Well I’ve now been publicly blasphemed by Mike for not having recently updated my blog; well for once I have a pretty good reason in that I’m just back from a two week windsurfing holiday in Vassiliki which is one of the top European spots for windsurfing located on the Greek Island of Lefkas in the Ionian Sea.

For those not already in the know Vassiliki is a small, sleepy fishing village situated in a large bay flanked by a mountain range which leads to a regular cross shore thermal wind phenomenon known as “Eric”. Vass consists of a whole host of windsurfing clubs, two infamous bars – the Tunnel Bar run by a Rambo look alike and the world famous Zeus bar - as well as a number of stunning beaches such as Porto Katsiki, voted as one of the best beaches in Greece for its limestone sandy beach and the most turquoise of waters and Egremini.

So the first week of my holiday at Club Vass was Women’s Week much to the annoyance and jealousy of the male contingent which essentially means that a bunch of thirteen fairly extrovert women, three hot female instructors and Lucy Horwood (UK pro windsurfing star) assembled for a week of intensive tuition all rounded off with the odd glass of Ouzo and some great fancy dress outfits at the Club Vass Tarts and Vicars themed barbie.

The second week was a more sedate affair although “Eric” blew more strongly and more consistently which meant some excellent windsurfing and a healthy array of cuts, bruises, bullet marks and stretched muscles many of which were sustained at the Bond Night Fancy Dress party.

As a sport windsurfing tends to be a pretty close knit community and I’m always bumping into random people; this year’s trip was no exception and we were joined by the owner of our local windsurfing shop Cygnus Sails, a Rock Promoter that we met at Kefalos 8 years ago, as well as bumping into the Beach Manager from Sunsail whilst wandering through Nidri and an old Oxford Brookes University friend that I hadn’t seen since graduation a fair few years ago now …

So I’m now well and truly back into the wacky world that is the Microsoft Academic Developer Initiative and working hard on the launch of the Imagine Cup UK 2005 and our Back to University Campaign so watch this space for further details. In the meantime I really must get around to booking my next windsurfing holiday however the hardest decision will be deciding on location – Dahab or Margarita?