Wednesday, November 19, 2008

My mom and her friend came in town for the weekend and I spent some time showing them around Sydney, including taking them on a lovely sail around the harbour. Well maybe it wasn't so lovely. . .The wind was at about 25 knots, when it gets to about 30 knots you wouldn't go out because stuff just starts breaking. There are 3 guys on this boat, Ang, me, mom, & Jan. I barely know how to sail, mom has only been on pleasure cruises, and this was Jan's first time on a sailboat. Welcome to sailing Jan! It was treacherous, a race, and the skipper was a very excitable creature. Jan puts on these yellow, rubber fishing pants with suspenders. She is then made to act as counter weight which means crawling on her belly from one side of the boat to the other when we tack. This is fantastically hilarious! The pants she has on makes her really grippy so she can't gracefully glide over the top of the boat. She is heaving herself across the top like she has velcro on her belly. This obviously slows her down which means everyone else is already in place and able to watch Jan ungracefully clawing herself from one side of the ship to the other. This is not fun for Jan even if it is wildly amusing for everyone else. She decides to go below deck and find herself a life jacket. She doesn't return up top until the cruise is almost over. During the middle of the race something on the front of the boat snapped off leaving our headsail flapping in the wind. This makes the skipper very anxious. He is yelling at everyone on the boat, "I want that F*!#er fixed already, what the F*!# are you people doing!" This continues for some time, while the man gets a wrench from below and then fixes the thingy. The skipper is also yelling at other boats on the harbour in this colourful manner. The skipper is yelling at my mom in this colourful manner for accidentally resetting the race clock. Basically, the skipper just likes to yell the f word. The ladies are thinking mutiny. I am soaking wet and cold because I have been acting as the balance weight and huge waves are crashing over the side of the boat. I am also concerned that Jan will not be forgiving me for this any time soon. Thankfully, the wind was so strong that the race was finished quickly, right before the lightning and rain started. Our boat did come in first, not that it made my mom or Jan feel any better. I supposed I shouldn't have tricked them by suggesting that we get some snacks and drinks for the sail. They thought it was going to be a pleasant ride while dining. They ended up being good sports about it, even treating Ang and I to a nice steak dinner.


CANCER UPDATE

I went to the doctor yesterday and he has scheduled my surgery for Dec 11. It will require a couple of stitches and they should come out after 10 days. The dermatologist (Simon) said that it was a very rare cancer to have on your face (something 2 other dermatologists had told me). Simon said that he only sees one patient a year with this type of cancer and therefore he wanted to get the pathology slides from the lab in TX to confirm the diagnosis. He went ahead and booked the surgery because he is fairly sure I will need it. Surgery should take 4-6 hours, 30 minutes in surgery and then an hour to analyze the skin layer. If there is cancerous cells in the layer, then Simon will take more skin. Its only under local anesthetic so I should be just fine the next day, apart for some minor swelling and bruising. All for the bargain price of $3,000!

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Up next:US of A, the Bahamas, and moving to Sydney