Finally....some swell

(Seaside on Monday arvo: rider unknown)

Well it took forever to arrive but we finally have had some waves. I borrowed a board off a friend of mine and have been trying it out the last few days. I surfed Kakou on Monday with just a few out and got some pretty fun waves. Some of the lefts had really good shape and the board went really well. It was pretty cold though, just 6 degrees!!! And then yesterday, before work, I surfed a little at Maruki, down by the hospital, and got some fun ones, too. It was only 4 degrees!!! As you can see from the picture taken by friend and Pro Longboarder Takashi Sakuma, I was well wrapped up with loads of rubber; boots, gloves, a hood and a 5/3mm POP wetsuit, so wasn't too cold. But it definitely takes a little getting used to, surfing with all that crap on. It makes you feel awful slow and clumsy which is pretty frustrating. Can't wait for winter to finish and some nice warm spring weather!!Then last night at work, something snapped and my body just started to freeze!!! I couldn't stop shivering and all my joints started to ache. I was stressing a bit and expecting the worst, maybe swine flu or something. I came home a bit early and rugged up in bed with the heater on full-bore. I had a resting heart rate about 100 bpm and a temperature of 38.9!!! Fortunately though, it all seems to have passed as I feel almost back to my normal self today. Thank goodness. The waves will have to wait until I feel more confident in my health. Hopefully the swell sticks around and the sun will come out.

On another note, one of our new neighbors (across the street) got a bunch of squid from the wharf and gave us some. They were all pretty decent size so we had to split over two nights. After I cleaned them up, Aiko made 'Geso Age' (deep fried squid tentacles) and fried squid rings just the way Ken-san does at Donya. they were sooooo good!!! Then we wanted to try something new, so we tried 'cookpad.com', a Japanese recipe website recommended by one of my High School students, and this is what we cooked. It was pretty easy and tasted great. Thanks Nozomi