Soul Searching at Sunshine Beach

If you've been paying attention, you might have realised I was at the beach yesterday (that photo was the main clue).  Well, from Wednesday to today - hence the need for the personal hotspot mentioned on Wednesday as well.

It's school holidays (yay!) and, while I had a hankering to visit northwest Australia (I feel a pull in that direction at this time of year), I chose to stay closer to home.  I was going to go with a friend from work, I found and booked a place at Sunshine Beach (after the visit about 10 days ago), and then the friend got sick.  Instead of having a few days of beach and shopping, then, I thought it was about time I took stock of my life.  This is something that: a) I feel I should do more regularly, and b) I suspect most people do more regularly.  I felt this was required as: a) I haven't been all that happy this year, and b) the main protagonist in the book I've been reading (rather similar to myself I think), went through a similar part of life.  I haven't done this for a long, long time, and definitely never spent a holiday doing this.  Rather worthwhile, though.

I won't bore you with all the details.  In short, I noted some things about my life that I like, some that I don't like, some that I need to accept, and some things I can do to keep the good things good and improving, and to improve the not-so-good things.  The process is by no means complete - I might need an Escape Day next week to feel I've had enough thinking time.  I am armed with a To Do list, though.

Other perks of this trip:
Thanks to south-east Queensland's integrated ticketing, free transport there and back.
The beach instantly makes me feel better (which made it slightly harder to get started on the soul searching, but improved my mood and general outlook of life considerably).
Really fluffy towels.
Surfer o'clock.
A lot of beach walking means I am feeling super toned from the ribs down.
Saltwater and sand and sun.
Bad hair days are not so disastrous - I thought Thursday was bad, but then Friday happened.
Friendly accommodation staff.  This was possibly the most relaxed place I've stayed, I felt like I was just staying at someone's place.
The quickest way (and, I discovered a little belatedly, the safest) to the nearest shops was along the beach.  It's a tough gig, this one.

Wednesday's photo:

Sunset from the north end of the beach.  I left it a little late for getting back though.

Thursday's photo:

Getting all arty just after sunrise.

Today's photo:

I found a little creek leading to the beach.  This morning it was so peaceful and undisturbed.

Sunshine Beach

We often play for weddings in great locations.  Yesterday the daily photo was a superb view of the Glasshouse Mountains.  Today's gig was at Sunshine Beach, north of Noosa.  Substantial travel time, but it was worth it.  Often, when we have a gig near a beach, we say beforehand that we'll go to the beach once we've played.  The only time this has come close was October last year, for a wedding in Byron Bay.  It rained most of the way down, and when we were done (for a wedding in which I didn't actually see the bride), it was about to rain again.  We spent about 5 minutes on the beach.

Today, however, none of us had anything pressing.  The weather was gorgeous.  We finished playing at 3:30.  We went to the beach.  YAY!!!  Admittedly, not for a super long time.  And 2 of us were still in gig blacks.  But I still went in the water up to my knees, gleefully.

I don't think I'd been to Sunshine Beach before, either.  Rather lovely.  It reminded me of Lorne, in Victoria, actually.  I know it often won't be possible, but my goodness it was nice to get to the beach after today's gig.