This is my first blog. I am in New Zealand and have moved to a coastal town to be closer to my 91 year old Mother. I got a job and was promptly made redundant by email!! Quite a shock. I am hoping to go on a course in the new year to learn how to be a bus driver. This could be fun or maybe a total disaster. More about this later.

Sailing

I want to tell you all that I am learning to sail. We have an active Yacht Club which has a and evening called "Women on Water" every 2nd Thursday. I have been once and my second sail is tomorrow evening. The yacht I was assigned to had a crew of 8. There were 2 of us who knew nothing. I went out and bought sailing gloves a couple of days later as hauling on the ropes, which are for some reason called sheets except the ones called halyards (whatever those are), made my hands hot and sore. My impression of sailing? Its great fun, exciting, beautiful, and bloody scary. We were so far over that the side of the yacht was almost touching water at times and when we nearly ran straight into a marker (great big solid metal edifice with a number or letter on it in the middle of the harbour) it was very exciting. The adrenaline was pumping. I spent the time sitting on one side of the boat as close to the rail as possible to balance the boat, then going aft to haul on a rope, then going up the other side to sit close to the rail, then across the middle to sit on the other side and then back to the rope hauling. Sometimes I had hardly settled on the rail than I was over to the other side or back to the rope - it was hard work. I spent money on the gloves so have to justify the expense by going again. Hope I survive tomorrow night.