Sailing...

Hey fellows. Thought about updating this blog for a change, since something worthwhile has actually happened. It hasn't been all studying and work - only 99 % of it.

So, the aviation management started, which means that during these two weeks, we have block mode classes (9-17) also on saturdays, which hurt real bad as it was 29 degrees last weekend. However, it got better on sunday when I got a call from Gordon saying that our friend Ahmed had invited us on a sailboat in Gosford. We had been talking about this earlier, but in the end it was a real short notice. Although I did have lots to do, I definitely was down for a short trip to the northern exurbs.

We took a train quite early on sunday morning from Sydney Central to Koolewong, which is right next to Gosford. Ahmed had his sailboat parked there and he was already waiting for us with his son Sam when we got there. It was 30 degrees and sunny - a perfect day. We took off and caught a nice breeze right away. I had never been on a sailboat before, and the first thing that threw me off a bit was the steep angle we were sailing in every time the wind blew a bit harder. It felt as if the whole boat was about to flip over, but I suppose this is not very likely in normal conditions. I had also made a slight mistake on what to wear as I thought it would be chillier at sea. Sailing, however, was very slow paced and both Gordon and I took advantage of the "sundeck"...which, btw, led to mild sunburns. Needless to say, none of us had brought any sunscreen with us. That is a mistake on these latitudes.

We sailed across the bay to Gosford harbor area and had lunch there. After that, it was time to head back. Sailing actually requires a bit more than just steering the boat and it was nice to learn a thing or two about it. We also caught a decent size fish on our way back, which we then baked in the oven at Ahmed's house. Delicious, and so were the Tooheys Platinum beers we had.

This was definitely something I would like to try again and we did talk about a rerun in November. Before that, there is a s***load of work to do, but also an event at the Sydney Opera House I will attend, and a friendly football match between the "Qantas Socceroos" (in other words the Australian national team) and the Netherlands! They play this game at Moore Park, which is very close to Surry Hills, where I used to live. Tickets were sold out in no time, and I was lucky to get one - at a concession fare too! We will also have a small Coogee shindig with a group of close friends as a couple of them are leaving to Sweden for a while.

As usual, I recommend you to check out the new pics from Gosford/Koolewong that I added to the old Gosford/Manly folder. I will tune in again when the time is right! Stay healthy, stay hungry!

Cheers!