Day 155 - 27th December 2010

Swimming day 155 – 27^th December 2010

Christmas is over and the New Year blues are starting to set in already! I love Christmas, always have, but I've always disliked New Year. I find the whole "looking back" and "planning resolutions" to be most frustrating and time wasting! When christmas day is done I want to simply get on with life, get back to work and see what the next 12 months bring; I certainly don't want to be "reflecting" on the past or planning the future. And another thing; get the tree down please!! Surely once boxing day is done the tree can come down (ours came down last night in fact!), I certainly don't want to be going to work in january and seeing christmas trees all alioght in the peoples windows!!!

Strop finished and please accept my apologies if any offence caused!!!

Having skipped swimming Christmas day I also ended up skipping it boxing day; although most of the day I felt bad about that. The thing was that the three kiddies jumped in our bed at about 6.30am and cuddled up to us; Jesse basically clung to my kneck and was not letting go. Funny though how missing swimming when I had it preplanned in my head still brings on the guilt’s. Snuggling with Jesse though is a treat not to be missed.

This morning however, which is a bank holiday (as is tomorrow), I was very ready to get back to the beach and in the sea; even the pain of the cold isn’t putting me off; in fact it may be the feeling of the extreme cold that has become the drug and is making me miss it; odd! This morning at 8am I was at the Arch wondering if I was going to swim alone, when the door swung open and in came Little Bob; soon followed by David, Paul & Martina. Gotta love this place, nothing keeps us away it seems. The sea was very busy with “herds of white horses charging around” (gotta love these corny descriptions!) and the temperature was probably the same as the last few days, around 3.5 degrees. The air temp was up a bit to around 3 degrees and there very little wind, so all in all a tad easier than Christmas Eve in terms of coldness. The swim itself though was simply a case of wave after wave hitting you plus a strong tidal pull to the West, so not really much swimming going on. I’m not sure how long we stayed out there, but I would hazard a guess at around 5-6 minutes – certainly not long enough.

Having got home I found the kids all up and running about and being extremely annoying! To say that they received too many presents for Christmas is an understatement and it seems the more a kid gets the worse they behave. Next year we may be suggesting they share some with kids who get less than them; certainly won't do them any harm that's for sure. Having now spent the last hour basically telling them off non stop and threatening to take away their new toys I am desperately ready to visit my new friend the sea and submerge myself in her peace and quiet! Tomorrow I plan to stay in the water for longer, all day would be good! Also bring on wednesday and a return to work. Having got through Christmas with relative ease I am now finding myself becoming a New Year grump; this is not good!!

I think a long swim followed by a large whisky would do the job; but unfortunately I only have two hopes of that, Bob Hope and No Hope!!

I'll be nicer tomorrow I promise!