He’d spent the afternoon cooped up indoors changing nappies and cleaning up the kitchen. Nightmare. With his kids they’d made a batch of burnt muffins, a cake that came out soggy in the middle and a load of jam tarts from which the jam seemed to have decided to abandon ship and spread itself all over the baking tray. Next time he was in charge, he was going to stick to DVDs, books and the dressing up box. What made it all worse was the weather forecast. Tonight was going to be the biggest storm on the East coast for many years, at least according to the weather-girl. For Sam, big storms meant big surf and, other than his family, the waves were what he lived for. When his wife returned home after a hard day in the classroom, he filled her in on the details of the baking, the who’d done what to whom and the number of nappies that had needed changing. “If I’m not back by 5:30, make the calls,” he said as he pecked her on the cheek and pulled the door behind him.
