Using the middle finger

It’s cold, less than 10 degrees Celsius. It’s dark, the sun yet to raise her fiery eye. Luke, Matt, and Mark playing hockey on the school’s mini astro.

Luke has the ball. Lines up a shot. Mark flies in to defend. Luke smashes. Mark stops the ball dead and saves certain goal. Unfortunately uses finger in front of stick. Mark’s finger very sore. Thinks it is just the cold. Big hockey match ensues. Takes big finger home.

Later, Mark grabs skateboard and heads off to Medi Clinic. One fat and blue finger requiring attention. The nurse at emergency spots skateboard. ‘Is it a Sector 9?’ she asks. Gobsmacked that nurses have this knowledge! Chat about teenagers, skating, and surfing. ‘Is it safe to skate on the road?’ she asks. NO! Then again Mark in the emergency room after a hockey practise with son. Nothing is safe anymore! Laughter ensues and throbbing digit examined.

Not pretty! Nurse has only one solution; buddy strapping. Only need to Xray if Mark needs to see picture of broken finger. Mark not need to know. Finger buddy strapped. Big surprise, no charge!

Back home, Mark reaches for shirt in cupboard. Fingers bend as part of this simple movement. Roars of pain as the bones grate past one another. Ouch!

Mark need to start playing bingo and bridge with some very old ladies...

Way out there...

Every now and then a public holiday rolls around. Some people like them as days of no work, and some people hate them because they are days of no work. As surfers we love public holidays that arrive at the end of major storms together with big swell. In surfer language these events are ‘cool’. Wednesday this week was one such ‘cool’ day.

It was a beautiful morning at 07h00, or at least the little bits that I could see, as it was pretty dark. Getting out of my warm and cosy bed was tough, made more difficult by the ‘stay under the covers’ noises made by a rainstorm lashing our house. The snow on all of the mountains around us could not be seen but was certainly making its presence felt. It was a balmy 6 degrees Celsius, just perfect for mad people to bathe in their insanity!

The sea at our spot was uninspiring. Actually that was not true, it was less inspiring that the thought of exchanging my clothes for a neoprene suit. The head honcho of looney surf expeditions, Lawrie, had practically dived into his gear and was already waiting for the sea to bare her claws. Seeing him catch a terrible wave in amongst a school of dolphins got me moving a little quicker. Getting my head into my new hoodie and vest combination involved some bizarre contortions. Luckily our brilliant surf photographer Steve O was on hand to capture these warped moments of madness!

The sea was cold, but I was almost warm on the inside, deep inside! I surfed terribly but loved it. The dolphins made one more pass through us and left for more interesting waters. When all was said and done, I took a quick bath in a mountain stream.

I am all right now, really!

Listen up

Last night I blew it again!

You would think that I know my body better than this. I have lived with it for all of my life and still it sneakily catches me out when I least suspect. Truthfully, I had a suspicion last night that not all was right, but used the override switch in my brain to keep on going.

I had a late night on Tuesday night, carousing with a visiting friend from Johannesburg. Then there was the issue of a lingering cold. Just a little cold, really the tail end of one! Added to that was a minimal intake of water for the day. I arrived at Judo last night with my boys and all of their stuff but sans top half of my judogi. Obviously my brain was way ahead of me by pretending to be behind! I took my time going home to collect it; including then taking a picture of a marvellous rainbow that graced the skies.

I had hoped to miss most of the exercise session but found the class still busy on my return. I hoped they were almost finished. Boy was I wrong. The exercise session seemed to be forever including some new and marvellous inventions which I may have enjoyed on other occasions. My body was saying nooooo, but the switch in my brain was firmly on.

Even Sensei asked me twice if I was OK. Eventually I had to admit defeat and leave the mat. My world was spinning, my stomach heaving, my head pounding, and my throat dry as a bone.

I had just pushed too hard and too far.

No fear, after a dismal night, I am fine and dandy now.

Just in time for some big waves in the morning. A friend up the road invited me to an EMERGENCY board meeting at 05h45. He suggested that I don’t make any notes. I can’t wait!

A lot of people have been rather disappointed with my lack of blogging of late. I have been bad! Truth be told, I am a little disappointed in myself and have not wanted to admit that perhaps I have been failing on many levels of late. Blogging being one of them! I have tried to convince myself that I am in the process of adjusting to a life very different to the one that I was living only a month ago. Sure that is true, but I really could have made more effort.

The trouble is, I spent 6 months writing about life and how everyone could make some changes that would really benefit them and those around them. Now that I have been thrust back into the world at work, I have struggled to implement my own advice. The good news is that this is something that I have realised now rather than when trying to get an unrealistic book published. I quoted a friend of mine in one of my last blogs. He suggested that I take on the consulting role as it may temper some of my writing and thinking. And so it has!

So here I am sitting outside in the freezing cold in Sutherland feeling all bad about my blog. But there is a braai on the go and an amazing sunset that one can only feel inspired. And at long last I have lifted my fingers to the keyboard in a salute to making an effort. A first effort that will try and bring together my new life at work and my old life of reflection and working for the common good!

I must tell you that Sutherland is a cold place, reputably one of the coldest in South Africa. So what better time to visit than in the dead of winter? We were here last here at this time and got snowed in, a most unusual event in our country. This year though, we have seen one of Sutherland’s main attractions. The stars! The biggest optical telescope in the world resides here due to the minimal number of clouded skies and minimal pollution. This also makes it the perfect place to take photographs of star trails.

The point of this all is that I have some work to do to temper my views or to put in some extra effort to ensure that the things that I write about can actually be achieved in reality.

So keep hounding me when you fail to see my updates, I need all of your help and support to get it together!