England and a bit of Holland

What a sail it has been in the not too distant past as... well... for most of this entry I will be talking of those things that have already come to pass, occasions that took place in that far off world of June and July and now, as I have been writing this over a month, August. It has been an interesting two (now three) months, with a large number of things taking place during it.

To start at the beginning for the beginning is a good place to start, it comes before the body and the conclusion and sets you, as the reader, up for what shall happen within the story, of course as you well know this is not a story of fictitious characters but of real ones nor of fictitious plots but of real ones.

And now I shall continue from where I left off before that little thought pushed its way to the front of my head traveling, with some speed I might add, through the cerebellum and cerebrum. It has been an interesting two months as I have said, filled with many great times of joyous laughter and such like. It all began with the ending of the Trans-at and the beginning of a want to head back home to the land of my heritage, where I, in a sense began and what makes me who and what I am. Coupled with this was the fact that I wanted to see the people who I have, at times, referred to as my past, for they where people who I knew as nought but a wee lad, but they are in fact very much a part of my present as they all belong to my Whanu and therefore are special to me in their own little individual ways. I did of course, in compliance with what my heart tells me to do, go sailing.

At the end of the Trans-at I stayed on the boat for about a week, helping out, fixing this and that, and generally preparing the boat for charter. It was during this time that I learned that Charles, a very good friend, was in Nice working at a bar. We landed in Toulon, about an hour (by train) along the coast. Coupled with this was the fact that my plane from France to England would leave from Nice. And so I set off on a not too long journey to see my mate. I spent four days on his floor, terrible host wouldn't even vacate the bed... no worries, great to have a roof over my head, went from bar to bar during the evenings and spent a large amount of time on the beach or walking through the nice village of Nice during the day.

It was then off too sunny or as it happens not to sunny Blighty. To stay with many friends and family, names I will not mention as this is the World Wide Web. But needless to say, it was wonderful to spend time with each and every one of those that I stayed with and I had an absolutely awesome time. Have spent a couple of weeks in Londolium sightseeing and the like. My travels through England took me far and wide, to many beautiful bits of the country. Thank you to all.

At the end of July I flew to Amsterdam in Holland, as if you needed telling, and got onto a boat, surprising, the boat is a Contest 32', the owner is one of the people that I have sailed with in the past and who is now, to my knowledge, a good friend. The trip was absolutely amazing, crossing the Channel and ending up on the Beaulieu River in the Solent. This is an area, famous to sailors, on the southern coast of England. We arrived in the Solent a week after Cowes week, a very big sailing regatta.

I then headed to Devon for about a week, and had an absolutely wonderful time. Devon is where I lived for the formative part of my childhood, the weather throughout my stay was glorious, waking up to warm sunny days.

I am now about to embark on a trip through Europe with a group called Contiki, and it is expected that I will have an absolutely awesome time.