Kitesurfing : Day 2

Having a contractual half day on a Friday is great. I'd recommend it to anybody!

This afternoon turned out to be another beautiful one, with lots of sunshine and a light wind. We decided to give the new kites another try, and today was altogether more successful.

We spent some time reading and watching tutorials, and training SWMBO in exactly what we need to do, and what not to do.

The first stage in learning to fly a kitesurfing kite is to learn to launch, and fly the kite just above the ground. With substantial help from SWMBO, we managed to get this done, and it gave me a lot of confidence in the kite, and its setup. I think it'll be fine.

However, there definitely wasn't enough wind for anything more, or we would have needed the 12m instead of the 8m. I was very pleased with today, we achieved the first stage perfectly, including boosting my confidence. Now we're ready for day 3. Bring on the wind (relatively light, and not gusty, please ;)

Kitesurfing : Day 1

After the arrival of the kites in the middle of the week I was looking forward to getting out with them this weekend. However, I was delayed in getting home from work yesterday, and was asked to help out at a CU event in Limavady Grammar School for the afternoon/evening.

Today we all got up, had breakfast, and packed for the beach. I wasn't sure how it would go, because the forecast was for almost zero wind, and outside our house that was exactly what was happening.

However, when we approached Benone we could see windmills turning and trees swaying. On the beach we met with another problem - high tide and lots of shells. We found a suitable spot, parked up, and began to unpack. However it actually turned out to be a bit too windy for a pair of learners, even on an 8m kite.

It took a good while getting set up, and by the time we were ready to launch the wind had really picked up, and although my faithful assistant had been helpful and patient, she found the force of the wind pulling the kite a little too strong for comfort. If she isn't comfortable, then I can't be, so we called it a day and packed it up. Didn't even get the kite into the air.

We got the old faithful 4m buster out, but unfortunately it was too gusty even for it, so we had to pack up and go home. Unfortunate, but there will be other days....

There was no action, therefore no photos, but I have to include this one taken by Kate. I had removed my camera and phone from my pockets because of the harness, and left them in the car. Kate obviously found the camera and decided to take a few snaps, and managed to take this shot which is not very level, but amazingly has me framed nicely in the wing mirror!

Summer again

Four seasons in one day; not uncommon for our part of the world. Well we have just had two distinct seasons in one week. Last weekend was winter. Strong wind giving windchill factors of around -5.

Tonight however was a gorgeous evening, you know the kind that occur at the end of the summer. We decided to go for a walk on the beach at Castlerock, and it was perfectly still and very mild. Great :)

May there be many more!

Long weekend

This weekend has seen the most prolonged and sustained strong wind I can remember. The wind has been blowing through our yard in a way that makes it difficult to stand, and difficult to keep the bins etc in their place.

Today was a public holiday in lieu of St. Patricks Day on Saturday. We spent the morning at home, and at 11:30 we met up with a few of the folks from our Sunday night Bible study group for a walk on the beach. Again the wind was spectacular, but because it was blowing almost directly on-shore we went ahead. About five minutes into the walk we were hit by a hail shower, which was pretty painful given the strong wind. The ladies of the group retreated to the sand-hills, a move which wasn't really that wise, because the wind was stronger there and by the time they made it to shelter the hail had stopped.

Anyway, we walked back across the sandhills, and headed up to Crusoes for lunch.

After a great feed we got Kate from school, and went home. While homework was in progress I took the head-staggers and decided to paint the window-sills on the inside of the house. Well, I suppose we are almost in three years, so it has lay undone for long enough. Managed to spend the afternoon doing almost all the sills downstairs.

For the evening we popped to B&Q, picked up some curtain rails for the front room, and had a good general browse.

Kids off to bed, and then a quiet night in. Watched "The Trees That Made Britain" about the mighty Oak tree, very interesting. Thankfully the football on BBC1 meant that there was no Eastenders. Every cloud...

Floor almost complete

Dad returned today, and we finished off the wooden flooring. Three years later the last two downstairs rooms no longer have a concrete floor. That just leaves the hall then. I suspect another three years :)

It's nice to see these jobs getting done. No kiting today though, too much rain, and far too much wind!

Pride comes before a ....

Today Dad came over to continue the work on the wooden floor. We did all we could at the floor, and then headed over to the field with the kites. After a quick tutorial Dad had the hang of flying my toy 2.5m Ultrafit kite. He was even launching backwards and everything.

It seemed to be another of those perfect days, nice steady winds, not too gusty. I was having fun with my 4m buster too, and getting some good jumps in, not too high, more long - just how I wanted them (not so far to fall).

The wind picked up a bit, and it only took a few jumps to get dangerously close to the trees, and I had to let go of the handles and let the kite-killers do their work several times, the kite often landing closer to the trees than I had expected.

It was beginning to get a little gusty, but I was having too much fun to notice, and so came the mother of all gusts. You know how when an accident is in progress everything slows down, and you can see every detail in slow motion, just with an inability to control it. Well, that's not how this was.

It was over instantly.

One second I was happily flying, jumping, running etc and later that same second I was getting up off the ground, having been launched forward, so dramatically that my feet went into the air, I landed on my face, then shoulder, rolled over my arm onto my other side, and skidded to rest on my leg. Due to the rolling nature of my fall I had also landed on the lines of the kite, so I instantly got off them, and got up, in case they would make me into cheese.

I don't think the photo Kate took does me justice, but it does show how dirty my leg got.

A valuable lesson learned. Picking up the Kite (I will now address it with a capital 'K' out of respect) I tried again, and learned to let go of the handles instantly when I felt a big tug. Can't wait to get back out again :)

Spring Break (4)

Again we had a lovely start to the day with a family breakfast and getting the kids off to school. However, as part of those tasks we noticed that the radiators were cold... we were out of oil!!

Panic. Call Hunter Fuels, and yes they could deliver today, phew! With that resolved we went down to Castlerock beach for a freezing walk.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to get a part for the electric window of my car, we tried NB Autoparts, the real VW dealer, then off to the breakers. We tried Eddie Torrens, a fantastic place, quite literally the stuff of fantasy; I have visited his yard many times in the past, but its worse than ever. Pictured for your convenience. Then we called with a smaller breaker outside Kilrea, but he couldn't help, and so we went on to Quiggs who deal exclusively with the VW range of stuff. They assure me that they will help me next week, so lets hope they can.

Oddly in the evening SWMBO and I went to the Women's World day of prayer. Although it is not explicitly spelled out in this Blog, I am not a woman. I was asked to do the sound at it, and I have to say it was one of the trickiest events I have done. It is a fully scripted service, with various people taking various parts, and it required a lot of concentration, which I am not particularly good at. But it all passed off peacefully, thankfully :)

Spring Break (3)

Brekkie starts the day again, then the kids off to the Bus. We popped back into the house for a wee cup of tea.

I was asked to investigate walking routes for the Young Adults group in church, so we set sail for the causeway. We were really checking out parking arrangements, to try to ensure we could plan to park at a free carpark.

After calling briefly at the £5 per car Giants Causeway, we went round the coast road to Dunseverick Castle.

From there we travelled on around to the harbour, and then on round to Portbradden.

Travelling on the next port of call was White Park Bay where we stopped for a walk on the beach. It was freezing (almost literally).

Lastly we called at Ballintoy Harbour where the waves were breathtaking as they splashed over the rocks.

Afterwards we went home via Portbalintree for a light lunch, before picking up Kate from school.

We had a couple of small issues with the house, and so we waited for the builder to appear, and after some time he did, and we got problems sorted.

For the first time in a long time we got the kites out, and it was fantastic wind for them both, and it was great until the rain came on.

We gathered the kites up, and had a lovely Tescos pizza for tea. The excitement for the night was only about to begin, but unfortunately for the details of that excitement you'll have to check the minute book of First Dunboe Church's Committee.

Spring Break (2)

Second day of our break starts by having brekkie with kids again. After the usual madness, we got them off to the bus, and then headed for Cookstown to collect the new radio mic for the church hall.

On the way back we decided to detour, and found ourselves Lough Fea, which probably would be nice to see, but not today, as it was miserable and cold. Coming home we took another detour around Garvagh, where I was looking for an underwater bridge, or Ford, which I had childhood recollections of. We eventually found it, and I have to say that it wasn't easy to pluck up the courage to drive my car across a river. But I did it, and it was great, much to the amusement of SWMBO we made it through unscathed.

Next we decided cream buns would be good, and went into the "bakery" in Garvagh, and ended up coming out with scones. As we were in the area we popped over to Mums for a wee cuppa.

Afterwards we got some prices for tyres for my car, and then went in to pick up car2. On the way home we met a man on Captain Street, which may not sound unusual, except when you realise its a one-way street!

We picked up Kate from school, got tyres for my car and tried to get the alignment done, but because of a seized nut no-one would touch it.

After tea we all went for walk on beach in very strong wind, which was amusing, but freeezzzing.

Then home and kids to bed :) The End for today.

Spring Break (1)

Today SWMBO and started out holiday with a little lie in. We started the day with a family breakfast, followed by the usual hectic act of getting ready for school. Any Tuesday starts the same way, I kick off the latest '24' download. Then its off to the garage with my car for its service.

After dropping the car off I had some time to kill, so I did something I've been meaning to do for some time : make an appointment with our dentist.

With that sorted, I just had to stand on Railway Road, in the rain, until SWMBO picked me up. Then we popped over to B&Q for cups and pads to protect the wooden floor from the furniture.

Next we went over to Limavady to Bradleys to see if they could fix our thermostatic shower, which had grown distinctly less "thermostatic" over the last few weeks. Turns out it is under a five year warranty, so that should be fixed shortly.

We popped into Tescos to get some food for lunch, and then it was back home for tea. Lazily we killed a couple of hours watching "Mr & Mrs Smith" before having a pizza for lunch.

That is the holiday over, the usual procedure begins : pick up Kate, do homework, pick up Matthew, off to swimming lessons, all good fun.

After swimming it is time to pick up car1, and leave in car2, and have a heart attack at £380 bill!
Home for tea, then got Kate off to GB, then picked her up, and retired the kids to bed.

Time for a quiet evening watching 24, another action packed episode, great stuff.

Afterwards I watched William Crawley's interview with Dawkins, which was very interesting and informative, and certainly worth a watch. Sad really.

This is of course followed by falling asleep in front of the telly, and off to bed. Goodnight ;)

Paragliding

Today was a pleasant Saturday, breakfast with the family, then a few chores, the first of which was to pick up 12 sheets of 8x4 3/4 ply for under the wooden floor.

As the Sun was setting we saw the sunset was going to be beautiful; at this time of year the Sun sets further round the coast, and so we set off for Gortmore viewpoint. We got to see the sunset, and got a couple of snaps, which do not do it justice at all, but the cool thing was seeing a para glider come up from behind the cliff!

It was quite bizarre, but really interesting, and he was close enough to wave back to the kids, which they thought was great.

Roe Valley

Today we visited the Roe Valley Country park, which is a great park, just outside Limavady. We visited before recently, but the rain came on, and as we weren't completely sure about our solubility in water, we decided not to risk it, and got back into the car.

Today, however, it was not raining, but dry, mild, and calm. A perfect location for a great walk.

We walked southwards down one side of the river, and crossed over at the first bridge, and back along the other side. It was about 3 miles, which we walked in just less than an hour. A great way to spend Friday afternoon.

When we were almost around we spotted this Robin, and it sat on the branch while I got closer, and managed to snap this shot!

Riding in Cars with Boys [2001]

Having a quiet night in I randomly flicked through the films tonight on my TiVo. I ended up with "Riding in Cars with Boys", which I would never consciously choose, and to be honest if I hadn't been doing other things on the laptop at the time I probably would have switched over.

It's really a quite tragic story about two teenage friends who fall pregnant* and how these events profoundly shape their lives. Its a very emotive story, touching on all sorts of family problems including marital breakdown and drug abuse.

It's not the kind of film I like, but by the end I was gripped. Watching this film made me realise how amazingly privileged we all are. We live in nice homes, in nice neighbourhoods, with pleasant friends and loving, supportive families. Our lives and close families tend to be free from all the problems in the film, for example I have never had to attempt to nurse my spouse through cold turkey as they come off heroin. Many people in the world do have this and similar or even worse experiences. Maybe tonight we should spend time really thanking God for the bounteous gifts we enjoy on a daily basis.



* this phrase always amuses me, its not like anyone has ever just "fallen" pregnant...

Out of hibernation

Hopefully the lull in postings here has ended. The reason for the lull is simple. Each time I post it is because I have been doing something which I think is interesting. I simply haven't done anything that interesting recently.

This weekend was different though, with the unusually warm weather and bright sunny skies. On Friday afternoon we reassembled the trampoline which had been taken apart for safety reasons due to the high winter winds. It was great to get it back together, and a few bounces later it was as if it had never been away! Great!

The kids were mad to get out for a ride on their bikes, so on Saturday we packed them into the car and made our way to Castlerock where we had a great walk on the beach. The moon is full just now, meaning the low tide is very low, and fortunately low tide was early afternoon, meaning a huge amount of the beach was hard wet sand. The kids loved it and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

The best bit for me was the way the waves were splashing against the end of the pier. This seems to happen periodically when the waves are big and the tide is low. It can be quite spectacular, and worth a look. The great thing about it is that while the pier can be dangerous at high tide, at low tide the only danger is getting wet by a cloud of spray, as the water doesn't actually wash over the pier at all.

There were a couple of guys at the end of the pier attempting to get a good photo, but I think they weren't standing far enough back; I think I got the picture they were looking for.

Light commute

Yesterday on the way home around 5pm there was a distinct difference. It was no longer dark, but twilight with bright skies visible beyond the hills. This, coupled with the fact that it wasn't actually raining for a change made the mundane commute into an enjoyable drive.

This morning was another pleasantly unusual experience, by arrival at work for 8am it was getting light.

It's nice to see the days stretch, and it'll be nice to get back outdoors in the evenings again!

1st Jan 2007

After yesterdays window issues, I spent this morning fixing a passat electric winding mechanism. Great fun. Thanks to this site the job was a whole lot easier. They really try very hard to make stupid people like me unable to do these kind of jobs.

After a bit of work I got the window jammed up, although not working correctly at all, at least it would stay up to keep out the elements.

I popped down the road to the in-laws where my very mechanically minded Father-in-law and I managed to get the whole mechanism back together.

After this we decided to go for a sail in the car, and set out towards Donegal. We hadn't really any destination in mind, which made it difficult to answer the "are we there yet?" questions originating from the back seat. However, we ended up in Greencastle, and decided to try to catch the Ferry back to Magilligan Point. Unfortunately we missed it by a few minutes, but this afforded us the opportunity to take a drive round part of the spectacular Inishowen 100 allowing us to get the reverse of our normal view. The hills we drove around are the ones we normally see across the sea from Castlerock, or Benone.

It was a great way to pass the 40 minutes before we boarded the ferry. The sailing was relatively smooth, and the kids really enjoyed it, as we spent the 15 minute trip on the deck, peering over the edge of the boat.

Ref:

http://www.taligentx.com/passat/maintenance/doorlockmechanism/

Windy problems....

The wind today was something spectacular, at some times it was difficult to stand or walk, great! I decided it would be good to embrace these elements, and go for a walk. I set out in the car down the road towards the beach (the waves are bound to be spectacular too...) but about 1/2 a mile from home my driver side window started to go down of its own accord, and after a few inches dropped instantly out of sight.

This is the kind of "windy" problem I could have done without. Anyhow, I got home, had a quick wrestle with the door/window, and lost. So I decided to cut my losses until daylight, and less windy conditions, and covered the window opening with plastic, and parked the car in as sheltered a spot as we could find.

The Vanishing [2003]

This has got to be one of my favorite movies of all time, it is certainly one that has popped into my mind frequently, usually weekly, since I first saw it years ago. Every time SWMBO pops into a petrol station, and does whatever one does in a petrol station that takes longer than it should, I wonder if I'll ever see her again.

It was broadcast again this Christmas, and I PVR'd it and watched it again the other night. It definitely stood the test of time for me, and was a captivating watch once again. Great story, interesting interpretation of a fairly standard thriller storyline.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108473/

Van Helsing [2004]

I muddle my way through a lot of films, but this is an epic and a true work of genius for me. The filming locations, effects, coloring and flow of this film are all excellent. The visual spectacle of this film is captivating, and although the story is barely more than the usual goodie chases baddie storyline it is still one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I can heartily recommend this one, although it is spoilt a little by a slightly overly sentimental ending!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338526/

It's Christmas time....

This Christmas we decided to do things a little differently. We wanted to spend as much time at home as possible, due to the fact that the kids received a set of drums for their main present. Obviously this present is not as portable as normal, and so rather than traipse around the clan we had the in-laws to ours home for dinner, and then a relaxing afternoon in front of a great fire.

Later we headed over to my folks, and again sat in front of a blazing fire and exchanged gifts.

After that it was off to the family do where we get to see our once-a-year cousins etc, etc, which was actually thoroughly enjoyable.

I know, I know what you're thinking, we didn't do great at the staying at home thing we planned. In fact we did manage to spend significantly longer at home on Christmas Day than we ever usually do. Today, however was different. Usually the vast majority of Boxing Day is spent with the other side of the family. For the first time, we skipped it.

We stayed at home all day, with the exception of a walk on the beach. I was firmly assured that a walk on the beach on a day like today was paramount to madness, however the fun we had there in that hour was unparallelled in a long time. A great Christmas.