My Mad November paddleboard surf experience …

So … I got my hot little hands on my 60th birthday (which isn’t until April 2014) present at the end of October. ‘Well, you probably won’t use it much before your birthday’ said the Husband…..

Then, two of my boys came home for the weekend… AND the sun shone. So we headed off to the beach, paddleboard nicely strapped into the back passenger seat, looking like a rather fat passenger. (Dog was in the estate boot)

The beach they chose was the one where you basically have to walk down a cliff path! So I cannily engaged son #3 to carry paddleboard down for me. It ‘only’ weighs 13 kg  but I also had rucksack of towels to carry. PB cafe waves

We hadn’t checked tide-times before we left .. and arrived as the bottom to find waves crashing right up to the beachside café. Hmmm

I took a little rock scramble over to peek at what is usually a nice wide beach. There was a scimitar of sand, and, hanging way out past the furious breakers, a row of about six surfers. As I watched one caught a nice wave and even travelled along the green curved face of the wave before crashing out in a mess of white water. Gulp!PB paddle pump    (click on any pics to enlarge)

I reported that there was barely any sand … but Son#2 was determined — so we all scrambled (dog included) over and around the rocky divide between what is usually a small beach on the café side and the larger beach.

Well, I was there now, so I got out and pumped up the paddleboard. It really doesn’t take long! I was wearing my cossie and topped it with a tee shirt and some black leggings rolled up to my knees. Not exactly a wet suit but I felt less exposed. The sun shone, the waves crashed! pb ready

I set off into the water. The waves were coming thick and fast, it was hard to get a moment or two between them to get onto the board, but I managed to leap on, kneeling, and start to paddle before the next wave hit. pb paddling out

I learnt how to tackle the wave with a extra paddle push as the nose of the paddleboard met wave, and how to lean my weight forward to get over the wave. However, due to the rock formations, every now and then a wave came in sideways. I could manage this if it came after I’d been able to get a paddle or two in after the previous wave, giving me time to face it and paddle into it, but sometime it came right after a straight wave and it caught me from the side, throwing the board UP INTO THE AIR AND ME OFF INTO THE WATER.

However, the water wasn’t cold, and after a thorough dunking, I clambered back on and was paddling out again. pb wave riding 2 pb wave riding

I turned the board round and surfed it in (still on my knees – I had tried one stand up only to be thrown off before I could get the requisite paddle stroke to move through the wave)  to wash the salt water taste out of my mouth… but went back in for a second go, finding myself laughing in exhilaration then having to shut my mouth quickly as these huge waves took all my concentration to get over and I didn’t want to swallow more sea water than I needed too.

I eventually gave up, when I was thrown off and slammed onto a rock on the sea-bottom, and brought the board back in, trying to keep it as sand free as possible.pb worried dog wipeout I think the dog was more worried than I was 🙂

Once dried off and changed I dried and deflated the board. Again, it took such a short time! Rolled it and with help from a son stowed it back into the bag.

Was it mad? Yes, and not something I would do without others around, just in case. Yes, there was even a surfer who came down, had a go and left, telling the boys that it was too rough for him. Yes, but I was glad of a son to carry the bag back up the cliff – so if on my own I’d definitely go somewhere with easier access. pb happy

Did I have fun? YES!  And now can’t wait to get the board out again …  though I’ll be checking tide times and / or trying it out on the river instead.

Have you done something that felt a little ‘mad’ recently?

Do you think it is good to get out of your comfort zone every now and then?

Do share, you know I love to hear from you.

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What’s in YOUR wardrobe??

Yes, I’m still on a high about having The Angel Bug as a paperback in my hot little hand!  It is also available from  my website  and on Amazon!

But as I promised normal blogging resumes this week – and I have been delving into my wardrobe. Now my wardrobe is the repository for not only clothes but also for handbags, my belly-dance bag (filled with wraps, coin belts, anklets and bracelets) another bag full of my ‘over-spill’ belly-dance accoutrements, a couple of rucksacks, one with ‘walking gear’ crammed into it, a leisure rucksack with sun lotion and insect repellent in it ready – just-in-case. Under a shelf snuggle the walking boots, flip-flops, high-heel specials and other shoes, a bag of dressing up clothes and other random items I’ve crammed in there – as they might be useful one day. Plus, hanging on the inside of the door, a hanger with about twenty scarves draped from it.

washing line crop
“Hmm .. black, black or … black?”

However, one of the things I did recently was to sort out my clothes by colour.

NO, not something I’ve ever done before. However it made me realise that my clothes ‘palette’ is very limited.

There is A LOT of black (in all its shades) then there is a range of reds on the burgundy end of the spectrum rather than the scarlet, then, in small but about equal amounts Cream and Turquoise. Finally there are the ‘mistakes’ Odd items in Blue, not my colour, Green, DEFINITELY not my colour and White – not good.

Many (many) years ago we had a colour therapist living in the village – and at a colour party I had my colours ‘done’. I was already into burgundy reds … and this turned out to be one of my colours (luckily) and I have carried on in the same way. As for the black … well it is so versatile and with a ‘trademark’ scarf of one hue or another slung around my shoulders it can be lightened and alleviated.

Now, I really do believe that some colours do suit certain people more than others… and we saw it time after time at that session as the swatches were draped around shoulders. Faces went from healthy to sallow just with a change of fabric colour.

Recently I heard someone say that as the years roll on you need to check whether your colour-match has changed as your skin tones change … perhaps I need to check 🙂

What are your favourite colours for wearing?

Have you ever had your colours done?

What else is in your wardrobe?

Do share, you know I love to hear from you.

 

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So Excited!! Is this my shortest blog post ever…

Why am I excited?

…. the consignment of Author copies of ‘The Angel Bug’  has arrived!

 

TAB BOOKS

Even though The Angel Bug has been available as an ebook for four months it feels great to hold a copy of the paperback in my hand! …. And that’s all folks 🙂

Normal blog-posting will resume next week!

Hope you all had as exciting a week as I did.

Do share if you did, or if you didn’t – you know I love to hear from you.

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It’s a small world now….

There are a lot of problems with the internet I know, but lately I’ve been thinking how good it can be….

To start with I have two of my four sons currently on the other side of the world in Malaysia and Thailand.

Add to that, the son who lives in Malaysia is there with his lovely wife, from Sabah, and their 3 sons – our only grandchildren.

Family hug
Keeping in-touch

Without Skype it would be such a long time between seeing the grandchildren they wouldn’t know who we were when they next met us… as it is they recognise, chat to and make funny faces at us all here – both their gran and granddad and their great-gran and great- granddad.

The son in Thailand keeps in touch via facebook messages- he leaves them for me – I leave them for him – as their time is eight hours adrift from ours and his internet access does not always coincide. When they do we, too, skype chat – it’s good to see him when we talk.

Even the boys in the UK are on the other side of the country and their FB profile posts keep me up-to-date with them along with the messages we share. They, of course, are close enough to phone when we want to talk.

Then there are online courses you can take – and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, or the people leading the course are. These can be webinars or standard ‘email’ courses – but whichever, they are open to you on the internet.

Which brings me to the smallness of the world.

A while ago I did an online course – which, as part of the proceeds from the course, we, the attendees were offered our ‘own place’ to hang out. We had a facebook page dedicated to that particular cohort of the course – and were given a link into the ‘mother facebook group’ of all those who had done the course before and, now, since. Part of the idea was we would not need to be alone when we stepped out into the blog-o-sphere – we could support and converse with others.

Now, the course was led from America, and the group I was in was mainly Americans, a few Australians and from the UK, me, but it didn’t matter – many of us joined the group and do converse, support and read each other’s blogs and facebook posts. Such a one is an Australian who had commented on my blog or FB posts, and I on hers – Ellen.

Then came this October when Ellen came to the UK for a long visit with the end aim of attending a writer’s conference in Brighton. Before that she and a friend were travelling around the West country. This is how it was that when she was in our area I offered to show her a few places nearby (Cotehele, Dupath Well, our C12th church, etc), saying that she and her friend could stay for a couple of days. All of a sudden this online friendship became a friendship anyone would recognise, they even came to the bellydance class with me 🙂  … and the world got that little bit smaller.

Have you made online friends across the world?

Do you ‘bless’ skype, facebook et al for helping keep your family in touch?

Do share, you know I love to hear from you

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