Fire!

18 June 2013

A sailor's worst fear is not a giant squid crushing a boat. It is not a whale smashing the boat. It is not a great white shark breaking a hole in the boat and eating you.

It is a fire.

We had a near death experience today. My parents smoke. So they bought an ashtray. Now to empty the ashtray they have to wait for the cigarettes to die out first before putting them into the plastic bag. My dad did not wait for this and dropped a burning cigarette into the plastic bag. We now put this bag onto the dingy which we are rowing across to the shore. As we all get on we see smoke rising up out of the bag.

We now have to choose to open the bag and dig though the rubbish looking for a cigarette bud that might just die out anyway, or just row across and sort it out later. So we row across. As we start rowing more smoke is coming out. I can see everyone looking at the bag. I'm sure we all had images of the bag bursting into flames and setting the dingy on fire and all of us having to jump overboard into this toxic waste. As we got to the other side we all jumped into "eliminate the fire" mode.
I got off the dingy as normal. Helped Kyle off the dingy as normal. My dad passed me the plastic bag as normal. I helped him and my mom off the dingy as normal.
Then my dad put some water from the tap on the burning bag not as normal.

20 June 2013

We went to visit my dad's mom again. It's not the most fun day off that I get, but the one good thing is that I am allowed to skate. We went to a bar/restraurant to eat. I thought this would be the perfect time to skate and brought along my skateboard. I skated whilst my mom and dad ordered food. I finally landed my verial flip enough times to say that I can do it!
A verial flip is a combination of a kick flip and a popshoveit. A popshoveit is were the board turns 180 degrees under you. A kick flip is where the board spins vertically 360 degrees under you. So to combine the two tricks was a very difficult task to master. I am now starting to walk into the line of the skating pros.

 

Skating addiction returns!

12 June 2013

I've recently been having sleeping trouble, where I'm awake until midnight every night and up at four or five in the morning. I also randomly wake up during the night. My dad on the other hand has been going to bed early and waking up and midday. It has seemed that our sleeping patterns have been exchanged. That means now I'm the man of the house....... Or in our case man of the boat.

Today I did quantitative chemistry with my mom. I flew though the work because it mostly contained mathematical calculation. Which is one of the few things I can easily understand. It only took a couple of hours to get though the whole chapter.

Today my mom and dad when to work for the day. A friend of their's asked them to do a job of him. So my dad put on jeans for the first time in a very long time. I almost didn't even recognise him. Kyle and I were left to fend for ourselves whilst my parents when to work. At least I had some school to do in my room so there was very little chance kyle and I would kill each other before my parents got home.

During our lunch break Kyle and I watched a boat attempt to park on a mooring. Its good to know we're not the only ones who fail at parking. They got a person on a dingy to come help them park. It's more help then we get. We have to do everything on our own!

13 June 2013

As always on a Thursday I go to chess club. At chess club the top chess player in the club decided to play multiple games all at once. He played six different players. He won five of his six games. I saw a whole new level of chess playing. I have a long way to go before I get to that level.

16 June 2013

We spent the night at my granny and my grandads time share flat. They are visiting for the long weekend and we decided to see them. This morning we decided to go to Spur for breakfast. I thought this would be a good time to bring back my old skating skill. We walked down the road to the Spur and I did a couple of kick flips and some small stunts. After breakfast my granny wanted to go to Checkers. It was a long walk but I skated the whole way finding things to jump over or onto.

Its an awesome feeling skating down the road and everyone stops to check what you are doing. Even if you flop, you flop with skill so you still look good. As always there is no one who skates without adding blood. I when down a steep hill and I built up to much speed and crashed into a wall scraping open my whole hand. This type of pain feels so good! It proves that you did it right.

Today showed me again the reason I started skating. I need to make a plan to break the sign that tells me I'm not allowed to skate at the yacht club. I was away from my drug and now I have started to crave it again.

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom

Smart Casual

9 June 2013

Awhile ago we ordered some suntan cream and insect repellent, in hopes that we can sell it to generate some income to fund our trip. Earlier this week the order arrived. We decided to try and sell it at the Spar. My dad had a selling technique that he wanted to try. He decided to dress in a smart casual look. So he put on a smart shirt, a tie and a suit jacket, but he wore shorts. He brought a new definition to the term "smart casual".

My dad's definition of Smart Casual
 

On Thursday night I went to the chess club and I played a couple if friendly games. But it was not what I expected. It turns out it was a mini tournament that you pay R10 to enter and you play a couple of games. The top two players get the prize money. The time in each round is only 5 minutes, which in my case in not enough time to think clearly. So in other words I lost most of my games. But next week I start the club tournament and in that tournament we have way more time. So I hope I can do better in that tournament.

Epic fail at fishing!

1 June 2013

Wow. One tough week. I am going to jo'burg for some lab experiments in July. I have finished two of the three subjects need, so for the last week I have been doing non-stop school work. Luckily it is easier to do school now that I am working in my room, were I can't get distracted by outside activity. There is one slight problem. Every now and then Kyle comes and knocks on my door to go to the heads. I then have to move the two buckets I am using as a chair, and I have to exit my room until he is done.

Kyle and I have realised how much we hate other people. We go up to the club house everyday so Kyle can watch Naruto and I can charge my phone. There are some people that argue about the TV. Others tell me that surfing is better then skating(its an opinionated subject). Some even act smarter then you even if they're wrong. But hey, in life you meet some good people and you meet some bad people.

I've started going to chess club every Thursday night. For the last four weeks there has been a tournament but next week the new one begins and I will be able to see how good I am and finally get a ranking. I have played a couple friendly games, and I've won some and lost some. So I sort of know where I stand already. Let's just hope I can play just as well when a clock it put into play.

2 june 2013

My Dad's first fishing try with his new rod. He failed dismally. He caught three plastic bags, an old pair of underwear and a tree. Kyle and him had to launch the dingy at 8 at night just to go unhook his line that was caught on the tree. I don't think he is going to be fishing in this water anytime soon.