Showing posts with label windsurfing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label windsurfing. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Dahab photos

I thought I'd put a few photos up from my week spent windsurfing in Egypt. Unfortunately, you won't see any shots of me on a board on here yet, as any of those are on friends' cameras, which I haven't had time to raid yet!

Playing pool with the instructors on the first night at the beach bar - they very nearly whooped our asses (probably because they knew about the cheat-y back cushion that stopped all balls dead instead of rebounding them, and the fact that middle pocket shots were impossible on the left side due somebody having clonked the sides of the table out of a straight line - it was pool Dahab-stylee, as so much stuff is out there!)


Jo heading out to sea on the first morning with the red sail.


Jo and I up by the kite-surf lagoon at the other end of the beach after a nice walk - see the ugly fence - not sure whether that's to keep the windsurfing nutters in, or the kite-surfing ones out!


Self-explanatory .... mmmmmm, shisha pipes!!


The first appearance of the dreaded fish-bowls - think this one was mojito - and Jo and Lucy get stuck in. I felt ROUGH the morning after this!


Everything seems funny after fish-bowls .... even Mike the instructor!


Alarm ... spot the "cool" windsurf-ering "dudes", or the drunk ones at least.


View from our balcony at the hotel ... not that we spend much time out here, apart from collecting our dried out kit each morning, and the occasional cheeky vodka and coke from our stash, at dusk before dinner.


Elvis ... last seen windsurfing ...


... and heading out to sea .... this was one of our friends from a group from Manchester, who we also met last year. Great bunch.


Just before the "can we fit 5 people on one windsurfer" experiment began. The answer was yes, but they couldn't actually sail anywhere. They had fun trying though, as you can see from Jo's mischievous grin in the middle there.


Cat / dog standoff on the beach. The resident bar cat wasn't having any of it and was not giving any ground ... the beach dog just thought it was amusing to wind the cat up, and was having a great time!


Jo, and new friends Duncan and Steph at the beach.


Me, taking it easy.


Baby Bay the day Duncan and I waded across the lagoon to watch the big boys show us how it's done. UK Freestyle champ Andy "Bubble" Chambers had just arrived back at Club Vass to coach, so it was cool to watch them all doing their thing.


James and Sala, ably demonstrating that even instructors can look wildly uncool when they try and dance, the night of the closing party.


Us rowdy lot, being, well, rowdy ... and drunk ... at the closing party! In case you're wondering, the fancy dress theme was Egyption Gangsta ... don't ask ...


My poor foot after I rammed it over some rocks in the lagoon whilst attempting to windsurf in force 7 winds. Ouch. That whole funny 3 sided empty outline under the top scab is a missing chunk of skin.


And so endeth a fab holiday!

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

The perils of living in the countryside

For a start, you never know when the dustbin lorry that you're following along the lane is going to randomly knock down a tree that will then fall right across the road in front of you, completely blocking the lane.

Yep - that's what happened to me on my way to work this morning! The lorry clipped the branches (nothing unusal on lanes with overhanging trees), and I thought "oooh, I'm going to drive through a shower of blossom - how pretty!". Obviously the blossom was weighing the branches down a lot lower than usual though, because as the lorry moved forward the whole tree started to move and the trunk cracked clean through.

Luckily, A) I stopped in time that I didn't end up under the tree, and B) the binmen saw what had happened in their rear-view mirror and very kindly came back and moved the tree out the way to clear the road.

Just another normal journey to work, huh?

Windsurfing rocked last night, by the way. It was very windy with strong gusts, and we were wobbly, not having been out on the boards for 6 months, but it was great fun tearing up and down the lake on the edge of control and falling in a lot. I came in after an hour as I was shattered. Had just enough time to drive home, grab some tea and head up to the pub to meet friends, and then slept like an absolute baby last night.

Bridget's boyfriend Tim also very kindly picked up my bike on the way back from the pub, as he's going to take to Wales with his and B's for the weekend, so we can hit the trails at Llandegla on Sat after the ball - ace!!