So this is it: my last day at UKSA. Which means it has been five months almost to the day since I first arrived, waaaaaaaaaaay back in February. And it has gone so fast. The time before Egypt seemed to go on and on, back when it was the marathon six weeks without a day off. Then Egypt happened, and that went quickly in itself. But since coming back everything has just flashed by and I don't really know where it's all gone. I may try and have a look see if I can find it today, otherwise I'll just have to accept that it really has been nine weeks since I came back from that hot, sunny place.
Having said that, the weather this week has been rather amazing (for England) beautiful mornings have sadly been more often than not covered by cloud midway through the day, but then the cloud disappears towards the evening. And nothing is here to suggest that it will be otherwise today. Should be good.
I know in the last post I said I'd answer some questions, but I don't particularly have any answers as yet, so I won't.
I'm looking forward to being back for a couple of weeks, it will be good. But it has been an amazing five months. Rather splendid. I'm extremely glad that I went ahead and did the course, its been awesome.
Last night I went down to the south of the island with some friends from the Christian side of things and we had a BBQ on the beach as the sun set, from about 7 to 10 we were just sitting on the beach, eating, laughing, chatting, playing football, messing about in the water and generally having an excellent time. It was well good and I couldn't think of a better way of spending my last full day on the island (whilst still on the course).
I should add here that in a couple of weeks I shall be back on the island, this time to work. I won't be working at UKSA, but I'll be working at a centre just up the river from UKSA, so I'll still be able to pop down and see all my friends from time to time. So in a sense this isn't goodbye, but it is the end of a season. And even though I've enjoyed it immensely, it will be good for it to end as it will mean that I'm ready to go and work. WOOP WOOP.
Got to go and have breakfast now otherwise I spend half an hour stuck behind a long queue of kids. So I'll be seeing loads of people again soon, until then... (I have no idea what to put here, so I'll leave it hanging)
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Three Days Left.
So. It's been five months. Crazy, eh?
So where am I? What's changed? Who have I become? To be honest I haven't thought about it much, that will have to wait for my final blog post, when I've spent some time thinking over those questions. (I will do one last post hopefully on the last day of the course, when everything is finished.) That's not to say that I haven't been thinking about what's happened, only that my thoughts have been more directed at what has happened.
I walk down the pontoon and think of the first time I walked down it; I go into dinner and remember the first meals I had at UKSA - how quiet it was, how simple. I didn't even know half the people I do now at that point. I go sailing and I set my sail automatically, my eyes flick from going forwards, to my sail, to water traffic and back again, I keep my boat flat, I adjust the five essentials, and I tamper with my sail controls to tune the sail correctly: I can't remember learning how to do it, it feels like I've been known how to do it since the beginning. Still, I can remember the first sessions I had sailing: beam-reach to beam-reach, wobbly tacks, aching head, being so pleased that I could dry-capsize. Then I kayak and I know I can roll now, I could tell you how best to get the most speed from it, how to keep it going straight, or how to turn a sea kayak. And still every time I go out I improve a little more: the theory I know, I practise; what I can do, I practise more. I needn't go into windsurfing: I plane, I fall in, I get up and do it again. And again. And again.
All around UKSA ghostly memories walk around, replay themselves in my head, times fast forwards to the present day and flows back again. And why? Because it's coming to an end? My life for five months is about to come to an end, and five months is such a small amount of time, but so much has happened. It's flashed past, especially this last half since I've come back from Egypt. And now it nears its completion.
I'm looking forward to spending some time back at home, but I'm also excited to be coming back to work here. With this step nothing will ever be the same again. I can never unlearn what I've learnt, even if the worst were to happen and I never taught anyone so much as a single lesson, these five months would leave a scar on my life, living on in the practical skills that I cannot choose to keep or forget.
But should I continue, which I intend to, then I can step from strength to strength, gaining in every day experience and confidence, growing each year in ability and technique. This time comes to its cut off day, soon the training ends.
So where am I? What's changed? Who have I become? To be honest I haven't thought about it much, that will have to wait for my final blog post, when I've spent some time thinking over those questions. (I will do one last post hopefully on the last day of the course, when everything is finished.) That's not to say that I haven't been thinking about what's happened, only that my thoughts have been more directed at what has happened.
I walk down the pontoon and think of the first time I walked down it; I go into dinner and remember the first meals I had at UKSA - how quiet it was, how simple. I didn't even know half the people I do now at that point. I go sailing and I set my sail automatically, my eyes flick from going forwards, to my sail, to water traffic and back again, I keep my boat flat, I adjust the five essentials, and I tamper with my sail controls to tune the sail correctly: I can't remember learning how to do it, it feels like I've been known how to do it since the beginning. Still, I can remember the first sessions I had sailing: beam-reach to beam-reach, wobbly tacks, aching head, being so pleased that I could dry-capsize. Then I kayak and I know I can roll now, I could tell you how best to get the most speed from it, how to keep it going straight, or how to turn a sea kayak. And still every time I go out I improve a little more: the theory I know, I practise; what I can do, I practise more. I needn't go into windsurfing: I plane, I fall in, I get up and do it again. And again. And again.
All around UKSA ghostly memories walk around, replay themselves in my head, times fast forwards to the present day and flows back again. And why? Because it's coming to an end? My life for five months is about to come to an end, and five months is such a small amount of time, but so much has happened. It's flashed past, especially this last half since I've come back from Egypt. And now it nears its completion.
I'm looking forward to spending some time back at home, but I'm also excited to be coming back to work here. With this step nothing will ever be the same again. I can never unlearn what I've learnt, even if the worst were to happen and I never taught anyone so much as a single lesson, these five months would leave a scar on my life, living on in the practical skills that I cannot choose to keep or forget.
But should I continue, which I intend to, then I can step from strength to strength, gaining in every day experience and confidence, growing each year in ability and technique. This time comes to its cut off day, soon the training ends.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Dan? Dan? Oh there you are :D
Yep, it's me. Again. And such a lot has gone on since the last blog, not least of which is that I now have a job over the summer at a watersports centre up the river from UKSA. It's much smaller, but as I've been saying to everyone: UKSA is a rather-unique, oddly-massive centre so I was never going to be going somewhere that was its equal. This centre is focused more on sailing than anything else, and, from what I've seen of the team, they're amazing. Really nice, really welcoming, lots of laughing, yea, looks like it's going to be a good summer.
What else has been going on.
Last Saturday I had a group from Aiming High, which is a project or system that allows disabled kids of greater or lesser disabilities to get a chance to do watersports for free/reduced price (one of the two, not sure which, think it's free though) I was with one other instructor, one who had been on my original instructor training at the beginning of the course and who now is working at UKSA, it was cool to work with him again. We had two kids and their parents but only the kids did the activities. It pretty much works on asking the kids what they want to do and then seeing if we can do it. In the end we took them windsurfing in the morning, which was loads of fun. We had a few water-confidence/board confidence games where they sat on the boards in the water and did some games, like playing catch, or gladiators (where they had to stand u and rock the board until one of them fell in, leaving the victor to fall in after them usually) Then we got the sails out for the boards and got them windsurfing. Their balance wasn't always great but both of them did amazing and were actually windsurfing (by that I mean we walked them out from the shore, pointed them towards land, helped them get the sail up and then they held onto the boom and the wind pushed on the sail and took them back to the land) They both really enjoyed it and did extremely well. Then we went back to UKSA for lunch and got changed out of the wetsuits and back into nice dry clothes.
In the afternoon they decided they'd quite like a pool session (much to my relief :D ) and so we spent the afternoon in the swimming pool. We took a few kayaks in there with us to play around with and there were some balls in there too. It was just a giant splash around and lots of fun. There was a weight in the pool which was ridiculously heavy. There isn't a gentle incline to the deep end but a sudden drop towards the end of the pool; if you held onto the weight and stepped off the ledge into the deep bit it would drag you to the bottom and you could walk on the bottom. Which is very, very cool. I then took it a step further and standing with my back to the ledge I held the weight to my chest and let myself fall backwards. It's strange to feel the weight pushing you down, but if you kept your eyes open you could imagine what i would be like to be chucked into water with a heavy stone around your legs or any other heavy object you'd care to imagine. Quite a cool thing to see, especially see multiple times as I'm sure most people would only see it once... for the first and last time. It did kill my eyes however and when I got out of the pool they were horribly red and painful. Lots of washing with freshwater and trying not to rub them later and by the end of the evening they were ok. I can only remember one previous time where they were that bad, and it's not good memories. I was too young to really understand it or put up with the pain then, but I still remember sticking my head under the tap at home to try and rinse the water from my eyes, and not wanting to stick my head under the water. It was a long drawn out affair from what I remember. :S :S
And then this week we've been cat sailing, no NOT sailing little fluffy things that would scratch us into pieces if we even tried it, but catamaran sailing, i.e. two hulled dinghies. They are scary as. They go ten times faster than normal dinghies and when capsized you end up two/three metres from the water which you HAVE to fall off. There is no such thing as a "dry capsize" as far as "Cats" are concerned. There are also more ways of capsizing it. You have your basic "wind push it onto the side" capsize. You also then have pitch-poling and cartwheeling (which THANKFULLY we did neither of) Pitch poling is when both the hulls go under the water and produces the same effect as when you slam on your brakes on a bike, it flips up forward onto its front and everyone gets thrown forward. And when you're sailing in fairly gusty wind and trying to go as fast as possible (which is pretty fast in a cat) even the idea of pitch poling is terrifying. And I'm pretty sure you all know what a cartwheel is... just imagine that happening to a cat... yea... yea, i know.
Let me explain trapezing to you: you get tightly strapped up in a harness and, when out on the water, you clip onto a line which runs from the mast to the hull, put your feet on the side of the hull and push out, so the only bit of you touching the boat is your feet. And you're attached to the boat... combine this with capsizing, pitch poling or cartwheeling and you get thrown about all over the place, swung around the front of the boat or anywhere in fact. As I said we were fortunate that this never really happened to us, but still... :S :S :S There was one capsize where I fell off the hull and slammed into one of the shrouds (metal wires that hold the mast up) with my neck. It's still a little sore but there was no big damage done, thankfully it had a plastic coating. Another time the hook of my harness got caught on the side of the hull and I was left suspended in the air with no way of getting down (there was no purchase for my feet to push on to lift myself off) I did get myself off eventually but phew, close one. Had the cat fully inverted then.... Now this is all making Cat sailing sound ridiculously dangerous... it's no more dangerous than windsurfing or kayaking in whitewater or getting whacked over the head by the boom, it's just because they zip around so fast that it feels scarier when you're on them it's NOT that they're more dangerous. Well we had the assessment for the cats and I passed which is cool. So I'm cat endorsed (meaning I'm qualified to teach people to sail cats now).
At the moment there is the Isle of Wight Festival on and so yesterday I went up to Medina Valley centre to meet up with some new friends and after a little bit of food we got some canoes out and went for a paddle up the river to watch the festival for free :D :D (tickets can be over one hundred and fifty pounds) The site is about 200-300 metres away from the centre's pontoon so it wasn't a long journey. You could see the lights and one of the big screens so you could kind of watch it. Much preferable to going in though and having to pay stupid amounts of money. On the river it was really busy with loads of boats moored up and people on the decks watching, drinking and dancing... well not so much of the dancing, mainly just drinking and watching. (in that order.) Very chilled out. On the opposite bank there were crowds of people who were camped out and listening in from their free spaces. However if you put a foot on the side of the bank which the festival was on you got mobbed by security guards. Crazy.
And yea, i think that's everything I was going to say... I have three weeks left now :O :O :O three weeks of five months. It's going to be good.
What else has been going on.
Last Saturday I had a group from Aiming High, which is a project or system that allows disabled kids of greater or lesser disabilities to get a chance to do watersports for free/reduced price (one of the two, not sure which, think it's free though) I was with one other instructor, one who had been on my original instructor training at the beginning of the course and who now is working at UKSA, it was cool to work with him again. We had two kids and their parents but only the kids did the activities. It pretty much works on asking the kids what they want to do and then seeing if we can do it. In the end we took them windsurfing in the morning, which was loads of fun. We had a few water-confidence/board confidence games where they sat on the boards in the water and did some games, like playing catch, or gladiators (where they had to stand u and rock the board until one of them fell in, leaving the victor to fall in after them usually) Then we got the sails out for the boards and got them windsurfing. Their balance wasn't always great but both of them did amazing and were actually windsurfing (by that I mean we walked them out from the shore, pointed them towards land, helped them get the sail up and then they held onto the boom and the wind pushed on the sail and took them back to the land) They both really enjoyed it and did extremely well. Then we went back to UKSA for lunch and got changed out of the wetsuits and back into nice dry clothes.
In the afternoon they decided they'd quite like a pool session (much to my relief :D ) and so we spent the afternoon in the swimming pool. We took a few kayaks in there with us to play around with and there were some balls in there too. It was just a giant splash around and lots of fun. There was a weight in the pool which was ridiculously heavy. There isn't a gentle incline to the deep end but a sudden drop towards the end of the pool; if you held onto the weight and stepped off the ledge into the deep bit it would drag you to the bottom and you could walk on the bottom. Which is very, very cool. I then took it a step further and standing with my back to the ledge I held the weight to my chest and let myself fall backwards. It's strange to feel the weight pushing you down, but if you kept your eyes open you could imagine what i would be like to be chucked into water with a heavy stone around your legs or any other heavy object you'd care to imagine. Quite a cool thing to see, especially see multiple times as I'm sure most people would only see it once... for the first and last time. It did kill my eyes however and when I got out of the pool they were horribly red and painful. Lots of washing with freshwater and trying not to rub them later and by the end of the evening they were ok. I can only remember one previous time where they were that bad, and it's not good memories. I was too young to really understand it or put up with the pain then, but I still remember sticking my head under the tap at home to try and rinse the water from my eyes, and not wanting to stick my head under the water. It was a long drawn out affair from what I remember. :S :S
And then this week we've been cat sailing, no NOT sailing little fluffy things that would scratch us into pieces if we even tried it, but catamaran sailing, i.e. two hulled dinghies. They are scary as. They go ten times faster than normal dinghies and when capsized you end up two/three metres from the water which you HAVE to fall off. There is no such thing as a "dry capsize" as far as "Cats" are concerned. There are also more ways of capsizing it. You have your basic "wind push it onto the side" capsize. You also then have pitch-poling and cartwheeling (which THANKFULLY we did neither of) Pitch poling is when both the hulls go under the water and produces the same effect as when you slam on your brakes on a bike, it flips up forward onto its front and everyone gets thrown forward. And when you're sailing in fairly gusty wind and trying to go as fast as possible (which is pretty fast in a cat) even the idea of pitch poling is terrifying. And I'm pretty sure you all know what a cartwheel is... just imagine that happening to a cat... yea... yea, i know.
Let me explain trapezing to you: you get tightly strapped up in a harness and, when out on the water, you clip onto a line which runs from the mast to the hull, put your feet on the side of the hull and push out, so the only bit of you touching the boat is your feet. And you're attached to the boat... combine this with capsizing, pitch poling or cartwheeling and you get thrown about all over the place, swung around the front of the boat or anywhere in fact. As I said we were fortunate that this never really happened to us, but still... :S :S :S There was one capsize where I fell off the hull and slammed into one of the shrouds (metal wires that hold the mast up) with my neck. It's still a little sore but there was no big damage done, thankfully it had a plastic coating. Another time the hook of my harness got caught on the side of the hull and I was left suspended in the air with no way of getting down (there was no purchase for my feet to push on to lift myself off) I did get myself off eventually but phew, close one. Had the cat fully inverted then.... Now this is all making Cat sailing sound ridiculously dangerous... it's no more dangerous than windsurfing or kayaking in whitewater or getting whacked over the head by the boom, it's just because they zip around so fast that it feels scarier when you're on them it's NOT that they're more dangerous. Well we had the assessment for the cats and I passed which is cool. So I'm cat endorsed (meaning I'm qualified to teach people to sail cats now).
At the moment there is the Isle of Wight Festival on and so yesterday I went up to Medina Valley centre to meet up with some new friends and after a little bit of food we got some canoes out and went for a paddle up the river to watch the festival for free :D :D (tickets can be over one hundred and fifty pounds) The site is about 200-300 metres away from the centre's pontoon so it wasn't a long journey. You could see the lights and one of the big screens so you could kind of watch it. Much preferable to going in though and having to pay stupid amounts of money. On the river it was really busy with loads of boats moored up and people on the decks watching, drinking and dancing... well not so much of the dancing, mainly just drinking and watching. (in that order.) Very chilled out. On the opposite bank there were crowds of people who were camped out and listening in from their free spaces. However if you put a foot on the side of the bank which the festival was on you got mobbed by security guards. Crazy.
And yea, i think that's everything I was going to say... I have three weeks left now :O :O :O three weeks of five months. It's going to be good.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Another post... eventually
It's been getting longer and longer between posts. I don't know why, I just keep thinking I'll leave it till tomorrow and then.. well.. on "tomorrow" i think the same thing... :S :S
So I won't go through everything I've been doing. It would take too long and I have half an hour before the computer room gets shut.
Last week was lots of kayaking, mainly because the wind picked up and it wasn't safe enough to take kids out in dinghies or to do windsurfing. It was surprising how two groups OF KIDS, one older and one younger could be so different... and the younger group were the better one: they got on the water and were better than the older group were at the end of the session. Incredible. But still, that's how it was.
Then for the last two days I've been keelboating, getting ready for the assessment (two days long) on Thursday and Friday. There's been lots to take in and when you're trying to take it in when you're on the water it can be quite hard. Certainly today I got quite confused several times.
Oh! I know. On Monday LAST WEEK, I had a day off. However I can't drive and no one could drive me anywhere so I couldn't go windsurfing. I became so bored int he morning I resorted in going to Ops (Daily Operations i.e. the centre of all the watersports sessions throughout the day)and asking the Chief Instructor and another Senior Instructor if there were any jobs I could do.. yep, that's how bored I was. Though they seemed quite surprised when I accepted their joke of "you could wash our cars." So yep, I spent my Monday morning washing cars. Yay :D :D well it was something to do...
Then on Saturday a Church group came.. I say a church group I mean a group who were linked by their church. It wasn't a whole church, nor a church youth group. Although youthgroup and UKSA could go together very well I reckon. It was very cool to have them and due to the considerations of Steve he put me with the group for that day (their only day) and I had a great time. We did raft building in the morning, which was well good, though it descended rapidly into a big game of pirates towards the end and the adult team actually dismantled our (kids team) raft. Don't worry, it backfired, as the next race was one where we had to race each others rafts (not so easy to do for the adults who only had a half-assembled remnant to paddle). Then in the afternoon we walked into town and got the most amazing milkshakes ever. Then on o the waterfront and a spot of crabbing.. without much luck I'm afraid. We caught a few strange fish but the nearest we got to catching a crab was when I (yes ME :D :D) hauled up my line and there was a whopper crab, with a shell as big as my outstretched handspan, hanging on it. Unfortunately I was so surprised and excited that I dropped it again.. before anyone could see it... thankfully my quick thinking saved the day; I lowered the line directly where the crab had hit the water and caught it again, giving other people in the group a sight as proof that I had caught it, even if I still didn't get it half way up the wall before it detached itself again... and that was crabbing. Then it was the end of the day.
Also on that day (Saturday) was Dr Who. Those of you who watched it: WHAT!?!?!?! are they intending to leave us with that for another few months and then play the rest of the series later on in the year!?!?!?! that's crazy!!! >:( >:( grrr... the ending was good... the rest of the episode average. Matt Smith's acting... excellent :D :D
Not much else has really happened..... I had a good chat with a certain Jono Payne yesterday, which was nice. I stood on the decking overlooking the sunset on the water of the river Medina and it was rather splendid. I think Joanna may well think there is some sort of conspiracy going on though... the second time in two weeks when a member of my family has got Jono out of washing up.... oops... sorry.
Right time to go.
Night.
So I won't go through everything I've been doing. It would take too long and I have half an hour before the computer room gets shut.
Last week was lots of kayaking, mainly because the wind picked up and it wasn't safe enough to take kids out in dinghies or to do windsurfing. It was surprising how two groups OF KIDS, one older and one younger could be so different... and the younger group were the better one: they got on the water and were better than the older group were at the end of the session. Incredible. But still, that's how it was.
Then for the last two days I've been keelboating, getting ready for the assessment (two days long) on Thursday and Friday. There's been lots to take in and when you're trying to take it in when you're on the water it can be quite hard. Certainly today I got quite confused several times.
Oh! I know. On Monday LAST WEEK, I had a day off. However I can't drive and no one could drive me anywhere so I couldn't go windsurfing. I became so bored int he morning I resorted in going to Ops (Daily Operations i.e. the centre of all the watersports sessions throughout the day)and asking the Chief Instructor and another Senior Instructor if there were any jobs I could do.. yep, that's how bored I was. Though they seemed quite surprised when I accepted their joke of "you could wash our cars." So yep, I spent my Monday morning washing cars. Yay :D :D well it was something to do...
Then on Saturday a Church group came.. I say a church group I mean a group who were linked by their church. It wasn't a whole church, nor a church youth group. Although youthgroup and UKSA could go together very well I reckon. It was very cool to have them and due to the considerations of Steve he put me with the group for that day (their only day) and I had a great time. We did raft building in the morning, which was well good, though it descended rapidly into a big game of pirates towards the end and the adult team actually dismantled our (kids team) raft. Don't worry, it backfired, as the next race was one where we had to race each others rafts (not so easy to do for the adults who only had a half-assembled remnant to paddle). Then in the afternoon we walked into town and got the most amazing milkshakes ever. Then on o the waterfront and a spot of crabbing.. without much luck I'm afraid. We caught a few strange fish but the nearest we got to catching a crab was when I (yes ME :D :D) hauled up my line and there was a whopper crab, with a shell as big as my outstretched handspan, hanging on it. Unfortunately I was so surprised and excited that I dropped it again.. before anyone could see it... thankfully my quick thinking saved the day; I lowered the line directly where the crab had hit the water and caught it again, giving other people in the group a sight as proof that I had caught it, even if I still didn't get it half way up the wall before it detached itself again... and that was crabbing. Then it was the end of the day.
Also on that day (Saturday) was Dr Who. Those of you who watched it: WHAT!?!?!?! are they intending to leave us with that for another few months and then play the rest of the series later on in the year!?!?!?! that's crazy!!! >:( >:( grrr... the ending was good... the rest of the episode average. Matt Smith's acting... excellent :D :D
Not much else has really happened..... I had a good chat with a certain Jono Payne yesterday, which was nice. I stood on the decking overlooking the sunset on the water of the river Medina and it was rather splendid. I think Joanna may well think there is some sort of conspiracy going on though... the second time in two weeks when a member of my family has got Jono out of washing up.... oops... sorry.
Right time to go.
Night.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Navigate here...
This week has been taken up by Navigation. That is five days solid theory; in fact much of it reminded me of maths... so five days solid of maths lessons... well, more interesting than that, but in essence, that is what it was. The first day was pretty much all covering what we'd been told before, however we had three other peeps doing a different course doing it with us, and they were all starting from a pretty basic level. In truth, we all were, but the three of us on our course probably had a better foundational/background knowledge.
We were doing loads of chartwork and plotting courses, which sounds simple (drawing a line between two points) until you then realise you've got to account for how the tide will be moving you and affecting where yo end up, on top of that you then have to adjust your course to allow for leeway (how the wind/waves knock you off course) and all the calculations and notations for everything add up to create a rather complex and large topic to get your head around. Other than chartwork, which also included pinpointing your position on the sea, variation, deviation and such abbreviations as SOG, CTS, DR, EP, we also looked at the subjects of meteorology, tides (in even more depth, i.e. how to work out what is too shallow for your vessel, how to extrapolate information from a primary port to work out the tidal heights and times of a secondary port, how to work out how high a tide will be at any given time, involving graphs of tidal height, how strong a tide will be at any given time, the direction of a tide and how to account for it when planning a passage) sound signals (day and night/fog), day signals, light signals and patterns, buoys (IALA A and B) distress signals, collision regulations... etc...
So yea, lots and lots of information, however, it's required little effort on my part to grasp and learn it. It has all just made sense and clicked together, plus there is something quite cool (in a sad way) of standing over a chart with a pair of dividers, a plotter and a pencil and working out your course... even if it was on a training chart with fake names and places.
This morning didn't feel like I was going to have two one and a half hour exams.... but I did feel like I was joining in with everyone else who is having exams at the moment. I think my exams were probably the best though.... if you finish early you can go, four questions, you could stand up, results before leaving the exam room, simple... yep, everything you could ever want in an exam was right there. And yes, in that first exam I was there for an hour and got 100% :D :D :D :D :D I have never got 100% in a proper exam before (if you could call this a PROPER exam lol) unless you count that fluke at GCSE where I somehow got 100/100 UMS marks for all my science papers.... I'm not complaining but I was pretty sure there had been a mistake or they'd confused my results with someone elses.... ah well
In the afternoon those of us on the watersports course got the second test, the others will get it when they do the practical side of the course next week, we only get the theory. This turned out not to be a one and a half hour written exam but an appraisal and evaluation of knowledge through spoken answers. Basically our teacher was there and read out the questions which formed the written paper we technically should have been doing and we answered verbally, together, to confirm to him that we knew everything that was needed to pass. I'm sure I don't need to say that he was satisfied and passed us. So YAY!! :D :D :D :D And big respects to all you people out there slogging through hundreds of exams. I'm here hoping you do well.
What else has gone on this week... Cell group on Wednesday as normal, all good. Friday I had Catalyst Plus, which also was good. I ended up walking to it because I didn't want to get hot and sweaty on my bike; also I knew that Christians being Christians I could almost CERTAINLY get a lift back if I didn't have the baggage of a bike... either that or I'd have a long, cold walk home late at night to ponder my stereotypical assumptions of Christians and how they might need adjusting ;) Thankfully they held out and I got a lift home :D :D :D lol
Yesterday I went to Ryde for the first time to a church service called Connect2 (at least I'm pretty sure it was called that) that was all good. Some of the youth peeps I know have a band which does worship and hey were playing, so I was mostly going to support them. They're a great bunch and it will be well cool to see where this leads them and how they'll grow. I also wonder if once upon a time certain elder friends of mine started their journey in a similar place.
What else have i done this week... oh I KNOW! I went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And, I'm relieved to say, it was well worth the watch. It was rather good. The only thing I think could have been improved on (other than a few scenes which were a bit pointless - MINORITY/FEW though they were) was it could have done with a central main character. There were main characters, defo, but one central character who was a goody... it was kind of supposed to be Jack I felt, but I don't really think Jack is a character who works well being the centre of the story, which is why in the original trilogy you had Will. Jack jumps everywhere, it's almost confusing sometimes. ON the other hand, Depp did marvelously well and Jack was just as he always was. I really liked the film: I'd buy it. Oh and you didn't necessarily NEED to have watched the first three to see this one... though I'd recommend seeing the first one just because it's amazing and will give you all the characters... having said that... seeing the trilogy first would probably be HELPFUL... oh and an extra note... the last line is a classic (maybe cliched, but made to be "not cringey") and is rather wonderful.
So yep that's been my week... or highlights of anyway... this coming week it's back to assisting/instructing after a day off tomorrow. Then sometime towards the end of the week we start our keelboating endorsement training (three days practising/two days assessment) which is all cool... all cool.... So I'll see when I can next gather myself to blog... until then... :D
We were doing loads of chartwork and plotting courses, which sounds simple (drawing a line between two points) until you then realise you've got to account for how the tide will be moving you and affecting where yo end up, on top of that you then have to adjust your course to allow for leeway (how the wind/waves knock you off course) and all the calculations and notations for everything add up to create a rather complex and large topic to get your head around. Other than chartwork, which also included pinpointing your position on the sea, variation, deviation and such abbreviations as SOG, CTS, DR, EP, we also looked at the subjects of meteorology, tides (in even more depth, i.e. how to work out what is too shallow for your vessel, how to extrapolate information from a primary port to work out the tidal heights and times of a secondary port, how to work out how high a tide will be at any given time, involving graphs of tidal height, how strong a tide will be at any given time, the direction of a tide and how to account for it when planning a passage) sound signals (day and night/fog), day signals, light signals and patterns, buoys (IALA A and B) distress signals, collision regulations... etc...
So yea, lots and lots of information, however, it's required little effort on my part to grasp and learn it. It has all just made sense and clicked together, plus there is something quite cool (in a sad way) of standing over a chart with a pair of dividers, a plotter and a pencil and working out your course... even if it was on a training chart with fake names and places.
This morning didn't feel like I was going to have two one and a half hour exams.... but I did feel like I was joining in with everyone else who is having exams at the moment. I think my exams were probably the best though.... if you finish early you can go, four questions, you could stand up, results before leaving the exam room, simple... yep, everything you could ever want in an exam was right there. And yes, in that first exam I was there for an hour and got 100% :D :D :D :D :D I have never got 100% in a proper exam before (if you could call this a PROPER exam lol) unless you count that fluke at GCSE where I somehow got 100/100 UMS marks for all my science papers.... I'm not complaining but I was pretty sure there had been a mistake or they'd confused my results with someone elses.... ah well
In the afternoon those of us on the watersports course got the second test, the others will get it when they do the practical side of the course next week, we only get the theory. This turned out not to be a one and a half hour written exam but an appraisal and evaluation of knowledge through spoken answers. Basically our teacher was there and read out the questions which formed the written paper we technically should have been doing and we answered verbally, together, to confirm to him that we knew everything that was needed to pass. I'm sure I don't need to say that he was satisfied and passed us. So YAY!! :D :D :D :D And big respects to all you people out there slogging through hundreds of exams. I'm here hoping you do well.
What else has gone on this week... Cell group on Wednesday as normal, all good. Friday I had Catalyst Plus, which also was good. I ended up walking to it because I didn't want to get hot and sweaty on my bike; also I knew that Christians being Christians I could almost CERTAINLY get a lift back if I didn't have the baggage of a bike... either that or I'd have a long, cold walk home late at night to ponder my stereotypical assumptions of Christians and how they might need adjusting ;) Thankfully they held out and I got a lift home :D :D :D lol
Yesterday I went to Ryde for the first time to a church service called Connect2 (at least I'm pretty sure it was called that) that was all good. Some of the youth peeps I know have a band which does worship and hey were playing, so I was mostly going to support them. They're a great bunch and it will be well cool to see where this leads them and how they'll grow. I also wonder if once upon a time certain elder friends of mine started their journey in a similar place.
What else have i done this week... oh I KNOW! I went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And, I'm relieved to say, it was well worth the watch. It was rather good. The only thing I think could have been improved on (other than a few scenes which were a bit pointless - MINORITY/FEW though they were) was it could have done with a central main character. There were main characters, defo, but one central character who was a goody... it was kind of supposed to be Jack I felt, but I don't really think Jack is a character who works well being the centre of the story, which is why in the original trilogy you had Will. Jack jumps everywhere, it's almost confusing sometimes. ON the other hand, Depp did marvelously well and Jack was just as he always was. I really liked the film: I'd buy it. Oh and you didn't necessarily NEED to have watched the first three to see this one... though I'd recommend seeing the first one just because it's amazing and will give you all the characters... having said that... seeing the trilogy first would probably be HELPFUL... oh and an extra note... the last line is a classic (maybe cliched, but made to be "not cringey") and is rather wonderful.
So yep that's been my week... or highlights of anyway... this coming week it's back to assisting/instructing after a day off tomorrow. Then sometime towards the end of the week we start our keelboating endorsement training (three days practising/two days assessment) which is all cool... all cool.... So I'll see when I can next gather myself to blog... until then... :D
Monday, 16 May 2011
Since the last time...
I realise that it has been a few days since my last post, but they have been full of stuff...
Friday
We had a day off on Friday, which was great. I got up so that I wouldn't miss breakfast and once up I decided not to waste he day but to do something. That something ended up being cycling down to Newport and helping set up for Catalyst, which - if you remember - is the Praise Night equivalent on IOW. It was great fun and included climbing up ladders to hang up massive banners, setting up all the tech stuff, playing loads of music, chatting with friends, going to the local Christian bookstore and getting lots of books and CDs to sell in the evening, and generally having a good time.
Then I cycled back, on both cycle rides I passed police who were entrenched on a bridge overlooking some marshes. I later looked on the local news to find out why there were news reporters and police there and it turns out they were searching for a body of a teenager who disappeared in 1996 (I was FOUR!!). I'm very glad I later found out that he'd actually disappeared on the waterfront not on the cycle path, it did worry me just a LITTLE that I'd been cycling on the cyclepath in the dark on my own that someone had (I thought) been "disappeared" on. I don't know if they found anything or not.
In the afternoon I went down to town, bought some new shoes, a plain lunch of pita read and water (which was genuinely sooo good), and some stationary I'd been needing for a while. Taking it slowly it took an hour or so, then I came back and chilled out in the computer room until dinner, and then it was time to go catch my lift back to Newport and Catalyst
At Catalyst there was a group from BMS there who'd come back from a project (I believe in India) and they were pretty much leading it. So that was good fun.
Saturday
Saturday was back to work experience. I was with a group from Surrey (near Guildford, ie near home) and we did a session out just beyond Cowes Harbour with the Doublehanders (Visions if you remember my mention of them from when I was dinghy sailing) the Cats (ie multihulls/Catamarans) and Picos (again think back to when I was dinghy sailing). Once more I was in a safety boat in the morning, this time driving, and I was with the Vision session (we took out three). I just followed them around and made sure if they needed any help they had it. I also had to facilitate swapping kids so that they all had a go on them. It was great fun and just that morning of powerboating increased (I felt) my confidence and ability in it. We went to the beach for lunch and the kids played around. The tide went out EXTREMELY fast, however, and we ended up making a rather hurried rush back to the boats to save them from becoming beached. Even then we had to leave one boat on the mud and come back for it later on when the tide came in. In the afternoon I was on one of the visions with three kids, three boys who were forever asking if we could capsize and then forever worrying about what to do should we capsize. (I didn't capsize, even if it was the first time I'd sailed in almost two months) It was a great day overall and I had loads of fun. (a recurring statement, surprisingly enough.)
Sunday
I was with the same group of kids on Sunday as I was on Saturday. the were leaving at 2.30 though and so we only had a morning session. This time the visions stayed on land and we took more picos out. One of the "Cats" was also left behind. I was on a safety boat with the large pico session. this ended up involving helping them rig (by yelling instructions at them; you have to yell to be heard, it's really not because I got angry), doing a little bit of coaching to improve their sailing, watching out for that stray pico that would end up ridiculously far away from the main group, keeping an eye on any picos that might stray too close to the wall, towing picos away form the wall when they did get too close, helping picos get upwind (much more difficult than it sounds when your kids have done none of the theory and know relatively nothing about sailing) - having said that I spoke to one of the more experienced instructors today and they gave a solution which was so simple and easy I wondered how stupid I must have been not to think of it... drive in front of them and get them to follow you, then you don't need to explain in child's language about the no go zone or a close hauled sailing position, and having more fun.
In the afternoon, once they'd gone, we finished tidying up all the picos, then were tidying the site for an hour/hour and a half. Then we were let off early WOOO!! at the cost of owing our Chief Instructor a favour... ominous indeed. lol
In the evening some of the youth from various churches I know had a worship evening/gig on in Shanklin so I grabbed dinner extremely quickly and then caught a bus... no one had warned me how bad the buses are here... I expected to be half an hour late... which is reasonable... the bus journey ended up taking one and a half hours. I set of at 6-ish. The event started at 6.30. I got there at 8. (don't do the maths i know it doesn't add up and that's because this is a summarised version with rounded numbers.) I caught the last song... I was not happy with the buses AT ALL. At least there was free cake to be had aplenty :D :D And I met some new friends, who were friends of Simon and Hannah. And ended up going home with Simon (local youthworker) and them and chatting for a while then going with Simon to take them to the ferry back to the mainland. It was great meeting them and definitely made up for catching only the last song of the event. And on the upside they have another event this Saturday in Ryde, so I'll go along to that :D
Monday
Today was half and half. New groups were arriving so for the morning we were doing pretty much nothing. We checked their rooms to make sure they were clean and ready for them, we got their lunches ready, we sorted out what we'd do with them in the afternoon. Then things began to pick up when we went to get them. They are from Surrey again, and near Redhill again, which is really cool. We did some wet games with them (getting them to chuck cups of water at each other whilst blindfolded, fill up a pole covered in holes by plugging the holes with their fingers, play games whilst standing under the showers, which could be turned on if they weren't going fast enough or did something wrong), which was amazingly fun, just having a splash around and a laugh and then did a pontoon jump, which was also great fun. At one point there was even a small waterfight with the hoses, which was immense also.
Then in the evening I volunteered to help with their evening session as well. We walked up to a nearby park and did some relay races in groups. Then all the girls wanted to play rounders and all the guys wanted to play.. no prizes for guessing... football. So the other two instructors took football and I was left to run the rounders... thank goodness I listened in school and didn't skive P.E. :D :D :D After a while rounders degenerated into a prolonged toilet break (girls... eh? :P) and then into a rather fun game of Frisbee. It was great fun and we were all laughing loads. Then a nice walk back and I came into the computer room (where I am now) to write this.
It's been long, yep, but I've had a lot to cover. So, hope you like the up date. It's been great fun so far as I thought it would be. I have one more day work experience and then five days of theoretical navigation study. So yea.. going to be an interesting week. This group is amazing though and I hope I'm with them again tomorrow.
Friday
We had a day off on Friday, which was great. I got up so that I wouldn't miss breakfast and once up I decided not to waste he day but to do something. That something ended up being cycling down to Newport and helping set up for Catalyst, which - if you remember - is the Praise Night equivalent on IOW. It was great fun and included climbing up ladders to hang up massive banners, setting up all the tech stuff, playing loads of music, chatting with friends, going to the local Christian bookstore and getting lots of books and CDs to sell in the evening, and generally having a good time.
Then I cycled back, on both cycle rides I passed police who were entrenched on a bridge overlooking some marshes. I later looked on the local news to find out why there were news reporters and police there and it turns out they were searching for a body of a teenager who disappeared in 1996 (I was FOUR!!). I'm very glad I later found out that he'd actually disappeared on the waterfront not on the cycle path, it did worry me just a LITTLE that I'd been cycling on the cyclepath in the dark on my own that someone had (I thought) been "disappeared" on. I don't know if they found anything or not.
In the afternoon I went down to town, bought some new shoes, a plain lunch of pita read and water (which was genuinely sooo good), and some stationary I'd been needing for a while. Taking it slowly it took an hour or so, then I came back and chilled out in the computer room until dinner, and then it was time to go catch my lift back to Newport and Catalyst
At Catalyst there was a group from BMS there who'd come back from a project (I believe in India) and they were pretty much leading it. So that was good fun.
Saturday
Saturday was back to work experience. I was with a group from Surrey (near Guildford, ie near home) and we did a session out just beyond Cowes Harbour with the Doublehanders (Visions if you remember my mention of them from when I was dinghy sailing) the Cats (ie multihulls/Catamarans) and Picos (again think back to when I was dinghy sailing). Once more I was in a safety boat in the morning, this time driving, and I was with the Vision session (we took out three). I just followed them around and made sure if they needed any help they had it. I also had to facilitate swapping kids so that they all had a go on them. It was great fun and just that morning of powerboating increased (I felt) my confidence and ability in it. We went to the beach for lunch and the kids played around. The tide went out EXTREMELY fast, however, and we ended up making a rather hurried rush back to the boats to save them from becoming beached. Even then we had to leave one boat on the mud and come back for it later on when the tide came in. In the afternoon I was on one of the visions with three kids, three boys who were forever asking if we could capsize and then forever worrying about what to do should we capsize. (I didn't capsize, even if it was the first time I'd sailed in almost two months) It was a great day overall and I had loads of fun. (a recurring statement, surprisingly enough.)
Sunday
I was with the same group of kids on Sunday as I was on Saturday. the were leaving at 2.30 though and so we only had a morning session. This time the visions stayed on land and we took more picos out. One of the "Cats" was also left behind. I was on a safety boat with the large pico session. this ended up involving helping them rig (by yelling instructions at them; you have to yell to be heard, it's really not because I got angry), doing a little bit of coaching to improve their sailing, watching out for that stray pico that would end up ridiculously far away from the main group, keeping an eye on any picos that might stray too close to the wall, towing picos away form the wall when they did get too close, helping picos get upwind (much more difficult than it sounds when your kids have done none of the theory and know relatively nothing about sailing) - having said that I spoke to one of the more experienced instructors today and they gave a solution which was so simple and easy I wondered how stupid I must have been not to think of it... drive in front of them and get them to follow you, then you don't need to explain in child's language about the no go zone or a close hauled sailing position, and having more fun.
In the afternoon, once they'd gone, we finished tidying up all the picos, then were tidying the site for an hour/hour and a half. Then we were let off early WOOO!! at the cost of owing our Chief Instructor a favour... ominous indeed. lol
In the evening some of the youth from various churches I know had a worship evening/gig on in Shanklin so I grabbed dinner extremely quickly and then caught a bus... no one had warned me how bad the buses are here... I expected to be half an hour late... which is reasonable... the bus journey ended up taking one and a half hours. I set of at 6-ish. The event started at 6.30. I got there at 8. (don't do the maths i know it doesn't add up and that's because this is a summarised version with rounded numbers.) I caught the last song... I was not happy with the buses AT ALL. At least there was free cake to be had aplenty :D :D And I met some new friends, who were friends of Simon and Hannah. And ended up going home with Simon (local youthworker) and them and chatting for a while then going with Simon to take them to the ferry back to the mainland. It was great meeting them and definitely made up for catching only the last song of the event. And on the upside they have another event this Saturday in Ryde, so I'll go along to that :D
Monday
Today was half and half. New groups were arriving so for the morning we were doing pretty much nothing. We checked their rooms to make sure they were clean and ready for them, we got their lunches ready, we sorted out what we'd do with them in the afternoon. Then things began to pick up when we went to get them. They are from Surrey again, and near Redhill again, which is really cool. We did some wet games with them (getting them to chuck cups of water at each other whilst blindfolded, fill up a pole covered in holes by plugging the holes with their fingers, play games whilst standing under the showers, which could be turned on if they weren't going fast enough or did something wrong), which was amazingly fun, just having a splash around and a laugh and then did a pontoon jump, which was also great fun. At one point there was even a small waterfight with the hoses, which was immense also.
Then in the evening I volunteered to help with their evening session as well. We walked up to a nearby park and did some relay races in groups. Then all the girls wanted to play rounders and all the guys wanted to play.. no prizes for guessing... football. So the other two instructors took football and I was left to run the rounders... thank goodness I listened in school and didn't skive P.E. :D :D :D After a while rounders degenerated into a prolonged toilet break (girls... eh? :P) and then into a rather fun game of Frisbee. It was great fun and we were all laughing loads. Then a nice walk back and I came into the computer room (where I am now) to write this.
It's been long, yep, but I've had a lot to cover. So, hope you like the up date. It's been great fun so far as I thought it would be. I have one more day work experience and then five days of theoretical navigation study. So yea.. going to be an interesting week. This group is amazing though and I hope I'm with them again tomorrow.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
In which I cover the first four days of this week
Day One - Monday 9th
So this was the first day of the final part/section of our course and we began well: with a familiar face. Steve Jackson, head dinghy Instructor at UKSA and also one of the two instructors we've had nearly all the way through from beginning to end, was our instructor. We were down for just doing a welcome to UKSA etc etc. HOWEVER, as we both have already been at UKSA for months already this was unnecessary and we therefore ended going for a powerboat trip down to Lymington. We spent an hour or so planning out our course, route etc and taking into considerations tides and weather. Then we took out the new coach boat, so far some of the only people to have driven it (to my knowledge). Tom drove us up there, I drove back and in the middle we had lunch. Compared to our normal safety RIBs it is fast... we both managed to get up to 40 knots....... yep, it was well fun and it was good practise too. To finish the day we helped with the site tidy-up which is exactly as it says... make everything look pristine. (some might say shipshape)
Day Two - Tuesday 10th
This was an interesting day. In the morning we had "industry guidance" and we got some help with our CVs and stuff. As we both, however, had pretty decent CVs already there wasn't much to do and we were finished by lunch. In the afternoon after inquiring as to the vacancy of any jobs that needed doing (there was nothing) I spent it reading and finished my third and final book just within the 36 hour mark after buying. That's about a book a day, however, i had finished the first two books in roughly the first 24 hours (26 hours) and I did pretty much no reading on the Monday.... or Sunday morning. reading time was probably... hmmmm.... altogether somewhere around the 24 hour mark. Not bad going... and I'm looking forward to rereading all of them. I'm also now interested in what the film versions of "I am number four" and "The Eagle of the Ninth" are like.
Day Three - Wednesday 11th
Day three heralded our first day of assisting in sessions and the two sessions we helped out in were both in areas we weren't qualified to instruct in. The first was keelboating, and, in the afternoon, multihull-ing. Both were fun. In the keelboats I went with Martin, another familiar face, and I just helped out. They're like large dinghies to be perfectly fair and apart from a few minor differences it went well and smoothly. No one was doing ay instructing, it was more of an experience-thing for the kids instead of a lesson. In the afternoon me and Tom were together in a powerboat, all I did that afternoon was sit in the powerboat. Which was surprisingly good fun, just to be watching and smiling. So that was all good. In the evening I went down to Newport for cell and saw everyone again, which was great. We also went down to the youth cafe for a bit and I said hello again to some other friends. Then we went back and had "cell proper" with question of the week and everything. We finished late as we'd started later and I found myself once again cycling back in pitch blackness (other than my light) at about 11.20 at night. I got in at about quarter to twelve and was very eager at that point to then jump into my bed, which I promptly did.
Day Four - Thursday 12th
We were with the same group again today, and there is something that I didn't mention about this group: they're disabled. It's been challenging but so much fun to be working with them. there are a number of wheelchair users and we've been lifting them in and out of their wheelchairs to get them onto boats and rafts over the last couple of days. The hardest part about it is the lack of response. You can only hold conversations with a couple of them and even then it's patchy sometimes. But don't get me wrong it's been an amazing group, and they were, individually, great kids/young people. Today was a bit of a splurge of activities. In the morning we instructors built a raft before the session began and then we had various kids being paddled around on it. We got some open-hull kayaks out and an instructor and a leader would take a kid out between them. Then there was a bit of dinghy sailing where we attached a tow line to the bow painter of a pico and then, with a five second demo/tuition on how to use a rudder we sent them off, some individually, some with one of the group leaders, for a short sail in the "pond" that is to say the water directly in front of UKSA. Then they'd be pulled back in with the tow rope. It was great fun and we all were switching different activities. Paddling a fully loaded raft around was the hardest thing to do, especially with only two paddlers. The most interesting part was supporting one of the wheelchair users in a kayak, I call "them" that but not because that's how I think of them, just so that I'm not saying their name. We had another instructor paddling at the front and all I had to do was sit with this person on my lap and talk to them, though there was little response and no verbal response from them at all.
It's been a great experience, and I'm really loving it. They leave tomorrow sadly, but as a first-time group it's been pretty amazing.
And then, finally, tomorrow, I believe that I have a day off :D :D Now how to spend it now I have no books.... hmmm.... I'll have to let you know tomorrow...
So this was the first day of the final part/section of our course and we began well: with a familiar face. Steve Jackson, head dinghy Instructor at UKSA and also one of the two instructors we've had nearly all the way through from beginning to end, was our instructor. We were down for just doing a welcome to UKSA etc etc. HOWEVER, as we both have already been at UKSA for months already this was unnecessary and we therefore ended going for a powerboat trip down to Lymington. We spent an hour or so planning out our course, route etc and taking into considerations tides and weather. Then we took out the new coach boat, so far some of the only people to have driven it (to my knowledge). Tom drove us up there, I drove back and in the middle we had lunch. Compared to our normal safety RIBs it is fast... we both managed to get up to 40 knots....... yep, it was well fun and it was good practise too. To finish the day we helped with the site tidy-up which is exactly as it says... make everything look pristine. (some might say shipshape)
Day Two - Tuesday 10th
This was an interesting day. In the morning we had "industry guidance" and we got some help with our CVs and stuff. As we both, however, had pretty decent CVs already there wasn't much to do and we were finished by lunch. In the afternoon after inquiring as to the vacancy of any jobs that needed doing (there was nothing) I spent it reading and finished my third and final book just within the 36 hour mark after buying. That's about a book a day, however, i had finished the first two books in roughly the first 24 hours (26 hours) and I did pretty much no reading on the Monday.... or Sunday morning. reading time was probably... hmmmm.... altogether somewhere around the 24 hour mark. Not bad going... and I'm looking forward to rereading all of them. I'm also now interested in what the film versions of "I am number four" and "The Eagle of the Ninth" are like.
Day Three - Wednesday 11th
Day three heralded our first day of assisting in sessions and the two sessions we helped out in were both in areas we weren't qualified to instruct in. The first was keelboating, and, in the afternoon, multihull-ing. Both were fun. In the keelboats I went with Martin, another familiar face, and I just helped out. They're like large dinghies to be perfectly fair and apart from a few minor differences it went well and smoothly. No one was doing ay instructing, it was more of an experience-thing for the kids instead of a lesson. In the afternoon me and Tom were together in a powerboat, all I did that afternoon was sit in the powerboat. Which was surprisingly good fun, just to be watching and smiling. So that was all good. In the evening I went down to Newport for cell and saw everyone again, which was great. We also went down to the youth cafe for a bit and I said hello again to some other friends. Then we went back and had "cell proper" with question of the week and everything. We finished late as we'd started later and I found myself once again cycling back in pitch blackness (other than my light) at about 11.20 at night. I got in at about quarter to twelve and was very eager at that point to then jump into my bed, which I promptly did.
Day Four - Thursday 12th
We were with the same group again today, and there is something that I didn't mention about this group: they're disabled. It's been challenging but so much fun to be working with them. there are a number of wheelchair users and we've been lifting them in and out of their wheelchairs to get them onto boats and rafts over the last couple of days. The hardest part about it is the lack of response. You can only hold conversations with a couple of them and even then it's patchy sometimes. But don't get me wrong it's been an amazing group, and they were, individually, great kids/young people. Today was a bit of a splurge of activities. In the morning we instructors built a raft before the session began and then we had various kids being paddled around on it. We got some open-hull kayaks out and an instructor and a leader would take a kid out between them. Then there was a bit of dinghy sailing where we attached a tow line to the bow painter of a pico and then, with a five second demo/tuition on how to use a rudder we sent them off, some individually, some with one of the group leaders, for a short sail in the "pond" that is to say the water directly in front of UKSA. Then they'd be pulled back in with the tow rope. It was great fun and we all were switching different activities. Paddling a fully loaded raft around was the hardest thing to do, especially with only two paddlers. The most interesting part was supporting one of the wheelchair users in a kayak, I call "them" that but not because that's how I think of them, just so that I'm not saying their name. We had another instructor paddling at the front and all I had to do was sit with this person on my lap and talk to them, though there was little response and no verbal response from them at all.
It's been a great experience, and I'm really loving it. They leave tomorrow sadly, but as a first-time group it's been pretty amazing.
And then, finally, tomorrow, I believe that I have a day off :D :D Now how to spend it now I have no books.... hmmm.... I'll have to let you know tomorrow...
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