Treading water

I think this is my third or fourth week of swimming regularly. I can't tell you the difference it is making to me, it making me feel so much better, physically and mentally. This week at home has felt like I have been, to carry on the swimming theme, treading water. Going nowhere in particular, just keeping my head above the water. Some days it has felt like I've literally been swimming underwater, I have felt so unfocused and slightly disoriented. When I was little I would love to swim underwater, darting across the pool, jumping up and startling people. I'm not enjoying the experience much these days.



Today at the swimming pool, for the first time in weeks , I felt completely relaxed and was able to drift off to somewhere so pleasurable that I almost forgot to count the lengths (so very important to Little Sister) and was surprised now and again to catch the odd tune coming over from the other pool where the women's aquarobics class was being held, I had completely forgotten my surroundings and it was just what I needed. We all need a little break from reality don't we and the thirty minutes or so in the pool today gave me just that.



I go to a women only swimming session at the pool and I can't recommend it enough. Women of all shapes, sizes and ages go along and I have never felt less self conscious. Some of the pool has been sectioned off into lanes but I prefer to stay in the "anything goes" section. After just a couple of weeks faces are familiar, women of my age accompanying elderly mothers for a swim (what a good way to spend some time together), younger women and a couple of very elegant older women who seem to go for a good old chat rather than a swim. Today as I swam around them I caught snatches of their conversations - Jack Russell terriers. Sunday roast lunches, Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret, were just some of the topics. It made for a very interesting, and slightly surreal few seconds each time I swam past them. They started off swimming but after a short while they gave up and walked up and down the pool, sometimes waving their arms in the air as if doing the breast stroke. What was interesting was that every woman in the pool had to swim wide to avoid them and nobody minded. We were all as interested in catching their conversation and gave each other knowing smiles as we passed.
Now if only everyone in life was as kind and generous (well I know you all are in blogland!).



Am I alone in loving that moment when you push off from the side of the pool and literally glide across the water - it's a beautiful feeling. The sun was shining through the glass panelled roof and as it hit the water I remembered long hot sunny days when I was a little girl when my parents would take me to an open air pool in the countryside. We seemed to spend days there. picnics on grassy banks, splashing around, eyes sore with chlorine, never failing to fall into the stinging nettles by the changing rooms and that long car drive home where you were oh so tired and yet oh so happy, with the prospect of what seemed like endless days of the school holidays ahead of you.



Ladies I'll be going next week if you care to join me ...