Click on the above link to see Fluffles.

Fluffles

You might wonder who Fluffles is and why we gave the latest member of our sailing family such an unusual name.

Here's the story.

In Wallace and Gromit's latest adventure movie entitled 'A Matter of Loaf and Death', there is an evil woman called Piella. She has a beautiful if slightly nervous pet poodle called Fluffles. Fluffles catches the eye of Gromit and he can't help but fall in love. Fluffles, too, falls in love and carves F - heart - G, in a tree outside of Piella's home. Can we call it puppy love? Usually, Gromit saves the day in the end and in this case, Gromit and Fluffels both save the day. Who doesn't love a happy ending!

Well, here is another happy ending! Back in November, Michael and I decided to buy the kids an Optimist sailing dingy for Christmas. It arrived the day we were leaving Huahine to sail to Tahiti, a week before Christmas, so we had to store it somewhere on shore without the kids knowing.

left it wrapped up at the home of a family who lives near the beach where we are moored. Katy is Zoe's art teacher at the College, Manu is a documentary film maker and their son, Namo, is a buddy of Liam's. They also have an Optimist and I think seeing Namo sailing around the bay is where Michael got the idea to get one for our kids.

We thought we would just store our new addition at their house for a couple of weeks, but it turned out that it was to be longer, so we went to their to ask if they would mind. The first couple of time we went, they weren't home. Each time, we made the kids stay in the car (the car came with the house we were living in over the holidays). They couldn't understand why they had to stay in the car. What was going on they wanted to know. Endless, insistent questions followed every time we went; why can't we come in, why are you going there???? In the end, I told them we were getting a puppy. A puppy! Of course they didn't believe this!

I said it knowing they would never believe it and thereby stop the questioning. It didn't work out that way. They became more and more intrigued and confused. I had to be careful not to get their hopes up about a puppy because it was possible that Liam and Maia might begin to believe we really were getting one (Zoe already knew). I began giving them more and more details about the puppy; he was white and he had no fur or legs. I told them we didn't need to feed him or take him to shore.

It wasn't until the day we went to pick up the optimist that it transformed into a kind of truth.....sometimes we personify, or in this case animal-ify objects around us - like 'Gromit'. So, when we went to get the optimist the idea of 'Fluffles' suddenly popped into my head. Yes, this sailing dingy would be our puppy, Gromit's new little friend, Fluffles!

I went to pick up the kids at school and they asked about the 'puppy'. I told them that she was waiting for them at the boat. We had 'Fluffles' sort of hidden on the opposite side of Gromit so only the tip of the mast was visible as we approached. When we came around the back of Gromit there were whoops of joy when they saw the new addition. They were so excited! They sailed all afternoon. It was great!

Please check out the photo album entitled 'Fluffles' in the Photo Gallery (in the sidebar on the right just above the world map).