Swimming Chronicles 11

Day dawns with alarm at 5 am.There is a slight drizzle and my spirits lift,perhaps the class will be cancelled.I crashed last night at 10 pm well before my normal bedtime of 1am.In a bid to restore my flagging self esteem I went to the gym at 6 pm and worked out with a vengeance.Not a bright idea when the body is not used to such exercise twice a day but it was don't.The spin off is that dinner was a bit of a disaster as yours truly hadn't planned for it and the family is not about to starve for ones indulgences.The plants has to go without water as one was too tired to do the job and the mother had to do without my sparkling company as I was dead beat.Not such a great situation to be in when there is yet another class in the morning.Well i walk at the slowest speed and reach well in time.Once again we are asked to walk in water and hold our breadth etc and this time its a little better.Of course as long as there is support I am all for it.The real test comes when she expects us to push off and swim.Now I am told to open my eyes,keep my head under water,keep my legs straight and hands in front of me.How on earth am i expected to remember so many instructions when i am trying very hard to hold my breadth.The first few attempts puts me at the bottom of the class.I can see patience die on the instructors face and the rest of the class is jumping the ques.They are tired of my constant failed attempts.I decide that I must relax and enjoy it after all I am only aiming to float in the water and hang around in a pool on holiday so what have i to loose.Well i managed some,and found my self in the middle of the pool with no idea how I got there.The water is in my ears so I can hear instructions.I took in a bit of water yesterday which resulted in a bad stomach (considering what muck must be going into it) Today some more water gets in but i tell myself that if the immune system cant cope with this is doesn't deserve to be there in the first place.So I float and my muscles ache.Then arrives a new coach.A hefty man who is busy yelling instructions very much like the actors in the movie "police academy".Well call it woman's psychology but I am suddenly confident.He looks like he can fish me out of the pool with ease so I relax.He is also a little older than the woman coach so can understand what a herculean task it is for older students like us.Strange but i wasn't feeling so bad after all,infact maybe,maybe I may just make it to swimming.The husband said i looked happier so guess that's it.I am still marking days on the calender but i have to see this through.

Swimming Chronicles

When life was busy with work taking up most of my time,I told myself that there were hundred things to do before i die and these had to be done soon (before the old bones protested).Well its two years now since i quit full time work and what have I learnt?.I have become more regular in the gym which thank god is showing some results,then I learnt to cycle,though I still cant manage to cross a busy road on it for fear of being killed before I achieve even fifty of the hundred things.They say fortune favours the bold so one fine day after having looked at the swimming pool for ten days,I decided that I must leave the safe confines of Terra firma and venture into deep waters.In one mad moment I has paid up a thousand five hundred quid (princely sum considering how inconsistent I am),went and got myself a swimsuit which wonder of wonders holds the fat stomach in in such a manner that I can see my toes (though once in water all i can hear is a beating panicking heart and no toes but tiles).Thus armed I spent a restless night oscillating between fear,anxiety and various other emotions none of which did anything to my self confidence.Awake at five ,the husband agreed to walk me to the pool almost like seeing a child off to school on the first day.It was a good idea to get hold of a friend as we turned out to be the oldest in the class.The rest of them were young and agile.The coach then set about making us walk in the water,easy enough when one is clinging to the sides of the pool but not so easy when one is not.Certainly not when the deepest end of the pool is nine feet and the thought that no one will even notice me at the deep end is certainly putting me at a deep end emotionally.Breathing she says has to be through the mouth and my lazy lungs protest bitterly so much so that i am bobbing up like a gold fish for air long before the rest of the class.I manage to float but the true test is as always kept for the last.I am asked to kick myself off with hands in front of me and to hold head underwater.Not a great multi tasker at the best of times,this is asking too much of me.I try very hard but end up looking like those giant frogs in Discovery channel or even a duck.My legs I notice are above water and I am floundering to get balance.Oh dear what have i got myself into I am not sure.This is the first day and i am trilled when the bell goes.Unlike the more fortunate friends who had help with floaters to aid then this is learning swimming the Indian way so no props,and no support.I clamber out of the water to suddenly feel my body like dead weight.I curse myself for not having learnt these skills earlier but now that I have another eleven days to go I shall mark them on a calender to make it easier.And so tomorrow is another day....