It's a fluke

No seriously, the tail of a whale is called a fluke. I can see why, it is almost impossible to get a decent photograph with a point and shoot camera, in 1.5 metre swell on a 2 hour whale watching charter. Even the guys with the long lenses and trigger happy fingers weren't faring much better it seems.

I've been planning part of today for ages. The annual humpback whale migration is happening off the western coast of australia and the mammals stop off for a rest (if you can call 15 minutes of snoozes at a time a rest) before they head back down to antarctica and their feeding grounds. There is a short window of opportunity to see them and the charters are usually booked out well in advance. They tend to stay closer to shore because they are taking the new calfs down with them, consequently they are close enough for the charter boats to take people out, and today I was one of them :-)

I was only going to take a couple of hours off and away from my desk, but then something else happened. CHOGM - the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is happening this week in Perth and as a result, all sorts of events and happenings are being timed to coincide. One of which was the arrival of the HMB Endeavour a couple of weeks ago - she is the replica of the James Cook ship which is normally berthed over on the eastern seaboard, but was crafted in Fremantle and is currently on a round Australia tour. So, I called my friend Barbara. What are you doing on Monday afternoon - errr, good meet me in Fremantle about 2 ...

While I was sitting waiting for her to arrive, I watched with amazement at the number of people who came to take a quick photo and then left... you have one opportunity to go round something like the Endeavour yet you don't pay the few dollars and spend an hour doing so?! Why not? People !!

Barbara was part of a team of wood carvers tasked with creating the artwork including the 2 ladies on the sterrn. Talented lady. But her comment was interesting - if you hadn't rang, I know I wouldn't have bothered to come down.

Aaaaggghhhh

We can all be guilty of "not finding the time" to do things. We say we are "busy" - busy doing what exactly? Yes I know I am going to have to play catch up for the rest of the week as a result of taking the entire day off, but you know what - it was worth every cent and every second. it certainly made a nice change of scenery from my office desk let me tell you.

I will leave you with one final thought - if you don't plan for it, it ain't never going to happen. But as I found out, it's also important to be flexible in your plans because you never know what amazing things can happen as a result.