Flowers, fun and felines.

I got a message on my cell phone saying " Sharon, I have some beautiful flowers and I want to give them to you". My friend Kanara wasn't kidding and I so appreciated her donation of 'function flowers' into my home.

Talking of donations...I'm guessing most people won't know they've contributed to this collection.

Early Saturday morning I went to Kanaha and while I knew it was too big for me, I figured there had to be something I could play on. I figured wrong! It took 45 minutes of falling before I called it quits.

And lets face it no one wants to see this in the line up!

But I wasn't done so headed to the harbour sure it wouldn't be breaking, but for the second time in an hour I was wrong!

Good grief woman get up, up, up on the lip!

I was still falling but having sooooooo much fun.

Let me tell you - we've all done it, you come in off the water, go to grab the key that's around your neck only to discover it's still in the door. I went from panic to elation in one second when I discovered everything was still there. Phew!

And it's always nice to come home to a friendly face.

January so far......

January 1st 2012 and I'm greeted with a little rainbow for the start of my early glassy Kanaha session.

Wave one, dry hair and looking a little unsure.

Now that's better, clearly a good mental enama washes away all that ego nonsense and makes way for pure unadulterated fun.

This was without a doubt my biggest wave of the day!

I must have been out longer than I thought as I've grown a beard!

When Kanaha is too big for me, I know the harbour will be perfect.....and so it was for January 2nd 2012.

The harbour wave has a very distinct personality. It's flat, flat, flat and then an upwelling of energy shows up like someone has flapped a piece of silk. The watery step builds rapidly and it doesn't take much paddling to feel the push. I try to stay high on the lip for as long as I can and then swoop down to the right and then back up to the shoulder where (with luck) I repeat the manouver twice. Technically they call that a cut-back, but mines more of a loose swervey thing that thrills the pants of me!

After you... turtle crossing.

Posing with my favourite #8 buoy.

Charging Paley style which in truth is terribly relaxed.

These last few days the sweet water energy has given lots of smiles, yelps of joy and uplifted the spirits.... and that's just the people around me. Now imagine my feelings, the Yorkshire girl who couldn't swim until she was 39, got her first surfboard at 43 and made her first (and so far only) windsurf jibe at 50 (and three quarters).

Life is full of surprises.

Sunny afternoon.

It's summer time which means flat water and that's great for my sailing.

My commitment free days off are driven by the question "should I sail, sup or bike ride"? Lately, if the conditions allow, windsurfing has been my first choice. For so many years this sport has frustrated me to the point of tears, but lately I've been having a lot of fun and realized part of it is being at a level where that exasperation doesn't show up. Which, I don't mind telling you is nothing short of a fucking miracle.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Maui provides weather that allows you to frolic outside year round, but the long summer days provide more play hours and less intense water conditions, and for me that equals more smiles.

Say "Pee" (which I'm not)!

Post sesh like a total nit-wit, I'd packed up leaving the Gopro on my paddle and still in the 'photo every two seconds' mode. One Mississippi, two Mississippi....

.....three Mississippi, four Mississippi....

.......five Mississippi, six Mississippi.

Testing one, two, check-check, testing one, two, three.....

Good evening Wembley!

I've been plucking away now for a little over a year now and am of the belief that I don't have much ego around it. The sheer joy of learning a new chord pass or mastering a strum is enough, it really is one of those simple pleasures which makes it easy to find gratification in the journey. In his infinite wisdom, my teacher, sound engineer and producer, Cyrus, had decided it was time to set up a recording session. Blimey, it's a good job I'm easy about the whole thing because hearing myself in headphones really exposed the areas that need more work. Plus there's definitely an added sense of pressure in wanting to get it right (enter stage left, the ego). At one point (having just botched my solo) my inexperienced recording fingers started trembling! That being said, I could have done it all day because the thrill of getting it right was ridiculously satisfying.

As it's sunny afternoon, I thought of this song and hope you're enjoying your summer.... peace, out.

Saturday fun day.

After a brilliant week of sailing, the weather went to shit, then my health quickly followed, so in short I've not been on the water for two weeks. As some of my people fled Maui for adventures in France & Namotu, I awoke early and laid in bed listening to Radio 1's Big Weekend and sipping tea. What to do, what to do?

What won the vote was a SUP sesh on the south side. At 7:30am there was only one person who could possibly be there already to give me an accurate report, so I sent a text to zeeeee German (aka Melanie) as I left the house.

Remember Melanie? She's one of the two fabby women I went to Ireland with last year.

Her return call made me U turn at the bottom of Haleakala Highway and head back home..........to change to my bigger 10ft board. Within the space of 45 minutes I'd signed up for the Olukai three mile downwinder, looked like a complete twat doing jumping jack warm ups, said 'hello' to a bunch of friends I'd not seen in ages and.......

........looked up at a helicopter dumping petals in the water. Bloody hell, not too shabby for an impromptu Saturday morning.

Post paddle our day flowed effortlessly as we bungeed our boards and I dropped Melanie off for a coffee.

Here! 'Here' turned out to be our vertically challenged friend Big Mike's new pad and we weren't the only visitors, he's quite the popular chap with his new digs.

I raced home, downed (in a very unlady like fashion) a cup of green tea and loaded up my windsurf gear. Drat and double drat, foiled again Batman-the bouys for the main 1pm Olukai race were right at lowers where I love to sail. Nothing to be done but wait it out until all the competitors crossed the line.

I love this shot, we all do it, just randomly dump our footwear and hope it will be there (or in my case that I remember it) upon our return.

The board room.

The games room.

Text reads: "Brah, I like pau in 20, bring da beer".

I paddled, I sailed, I conquered and as I happily drove back up the hill for the third time that day, my shuffle brought up this great song that seemed to match my warm and fuzzy feel, so I cranked it.

The little things.

Having just taken myself to lunch at Mala Restaurant, I perched on the pavement outside to take in the view. Were it not for the roadwork that began at exactly the same time as I sat down, my idillic moment would have been intact.

It's been a fun week of small south shore waves = big fun, though I'm surrrrrre they were way bigger then this.

God it's good here.

Back country.

Front and center, a couple of clicks reveals that this is a Pacific Golden Plover, super cute.

Despite appearances to the contrary I've not been bird watching this week, but as I unloaded my board (for what was to be a fab SUP session), I could hear a kerfuffle in the nearby trees. These two were the guilty parties, super duper cute.

Talk about a fish out of water...

.....yes, but did he go?

Bits and bobs.

At nearly 65 he's still an amazing showman. The Rocket Man launched into three solid hours of extraordinary music and I've not enjoyed a concert so much in years.

Elton John played two nights on Maui and I was instantly transported me back to my youth as he walked on to "Funeral for a friend". His voice is still very powerful and he has a cheeky charisma that made it impossible not hard to have a great time.

And now back to my regular life, pretty huh?

Drunk again.

Inspired by his blow torch, the new Julia Child of Kuau (Ulli) whipped up some creme brulees with a acetylene finish. They were bloody delicious.

Those tiny black things near the horizon are actually whales. Their hulking graceful bodies came to within 15 feet of us and it's really a wonderful experience to be in their presence.

Michelle and Ulli scored an incredible close encounter a few weeks ago, take a look. Thank goodness they're here a little while longer as I've not yet got my fill.