Monthly Archives: July 2007

29/07/2007

time passes

By hairygoose
 
let me warn you. its not even eleven o’clock yet but it is already 32 degrees here, not a cloud in sight and the wind has competely dropped.
 
since my little win on the lottery last week, i also had aother win on friday and one more yesterday, seems i am on a roll !
 
I have to head to italy next week to deliver a boat to turkey and i have my schedule for Nariida starting on 5th september in norway confirmed, with salary. my schedule is now booked until new year and will include norway, palma, canaries, caribbean, genoa and then back to palma. all of this before new year, not forgetting my little trip to england at the end of september.
 
the bad news, still not able to surf due to knee injury. i have a sneaky feeling i will not surf while i am here this time. will have to wait for a break in my schedule in november to get back into it. life is tough sometimes.
 
the fun side, i found someone with a chain saw so this afternoon, that damn fig tree will be down for good. i like trees of course but as no-one is taking the fruit, the tree doubles in size each year and each new shoot produces fruit too so without attention, this tree will take over more of my land than the belgian neighbour next door, and that is some serious square footage.
 
apart from that, not a great deal more to report. the place is now filling rapidly with tourists so i tend to keep myself to myself.
 
enough

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26/07/2007

finally

By hairygoose
 
somthing funny by email that i havent already seen a million times already.
 
check out thelatst photos and make sure to view them on full screen  

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22/07/2007

winner

By hairygoose
 
always nice to log onto your email and see a mail from the lottery ‘news about your ticket’. managed to plug 4 numbers on saturdays lottery and won 46 of your johnny english pounds. if only every day could start that way!
 
had a bit of a late night last night, or rather, a very early morning. my first proper night out in sagres. always good to see drunk engish chicks spewing up in the middle of the road, pure class. 
 
the dromedario was busy, as you would expect full of tourists. i like the place and the staff, i just prefer it when i know all of the faces that are in here too, that only happens in te wintertime but makes for much better parties.
 
i am sure in the next week or so, things will become very busy so i will need to hide away.
 
there is talk of a delivery from italy to turkey on a power boat. i pitched my price plus expenses of course but am still waiting to hear back. not too bothered about the money but the experience would be a good thing. the boat is due to leave this week from genoa. more on that if it happens.
 
so i am not long out of bed and wondering what to do with the rest of the day. might make it to the beach for sunset and have a paddle and a swim but apart from that, nothing hectic planned.
 
sorry i have no manic surf stories to tell you, as soon as i am fit to surf again, they will be here, maybe even another naked excursion.

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21/07/2007

in recovery

By hairygoose
 
still a little wobbly on my twisted knee so not able to surf. managed a swim and paddle at the beach this morning at 7am before the tourists got out of bed. the water was unusally cold for the south coast but i was just happy to be doing something.
 
busy cleaning up the love nest, throwing away all the old crap that i have amassed and never used. strange thing is, if you put something next to your bin here, it is never long before someone takes it away and uses it for something.
 
so the small annex has now been cleaned out and i have re-stowed all of the boards that i now have. ok, one is linekes and two are ruperts but i still have my two in there too.
 
i have been trying to talk justin into making me a new longboard but at ten feet plus, there just isnt room in there to make it so i will either have to get in touch with davey the ding man in st agnes or buy a pop out (a little impersonal i know). i may try billy boy at carapateira but he really is a short board dude.
 
enough!
 
things are very slow here in sagres, not too many tourists, most of them are spanish but thats how i like it anyway.
 
must dash, have more cleaning to do

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17/07/2007

pain and suffering

By hairygoose
 
ok, so one dead dude on tonel beach wasnt good enough!
 
yesterday morning i surfed for half an hour, thats all i could manage. so i figured surf each morning and each night for as long as i could manage until i was up to full strength, so last night i returned to tonel.
 
not a perfect wave but not too big which was just how i wanted it. third wave of the session, went to get to my feet, missed and twisted my knee!
 
then the struggle started. the damaged knee was also on the leg that my leash was attached to so with each wave, my leg was pulled even more. i managed to belly ride the board into the shallows then i had to release my leash and let the board get washed into the beach.
 
i scrambled into the beach and grabbed my board. unusually, i had walked to the far side of the beach to surf so i had a long hobble back. lucky i guess, i could have gone somewhere else with a rock climb to get off the beach. seems it was a week that tonel would claim more than one casualties but at least this time i was alive, not like the dude that was face up on the sand early on sunday morning.
 
feeling more than a little sorry for myself, i headed to the bubble for a beer and something to eat. They still sell Bohemia only this time , a special edition at 6.6%, it is as smooth as the underside of a milky bar!
 
two of those, a toastie and i drove home and slept fro 12 hours solid.
 
so now i face a week or two of recovery, living in a place where there is nothing to do but surf or drink beer. i will take my board to the beach and go for a paddle, a bit lame i know but at least i can start building strength into my upper body again. i still have my snorkelling gear too so i should find some interesting things on the sea bed, maybe i will buy a harpoon and see if i can catch some fish the old fashioned way.
 
whatever happens next, i will be sure to keep you entertained for the rest of the summer.
 
keep coming back for a read whenever you can. i have had close to 16,000 readers on this page since it started. not outstanding in commercial terms but not bad or a private blog page. maybe i will give a prize to the 20,000 reader ?
 
 
 
 

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16/07/2007

return of the traveller

By hairygoose
 
safe and sound in portugal again. managed to keep to schedule too, arrived on sunday morning at around 05.30.
 
when it got light, i headed to mareta to check for a wave, a small ripple but not enough to surf, next stop was tonel.
laying on th ebeach was a body of a young surf dude, with a couple of paramedics around him. seems he had been at the party on the top of the cliffs and either fell off or decided to take an early swim , no doubt full of booze or drugs or a combination of the two.
 
either way, the sight of a dead body on the beach at 6am was not appealing so i never bothered to surf yesterday.
 
woke at 6 this morning and headed back to tonel, no one in the water and a small wave, ideal for someone who has spent 7 months out of the water, so i had a go.
 
pathetic, is all i can say.
 
after half an hour i was knackered. i caught one wave and didnt make it to my feet cleanly so i decided enough was enough. will go again tonight at sunset, i guess i was unfit, out of practise and worrying about the dead dude.
 
give me a week or two and i will be up to speed.
 
 
so not much has changed in sagres. more of my friends are still here than i thought would be, and of course, there are a shit load of spanish too.
 
either way, the scene is set for the summer, this is where i will be
 
come and join me if you can get time off work

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13/07/2007

palma-ised

By hairygoose
 
i heard this word tonight and it kinda sums up what palma does to the young and influencial yachting fraternity.
 
Palma as a city is a great place, and remember, i say this when i live in the middle of a national park in the middle of nowhere in portugal!
 
it is a great place but it takes it toll. There are three things that are plentiful in palma.
 
1. dog shit on the streets.
 
ok, things have improved of late, with the fine for fouling doubled last month, i now see more people picking up their dog doo than i do leave it behind, something of a quantum shift! these streets used to be a litteral shit hole, only one place worse that i know of, Valencia!
 
2. hedonistic attitudes towards casual sex
 
Maybe because it is a holiday island but i have never seen so much free for all shagging in one place, everyone seems to be at it, with as many pieces as possible, married or single, it doesnt matter, if ever a phrase was perfect for an island, every hole is a goal  seems to have been made up by someone from palma. A german friend of mine from the black forrest once nick named this place pussy island. he wasnt wrong. I do think though the attitude of free love is helped along massively by
 
3. an uncontrolled amount of readily available coke and pills.
 
whatever you want, is openly peddled on the streets. you can see the gypsies peddling form their push chairs in the court yards. a couple of months ago, the chief of police was discharged after it was proved that he was in cahoots with the local drug barons. i have seen many people come here clean and green but then plunge into the depths of nothing more than being a solid coke head and quickly their lives dissappear as they enter the vicious circle of being too drug fucked to get out of bed to go to work.
 
 
so once again i leave palma, well at midday tomorrow to be precise. my departure was perfectly timed so that i should arrive in portugal at home as the sun rises on sunday morning, just in time for a sunrise surf session. Yep, planned to perfection, thats as hedonistic as i get!
 
so here comes the summer. think of me while you are working your asses off, i will be doing bugger all except beach and surf until early september when i will be heading to norway to join my next boat. so by the time i hit inglaterra at the end of september i will be perfectly tanned, taking on my adonis like physique, there to woo and frustrate the local english chicks.
 
so tomorrow at around 7pm local time (6pm UK) i will be arriving in valencia and beginning my 1000 kms treck across southern spain, andalucia and the algarve until i get home at around 5am uk time. then i will unpack, grab my boards and head out to tonel as my first beach of choice, then mareta. if there is nothing to be found at either of them, a quick sprint northward up the west coast and i will find myself at the mighty praia do armado , where , you can bet your sweet ass there will be a wave and a small hippy commune.
 
somewhere in my bags is one block of surf wax, i will paste up the groovey and the long board and head out. once the session is finished, bubble lounge is waiting, then , buy some new wax and paste up the boards ready for the sunday evening sessions if i am still awake
 
so, next time you hear from me, i will be home in portugal and once again, only available on my portuguese phone number. if you dont have it, you can view my profile and contact card at the top left of this page.
 
ate a proxima
 
 
 
authors footnote – the author would like to thank dan the man *kiwi* for enlightening me on the phrase palma-ised tonight while i was having a beer in the tavarua, all credit for that headline goes to him
 
 
 

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11/07/2007

preparing for the inevitable

By hairygoose
 
hit the beach today, first time in too long. OK so it was only the med but it was a beach all the same.
 
suddenly the familiar feelings started coming back, the smell of sun oil, the feel of the sand on my feet, the sun beating down.
 
it will only be a few days

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07/07/2007

men and shopping

By hairygoose
 
let me give you a few tips for when you are loading up your trolley.
 
Normal ettiquette suggests loading the heavier items at the rear of the trolley, closer to you. with the weight at the rear, it makes for easier manouvering around the aisles. but if like me, you still like to hoon it down the aisles hanging off the grab rail, then you have to stick the heavier stuff in the front for ballast. sure it handles like a pig but who cares ! if you can make it from one end of the shop to the other with one giant push, all the better thats what i reckon.
 
on a lighter note
 
one week left in sunny palma.
 
the car is good, i have my ferry ticket, just need a tank of diesel and to pack up my things and thats it! ready to rock and roll for the summer.
 
my last 7 days in palma until maybe october.
 
Just had a trip to the magical porto pi. you may remember me ranting on about that place months ago, the shopping centre from heaven, a complete babe fest. well, its still the same but now its summer time, the chicks are super hot. the place is so rammo, it is again intimidating so for the second time in  a week i have tried to get out of going there. no joy.
 
please dont get me wrong, i fully appreciate the female form. normally, coming from england, you would expect to see a couple of hotties while trolley surfing around sainsburys but in this place, it is tottie heaven. even if they stacked the shelves with mingers, there would still be more crumpet in there than rough stuff.

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06/07/2007

the love bus

By hairygoose
 
for the second consecutive year, the love bus has passed its annual (good job i didnt mis-spell that) inspection without a single fault!
 
Hurrah you say. thing is, to be an MOT inspector in spain or portugal, you dont need a mechanical background at all, apparently they can teach you all that you need to know in a comprehensive 6 week training course. Now compare that to blighty where, without 6 years mechanical experience, a recognised trade qualification and a Ministry test to validate all of your skills and knowledge, you cant even MOT a mechano set!
 
Of course, being of sound body and mind, i always keep my car in tip top condition purely because you never know when the next big road trip is due. So i finally replaced the punctured tyre that i got while driving here in november last year! yes, 8 months without a spare goddamn it!
 
so that brings me nicely onto my next road trip. On saturday 14th, i will be venturing homeward again, 10 hours from valencia, 17 hours in total  and around 1000 kms (which i will manage on just 1 tank of diesel) and i will be back in my love shack for the summer.
 
this time, i wont need my huge box of CD’s because i bought an 80gig iPod and radio transmitter for the car, so fresh tunes all the way. when i get home, the ding king will have repaired my longboard for me so it will be straight out for a sunday morning surf. I doubt i will be much cop though, a bit lardy from living on a boat with a full time chef and not been in the water since new year, so it will be a softly softly approach.
 
My plan, is to do nothing but surf until september! and i mean nothing. nothing more than clearing the garden and tidying up the house. no building work, nothing. a fun summer for me.
 
I would say that it will be cool to meet up with all of my old chums again but there are few of them left now. It is hard to survive in the algarve if you dont have a big bag of money to take with you and none of them do.
 
of course my favourite german chicks are still there, say hi to frannie and kati everyone. not forgetting russ the cock and family, ben and tina, sean the mad paddy, ric from the bubble to mention but a few.
 
Zeni is back in the states though, she was the last of my original friends to leave. she does promise to return some day but i doubt that will happen. so i am left wondering what awaits me
 
mason, cris and paul ( all three of them are complete cocks) will arrive some time in september but i will have left by then.
 
so for now, thats all i have to say
 
 
authors footnote – the author would like to thank his sister for the nelson mandela joke. sadly i cant get the text to fit the page correctly but i am sure you can still get the joke
 
 

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