Last Thursday 'Ethel' was at Dance Camp at the leisure centre and so the Peerie Man and I were at a loose end. The sun was out and it was quite warm but the wind wasn't really making for a playing out in the garden kind of day. After a couple of hours of what shall we do next, finally a light bulb came on! If it's too windy for playing, it's the perfect weather for flying a kite, and not just any kite, the kite that Grandpa had sent us a couple of weeks ago that I had stuffed into the back of the coat cupboard never to be seen again. It's not that I wasn't grateful for the thought but I have never flown a kite and had no idea where to start. So we dragged it out, along with flip flops and a picnic mat & as the instructions said not to fly near people or overhead cables we set off for the biggest expanse of open sand we could think of, Norwick Beach.
We carefully unpacked and assembled the kite, not easy on a wind day, and set about trying to get it wind born. Peerie Man held the kite high above his head (about 3') and I trotted off down the beach the prescribed 20 metres, PM let go, I tugged on the rope, and NOTHING. We tried a few more times until PM got bored and wandered off and left me standing there with the kite flopping around on the beach like a stranded fish. In desperation I shortened the string to about 10' and ran as fast as I could, dragging the limp rainbow taffeta behind me & WOAH, within seconds it caught the wind & soared straight up, the string unwrapping itself at break neck speed until it was fully unwound, and there it stayed for over 15 minutes, a ting speck of colour in the gloriously blue sky!
After a while Peerie Man asked me to reel it in, I think he was frightened of losing it, so I pulled it down to half height, and as the wind became less intense it began to duck and dive. The artic turns spotted it and came in en masse for a closer look but soon disappeared when they realised it was no threat.
At this height it was much more manageable so with me holding on with him, my little prince took the controls and giggled with pleasure ...
... before running off to play in the surf!
Leaving me to fly the kite alone and wondering why it has taken me 40 years to start enjoying my childhood ...
... and learning to appreciate something a simple as the shadow of a kite.
So thank you Grandpa, you might be over 600 miles and 27 hours away but while we were playing on the beach with your kite, you and the barefoot little boy from your childhood in Malaysia we playing along side us x.
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