Surf's up

A couple of weekends ago I had a reunion with five of the people I met on the Flying Kiwi trip. We went to Croyde in Devon for a weekend of camping and surfing. It was awesome! It was so nice seeing those people again - one had flown over from Dublin and another had biked there from Italy, the rest of us are UK-based. Everything was so easy and we just picked up where we left off when we last saw each other in March. Amazing really, that we know relatively little about each other yet have become firm friends, with our NZ adventure binding us together.

I loved being under canvas again and managed to sleep well on both nights, which is always a bonus when camping. The mattress, proper pillow, alcohol and sleeping tablet combo worked a treat. And surfing was really good fun. I didn't think it'd be for me, but I surprised myself and even booked into surf school again on the Sunday. Just goes to show (once again) how futile it is to worry about things before they happen. You just need to suck these things and see. I managed to stand up quite a few times. My problem was that once I stood up I was so chuffed with myself that I started celebrating - hands in the air, knees definitely not bent, screaming and shouting and laughing. That's not really surfing. I then normally jumped off the board to avoid falling in. But I think I've got to grips with the basics now; just need to perfect my technique. Lots of practice required...

T would be astounded that I even tried surfing. I'm a bit scared of the open sea and certainly don't like a) waves going over my head and b) going underwater unexpectedly, both of which are hard to avoid when you surf. I definitely think a bit of T jumped into me that night last July, before he faded away. I can't explain it any other way. If that's what happened then I'm pleased and very grateful to him. I'm seeing the world with new eyes. With T eyes. And it's a great view.

There was a really clear sky on the Saturday night with very little light pollution, so as we staggered back from the pub we did a bit of meteor spotting. It's the time of year to see them. I vividly remember seeing the meteor showers at the same time last year in the dark Northumbrian skies. They will forever remind me of T.