So its been a pretty up & down summer for me at home...
When i got back from my travels in India & Nepal I was struck down by some nasty disease which played havoc with my stomach. After a few visits to the doc, they figured out it was a tough strain of giardia & had to get advice from a specialist for some strong antibiotics.
It took me almost a month to get back to being healthy, if somewhat underweight. But i eventually started work lifeguarding at Raglan on xmas day! I was happy to be back working on the beach at last, and working xmas day is nothing new for me now. Raglan is a cool place to be too - a little town by the sea, with great surf & lots of good people around :)
We didnt really get busy on the beach until January, but then we had some really busy, dangerous days - good fun stuff for us :) One action-packed week we rescued about 25 people & spent hours & hours trying to stop people getting into dangerous areas too. There was even one guy we rescued who couldnt feel his legs! But after a while resting & warming up, he was ok again. phew!
I had a bit of free time during the day usually too - to go for a swim or surf... and one day in particular i was riding the lifeguard board & got into a barrel & got someone taking a photo too! one of the highlights of the summer i reckon :)
I had a not-so-happy surf incident back at my home beach tho - Sunset Beach, Port Waikato. We had been out bodysurfing some medium size waves and i was the last to come in to the beach, but when i caught my wave & went to roll out of it, I rolled up a bit too much & whacked my knee into my nose! I heard it go crunch under the water & then there was all this blood coming out :( lucky i wasnt too far from shore then so i could get back in while holding my tender nose with one hand. After an hour or so and a few ice cubes, the bleeding stopped and i went to join in the party at the surf club and had countless offers from people to straighten my nose for me! Luckily i could evade their drunken attempts and hold out to visit the doctor a while later. Aparently the technique now is a general anaesthetic, which seemed a bit overboard for a broken nose, but what would i know??
That little accident kept me out of the water for a little while again :(
Near the end of Feb there was an annual reggae festival in Raglan - Soundsplash!! Of course i had to get along to that! I managed to get a free ticket too, by helping to make some pieces for artworks around the site - luckily there wasnt too much artistic skill required!
I got to catch most of the acts that i'd been hanging out to see - Katchafire, Black Seeds, Shapeshifter, Kora... and many more bands & djs to groove along to as well :) Yay barefoot dancing on the grass!! :)
After the paid lifeguard season ended in late february, i started working for the surf school here in Raglan. Most of the students are tourists who've never surfed before, but theres a few kiwis too, who havent tried surfing either. Most of them are really excited & keen, so that makes it a pretty fun job :) And i get to live in Raglan a bit longer, while i try to sort out my next overseas adventure....
