Wow...it's been almost 4 days since I published something. Anyway, I was supposed to slow down over the weekends. I did! Not the best positive sign on the seas but yup, it was basically windless and non-happening as opposed to the windy hype on a couple of weekdays. SATURDAY: It started off as gusty with patches over the waters, though apparently visible from the dark wrinkles on the surface and lapses of 0 knot wind regularly. We had planned to practise our starts, considering the 4-5 of us making up a good number. We had initially sailed around, following Coach Q, desperately trying to sail at his super high upwind angle and speed. I had fallen victim to a good tip for a wrong time. My harness lines were at 7 fists distance from the boomhead, which Chewy swears by as reasonable for monsoon winds. I've never had my harness brought back so far , only to a max of 5 and a half fists. This explains my frequent catapults and slam-dunks where I'm the object and the ball. It hurts & most of all, you could lose your contact lens in the water as a result of the SUDDEN slam into the water or having suddenly dive into the water in all peculiar patterns in the most awkward instances. However, I was trying out the wrong thing at the wrong time, and could not get my FEELING back on this equipment today. I could not feel the ONE-ness I usually felt with the winds, waves & equipment. I felt totally unaligned with the Centre-of-Effort(COE) because my harness are so far back. In light winds, the COE is far forward and it steadily shifts aft the sail when the wind picks up. Hence I felt the non-alignment. However, it proved the point when I met sudden gusts and felt the harness positions near-perfect, able to feel no pressure on my front arm as well as back-hand. The stronger the wind, the more you have to PUSH the boom on your front-hand. And trust me, even a super strong forearm cannot endure long periods of pushing the boom, manually resisting 25 knots wind. You'll soon find yourself crippling especially at the arms, forearms, shoulders and basically, EVERYWHERE. In fact, 7 fists could be just the minimum guideline, according to Chewy, who's often a better strong wind sailor than me. Generally, as SJ tried so hard to explaiin to me something which I was also trying to explain to him, girls have more problems in strong winds relatively than in light winds. Coz girls lack strength which is so required of in strong winds. To be able to resist suddeng 25-30 knot gusts take a lot out of a sailor, and EVERYTHING out of me. When one is tired from resisting than attacking, this leaves no reserves for the sailor to think tactically. This is why a sailor has to be fit and strong AT ALL TIMES. The fitter a sailor, the more he can keep his focus on tactics and not having to think about how he can last through more pumping. Back to training, the wind didn't show up at the most crucial moments, when the buoys were laid and sailors neatly assembled near the coach boat. Sighz!!! What's new?! We did a windless sausage only to witness a miracle manifested by our Coach Q who weighs 85 kg and yet smoking all of us to a spectacular finish in this 1 knot wind. I'm totally baffled by this man who could do magic...he's easily 10--20 kgs heavier than all the sailors here but not giving mercy when it comes to boardspeed. I figured he had superb control of his board and sail, which is all the more important in no-lightwinds. I started near him, towards the pin-end of the start line which is indeed a good place to start because I had wanted clean air(which I got) coz everyone was crowding near the boat. It does not make sense coz the current was already strongly pushing us down Changi's direction. Starting nearer the pin-end enables me to make use of the current more as well as get the clean air. However, his superb board control just smoked me, and he's not even pumping. Afterwards, we practised a duck gybe plus turning into upwind. I even missed the buoy....not generating enough speed. Coach Q's manouvre was fluid and quick. I shouted to him to do a slow motion again coz I had blinked my eyes. aha!!! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 1994 Asian Games Gold medallist!!! I now know why I'm not there yet! ahaha...We went back to shore after we found ourselves mosving backwards and sideways more than forwards. I did 4 sets of pull-ups, 4 reps each set, after much boo-ing from the boys, who of coz easily did 15-20 reps each time. SJ was telling me how weak I am to just do 4 blah blah blah...I got so angry but it did help me finish the set. He did that on purpose. He could do well as a coach than a music teacher, I betcha. I also did a couple of bench pull (standing version) at 20 kgs, 15 reps. I did one for strength endurance, 10 kgs, 60 reps. Some triceps ex and others just to make myself feel like I've done a lot. It was shopping time after that. We had a drink outside for a while, chatting with Haro and Coach KY for a while, and coming up with silly ideas as usual. Then it was off to our favourite Herbal Chicken escapade. Boy, was it crowded...we circled the carpark thrice before getting a space. We ordered a whole Herbal Chicken, Fried Oyster and dumplings. We spent half the evening devouring the chicken, drowned in our own perspiration and happiness. Then it was off to Sim Lim Sq to shop for my notebook. I saw 3! Yup, most of the shops were closed as a result of the time we invested devouring the chicken. I was deciding between buying a new desktop or a notebook. A notebook will come in handy in my travels in future while a desktop will be kind to my pocket. I'll see how. Then we zipped down to IKEA to buy foto-frames for the 8R fotos from the Sydney Olympics. I bought 6 glass frames while Chewy bought 3. I also bought a 4R metal frame. We hunted around for a CD rack and finally we found one really cool one with a cement stone as the base. It could contain 104 cds and it's high, silver-greyish in colour and I didn't have to take long to decide. We bought one each. That, I must say, was my best buy of the night. I placed the silver frame on top of the rack and can't help thinking how matching the colours were, my hi-fi, rack and frame. SUNDAY: I struggled to wake up at 7 a.m. to go to church and failed miserably. My eyes just could not support my heart's desire. ahaha...I went back to sleeping and am now drinking my second cup of coffee. I had slowly overcome my fears of assembling electronic and home decor stuff. My break came when I overcame my fears and paranoia to assemble my hi-fi all by myself. Next, I had fixed the channels on my tv all by myself too. Now, I'm super competent in sawing off battens on my own. aha!!!! The pride of a girl who was innately technically-paranoid! I still display the initial irritation and frustration if I have to fix something, be it on my equipment, home appliances or computer. I simply hate it and am paranoid of it. I would postpone it long enough for my patience to run out b4 I seek help. Anyway, I hope there'll wind today, if not, I'm bringing my running shoes there as a back-up. Stay Tuned!!!