The GF’s mother put it like this, and it seems accurate. So safe, so clean, so faraway.
Today was the first day I felt well, afer the first full night’s sleep. But I was very tired with work.
In the evening I strolled down to Onetangi beach where I was to meet the Gentleman Friend and his mother for dinner. I was feeling vigorous enough that I took the longer way and went over a ridge with views over the bay. On the beach I saw the GF walking with a work colleague so I knew to not accost him – part of the reason for being here on Waiheke is to arrange those very meetings. Instead I went to the GF’s mother’s place where we had a pleasant chat before coming down to the beach to find the GF and his colleague. The colleague soon left and we went for dinner. This was enlivened a flurry of activity and concern as there appeared to be a man asleep on the beach with the tide lapping about him. Some people went to investigate and helped him. It seemed he was a drunk, and he shouted at them and staggered away, only to fall on his face in dramatic fashion. He lay there for a bit and when some teenagers approached him he sold them some cigarettes. Last we saw, one unfortunate Samaritan was firmly marching him up the hill towards an unknown destination, getting shouted at, until they passed a telephone pole and the man just held onto it and refused to go a step further. He then toppled into a bush.