feeling a moment

Sometimes I try to imagine myself back in London (land of freezing fog right now) and I think to myself that I'm not sure I belong there anymore; I'd miss the sea and the mountain, the wind and the sky too much. This past Christmas was my first away from home - I've said often to the guys that people grow up slower in England. I had a good one - my flatmate Genie, two of the guys from work (George Michael and his good friend Jossity Joss) and GM's girlfriend came over. There were ostrich steaks, roast chicken, vegetables dauphinois, salad, wine and other stuff I made which I forget. What I do remember was that my guests enjoyed the food and were happy. As I told them, in England, the tradition is to stuff yourself silly at Christmas and then fall asleep in front of the TV, and I'm happy to say I maintained that tradition as we watched Love Actually (to remind me of home!).

Work has been rolling along nicely - or stickily as it is rather hot now working under the sun all day. I've finally had a proper couple of days' rest - my first since before Christmas so I'll be back to full strength tomorrow. I'm never sure if the guys actually like me or merely put up with my presence but I think it's leaning more toward the former now - hooray! Each crew member gets a reputation of some sort - the one who always sleeps, the one who works really hard etc. I think mine is the one who knows where everything is on the two yachts (so if someone is looking for the shifting spanner, for example, they will come to me) and the one with the really good snacks :P I came to work just as Jossity and his other good friend Yaku arrived and they took a look at my two lunch boxes and said, ''Great, what are we having today?''

I must have had my frowning face on the other day because Aaron said to me, ''You're very quiet today, are you alright?'' and he added, ''If you're not happy, I'm not happy" and proceeded to ruffle my hair (well, my hat anyway, as I always wear my sailing hat when working). Little gesture, meant a lot. The other funny thing I noticed is that people make jokes about race a lot more openly than would be normally acceptable/comfortable in England. Unlucky was saying something to me the other day which prompted the response, ''Kiss my ass!'' to which Unlucky then replied, ''No, it's too white'' amid shrieks of laughter (mine).

Once, we were on Spirit and Big Smiley said to me, ''Come on E, tell us a joke then,'' and the only one I like and can remember is the one where there are two tomatoes in the fridge and one says to the other, ''Brr, it's cold in here isn't it?''. The second tomato turns to the first and says, ''I didn't know tomatoes could talk!''. Unlucky and Big Smiley laughed and we sat for a bit longer as we were sailing along nicely. Suddenly the breeze picked up and Unlucky shivered and said, ''Brr, it's cold - I'm going to get my coat,'' and went to the cabin. Big Smiley said, ''I didn't know Unlucky could talk!'' hee hee

I have also been holding my temper with more success. Progress!