Maliko and other things (all less cute).

In response to Lano's request for pictures of the new pup in Kuau town...I'm afraid most of my shots were a variation on this one. I put this down to still having the shakes because moments before I met the fury little dude, I got scared to death by fury dude's dad, Ulli, hiding (and convincingly whimpering) in the dog crate-bastard!

Occasionally Maliko stopped moving...

....queue Donny Osmond 'Puppy love'!

Meanwhile, a band slightly less well known than the Osmonds got together Saturday night and after jamming on the Ukulele Giampaolo declared "I'm born to play this instrument". Having learnt that Aunty Jenny teaches at the Kainoa Senior center he asked for her schedule. "Well first of all you have to be 55" she said.....something for him to look forward to.

"Daddy, Daddy, what's that"?

Don't be scared children it's only Aunty Sharon SUPing with a miniature paddle.

Mmmmmmmm after dinner digestivo anyone?

Who'd have thought?

I stopped by kite beach for no reason in particular. I took a few pictures while chatting on the phone with Cheyenne about how our mind works, 'twas a most satisfying 10 minutes.

Meanwhile two beaches down, the Itai worked on both his tan and uncanny Sea Lion impression. Three weeks into the healing of his fractured foot, I have to say his mind is defiantly his friend. For a man that was used to being in the water daily for hours at a time, he's transitioned to his temporary non-weight bearing world with a minimum of fuss and a great attitude.

My attitude on the other hand is not so positive toward the Ironwood tree. The needles they shed poison the immediate area letting nothing grow in their vicinity except, (or so it would seem) but more Ironwoods. That being said they do provide much needed shade at Kanaha and for that lone reason, I confess to thoughts of begrudging appreciation.

We've had a fat 10-12 days of straight rain so today it was just so good to see the sun again. This thought triggered me into thinking about my brain & then I remembered this clip of Karlology which amused me, be sure to click on part two (if you make it there).

Nothing like a hula-hoop to get the show-offs out of their seats and make the uncoordinated stay glued to theirs!

Tomorrow our friend Hanna (in red) returns to her native Australia and while we don't hang out often, I'll bloody miss her. That being said, if I brazenly invite myself to stay on Lano's sofa, I'll now have two places to stay in Aus and two sources for mail order Polly Waffles!

To repay their fabricated generosity I shall come bearing gifts of Spam Mac Nuts, you know what they say, it's the thought that counts.

Confidence boosters.

Whilst sailing at Kanaha I lost my confidence because of one stupid fall and came in too soon. I've noticed this is a bad habit so before sailing I either have to double brush with Colgate to get in that bloody 'Ring Of Confidence', or think "What would Meesh do"?!

Action of another sort was required to restore my fragile ego so I headed to Ho'okipa, which (for an enthusiastic snap-shot shooter like myself) always delivers.

The usual suspects hung off the guard rail like droning notes on a musical score. Further up the fence the bikers I wanted to photograph were much more interesting, but I still haven't figured out my chat-up lines when asking for a portrait shot. I once read in a book that a compliment is a good opener "Excuse me, you lot look fantastic clad in leather and tatt's....all together now say cheese". Uff, it needs work.

Avoiding possible rejection, I settled on my compliant broken headlight for a close up.

I shall call this one 'Stick in field'!

What lurks beneath at low tide.

As I pulled in my driveway I was greeted by the Amaryllis that are in bloom. "Excuse me, if you don't mind me saying, you look fantastic clad in your red/orange leaves and your stamens are stunning. I think you'd make a great image, do you mind if I take your photo"?

Is a title always necessary?

I've gotta dry my bra's somewhere...

GP models this season's knee high and mid calf gimp boots. The cushions provide the clue as to which foot is fractured. Lest you think he's lying around doing nothing, check out his latest blog entry.

Meet Tiare, she's also making us believe she's lying around doing nothing, but when was the last time you could lay in the floor in this position?! At almost six months old she is officially our youngest, most limber and dare I say it - well behaved member of book club.

The best part of Sunday was SUPing along side a Hawaiian Monk Seal. She'd pop up for air and float cork like, breathing lazily and alternately look right at me or bask with her eyes closed. I stayed out long enough to get my scalp burnt, but it was worth it to be lucky enough to see this lovely animal in her own habitat.

The tulips were as Easter'ish as I got...

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!.

Wave of panic.

When I was about 19 I did a workshop in London. In one exercise all the people in the room (about 70) were told they were on a sinking ship and only six people could be saved as their was just one lifeboat. In one minute or less we had to individually convince the group leaders why we should be saved. Guess who was first and didn't make the lifeboat cut?! "Too panicy", was the feedback and nearly thirty years later with a 5:00am phone call from a loving friend that a tsunami was on it's way, not much has changed. Others drank champagne had parties and generally frolicked in the face of the unknown. Meanwhile at 5:45am I was in line for an hour at the store for groceries, while calling our IT guy to shut down the work server and generally not being a whole lot of fun.

...and lord knows you need a bit of fun on a lifeboat.