Still alive!

I received mails and phone-calls from people asking if everything is OK, as there have been no new posts on the Kayakwoerden blog since a week or two. Thank you, I am fine! Though I must admit, the combination of 9-5 work, family life and the organization of the Vlieland Seakayak-meeting is a bit much lately. Vlieland with over 60 kayakers from 3 nationalities, with classes from beginner- to advanced-level is quit another cup of tea as the Spiekeroog-course earlier this year. Just the number of 60 makes communication and logistics far more complex. I don't do this alone: Sien and Paul are great helpers. Tidiness however is not my strongest competence (I am more the chaotic type) and I have never been at ease with a big amount of mail on my desk. I am constantly fearing I make a mess out of it and forget to answer the most important ones... That curious kind of "Guust Flater"(Gaston Lagaffe)-frustration is annoying me all my working life, and now the same frustration has come into my beloved kayaking-hobby ;-) It's always a big relief for me when I have got the mail done. Today there was an awful lot of mail to be done for the Vlieland meeting. Luckily my daughter Lieke helped. She is so accurate! I am quit confident we have got a good job done and all the participants receive exact the letter meant for them tomorrow!After this hard indoor work it was about time for a bit of sport so I took the Koga Miyata bike for a ride. Biking is a great way to relax the mind. After some kilometers biking I reach a steady-state of mind - the best condition for reflection and for creative new ideas. I love to bike. After 5 minutes it started to rain and after half an hour I had a flat tire. This was my day! Really: I am doing fine!

Btw:
1. It's really touching some people I have never met in real life are sympathizing with my virtual kayak personality. Long time virtual reality was beyond my imagination. Now I am living a "second life" myself... And it's only very thin line between the first and the second life!
2.It feels really cosmopolitan when on the other side of the Pacific jokes are made about your little injuries...
3. I have added the blog of the Sebago Canoe Club to my favorite weblinks: this club futures a real informative and entertaining blog with more and less serious topics around kayaking, environmental and social themes.
4. Gaston Lagaffe is the comic strip originally created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the comic strip magazine, Spirou, and named after its main character. Earlier this year there was a exposition on the work of Franquin in Bruxelles. The website of the exposition is still open. The official website of Franquin: http://www.franquin.com
The cartoons shown in this webitem are published in the Dutch edition of the Album "Le bureau des gaffes en gros"