moving on

---

I must confess- I'm suffering from Bloghaustion.

I lack even the energy to attempt to come up with some sort of interesting story. Even when I have had energy to write some story in the past, the story has always come off sarcastic and vaguely critical. This has never been my intention....

But I still feel a certain amount of blogligation towards my mum, who I think makes up 50 % of the hits on my stats page.

But this has whole funk has given rise to an annoying prang..

Eailier this week I went on a 4 day surfing trip to Westport, Washington, with Nathan and some of his friends- one of which, Zak, was getting married the following week. It was his stag / last-weekend-with-the-boys sort of thing.

Anyway, around the camp fire one night Zak told us a story about when he was little his dad give him the task of dispatching a chicken with an axe.
When the moment came for the deadly strike, he chickened out, and pulled the axe up sort - and succeeded in breaking it's neck, but not killing it.
The poor chicken ran around with his head bent over double, and Zak said he never got over the expierence and it haunts him still.

I said knowingly "that's an interesting story to bring up 4 days before your wedding. I think that popped up from somewhere in your subconsense. It sounds like performane anxiety. Having performance anxiety issues regrading your wedding night"?

Well, that got the jokes rolling about Zak's wedding night and he was the butt of every one.....

And, so, tonight, Zak's wedding night, bloghuastion has given me the very thing I was hasseling Zak about - performane anxiety.

I just don't think I can cut it as an interesting and intelligent blogger - let alone a blogstar like those on the front page.

So I am going to try and regale you with some babble with how cold the surf was at Westport.

It was damn cold! Think Pichilemu cold, but without the saving grace of it being a foreign language cold.
I lasted about 40 minutes the first day. I was even in a 5-4 wet suit with hood. I looked like a dis-coloured sperm and very quickly fled from the cold like all good sperm does.
The second day I lasted less. The third day I didn't even go out.
The 4th day I was out for about 30 minutes, but that was really cut sort due to the pain my bruised ribs was causing, which I got from trying to teach the gringos rugby leauge.

Wow, I couldn't even strech that out much.....so, moving on...

Rod came up from Virgina to visit Nathan and me. Well, truth be known he was up visiting his girlfriend from Chile, who is studing English near Portland. He brought her along and we visited Seattle and Camino Island. Camino Island is not really much of an island (it is separted from main land USA by a small creek) and not all that interesting - the most interesting thing we found to do was throw stones at a dead crab on the beach.
Rod's girlfriend is a mint chick really, and has a hint of the Westport sea about her. When it came time for them to depart I went in for a Chilean kiss goodbye, but she was all gringo hug, and I had a small awkward moment. God, I miss Chile...

Exploring Seattle, the highlight there was finding a latin market that sold Guardana - a tasty little beverage that we (at least they) hadn'd had since we where together in Brasil last year. There's nothing like firing up taste buds to bring back memories of good times.

The latin market was just by the Pike St Markets. The main attraction at the markets seemed to be some guy throwing fish.
The Hempfest was on that day near the Pike St Markets. It seems to me that the last people that you'd want promoting the legalisation and use of hemp are people that actually already like hemp. But what do I know; here's a guy, surrounded by a sea of cameras, throwing fish...

Speaking of fish, I went salmon fish in the Puget Sound on Nathan's father's boat. It's a cool boat; it looks commercial and therefore implies it means business.
We fished for 6 hours but caught no Salmon. I caught I shark, exactly the same kind as in my blog 5 blogs back, when I was still in NZ. Back then, on that trip, I also caught a mariposa that I interpreted to be some great cosmic sign...but this time I just caught a shark; so I guess I'm staying single.

Anyway, it was really awesome hanging out with Nathan after a years separation. I now feel all detoxed from camp...

So I am moving on to Canada....

P.S. I might add something about falling asleep during a Gregorian chanting session in a church in Seattle, long boarding, and Honey Buckets, but now I am going to bed.

---