Day 336 - Tuesday 14th September 2011

Another windy start to the day, although no rain and slightly brighter. It was again a low tide, so the waves, whilst frequent and strong had no height to them.  A few at the arch this morning, including the return of Little Bob and Lindy back from their summer hols.  

Big Bob and I decided to try to go around the pier, however the fatal mistake (although not fatal of course) was to try to do it from middle of our beach.  The tide was so strong that it was simply not possible; the only way would have been to to the the end of the next beach along (towards the west pier) and then swim out deep and head around our pier with the tide and then land on the girly beach; David and a couple of others did just that.  Bob and I however spent about half an hour swimming on the spot, being bashed by wave after wave.  I found myself swimming closer to the shore than Bob and eventually found a short window of fewer waves which allowed me to motor forward, albeit slowly, and get half way along our beach near the buoy and close to the other swimmers.  Bob however, along with another chap had to go through the pier to the girly beach and land there; this shows the power of the tide; almost impossible to swim against it.  A fantastically good workout though, as well as being fun (if you like that kind of thing!).


Afterwards I had a short meeting at work and then coffee at Browns with Robin Cousins – he of the ice skating fame.  He is one of our Patrons on the Starr Trust and he has amazingly agreed to be an Ambassador for our CHOCS project (if you get the chance it is well worth looking at www.starrtrust.com and going into the CHOCS section).  It is such a fantastic project and one we are aiming to take National and then International.  Having Robin Cousins as our ambassador is so fantastic, it could really help promote the project.  

Afterwards it was back to the office for another meeting, then off to the gym for an hour with Ross (now my arms are really aching) and then into the outside pool for an 45 minute speed swim session (need to be really doing more of these now).  Then back to the office, where I am now, for the last 20 minutes of the day and then time to pack my briefcase with the reports I need for Burnley and Blackpool tomorrow – not looking forward to an 18 hour working day tomorrow; but needs must (oh whoa is me!!!).