I'm back

August has been a wonderful month for me. I took the first part of the month off to hang out with my best friend. Some of our adventures are documented here , here, here, here, here and here . I do not have any photo documentation of the gum boot adventure on our last day and words alone can not adquately describe it. All I can say is it involved paint, plastic creatures, ribbon, and quite a bit of super glue.

I also had several opportunities to hang out with friends of all heights:

I particularly enjoyed to talent show put on by 5 year olds E and D. The stage was the sofa, with a bit of a pit orchestra area to the left (aka the window seat). Tickets were created, distributed, and collected at the door. Ukaleles, pot lids, brio train straightaways (as drumsticks), and a little house that with 2 lights for effect created quite a show. The audience was small (2 parents and me) but well catered for. We each had atleast 2 seats to choose from. All hard seats were thoughtfully covered with a pillow.

Meanwhile my other youngish friends H and I are amazing me with their new violin skills. They are already learning to use fingers for notes, put their instruments away independently, and create sounds of their own.

And today on this drizzling overcast winter morning I started a new learning curve of my own.

....I rowed for the first time. I ventured down to the Petone Rowing club and they taught me the very basics of rowing on a machine (pull to bellybutton, lower hands, release hands in front, tilt from waist, go back in, repeat... something like, PULL, DOWN, OUT, TILT, GO FOWARD) and then put in me a 8 person boat. I sat in seat 4. I did the very best I could which felt great and tried very hard not to appologize too much.

We rowed from the foreshore to Somes Island (from the banks on the left to the island in the middle). I battled between my desire to focus only on what my body was doing and being in the moment experiencing the amazing view and calmness of the water. I think they got me suckered in. Tomorrow and Wed I'll be leaving work early (and getting in early) in order to train.