Dammit! My life can be so good and so crap at the same time sometimes. I put it down to my mercurial temperament and being recalcitrant, I am a very slow learner. This morning the sea looked much like this and we had a wonderful time, just the two of us for a while, surfing with the local dolphin tribe. They hung around for about an hour, some of which was spent under my board with me on a wave, and the rest diving under us and generally milling around and showing off. You can't help but smile. They seem to seek us out when they are in the mood and were even grabbing pieces of kelp and rearranging them on the surface in between waves. They would wait for us to get a wave, gathering speed right under the front of the board and all the way into the shallows.
Of course not being as agile the shallows proved to be my undoing. Dodging some kid on a surf ski I jumped off the board again, and again landed on my injured foot. It was exactly the same injury I inflicted on myself a couple of months ago and it has been ongoing, some days better than others. This time the pain was so severe I was briefly immobilised and unable to get out of the way of some other kid who wasn't looking where he was going, sustaining a cut to my hand. I paddled back out eventually and the dolphins tried to cheer me up but I couldn't stand on the board properly, tried 2 more waves and had to give it away for the day - which will probably turn into several. God, I am so frustrated! There has been a series of events and illnesses lately which just keep rolling on and although I try and remember to stay positive I have to admit it is quite difficult.
BUT, I iced it, watched the midday movie feeling sorry for myself, will go and get some physio this time and try and be patient. If any new-age hippie tells me there is a valuable lesson in all of this I will strangle them! I don't really want sympathy either because I am too angry at myself to deserve it. Instead I would be grateful for inspiring tales of injuries and difficult times that others have overcome to remind me that these things do finally come to an end.
image: http://pix.alaporte.net/pub/Australia/New+South+Wales/Byron+Bay/
