Whales, windows & waves

Whales, daily we watch them splash around in groups of 2 or 3. At any time in the past 2 weeks, if you looked out of a window from our rented house for 3 minutes or so, you would be sure to see a splash, tail flapping or some other whalish misbehaviour.

Hey, he's waving hello to you! Photo, from the abovementioned window, overlooking our new home's braai chimney.

Kelvin, a surfing buddy in Glen Eden church is involved with Sonsurf, and they ran a contest at East London's Eastern Beach on Saturday. He was on my case to enter, as they had a shortage of entrants. After much arm-twisting I entered - as it was a fun event.

The 2-man first heat, Phil Malherbe praying that I would show him some mercy.

The event was not looking for my (above) fluid and graceful style of surfing :) - you had to do a rad aerial, snappy re-entry or something, then claim your move.

Conditions were nice & glassy in the early morning.

Roy Harley - Sonsurf director, showing how to bash the lip!

The judges - I think they are biased against ballies. I was the only older gentleman and they showed me no respek!

I think I should appeal to the CCMA or MMWC (Main Manne What Counts)

Joking tho - it was good fun and an amazing good vibe, in and out the water.

Scorecard - see first heat H1 - I came 2nd in that heat!! - and third in the 4-man losers round. (Contestant 4 didn't pitch for that heat)

My buddy Kelvin Zhemke throwing some spray

Prizegiving. 1st place won a big Bar One, runner up a small Bar One. There were lucky draw prizes too: a new surfboard, weekend away, restaurant vouchers - I won a Lizzard 'hamper'. Leash, towel etc.

So that was whales & waves. What about the windows in this post's title?

Well, our house is going well, and we would probably be moving in now, but there was a 3-week delay in the windows being delivered, holding up tiling, painting & cupboards. Our builders - the Richter brothers have been fantastic though, using the spare time to do some landscaping and other tidying up.

The paving bricks arrived today & I got involved heping today the first few sq metres of paving.

As you may see, weather is overcast, and we had about 20mm of rain on Sat eve/Sun am, to the delight of locals - drought here has been long and many farm dams/tanks etc are dry

Our solar hot water system is installed, and cooks!!!

Amazingly effecient.

all for now.

love from the woods