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- Shaggy, and occassionally dead, Dog Stor
- My Thoroughly modern Ghost
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- Not Waving but Diving
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Not Waving but Diving
Were I fell in. Alot.
I'm getting the hang of this Kayaking lark, you know. I've fallen into, and travelled under, most of the weirs on the river now and have the intimate knowledge of the riverbed required for me me to know how to avoid it from now on. Staying on top, paddling with clean strokes, and above all avoiding eating Mars Bars while approaching the weir seems to be the key. Trouble is, it's more fun getting a bit wet! To date, my excuses for bothering the fishies have been as follows:
1) The boat is too small
2) The boat is too big
3) I can't feel my toes
4) I dropped my Mars Bar and my survival instinct sent me in after it.
5) Having retreived mars bar, went back in after paddle.
6) Having retrieved paddle, watched boat head for weir.
7) Lost all feeling in lower back, so got out.
8) Discovered I had been sitting on the back support, so got out.
9) The boat keeps doing funny wobbly movements, so I do funny wobbly movements to counteract boats funny wobbly movements (Clever). And fall out.
10) I think I quite like falling out.
11)...or maybe I'm not that good at staying in
I'm doing myself a disservice! I was fine before today. We were using new boats for the first time and therefore spent a lot of time admiring their hulls! (Well, I did anyway. Shane managed to stay upright all day barr once. I'm sure he cheated somehow!) Either way, I love it. We spent about 4 hours bothering the wildlife and playing on the weirs and came home knackered, wet, and happy. Unfortunately i'm going to miss it next weekend as I'll be in England. (Good job I'm not going by ferry.)
Kayaking over weirs: How to spend the weekend!!
While everybody else was off trapsing round Slane waiting for Madonna to turn up for her 1 and 1/2 hour gig for €88, Shane and myself opted for getting seriously wet by Kayaking down the local with the lads. Spent all day getting dowsed in weirs, rumbling over rapids, and banged against sluice gate walls. Great fun. Next Sundays' ends in town, so we'll be able to pick up the boat and walk home, via a quick pint, I reckon! Not sure they allow canoe's in my pub, though. Haven't seen any signs. I'll have to ask.
Tim at work, and looking very happy about it.
It was very easy to assume my mate Tim was having a ball out in Corfu before i came out for two weeks holidays, but the poor bastard was knackered most of the time! We did manage to get out for a few drinks a few times though, and managed to annoy some American back packers who were pulling an irritating practical loke on us one night, so that was worthwhile.They sat down with us and itntroduced themselves as brother and sister and proceeded to tell us about their family. Then, after a while, as one of them got up to buy a drink, they started snogging in front of us. Tim and I looked on dispassionately as the guy looked back at us perplexed, hoping to see shock on our faces. When he asked why we weren't surprised, we told him that we thought that everyone in Texas shagged their sisters. We left bravely after that, seeing as we were in a nightclub full of Texans. (No offence to Texans, they were just bloody annoying people)
I managed to lose my phone, two pairs of sunshades, and one digital camera memory card in two days though, which was an achievement i was secretly quite proud of, to be honest. At least it saved me from coming home having to explain some dodgy midnight text messages to people.
It was a pity I lost the memory card though, as I had taken some pics and video of the aftermath of the Greek win in the European Cup, including fireworks, streetfuls of flag-bedecked scooters and some very welcome female streakers, who had apparently lost a bet somewhere.
View from the mountain
Against everybody's advice, I brought my racing bike with me to Corfu. The only person who thought it was a good idea was Tim, probably because he thought i was bringing a mountain bike, given that the town is entirely surrounded by a small mountain.Ryanair seemed to agree with the majority though, and tried their level best to bounce the bike off every available hard surface, bless them. Still, only fell off once. I had come flying down the winding roads, hitting 60k at some points, with no injuries other then sore arms from working the brakes, when I came to a stop outside a Cafe to speak to Tim. Feeling very pleased with myself, I fell over, feet still firmly attached to the cleats. In front of lots of girls. Tried to look good doing it, but I don't think I looked too heroic.
Loads of Seafood, lots of sun.
Sitting having some local seafood outside my apartment. My room was directly behind the diving school, so that I only had to get out of bed and wander out my front door to jump in the sea each morning. (Not that I made it every morning. In fact, I slept most of one night on the beach, considering it to be excellent idea at the time. Think thats where I lost my phone.). The sunsets were like hot honey running down the sky, and very hard to resist though.
Tim and I looking for the bar. I think Tim was driving.
Tim and I only managed one dive together in the two weeks I was there, as his workload didn't permit it. I don't know how he had the energy for it to be honest, as they were long days and early nights. Think he'll be glad to get back to accountancy for a while in September!
The water around us was much clearer then the camera could justifiably capture, to the point that I once had the impression that Tim was skydiving in front of me, spreadeagled in the water, motionless. I had been on a dive the day before with Marco and two of his students, where I had suddenly started giggling uncontrollably as he brought them to the suface. I lay on the seabed on my own 15 metres underwater looking up at what looked like astronauts drifting above me under a rippling blue watery sky. I could have stayed there all day.