I suffered a very bad burn on my shin last night. No thanks to an accidental knock onto the mind-numbingly hot exhaust pipe of a swanky, yellow Harley Davidson. It was my teammate’s bike and because it’s not drilled into my subconscious that I shouldn’t stand near the exhaust pipes of motorbikes, I leaned it a bit too much when I was talking to my teammate who was standing on the other side of the bike. Boy, did it sting. But I still carried on with dragon boat training despite the sting.
Anyway, I now have a patch of burnt skin about 5cm long and 2.5cm wide, with blisters. Ouch ouch ouch. It looks awful! I went to see the doctor this morning and she said it will take about 3 months to heal! And it will likely leave a scar. Sob. I still want to wear shorts and short skirts you know!!! 🙁
In other happenings…
Went for a “makan outing” with fellow foodies on Tuesday night. We went to Shatin Kitchen at Geylang Lorong 27. The last time I went to Shatin Kitchen with my family, I thought the food was fantastic so that was why I was really looking forward to dinner on Tuesday. However, the food on Tuesday turned out to be very mediocre. I was disappointed. Go here for the pictures.
The boat blessing on Saturday went well. We named the blue OC6 Lokahi [Lo-kah-hee], meaning “Unity” in Hawaiian. The idea is that as a club we want to paddle as one. Also, whenever you’re in a boat, you have to paddle as one, else the boat won’t move. Not as fast as it should in any case. The yellow OC6 we named Lea [Lay-ah]. In Hawaiian, Lea is the Goddess of Canoe Builders. Because the OC6s were bought over from a women’s club in Surfer’s Paradise who believe very strongly in the spiritual element and traditions of the sport, we decided we should retain that feminine quality and hopefully the boat will excel with that feminine touch.
Our first canoe, a white-coloured one, is aptly named “Kinohi” [Ki-no-hee] meaning “Beginning”.
At the blessing ceremony, we all had to link hands and form a circle around the two canoes. We had flower leis draped on everyone and no talking is allowed during the ceremony. The person who blesses the canoe then says some prayers (in Hawaiian) and then puts some ginger tea leaves on the nose of the canoe. He/She then proceeds to put some tea leaves on the heads of the paddlers who are to paddle the canoe out.
I was one of the 12 paddlers that day. After the canoe blesser finished putting the tea leaves on our heads, we paddled the canoe out in silence. At sea, we gave an offering by putting a slice of bread into the ocean. We then paddled back to shore.
And so that marked the end of the ceremony – we have welcomed the boats into our family!