In other news..

I am now a escatic wannabe types!! Ever since I have enrolled into a white water Rafting and Kayaking instructor/guide course, I dream of being this brave tiny little instructore guiding rafts through sharp icy waters and ravines and falls-someday I will.

Apparently we are being trained in setting up and guiding rafts and kayaks,roping techniques, commands, navigation, flipping the upturned rafts and getting them back into position, saving fellow passengers if needed etc etc. But all I seem to do is dangle around the raft like a drunk frog-scrambling to get my ground (in water?!), leaping from point x to point y in the most dignified(NOT) manner, grunting away to glory while reaching out for ropes far beyond the reach of my tiny pudgy hands and setting a perfect example of 'what not to do'.

Forget saving others lives, I can't manage to save my own skin!While learning to flip the raft with ropes at perfect angles( I never knew trignometry could spoil such a fun sport), I ended up with the raft falling bang right on top of my head pushing me into the water while the life-vest simultaneously bobbed me upwards. O.U.C.H!! The raft was air blown and huge. I never knew something with just air in it could bring such an immense impact. I guess this is the closest Ive been to a bomb blast - bleddy my head almost burst with the intense pain and the impact.Our trainer told me this has never happened in the last 3 years since he started training- bahhhh!!

Inspite of training in the protected environment of a warm pool, I seem to invent new methods of making the safest of conditions potentially unsafe.When we start off the icy cold waters in a couple of weeks time, I am sure I will be setting 'misaals' of a different kind :P

Paddling away as an one time passenger on a raft is no doubt fun. But being a guide and taking up the responsibilty of the entire raft and the passengers is a different ball game altogether. Added to this the adrenalin flow of guiding a raft through a ravine or a fall-Ah! I just cannot wait for that day :)

Very soon, I want to able to do this...



and this..



(Pics courtesy-BEWET)