Sunday Times.

There’s a new ginger in town and he’s definitely a boy, all bike and no bark. Cosmo's not mine, but I like him wandering around like he owns the place all curious and aloof.

Today was definitely a stand-up kinda Sunday (upon arrival stand-uppers out numbered the lay-downers 2-1) with plenty of glassy, soft waves gently undulating to their culmination. In other words, nothing for me to be intimidated by and lots of great practice trying to stay on the inviting wave faces.

Nice rack...

The Thinker....pondering "who's that hot chick out there that's whiter than me"?

'Tis I of course, the author looking wondrously unimpressive but only due (I assure you) to the cameras distance!

For the record, this is not my foot's eye view.

And upon my return home the compound guard was waiting.

Cameras, migraines and sailing.

As predicted the Nikon was returned last week. The deciding factor?….well a picture tells a thousand words. I sat on the hill at Hookipa and left in quick frustration as every time the sun hit the Mylar, this was the outcome. Shocking!

And so to contestant #2 a Sony Cybershot H7…the ‘new and improved’ version of my old camera. I’ve not yet run it through its paces but I’ve gotta be on the ball with this test as Sears is not as generous as Costco, only giving me 30 days to return the merchandise!

A quick headache update. It seems I may have stumbled on two possible culprits, on the outside; electromagnetic pollution and on the inside, sugar. The good news is a couple of thin magnets in my bra (think mature wrinkly fembot) and a diet alteration (no sugar, caffeine or alcohol) seem to have tamed the migraine beast. This is my breakfast karma for gobbling up a lifetimes worth of sugar halfway through my innings!

The good news is my energy is back, so yesterday I was happily out on the water. It’s amazing how quickly I lose my confidence when I’m not consistently rigging up. “You done already” yelled a friend as I took my bedraggled self to the shower after only 25 minutes on the water. I wanted to say "yes, I'm bloody knackered already" but ego got the better of me and I just nodded sheepishly and stacked my excuses up, should I be called upon to explain myself. Dammit, busted again for being a wuss…..

Biding my time.....

My trusty Sony camera has decided to go ADHD on me and will not focus on anything, which has left me craving a new material thing like no other.

Except I only seem to be willing to buy from Costco, so I can play with my new toy and then return it if it doesn’t live up to the hype. Unfortunately, such has been my experience with camera #1....a Nikon Coolpix P80.

To put it through it's paces I've been snapping away at action, close ups and just regular everyday stuff. Mater....what about this chap?

This dude looks like the water version of the rain forest chief with the big plate in his bottom lip. Hmmmm, I was just craving a tasty wax snack. This image served me well as yesterday as I copied his manouver and tucked some wax in the sleeve of my rash guard. I went turtle chasing with my big standup long board at Kanaha and used my trusty wax to get a better grip and thrust the beast into second gear, well behind the turtle's wake.

This camera has is the right size and feel, but has an 18X digital zoom that’s useless (think paparazzi pixel quality) and a flimsy little door that feels like it’s going to drop off every time I have to charge the annoyingly special battery. Still, it takes a decent photo and will do until I trade it in for #2.

Polipoli 8th annual Book Club Retreat.

As Nancy and I commuted up the mountain to Polipoli cabin (which is at 6,200ft and within the fog belt of the Kula Forest Reserve) to join our seven other book club sisters, the light and views were beautiful.

It was misty and damp outside but we didn't care, as more members arrived the cabin heated up with the potent mana of powerful women who love a good read, almost as much as they do each other.

As always, there was no sense of survival in this electricityless world as the abundant supplies manifested into one gourmet meal after another. Plus, with the help of Karen’s nifty stickers, losing your ‘wine plastic’ was not an option.

Many women had Brad that night...Michael Phelps and Simon Cowell were popular runners up (theres no accounting for taste)!

We decided Arnold was packing a little extra hummus in his trunks for this shot, while I myself opted for the three ‘B’’s. On my bum was Beckham, on my bush was Bono and on my boobs was Blair!

We knew we’d be in for more fun and games than normal when Karen showed up with a keyboard, guitar, ukulele and drums. “Didn’t you get the memo to bring musical instruments’? She chirped, as we stood there with our mouths agape as her roadies’ unpacked!

As we all gathered with excitement for Karen’s post dinner concert it was soon revealed that knowing 10 notes per song, conjoined with “I can’t play sharps” and the tempo of each tune slowed to the beat of the death march...... does not a concert make! Still, undeterred and with the flood gates of mediocrity well a truly opened, we felt safe to accompany her by singing at the top of our lungs in the key of flat. Twas a marvelous event destined to go down in the annals of ‘Chicks with Lanterns moments most likely to bring ridicule" and 'tis why we love book club so.

Aside from picking our reading list for the next seven months, we took a glorious hike (Nancy is absent as she left earlier to run the trials higher up into the forest). See how nice and relaxed we all look, well a couple of hours later we were two people short and not quite so clean and tidy! We might be wise to include a book on wilderness survival……or perhaps just a trail map would suffice for our next walk about!

Still we did concur about one thing which was Karen’s answer to the question” If you were the sole survivor of a plane crash with everyone present and had to choose someone to eat in order to survive, who would you select” Her answer was Kanara…..who is first gorgeous woman on the left and our gluten free snack of choice!