Dunk

My excuse? Busy studying. Okay, so truth be told, there is a little more to it than just buying your agency and sales licenses. There are seventeen modules to complete. I am now one multiple-choice and four short-answer questions away from having completed five of the modules.

In the meantime, we traveled down to Mission Beach last weekend for a trip out to Dunk Island, which recently reopened after being ravaged by Cyclone Larry. The kids skipped school Friday and then again on Monday when we decided to extend our stay because the weather forecast was for one more day of perfection. You can see the depth of my committment to their institutional education. We snorkled and sailed and shell hunted in the impossibly blue water. We fished and went horseback riding. And ate. We played tennis and squash and Grice even discovered her passion, ping pong.

Grice also earned the title "The Girl From Snowy River" when the horse she was scheduled to ride (not the one below) suddenly reared up, not once, but twice, and Grice remained calmly planted in the saddle. It seems the poor horses were left to fend for themselves when the island was evacuated before the storm and they're still understandably skittish.


He sent the flint stones flying, but the pony kept his feet,
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride,
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat—
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.
Through the stringy barks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound,
At the bottom of that terrible descent.

-- Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson