Checked my surf wax supply this morning – I am now down to my last half a block, not sure if they sell sex wax here or not so will have to be careful.  Today I am driving North for 3 hours to a dive spot highly recommended by one of my chums in Portugal – I hope it is worth it, the rental car alone was close to 300 dollars, still, a couple of days away will ease the wax situation. Should be back here for the weekend and time to grab the best of the surf before its time to pack up and leave.

My cold is almost gone now, a little bit snotty but at least I can equalise my ears.  To make things even better, the missus is now bed ridden and has been for 2 days after hurting her back.  Apparently the exercise DVD was hard core – from what I saw, by my standards it was soft dough – either way, she is proper fucked and not moving anywhere for the next few days. She has orders to stay in bed until my return on friday evening. If she doesn’t, she is on her own, packing and carrying her bags, loading them on the plane, getting them off at the other end and everything else that is included in travelling – she has been warned.

I took 150,000 out of the bank the other day – that was around 300 dollars. Kind of think you you would drop a few zeros off that figure and carry on as normal – reminiscent of the old italian lira – which may someday soon make a come back.

So the surf here has been fun – not outstanding spectacular but good fun all the same. Better still for the ability to surf in shorts all of the time, any time. There is one problem though, if the sun is out, it is freakin hot – so factor 50 is the order of the day, or a T shirt instead.  The NSP is doing very well.  Shorter than my normal steeds but then I am a couple of stones lighter than normal so that will be helping too.

Enough for now – its time to head to the bank and phone shop once more.

Adios Amigos

Scarlet Macaws – a stunning sight to see flying free – especially in a flock of  dozen or so – quite why anyone could think these magnificent birds deserve to be held hostage in a cage I have no idea.  The colours really are splendid, I tried to capture them mid flight but the camera could not do them justice.  I also disturbed a couple of lizards this morning down by the river.  I am going to do the same tomorrow but next time with my camera loaded and ready.  As I got close to the water, the first lizard legged it from one side to the other – across the surface of the water ! While I stood there in amazement, the second also made a break for safety – walking on water or rather running on it.

Christmas day was a peach!  Headed along the beach before midday to Ken and Molli’s condo (thats ‘apartment’ to us native english speakers).  A short sit by the pool until I realised how good the waves were.  Fresh wax on the NSP and I spent the next few hours in what can only be described as heavenly Pacific swells, stopping only for a rest and more suncream – in fact, factor 50 was the order of the day.  High tide is around 4pm today and I am hoping there will be cloud cover by then.  Water temp is glorious and surfing in shorts is the order of the day.

I found a picture of those Macaws – not one of mine so I have included it on this page – what a beautiful bird (fnar fnar)

Finally settling in after some 13 hours or more in planes to get here – beauty of that of course is I shared the plane cabin with commoners and now have a stinking cold – payback I guess for not being in the UK for the winter but a bummer for me because it stops me from scuba diving. Still, on the bonus side, i did blag a surf board for free from the birds friends down here – So I can now be seen on an ‘NSP’ surfing Pacific coast waves – not so cool for an old school duffer like me – but a free board is a free board and I did manage to ride it ok so lets not complain.

Nice spot too, right on the beach although the view of the sand and waves is slightly obscured by palm trees but hey, a small price to pay.

So for now, just surfing to report – tomorrow I will give the Go Pro Hero a bash I think and see if I can’t post it here.

Stand by for action

Or a way of life?

Personally, I think it is all to do with your outlook on life (or should that be outluck?).  Let me explain.

Today I suffered a second car breakdown in less than two weeks. Unlucky you might say, even more unlucky is the same fault has happened twice now, even after the four hundred pound repair bill I had after the first one.  Two weeks ago in northern France, my alternator developed a fault – I managed to get the car onto the Chunnel and off the other side when the alternator failed completely.  Using all of my ingenuity I limped the car another 50 miles or so to Clacket Lane Services on the M25 and called the break down services.

Yesterday, while heading to Stanstead Airport in the very small hours, the alternator failed again but completely.  I managed the next 20 miles to the airport and left it there to get on my plane.  Today when I returned I was all set to limp the car back to Rugby but because of the cold cold weather, the battery had suffered overnight and did not have enough juice to run the engine above 2000rpm – so I pulled into Bishops Stortford services and called the break down guys again.

Out they came, diagnosed a faulty alternator (after I had already told them so) and then started to arrange recovery.  I explained that last time it took them 5 hours to pick me up and I was keen not to wait that long.  The very nice man checked my membership and told me ‘ you have relay plus on this car’. What does that mean I asked? He took me back to the airport and put me in a hire car so I could continue on my way while they transport the car through the night.

So – two almost identical breakdowns but I still think I am lucky.  Why? Because I only bought the breakdown programme 2 days before my first breakdown – it sure has paid for itself now.

Better still, I won 2 quid on an easyjet scratch card on the plane – after telling the stewardess I was feeling lucky.  Tonight, I also bought a lottery ticket !

Did you ever hear the joke about lucky eddie ?

Hit a severe panic a couple of days ago.  Checking my scuba gear for monday’s trip to Costa Rica and noticed I was missing my regulator and dive computer. I have to admit, pure panic set in. 1400 dollars to replace it but even more important was the complete lack of time to do so. I turned Dean’s house and garage upside down, pestered the Missus to check all areas at her place, called Divers Cape in Portugal to see if i had left it there and lastly asked my friends in Portugal to check the apartment that I rented.

At 10pm on wednesday evening, a text came in from Portugal – they had found it, it had been in the shop all along – so I frantically booked a flight to go and pick it up, hence my trip to Stanstead Airport in the wee hours of Thursday morning.  Now, I am very relieved to say that I have everything I need for my Costa Rica trip and I may even be getting a little excited about it. Chris from Divers Cape showed me the best places to dive there and we also checked out some of the hot surf spots so I am finally ready.  the big question is – do I refresh the mohawk tomorrow at the barbers? I may not have a functioning car but right now, I couldn’t give a toss.

Now, it wouldn’t be a blog without having a moan about something would it?

Knowing my impending doom this afternoon while trying to leave the car park with a battery low on power, I spotted a car park employee in a van.  He was of course the only person in and around a freezing mid term car park at Stanstead on a Friday afternoon.  I asked if I could hook up my jump leads to his van to boost the battery on my car so I had a fighting chance of heading home – his response – ‘can’t do it – liability issues’!  Fear of liability stops people helping each other – what a crock of shit.

Still, on a lighter note – I am much more.  In fact more than 2 stones lighter.  For my american chums thats about 30 lbs to you munchers.

But enough – Costa Rica is calling and I have my Go Pro Hero camera and my super duper Cannon on stand by