On the Baltic coast

I went on Saturday with family Ilsters and their friend up to the coast about 30 kilometres north and slightly east of Riga. The beach and dunes go on and on, and there's barely anyone there. It was a cloudless day with a cool, late spring breeze by the shore. Not too windy for frisbee and breezy enough to let the strong sun soak into the skin without overheating.

We then headed inland and after a late lunch found our way to the summer toboggan run ... the stainless steel track is a full circuit, it must be about a kilometre long, including the ascent section. A ski-lift system drags you 200m up the 50% incline and lets you go at the top having accelerated you to about 20kmh for the twisting 800m back down. There's a simple hand brake system and the challenge is to use it as little as possible and lean into the curves. I had five rides ... very entertaining, especially getting the speed up to make best used of the banking on the bends.

We watched 3 episodes of the 'Kumars at no. 42' in the evening ... a DVD I'd brought with me, I've been trying to catch up on programmes I've never seen before (I haven't had a telly since they started bombing Afghanistan) ... this format had me in stitches, especially 'Ummi' -- Grandma Sushila -- played by Meera Syal; she has the same knack in improvisation as she does in writing, for side-splitting bluntness.