The next group of photographs in the folder were taken at Takapuna beach on Thursday January 23. Takapuna is an affluent suburb on Auckland’s north shore. High tide occurred at 1.04pm and the photo shows I was there at about that time. What a lovely sunny day. I do remember this visit, I had just met a friend for lunch at a local cafe. We walked along the beach and I took the opportunity to have a swim.

Looking across the Hauraki Gulf at Rangitoto Island from Takapuna beach

Takapuna beach is one of the few Auckland beaches where swimming is possible even at low tide, but high tide is much better as the water seems fresher and is less murky. Speaking of murky, it is now eight weeks since the breakup. Eight long weeks since that awful night. I remember drinking lots of wine and listening to this song really loud (through headphones) after he left in an attempt to drown it all out but of course it didn’t work.

Looking southeast along Takapuna beach

Actually I listened to lots of other songs as well. This one was particularly relevant and I listened to it many times in the following days and weeks. In fact, I could give it a bash at a karaoke bar as I now know virtually all the lyrics, and what fantastic lyrics they are. Even though it is one of my very favourite albums (particularly the songs towards the end), by the time I started wallowing in this, it was about 4am and time to call it a night.