22/9 – No sunrise really this time.

Mmmm….night in Paris, with dinner and hotel paid, two queen size beds, double balcony, view of Disneyland and the lake just beside it. Could have been quite nice, if it wasn’t because I was really supposed to be somewhere totally else…for example in a Boeing 747 half way over the Atlantic Ocean. Air France seems to struggle a bit with their statistics, not to mention technical issues with their planes at the moment. I have no idea where the spare parts must have been shipped from to cause a 12 hours delay, rather smells like crew issues here I think?

Almost forgot, to make the evening even more exciting, we practiced some evacuation exercises at Charles de Gaulle. Of course this took place in between the events of handing the boarding card to the nice Air France lady and getting the food and hotel vouchers. Wouldn’t surprise me if the drill was all because of a stressed and somewhat distracted person, who just happened to forget his or her luggage in the wrong place. But I guess rather once too many than once too little when it comes to evacuations.

21/9 - Time for a change again.

September could be a lovely month. On the good days you can enjoy the clear and crisp air on a calm morning, take nice long walks along the water and still feel the warmth from the sun when you leave the shady parts. However, a September weekend could also be described with the words: Essen, Germany, canoe polo, camping, 11 degrees, rain, wind and a constantly wet towel. In other words, a whole weekend where the main objective was to avoid getting: 

a) Pneumonia. 

b) Bladder infection.

c) A nasty cold that would stick until spring arrives. 

d) All of the above.

Or, if trying to look on bright side, an exercise in optimising the procedure of: 

1) Take your Gore-Tex boots, woollen socks, Gore-Tex pants, jeans, long johns, woollen underwear, Gore-Tex jacket, sports jacket, woollen jersey, thermal shirt and hat off. 

2) Put your wet bikini, wet neoprene shorts, wet rash guard, wet neoprene west and wet neoprene socks on. 

3) Run to your kayak and put a wet spray deck, wet life jacket and helmet on. 

4) Get on the water as quickly as possible to get warm enough to be able to throw a ball without ripping every muscle fibre in your shoulder apart.

Of course, the reversed procedure was included just as many times as well in the optimisation exercise, with the extra challenge of trying to get dry enough with the soaking wet towel to put your woollen underwear on. Conclusively, after that weekend of blue lips and constantly being cold, it felt like just the right time for the Southern hemisphere again.

For the record, Denmark gave me some payback for the miserable weekend. After moving the last box to the storage place, returning the rental van at Enghavevej, sweeping the living room floor one last time, leaving the keys in the kitchen and zipping my massive bag up (have no idea how I always end up with so much luggage), September showed me it’s best side: Sunshine, a walk along a deserted beach, fresh – but not cold – air, a windsurfer geared up to the max and people making their yachts ready for the winter in the harbour. Thanks Henrik, for the company during the last few hours in Scandinavia, just a shame I didn’t bring you and your professional skills to Paris.

Até amanhã...or so I thought.