Beach Party

Just a quick story here to put a smile on your face for the day. As I was tucking my son into bed last night we had our usual bible story time so we decided to discuss Moses’ role in freeing God’s people from Pharoah’s hands of slavery. The discussion had its usual dialogue (”Let my people go!”, etc.) and then we made our way to the Red Sea. We talked about how powerful God was that He could do such awesome things as to part such a large body of water. I interjected that crossing the Red Sea was something that the Israelites could not do on their own, that they needed God’s help. When I questioned Noah as to why the Israelites couldn’t cross the Red Sea on their own, he responded by saying, “because they didn’t have any swimsuits back then.” I love him.

Samstag war ich surfen (also so richtig, ohne Segel). Ist doch ziemlich anders wie Windsurfing und garnicht so leicht. Irgendwann habe ich es dann doch geschafft ein paar mal auf dem Brett zu stehen und auch drauf zu bleiben. Bei Gelegenheit muss ich da mal weiter an meinen Skills feilen.

If you're never heard of Shipstern, here's a good article. Here's a clip of the Billibong video via Surfline on the next page after the jump. Click the link below.

Holland now has a "civic integration examination" for some would-be immigrants. One of the requirements: View a video with scenes of a topless beach and gay men kissing. There will be a test on the material. Seriously.

Windsurfing? What’s that? I haven’t windsurfed for the last 4 months. Since before Xmas if I remember correctly. Anyway I went out yesterday and I had an awesome time. Alex was taking shot, which was one of my main reasons for going out. Damn I’m lazy. At least Alex’s skill pushing camera buttons outweighed my inability to windsurf anymore. Funny stuff. Check out Alex’s website for somemore cool shots.

10. Little Beach, Hawaii: Little Beach is an isolated strand surrounded by high shrubs, craggy volcanic rocks and driftwood. Although nude sunbathing is illegal in Hawaii, the law has not been enforced here for years.

Notorious is Singapore muky waters, as bad as milo-ice-dinosaur, so as joked by the instructors & lecturers. The instructors strongly recommend the Malaysia Pulau Aur Dive Trip scheduled this weekend for an additional $160. Which covers a return trip to the protected dive resort with 2 days, 2 nights stay with food (all 3 meals) & accomodation provided. Come to think about it, its actually quite a good deal you ask me, personally I had seen the waters around Singapore (esp around labrador park area where the Singapore dive site would be launched from) & yes, you can’t see your hands in front of your when underwater, its that bad. Pulau Aur waters claims to have a visiblity of an astonishing 10m with a large array of marine life, the perfect Scuba diving experience they claim.

So the next day we took a trip on a sailing boat, your standard 30 foot (ish) yatch, again my new “more appropriate” clothing was an absolute god send, The Beagle Channel is certainly not the warmest place on earth thats for sure…! We sailed from early morning to early evening, looking and the scenery, and loads of wildlife including many Guillimots, Sea Lions and Fur Seals. We also stopped off on an island, and took a walk had a great lunch and even went swimming!! (Dry suit hire included in the price!!) That was a unique experiance, to say the least!

Upon hearing of fabulous beaches where one could go nude sunbathing, a bunch of other Spaniards came to the Philippines and stayed for 300 years.

Thursday morning, and we decided to take advantage of some of the many sports provided, and hit the beach for a little windsurfing. We were warned that it was a little bit too windy for beginners, but that didn’t stop us making fools of ourselves trying to stand up for half an hour! We had booked a trip called Barcelona By Night for that afternoon, and at 2pm we boarded the coach. Our guide spoke fluently in at least 85 different languages, and left no landmark unmentioned on the hour and a half trip to Barcelona. Our itinerary was more than was mentioned in the brochure, and our first stop was the Barcelona Football Stadium. We joined the throngs of hardened football supporters, and spent the next 45 minutes wondering why people would pay to sit and look at a lawn. It was about as exciting as watching grass grow, and the coolness of the ice-rink proved too great a temptation.

Yes, my friends, it’s true. I am currently on my spring break. The time of year when thoughts turn to sunbathing and feasts of succulent pig-flesh. 11 days of sheer, unadulterated gluttony and sloth. A time when the lowliest of men are treated to opulent extravegance that would have made King Louis XIV vomit with envious rage.

Reading Glamour depresses me. It’s like, my eyelashes aren’t long enough. My hair needs highlights. Lips could use some plumping. Don’t get me started on skin, shoes, or swimsuits. And it’s not enough to make me feel like I’m just some sort of monster (with HUGE potential if I could just get to Ulta…), but then they do the relationship articles. If I ever thought something bad about a man, I was RIGHT! and if I ever thought something good about him, I probably misunderstood, because there is no way on earth I could possibly interpret my own relationships with people. No way. You need Experts for that.

Back to the boating, the camp lies within a park and an admission fee is paid at a roadside booth, this is where I will take out. I drive the car to the booth, scouting the only rapid I can see from the road on the way there. This mighty rapid must be all of grade II (graded chesty cough) and turns out to be the only real rapid of the trip. Leaving the boat at the campground I drive the car to the take out and I prepare to enlist my secret weapon to transport me the 2 miles back to the start, the magic thumb. However I notice that the current car at the pay booth is equipped with a canoe, he pays, moves on, I chase after him. He eventually stops and I breathlessly ask if we can be friends, does he want to paddle the Elwah and can he run shuttle. Please, pleases mister, go on mister, please. In a polite but firm way he says ‘not a chance’ to any of this tom foolery and any way he’s only a beginner and surely I wasn’t planning on paddling such big rapids alone, had I actually checked them from the road. At this point an involuntary puffing of the chest occurred and before I could stop myself I’d mumbled something about no worries, my ego was not only stroked it had been tickled under the chin.

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