Jeri day seven

Day seven already - God, I feel like I've hardly got started. Good job I'm here for three weeks not two, she says smugly.
Time to talk about some people. Many of you will know that I was slightly concerned before I came out here that I wouldn't meet any fellow Brits, or connect with the other clients, who I rather imagined might be, well, German. And I'm sure it's my problem, but I imagined I wouldn't warm to the Germans..
Well, it's a jolly international crowd out here. There are indeed Germans, who seem perfectly pleasant; there are also Swiss, Italians, French, Americans, Dutch. Norwegians, Portuguese or Brazilians of course.. you get the picture. I haven't heard any Russians yet.
 As for Brits, when I was standing in the check-in line at Heathrow, a queue for three TAP planes, none of them to Forteleza, I heard the couple in front of me mention windsurfing and Brazil.  I introduced myself, and they haven't managed to get rid of me since. They're Andy and Ali, in their 30s I guess. Andy is a very experienced sailor and all round adrenalin junkie who used to work at Bewl. And he's a PR photographer by trade, so we've something in common there. He's hugely positive about everything in a very heartening way and I've been turning to him for sailing tips and encouragement. Ali's a heart specialist from Bournemouth and clearly v sporty; she's an intermediate sailor and sticking with it, despite the challenging conditions for someone who only learned to waterstart a fortnight before she came. The other couple we hang out with are John and Ali, again, from Australia, who are on a year's tour of South America.
Today we met some new arrivals; a bunch of good ol' boys who sail West Wittering; Les, Phil, Paul and ...another one whose name I haven't learned yet. So that's plenty of folk to share the day's sailing with on the beach.
Each morning I generally book a shady lounger in what I call 'masters' corner' which is a bunch of guys about my age and older from various localities who clearly come here every year. One chap in particular is a strapping ponytailed fellow from Greece who obviously must get great sailing conditions there all summer, but still books an entire week in Jeri every November, when Greece has no wind. The lingua franca of the beach is English, and they start the day boasting politely to each other about the exploits of the day before, not only sailing but also nocturnal. It's quite amusing to eavesdrop.
The film last night was great. It was the premiere of the film, Minds Wide Open with free caiparhinas and popcorn, and producer Andre Paskowski was there (correcrt spelling this time.  About 300 people showed up to sit on the grass and watch it, I reckon. There were sequences in Maui, Sinai, Sylt, Lake Garda, Indonesia and some heowge barrels in Cape Verde. Nice music, great photography, some funny little interlude sequences also - a worthwhile purchase, I would say. Andre made a little speech at the end about how the film was made, how the sailors had to help pay for it themselves, and how he wanted to be able to go along, but spent most of the time in hospital fighting leukaemia. It was his first time back out on the water in Jeri this week, and his voice cracked when he said he had been called back to Germany unexpectedly next week for more chemo. Poor fella. He looks like it's taking it out of him. We've watched him sail for so long at his second home in Dahab. It's a bitch.  Hope he beats it.
Today's sailing report - C+ good effort. I managed about three runs and three walks, which sounds just the same as yesterday. The significant difference is that I went out later in stronger winds and also used a freestyle board with a tiny fin, forcing me to think hard about my technique to get planing. So, fairly pleased; becoming competent. Gollito was out again today, drawing crowds to the waterline to watch him wring several more transitions out of each  freestyle manoeuvre than everyone else. I saw him do 1080 a few times. His presence also prompts the local dudes to greater daring, so there's lot to see.
A manyana