' are the Aussie's endearingly affectionate method of naming Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish. Indeed, we saw endless supplies of them washed up on the sand, and they can still sting even if washed up so even playing ball on the beach wasn't such a great idea. So we ended up digging a hole that was 'big in the whole wide world' as the Littles puts it, and playing 'slide jump' into it - take a running leap and foot-surf down into a precipitous trap of a hole. Life is full of endless entertainment. However having thus utterly immersed both of ourselves in sand and not gone into the sea at all, despite our utmost (or should I correct my utmost) efforts to brush ourselves down we came back home late and UTTERLY sandy. Footprints all up the stairs to the bath, sand everywhere. Huge amounts of scrubbing needed. The sort of sand-coverage that won't even come off when you get in the shower and soap yourself down, you have to actually scrape it off with your nails because it's glued to your skin so conclusively. Hate to think where it might have lodged itself that I haven't reached. Best left unconsidered.

We came back home to find a poor depressed Mr - grant writing went OK today apparently but alas most recent paper chucked out out of hand by the editor who just didn't fancy it, for some reason. Alas. I'm sure they'll set to and re-submit, re-do etc but it's always a bit of a slap in the face. He's still looking more than somewhat glum (and poor soul as we were late back from the beach he was there prepping dinner when we got back too) so I'll have to go and try to get things a little cheerier somehow. I suspect alcohol will play some part. Anyway, that's about it - as I said, there should be some kind of stuff to report on tomorrow but hey. Lots of love all round, V xxxx