The tide goes out on the school holidays

The last day of the school holidays. A day for polishing school shoes, ironing uniforms, unearthing school hats. A subdued kind of day.

At least, it should have been.

Yes, the school shoes are polished, the uniforms are ironed, the hat is, um, somewhere. But The Builder also decided that the last day of the school holidays was the perfect day to go out and buy an inflatable boat. A rubber duckie, so to speak. Which he duly did. Along with oars, a pump and four life jackets.

We took the SS Fibro out to that place near the beach that I call The Creek and Sister B calls The Lagoon (summing up the differences in our world views in one easy step). Our plans were momentarily thwarted when we realised that the tide was out. So far out as to leave about 20 centimetres of water in which to launch our mighty vessel. And that was in the deep water.

"Guess we won't be needing these," said The Builder, tossing our bright yellow safety vests back into the car.

And so we spent the waning hours of the summer break dragging the boys up and down the creek in a bright blue inflatable boat. Actually, we spent about 20 minutes doing that and then The Builder and I lazed in the shallows as they dragged themselves up and down the creek, recruiting another young swimmer to help with the task when they got tired.

Mr4 showed great talent for throwing himself and his oar off the back of the boat. We may need to work on this before we find deeper water. Mr7 showed great talent for 'supervising' - "I'm the Captain - you push." He is destined for great things.

At one point, The Builder and I found ourselves alone in the boat, lazily drifting downstream a few centimetres, staring up at a wide, blue sky. "This floating thing is very relaxing," I said.

"Yes," he answered. "Just imagine how good it will be when the water is above our knees."

We are already planning our next boating adventure. Mr7 thinks New Zealand would be nice at this time of year. Mr4 just wants to wear his life jacket. The Builder foresees many lazy, after-work outings now that the tourists have all gone home.

I'm happy to be making memories.

{image: Ninja-Ai/deviantart.com}