This weekend was about as good as they get.

Saturday: I got up insanely early to go out to the Air Patrol. I was supposed to see this guy about doing some training. When I got there, there had been some sort of mix-up over days or times, so I didn't get to talk to him after all. However, it turned out not to be a wasted trip, because the airfield is way out in the countryside in an area where they have a lot of racing stables and horse breeding. Driving out there and back in the early morning was awesome. It was quiet and still and cold and a bit misty, and the air was wonderful, and on the way I got to see lots of beautiful racehorses being galloped past for their morning training, and several paddocks full of this spring's newest foals. I could tell they were spring foals because they were springing. :)

By the time I got back it was a glorious, scorching hot day. After doing boring weekendy things like laundry and Christmas shopping, we got a sickeningly unhealthy and delicious lunch from a bakery and ate it lying on the grass on the front lawn. Our resident tui was up the pine tree, as usual. Tuis have one of the biggest vocal repertoires of any bird, but this little guy is mentally defective and drives us nuts with his constant repetition of "whoo whoo whoo whoo [pause] WONK". It goes without saying that this avian moron is the *loudest* tui in a ten mile radius, and drowns out all the others which are singing nicely.

Since the day wasn't taken up with flying after all, we went out for a sail in the afternoon. It was only the second time the boat had been used since the big engine-recondition and everything. It's working brilliantly. We motored slowly for an hour because we have to run the engine in, then we turned it off and sailed. It was great.
I got a bit sunburned. Unfortunately it was a no-penguin day, an unusual thing in summer, but then we were only out for a short time. Even penguins sleep late on a weekend sometimes, I guess.

Whew...not even up to Sunday yet. We got back from sailing just in time to do a lightning change of clothes and get to the Marine Rescue Centre where we were helping out with the annual Coastguard Light Parade. This is a Christmas event put on for underprivileged kids. Almost every boat in the fleet shows up. Each boat's crew decorates it to within an inch of its life with Christmas lights, balloons, tinsel, glitter, Christmas trees stuck to the roof, inflatable Santas, loudspeakers blaring Christmas carols, or anything else their warped minds can conceive of. Santa himself came in on the front of one of the big boats, which was decorated with reindeer on the sides and a big red sleigh. (Unfortunately, one of the older Coastguard guys, Godfrey, missed out on seeing Santa. He turned up later in the evening, IMMEDIATELY AFTER Santa had left! Of all the bad luck!) Each of the kids got a Christmas present from Santa, and then we got them and their families onto the decorated boats, and did a circuit of the harbour until it got dark and all the lights came on. We went through all the downtown waterfront area and people were all along the wharves to watch. It was so much fun. I took a lot of photos which I'll put on my web page after I get them developed.

After all that in one day, I had to get up early for my *normal* Coastguard duty which was all day Sunday from 9am to 9pm. That was another terrific day but I'll do that in another post.

Brunnen-"unless everybody begs me to shut up after THIS one"G