December 27. Day 362. A sting in this tale

Bluebottles symbolise everything that is awesome about Australian nasties. They are tiny, beautiful and pack a bloody painful punch. Anyone who has been wrapped in the evil tentacles of the marine stingers will know what I'm talking about. They are pint-sized purveyors of pain, But they are also pretty appealing to look at. So today I was photographing them. A bloke, who happened to be a Pom spoke to me.
"What are they?" he asked. I told him they were bluebottles, a marine stinger.
"Nasty little shits," he said. "Some stung me while I paddling. They hurt like hell."
They sure do, I agreed. And then he asked why there were so many more of them than usual.
Good question, sir and one I happened to know the answer to. Prevailing winds and tides bring them to east facing beaches at certain times of the year. To avoid them go to a north-facing beach such as Mooloolaba or Noosa, I said.
He looked impressed so asked a follow up question. "What works for the pain?" I recommended ice.
I assume he thought he'd lucked out and found someone with great local knowledge.
Actually, he'd asked me the one question 20 years working as a journalist for Sunshine Coast Newspapers  had taught me about stingers.
So I kept out of the shallows and took the dogs to the inlet. And there I met my sister, my niece and her dog also in the stinger-free zone. Perfect.