I grew up in a tropical island no larger than 710km². Surrounded by water coast-to-coast, my childhood memory should be filled with plenty of beach fun, which it was. When I was a toddler, my parents had a house by the beach. It is just too bad I was only a toddler and the house was so far from everything else that for the sake of their school-going children had to sell and move someplace more central. Nonetheless, my parents would pack us a big picnic lunch ever so often and we’ll all go riding by the beach. However, as we all grew older and wanted less time with the parents, beach going stopped. My friends weren’t quite into hanging out at the beach. We were more of the sit in air-conditioned cafes and chit chat crowd.

Having spent two summers here, 2009 being my third, I have never been to the beach in the summer. Believe it or not! However, this year I sure had my share (but not fill).

Eli and I have been taking advantage of the sizzling summer days to relax by the beach on our Salvation Army treasure – a huge water resistant blanket (queen-sized) that does not collect sand or absorb spills, which we picked up on one of our impromptu trip to Jericho Beach earlier this month.

We even bought a kite to complete our beach fun! Mind you, shopping for a kite is harder than you think it is! Where do people buy kites, really? I couldn’t figure out a place. The local supermarket was not a good choice because although they had kites, the collection was laughable. Dollar-store? I don’t know, we didn’t get to check that out.

Kite flying is also one crazy activity. I never knew how difficult it was to fly one! I remember my brother made a kite as part of his school assignment back in the day, and we attempted to fly it in the garden. It worked, except the string was too short.

Nonetheless, Eli and I spent whatever merciful sunny day we could at the beach. We got ourselves a tan, built sandcastles, jumped into the freezing ocean and flew one huge flamboyant kite.