Last weeks little moments.

I can't be trusted. With my dear friend Cheyenne, (the owner of the Paia Meditation) on the mainland, I'd been nominated as an official time keeper for a twenty minute morning meditation session. As any good facilitator would, I arrived with 10 minutes to spare but was suddenly grabbed by the thought "wouldn't it be funny to send Cheyenne a photo of me taking my facilitator duties seriously"? Well clearly I thought so, as I set the self timer and started to leap.


Close to our start time of 7:30am, Eric arrived and being the good student that he is, joined right in! With minutes to spare we plonked our smiley energized selves onto cushions, sat cross legged, b r e a t h e d deeply and proceeded to start our practice. I think it took me the whole twenty minutes just to get my heart rate down! You too can come and rest you mind any time (minus aerobic workout), simply check the schedule at paiameditation.com

Describing my mother as a 'ferocious reader with an addictive personality' is (I'm sure she'll agree) an accurate statement. This is a good thing for her sharp and intelligent mind, but not so good if you have limited storage space in a small flat. Above is the latest culling of her all-new-read-once collection of books. The lucky recipient of these black bin bags exploding with words will be the local charity shop... unless anyone fancy's a surprise box of books in the mail?! I've often wondered if I should try to convert her into the book electronic arena?

Like these Kindle people! Though I confess the new ipad looks infinitely more appealing. Mum, would you miss turning the page & the smell of a new book?

Talking of words, today I bought some mushrooms with the lofty claim that they are 'more fun than a pickle', then I thought "I'll show you fun"....


...."check out the giant asparagus growing at my neighbour's house"!

Messages, mojo and music.

A few days ago I listened to a BBC podcast about how residents of remote Scottish Islands used messages in bottles as a means of communication. So as I clambered about this one caught my eye. I'd like to return it to the owner with the following message (penned in stylish calligraphy) "next time you get pissed at the beach, take your farking trash with you-you lazy drunken selfish git". It's shocking the amount of rubbish people leave behind after they've enjoyed and used a public place for their own hedonism.

Gandhi said "be the change you want to see in the world. Confession time: as I write I just realized tbat I got so caught up in taking the photo, I forgot to do the right thing and pick up the bloody bottle! Agh...

It's been a bit of a Goldilocks kinda weekend . The waves seemed to be either too big or too small and the wind was either blowing when I went SUPing or not when I went windsurfing. I know the best way to learn is to go out in all conditions, but my mojo was lacking. This coupled with a lot fruitless driving and running around makes me quite happy that my demeanor was as relaxed as it gets. I put this down to the afore mentioned BBC podcasts that make all my journeys a five star experience. Never over estimate the divine pleasure of learning, laughing and driving!.

Oddly, for exercise this weekend the gym ended up being just right.

Subliminal message to a friend, (foxy chic added for additional work distraction)!

I'm not exactly rocking in the free world yet, but as an absolute beginner it was a total pleasure to sit in the company of a man who's been playing music for 30 years and is now teaching. I haven't a clue if this lovely little instrument will grab my creative imagination enough to want to play it, but that's what I intend to find out over the next few months. Naïvely I thought I'd be learning by watching and imitating the teacher-wrong! Instead, (having been told less than an hour ago) I'm scratching my head wondering what time signatures, measure repeats and rhythm figures are exactly? Luckily I'm only supposed to only think about these things if I want to, other wise just play & have fun....stay tuned (no pun intended).

Warm Winter Water.

My first thought was, "my idea of hell", my second thought was, "how much would someone have to pay me to go on a cruise"? I'm at $10,000 and considering it....

This is much more my speed.

Lately, as I cruise back to the North Shore from paddling on the West side I've been stopping at McGregor Point. It's windy solitude is a great place to whale watch, but the romantic in me would prefer a proper little lighthouse rather than a functional light beacon. My idle curiosity surrounding this rather unimaginative structure led me to seek out its history, which is thankfully a tad more interesting.

I'm afraid we are an unstoppable force. The 8:00 am flotilla of eight SUP'ers surrounded one poor surfer (at MY buoy) and I couldn't help but feel that sorry for her. These dude's were good, so I immediately chose not to put myself among them and scuttled off to the West side, where I proceeded to have a blast.

Before I left I saw two guys impressively tuck into small little barrels, but I wasn't patient enough to capture them on camera as I had waves of my own to catch.

Choke, splutter, cough, laugh.

Diverse amusements.

This for me is double the pleasure, double the fun. First, I get to go out and play on the water with the GoPro, then second I get to the edit the movie. The frustrating learning curve of imovie is beginning to dissipate (thanks for your patience Ely), which is making room for creativity and gratification in the editing process. In fact, if I'm honest I'm linking this not so much for the content (as you'll see), but more for the satisfaction of the completed end product.

This little nugget on the other hand needed no editing what so ever. About 6 weeks ago one of the large windows at my office (for not apparent reason) shattered. It's wooden replacement makes up for it's lack of vision by having the personality of a six year old boy! When it gets fixed next week, we'll all miss the juvenile snickering that comes with the high wind warnings in Kihei.



Finally, for some every day amusement, check out my clever friend Mikel's Daily Flounder.

Great expectations.

As I pulled my gear out from under the house, the dust on my sail bags made the dirty public declaration that I didn't want to admit....they've not seen the light of day for about a year. Why? I'd ditched them for the relative ease of a carbon paddle and a 10ft stand up board.

Sunday however, we got reacquainted. I've made the decision that by the time I'm 50 I'll know how to jibe (note the nice wide 9 month window!). So lessons will be booked, wet suits will get wet and I'll put in the effort (once and for all) to face the nemesis that I've twice used as an excuse to stop sailing.

After pulling the leaves and feathers out of my mast track, I was relived to find out I still remembered how to rig. Once on the water I worked on one simple thing, moving my feet out of the straps while carving into the turn. Oh man, do I have a lot to learn and nine months may be wishful thinking! I stalled, I was overpowered, my feet slipped, I didn't move my feet, the speed freaked me out and I dropped the sail, I got my feet in place but the sail wasn't, I unhooked too late, etc, etc, etc.

At this stage of the game the factors that come into play to not allow the jibe to occur are whoppingly impressive and my goal felt further away at the end of my session than at the beginning.


Still, despite all of the above it was great to tug on my neoprene, be back on the water, hooked-in, with my feet in the foot straps. Plus, I came in with a smile on my face, so there's hope for me yet to conquer the jibing beast.

Time to do my homework.

Inside and out.

Today I went looking for fun and sun on the West side of Maui. It was an extremely low tide, so while I found the sun, the wind and squalls made for unappealing water conditions. Instead I found myself joyfully playing with my camera until I ended up unimaginatively working out at the gym.

Cute as he may be, you don't want this little fella in your foot (or anywhere else for that matter).

Hard to believe if you turned 180 degrees you'd be looking at the main road.

At the risk of sounding like an old Granny, twenty years ago (for the most part) Maui retail was a local game. As the years have passed I have bemoaned the arrival of Starbucks, Costco, Mercedes-Benz, Home Depot, Crispy Cream, Borders, K-Mart & the like with their homogenizing suffocation of local business and culture.

Yet last week with excitement and anticipation I subjected myself to the opening day madness that is Whole Foods. I'm a little bit of a foodie at heart, so just the thought of that variety can make me lightheaded, nothing of course a shockingly odorous Limburger couldn't snap me out of - to be found in the Cheese section!

There's an interesting website called 'Photosynth' which allows you to upload your own photo's and make a nifty 3D'ish effect with them. "Cool", I thought and decided to give it a go by taking all kinds of pictures of my living room. However, being the technological knucklehead that I am it didn't register until after I'd signed up (and it wouldn't work) that the Microsoft product will not communicate with my MAC.

Still, all was not lost as I now have a photo library of all kinds of small objet d'art in my home. This bronze statue from the UK (thanks Mum) is one of my faves, the vase in the background was a gift from my bro and his Mrs... the Daffies I over paid for at Whole Foods!

I couldn't not share these two chaps, though I've never quite figured out what they're up to! One year they arrived in Mum's suitcase and I pilfered the Vase a while ago. Poor lass, she'll be sitting on an orange crate by the time I'm done poaching her pad!.