SWE wish you a merry christmas...

And a happy new year!

And now for some more "blog" which I am continually pushing its redefinition to "e-speak for back-log".

Once upon a time not long ago little Lulu was in the land of socialism, suicide and fermented fish guts bought and sold in a tube... I was there late September 2010 visiting a fellow velacita that I had met back in April at the Hyères Semaine Olympique Française. She was the one who, bikini clad, stormed into the Race Committee office and demanded en français that we could rig up and launch my 29erXX. And after a week of tanning in the no-wind event, how could she be denied? So we splashed "foXXy" and sailed over to the 49er race course, cheering the boys as they rounded the windward mark. (Which did wonders for our popularity at the regatta party later that night.) Back on land after the very sunny and briefly windy afternoon we were mobbed by sailor girls in the boatpark who wanted a closer look at the boat - and more importantly, when can they go sail one, and if it will be in the Olympics some day...

I met Hanna after flying from Barcelona to Copenhagen and then taking the train up to Goteborg. We whisked straight to the bar for a friend's birthday drinks, sitting outside under heatlamps and fleece blankets (a swedish standard for such establishments to provide cold temperature accoutrements so you can continue your chain smoking in the winter months ). The next morning for breakfast we ate herring caviar on rye flatbread with boiled eggs on top.

Some sights from Goteborg, Sweden:

fun fact!

swedish seahorse act of 1836 declared all civic lamp posts must display mythical interpretations of the sea creature famed for "stay-at-home fatherhood"

dedicated to dalns le royce h. "dyew" and his r&r career.

honest to cleanliness, not a paint by number, just a point and shoot

at the train stop next to the factory outlet mall where my friend worked!

gettin some civic on, long shadows in an early autumn afternoon.

this autumn leaf creature chased me down the street for 3 blocks yelling in robotronics:

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP GRRRR I WANT TO EAT YOU YOU LOOK DELICIOUS!

thank goodness i'm a *STAR* athlete or I would not be here to tell you this tale.

the end.

feliz navidad!

clockwise from top left:

me, me discussing important issues with locals in front of hagia sofia, me and my mate gracie zipping around sydney harbour, a gorgeous poppy blossom in northern england's hard-earned spring - and did wonders for my daily allotment of joy.

mosquerading in istanbul

two of my very lovely hosts, ismail the laser coach and tugkan the opti coach with myself on our way to hagia sofia (after a very yummy lunch of spicy kafta, salty yogurt milk drinks, and honey saturated sponge cake).

the blue mosque: minaret in g

gum drop bushes and hagia sofia

vertical lines 20 minutes north of spain

swish! 2 points!

building and hill

caballo y su amigo negro

more Oktoberfest

papa lederhosen and baby lederhosen

feasting it up, that is half a duck and a bavarian pretzel

me and some of the young sailors in their "native attire"

oktoberfest

the sights of Munchen during Oktoberfest

finished a 3-day regatta today, after driving down from sweden all night wednesday. had a fantastic time seeing all the sailors I've met this season. and a semi-less fantastic time sailing... the sailing was fun, but I could use a bit more practice on the racing! (I don't spend all my time sailing, you know, and my scores prove it!) despite the light shifty (frustrating!) conditions, the regatta was spectacular, with pork on a spit dinners and live bands rapping in german, and a night out at oktoberfest in the big city...

germany is pretty awesome!

happy landings!

It's been a whirlwind of a week - from Switzerland to Milan to Barcelona - all wind related of course. Spent a long weekend in St. Moritz enjoying mates out match racing (and not eating or doing anything else that would devastate the bank account...) with gorgeous morning runs around the alpine lake and a few dips in the 5 star hotel pool (that I most definitely was not staying at! But my mates sailing the event were). An amazing train ride down to Milano for a day of being a tourist - which means vino negro and il duomo and discussions of zombies, "truth" and the Stanford Linear Accelerator with various American backpackers I met at the hostel, before my meeting with the Milan based sailing company about upcoming regattas.

And finally Barcelona - my best mate from Sydney arrives on Wednesday, and I'm here to greet him at the airport. I'm nestled in with a wonderful sailing family that I met previously in France last April. Everyone speaks French and Spanish and a bit of English, so we are all switching back and forth. Tried to follow a tv program in Catalan... not such a success!

Spent the weekend with at the local sailing club and did some training - apparently experienced the windiest day of the season with huge waves! Reminded me of San Francisco. Felt so at home, especially after such a turbulent week... month... months.

In the late afternoon was on board coaching one of the younger skippers, a "how-to" for steering in big waves, and we launched off a huge one into the air! and I had a less than happy landing against the side of the boat before bouncing into the water. Two days later I am looking rather purple.

The happy part of landing has to do with settling into phase (where are we now 8,000?!) of Lulu's life adventure which will be more sailing coaching, racing the world over. Next stop Copenhagen, Munich, Athens, Istanbul...

Doing our very best to take the "poor" out of self-induced poverty one wild adventure at a time.