Coffee Fast and good intentions

 

Every time my husband goes away I take a coffee break. What that means, is that I do not call in to any of the coffee shops for the duration of the time that he is not home. This gives me at least thirty minutes or maybe an hour per day to catch up on MY list of things to do. I am trying to cut down on my own coffee intake and will try to manage on two cups per day maximum. The reason being that because I don’t drink black coffee, I add a heaped spoonful of creamer and on the first two of a normal day and add a spoonful of Manuka honey because I believe it is good for me. A training friend of mine who is a doctor, and not backwards in coming forward as far as adding an honest opinion is concerned said recently ‘Belief goes a long way’. I also believe that if I have as many coffees as I have been taking in the course of a day, that the one spoonful twice per day could possibly slide to being four or more spoonfuls per day and so the combined total of calories from the extra creamer and the extra honey could and ok lets say it; probably is the reason I am heavier than I would like to be. 

Add to all that, that when Steve is home he likes a dollop of ice cream after what is in fact a nice healthy diner e.g. chicken and salad, then all goodness is shot down by the presentation of the ice cream bowl.

Whilst Steve is away there will be no more than the declared maximum of two coffees per day. There will not be any ice cream for dessert; there will also not be any glasses of wine at all. I will replace all the bad food things with fruit, the wine will be replaced by mineral water and the creamy sweet coffee will be changed to a cup of tea with no milk or sweetening. I have a selection of fancy tea that is made up, one cup at a time served black and not too strong. 

Starting tomorrow, there will not be any meat or even fish for dinner. I will eat salad. I will eat vegetables that are grown above the ground and some eggs. This is not an attempt to become a vegetarian because I do enjoy meat dishes. It is simply that it is a diet that works for me.  

I do intend to slowly lose the weight that I have gained in the last couple of years and feel that if I wish to continue running, that I have to make it easier for myself. One can carry a few extra pounds swimming and also riding a bike but it makes it very hard running. Being my age is not helpful either, I recognise these facts and need to try to make my lifestyle that means so much to me just a little bit easier. I step on the scales in the morning.

Lucifer and all the Angels

 

These past few weeks I must admit to finding Tom Ellis playing the lead in the TV show Lucifer very funny and most entertaining and he is splendid as Lucifer Morningstar. If you look that upon the internet, he is described as the most beautiful of angels, the shining one, the light bearer, bringer of the dawn. Well this Lucifer may not be everybody’s idea of what an angel looks like but I am finding poor old Luci most acceptable as a bedtime story before we turn in for the night. It is funny and I will make all sorts of allowances for something that may be far from perfect, but that makes me smile and leaves me with a warm glow of amusement. My first laugh out loud moment; was when he said to the young woman who had got life all wrong, “Don’t tell the Devil made you do it because I know he didn’t”. That is just one of the devilish one liner’s that make very light stuff of this particular portrayal of the Prince of Darkness. Of course he knew that, because he is the devil. When I was a child I always told my parents that the Devil made me do it whenever I was caught being naughty.

 

 

 I do love a good angel brought in as a character, being somebody who has several times now stayed overnight in the room in a hotel in the Black Forest where it is claimed that Dr Faustus stayed and is where the Devil came to claim back what was an outstanding debt. Years ago I went to the tiny and scruffy little cinema The Palladium in Littlehampton. They were showing Dr Faustus with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. I went on my own because nobody else I knew wanted to see it. The little cinema was none the less full with townsfolk who did want to catch it. At the moment where Mephistopheles appears to Faust in a vile guise I jumped out of my skin and grabbed hold of the man sitting next to me which in turn made him jump too.

 

 

 

There have been lots of Angels as characters in movies over the years I loved John Travolta as Michael and how lovable was Nicholas Cage in City of Angels and Tilda Swinton was a great Gabriel.

 

 

The first Angel my daughter and her little friend Helen encountered was a very young Tony Robinson in a children’s’ nativity in the Chichester Festival Theatre where I think he was an angel called Chicago in a delightful new show, Follow the Star. He was an apprentice angel sent to tell Mary the good news but he kept getting things wrong. He was lovely in that, long before he became Baldrick. Here below is the Angel Earl in Saving Grace.

 

 

The Parking Angel is one introduced to me by my daughter who like me often needs this most useful service. This Angel is most helpful I find when spoken to nicely. 

 The Parking Angel 

Not by chance I have driven in to town

Necessity calls for responsive obedience

Drivers behaving worse than a circus clown

Each in greater need face a stern frown

Only to themselves holding allegiance 

Nearing the destination of the day

Awareness is set a different test

Focus changing from traffics array

Instead a search to park and stay

My method varies from the rest 

No spaces anywhere in plain sight

Help is needed and I offer a prayer

To the Parking Angel on winged flight

Who seems to know where is right

And guides me to a spot newly there 

She only helps her faithful few

Respect the only payment we need

To the feathered apparition due

Whilst some at the car park entrance queue

Quietly thanks to her I will concede.

 

 

Archangel 

Will there be an angel above to watch over me

As I pursue my continually active path

Will my angel be pleased with what in me they see?

Will my enemies ever see my guardian’s wrath? 
 

My angel knows me well but I can only dream

As to how my heavenly partner would appear

I fit in with the almighty’s well planned scheme

Or do both God and angel think me very queer 
 

Ultimately I am left with a freedom of will

Making the best of each branch of life’s tree

Just try my hardest my dreams to fulfil

As I launch myself onto an earthly Grand Prix 
 

Hold on in my mind to what I think is the theme

Now ride the waves and heaven help me steer

If I’m wrong let the angel send a warning beam

And check the reins for a path more austere 
 

Demeanour be approved as I ride adventure’s sea

Protect me with your sword held high in goodwill

Your armour glinting as I run before you free

Send me your warnings via a plucked wing quill 
 

Angel tresses of gold reflect in sunlight gleam

Mighty wings wafting my spirit with good cheer

Pray for my safety and find it in my celestial team

With perseverance push and hope the way is clear 
 

Fight for success ‘til the end of the mission see

Gather interest now from my training hours drill

God give me strength I ask on bended knee

Push on doggedly my focus kept on icy chill 
 

The Archangel rides on inside my poor soul’s sphere

And has my back as I feel each tender muscle scream

Then at last the end is in sight and to the finish veer

To complete our work that so many think extreme

 

 

 

 

Somebody that I used to know…. Me

 

This morning I pulled our very first photo album down from the top shelf in the back room where it was gathering dust. I was looking for a particular memory. The one that I was searching for escaped this mornings search but I pulled a few others out to re-photograph to use for my Daf’s Diary page today. My life has been everything except boring! There has been variety galore and I found evidence that whatever changes I have made in my long and mostly happy life, that I have worked at those changes. When I have taken up a new hobby or pastime I have tried to improve as much as I can, so really there is very little to regret, though of course as the song goes ‘Regrets I have a few but then again too few to mention.’ So whilst I am dragging songs out of the air, here is another one: ‘Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.’ And that is who all of my former selves are, part of my foundation, part of the base on which my present self is built, but left behind as part of my interesting memories yet mostly they are memories that I still hold dear; held forever in my heart.

 

 

Steve and I celebrated our 37^th wedding anniversary in May this year though we have actually been together for nearly 40 years. After our first year of moving from place to place frequently, about a dozen times in our first year together, we settled down into a farm house with a couple of acres. There, apart from me learning gradually about Steve’s Antiques export business, we started working on a bit of farming in very small way. We both loved keeping the animals; we farmed rabbits and also kept a goat, chicken, a couple of pigs and a Shetland pony that Steve drove in a small trap that he bought.

 

 

 

 

In that same period we grew most of our own food. We added too many cats to count, a dog and some birds. It was a bit of a mad house. Some years later our circumstances changed and the number of animals we kept gradually reduced. Now we do not have any animals at all apart from my daughters dog Louis now and again, when she and her husband take a holiday abroad. We sadly lost our last few cats with a virus and three of them died quickly one after he other. It hurt us both so much that we vowed not to have any more animals. So far we have stuck to that. 

 

 

We started going on ski holidays and worked hard at improving our skiing. We still go on an annual winter holiday to Switzerland and love every moment of those short days. I have not skied for about five years because the last couple of times I hurt myself, which in turn stopped me from indulging in my triathlon activities for too many weeks and so I chose not to take that risk any more. Steve still goes out on the slopes but only on nice days now because he is more wary too. He has also ridden the Cresta Run a number of times; well pretty much every holiday for a while but it was so horrendously expensive, more a rich mans sport. We have both taken a few rides on a four man bob, and loved that too but again just a holiday treat, in St Moritz and I think the other time was in Igles in Austria.

 

 

The one shot we took at white water rafting did not go well! After very little training…. About thirty minutes in fact, we set off on the River Inn with a bunch of other amateurs and only one guy with us who half knew what he was doing. In the middle of the white water section, we hit some sort of big bump and everybody on that side was catapulted out of the boat. I thought my number was up when I could  not find my way up to the surface, even though I did have a life jacket on and could swim. Thank the good Lord and all the angels; I was eventually able to pop to the surface coughing, spluttering and bleeding a little. I was thrown a life ring by a passing boat and hauled in. I still have a small scar from that experience and have not tried it again. Steve was also thrown out and looked for me for a long time and seeing nothing began to think that he had lost me forever. He could not believe that I had been held under by swirling water that long and survived; I don’t understand that either.

 

 

The folk dancing and the guitar classes were at about the same time and I loved them both. My daughter Jakki joined me on the guitar lessons. The Folk Dancing club meetings were on Friday nights and Steve would drop me there on our way home from work. I would arrive tired out from a hard weeks work and when he picked me up at 10pm I was completely refreshed, it was such great fun. I have loved dancing my whole life. As a child my mother went out to work just to pay for my dancing lessons. I did Ballet, Tap (English and American), Acrobatics, Greek and National dancing all through my childhood years. As a teenager I took up Jive, ballroom and Olde Time dancing and I belonged to Worthing Musical Comedy Society and was often seen in the front row of the chorus then. They were very happy days, I had a lot of fun then.

 

 

Way before most of the other stories here in the period of my first marriage, I took up riding with my little girl who always loved horses and had several of her own over the years.

 

 

I still enjoy my moments of activity and get plenty of those with the swimming, biking, running and walking that is still a big part of my present life; but the farmers wife, the folksy singer/player, the skier and most definitely the white water rafter are just ‘Somebody that I used to know’. The old me; the person I was once long ago, but a person I am happy to have been.

 

 

Human Contact Please

 

What is all this business with text messages? What’s wrong with speaking to people on the phone? Don’t give me that it’s the cost factor because it seems to me that there is plenty of money around for the social obsessions with coffee and wine and cocktails. 

What is the reason? Do we not want to actually converse with each other any more? Does it prevent arguments it you have to tap it out on your phone? It beats me. I like to call people and I really love it when a friend or family member calls me but that is happening less and less. 

A couple of days ago a friend just popped in to us at home. It was so unusual that I thought Steve was talking on the phone and didn’t move from the work I was doing on the computer until I clearly heard the other guy’s voice. He had not phoned to say he was coming and had definitely not texted. 

This week I have been trying to make arrangements for us to meet Steve’s cousin Sally so that we can hand over her birthday present, her birthday being over a week ago, but it seems so difficult to find a time that suits everybody. There have been umpteen PMs on Facebook and we still have not fixed anything up. 

These days there are more holidays, that is for certain and one family is away for a while and then when they come back the other group have to go on a work trip. That would be us, we are either away working or there is an event that we have competed in. 

It there really so little time? Where has that time gone? Or is it that there is a wave of anti social activity?  My daughter lives two miles away and I have to send a dozen messages before I can negotiate a mutually acceptable time to call round to see her. Yes, she is very busy. She has a sports massage business and is also trying to build a photography business. I am busy too. I still do all the computer work for our business and have other little chores thrown at me. And sometimes I don’t have a car because Steve has taken it to work as he has today because our little van is at the mechanics garage having work done on it. I could go round on my bike and that it something I do do sometimes, but they are very often out when I get there. 

We are all too busy, and that goes for Steve and me too. Trying to run a business as we are both getting older, trying to fit some training in, trying to still have some fun, go to the cinema or going to the theatre and still eating sensibly in a world where fast food is an option taken by many. 

I wonder if I am the only one left in the world who likes it when people pop in un-announced. It is probably a couple of years since my daughter just turned up at our home, without it being a birthday. Whenever it was, I don’t remember. This year I have tried to make sure that we meet at least once a month for dinner or just for a glass of something. It has been hard to find times that suit us all. 

When did the world get so un-friendly? Only our sports friends are seen regularly because we all meet at the pool or in the café after the run. Perhaps it is the lack of exercise that makes people avoid each another, not enough energy to talk. 

When I was a new mum of twenty three years old, living in a village eight or nine miles away from my parents and friends from my single days, and I had not even dreamt of having any driving lessons and could certainly not afford a car. So I would push my baby girl in her pram; and that was a big old fashioned pram and not a conveniently folding pushchair, I walked the mile to Angmering Station and got the train into Worthing, where I walked about a mile or two at least to my mum and dads house. They were always pleased to see me and my gorgeous baby girl, especially the little one, and they expected me to make that journey a couple of times per week. 

It all seems such a big deal these days to arrange a little get together just for a short chat and a catch up on how the world is for each of us. I may start a personal war against the text. Starting with me, should I stop texting just because every else finds that the only way to communicate? Maybe! The next time somebody says “Text me,” I will say, “I’ll call you”, because I am sure that they will not call me. 

I get mountains of emails. I send mountains of emails. It’s not the same and I am missing proper friendship, missing the love.

 

Rant over. 

Signed  

Mrs Moaning Minnie

How was my day? ……Busy!

 

Above: My lovely skin thirty years ago before I baked it in the sun racing.

It was to be a busy day even though I have had to miss the 6.30am swim session at Freedom Leisure Littlehampton this morning. The reason for this is that despite any rumours you may have heard from my husband, I am not Super Woman or an Angel or a Witch or The Bard of St. Moritz, all of which he calls me from time to time, therefore I cannot be in two places at once. A couple of days ago I had a phone call from somebody at Radio Sussex who did a general check up to make sure that everything they had on file about me was correct. Then they told me that there was to be a Festival of Older People, 50+ during this week and would I be able to talk to one of the presenters on Monday 26th, today. I said I had a few things to do and one appointment at 14.20 but otherwise I could move things around to suit. He said would 7.25 am be OK? That was my early swim out of the window then, but my swimming is good right now and it will not hurt to miss one session out of the four per week that I do; I am not so addicted to training that I have any fear about missing one session because life threw a trick shot. It is a mistake to try to refit a lost session in somewhere else because that would take the science out of most programmes.  

When I did get the live call from Radio Sussex it was just a brief chat with Neil Pringle. Still there was enough time to hopefully make a few older people think about trying to do a little work out. He ask me if I thought that doing so much exercise was bad for an old person’s body like mine and I was able to say that it was much worse for you not to do any exercise. 

 

 

 

I took Steve to work when he came back from swimming; he had tuned in to Radio Sussex in the car park at the pool and managed just to catch my few moments on air. On my way back I squeezed in a couple of jobs before going to get my nails done in the town centre. Sitting still whilst James does his best to make at least my hands look pretty at Divine Nails, is sheer torture and is the longest I ever sit still, being an Olympic class fidget. Getting the nails done is one of the few things left to me that I can make look nice. After that, it was home to get a few jobs done for our business that Steve had rung me about.

 

 

 

 

My doctor had referred me to the Sussex Community Dermatology Service. This is one of the new centres that is part of Worthing Hospital. It will be about my eighth visit to dermatology for treatment for sun damage on my face, caused of course, by all the time spent in blazing sun during long triathlon races during the twenty six years of my utter pleasure and pain pursuing the sport I love. Today my appointment was with Dr. Cherng Jong. I have seen a number of different doctors but this is the first visit to the Worthing Laser and Skin Clinic that must be a new unit in the ever expanding Worthing Hospital. There were several little things on my face that needed to be checked, I had my fingers crossed. Dr Jong was utterly charming and helpful and understanding. He explained everything to me and made sure that I fully understood. He freeze burnt a little blip and talked in detail about the sun damage to my face.  He said that I should go back in six months.
 

 

 

 

Today was the first time ever in all my years that I have been called from the waiting room as Daphne! I suppose the world has moved on in the same way as waiting staff in coffee houses and restaurants call a couple, ‘Guys’. So here is my advice for today: Put the sun block on Guys!

Autumn Equinox

 

This week is an important time for me because, poor child of summer that I am, it means the passing of the Autumn Equinox. The Sun is on its way South, and there is no doubt about it any more, no denying the facts. Here in the heart of West Sussex with a sunny day making a lie of what I am saying; we are closer to mid winter than we are mid summer. Climate change is has caused some confusion. There are plants flowering that should not at this time of year and in the UK we are seeing a wider variety of butterflies than was ever the case. My neighbours Camellia tree is already in bud and that is just plain wrong. A few of my spring bulbs are showing through the soil and that is more wrong (I feel tempted to say wronger still, seems quite comfortable)…. That must definitely be a senior moment. 

Well anyway, it has been a lovely if a bit blustery day today but the temperature remains warm; I am wearing a summer dress and have the window and doors open.

 

 

 It is Sunday and that means there was a Sunday run this morning. However since, just as the leaves are on the turn and the September Equinox has passed, so we are thinking of winter training and starting to prepare for the triathlon season 2017. We have already put our names down to compete in two races that are both qualifying events for the ITU World Championships in Rotterdam is September of next year when we have not yet said a full goodbye to this month.

 

The two races are the Deva triathlon in Chester that has been one of the qualifiers for World Championship on a number of occasions in the past. The other one was a pleasant surprise to Steve and I because it is less than ten minutes from our home. Arundel Triathlon; this is a splendid choice, because it is a challenging event where the swim is in the River Arun, which is the second fastest flowing river in the country. The bike ride is hilly and also a pretty route that we are so familiar with that it is laughable. On the outward section it even passes right by our business premises before turning on to the A24,  the main road from here to London, passing close to local beauty spot Cissbury Ring, then a couple of km later past Chanctonbury Ring. On the triathlon route in just crosses the South Downs northwards then turns West running along the undulating north side of the downs through Storrington and past Amberley Castle before starting the climb back over the downs toward Arundel to finish.

 

The run section is also very pretty but fairly hard. After running along side the Castle moat in Mill Road it turns up into Arundel Park at Swanbourne Lake and the lodge there, (which has the best cake in Sussex if you fancy a tea stop as we always do of a Sunday.)  From there, it is off road and uphill until a turn to climb a steeper section up toward the Hiorne Tower that is passed a little way on the right. The last two kilometres are downhill, coming out of the park close to the Cathedral and along to the Castle gate at the top of the High Street with a steep run down through the shops and café’s where the second lap starts.

 

 

 

Steve and I very much enjoyed doing this old favourite route that we have run in training umpteen times. We will now include at least one lap of it into our weekly training during this winter along with a turn or twenty around the bike route. Steve and I marshalled at this race last year or the year before and it is as a lovely race to watch as it is to take part in. The Raw Energy team will be putting this race on as they did the Worthing Triathlon that we also took part in this August just past. Both, great local events showcasing a beautiful part of this country of ours; the sea, a wicked River Arun, the fabulous South Downs plus Cathedrals, Castles and ruins galore.

 

 

Flight of Fancy

 

1.

Being the slowest swimmer of the group I had been given a ten minute start

Then I would not be left alone in the sea too far behind the rest of them

Somebody to sight on and hunt down, when they came to depart

I felt like a flower selected for a buttonhole, snapped off at the stem

2.

Dropped off on the beach with my friend Christine as timekeeper

 My husband, our coach, stayed with his flock to park and prepare

Stepping painfully on the pebbles I slipped in slowly never the leaper

As the sea raised me gently off my feet I offer up a silent prayer

3.

The temperature felt considerably colder than the previous week

The current, taking its usual high tide swirl back along the shore

Toward the river Arun, England’s second fastest river at its peak

 The tow would be with me but the wind would not, that was just sod’s law

4.

The wind was directly from the west and causing a bit of a swell

Strangely for a dull day a large umbrella and small beach camp there

An angling event from the beach, one per breakwater far as I could tell

 I headed further out for safety not wanting fish hooks in my hair

5.

I got into a nice rhythm fairly quickly and settled in for the task in hand

At the best of times, even in still water I rarely swim a straight line

 With big waves and a washing machine action swirling up the sand

I stick my head down and swim for twenty strokes and check I’m fine

 

6.

Each time I found I heading off diagonally to the French coast

Having to straighten up and try to keep in line with the shore.

I breathing to my left means that I was looking to sea for the most

Honestly at my worse that day trying to a straight course to claw

7.

I have another reason to swim somewhat further out from the waters edge

I hate swimming over the submerged breakwater underneath

A huge barnacled monster reaching up for me or so it seems I pledge

After all my swimming years it makes me jump, I should just bar my teeth

8.

An imagination like mine can spin off like a children’s spinning trick

So a line just a bit further out takes those things out of view

“You’ll smell land where there’ll be no land”, from Moby Dick

That thought run through my head started images anew

9.

I am not afraid of the sea, or the feeling of the power of the water.

The feeling that I am very small in a great, swirling, heaving mass

 On the top of the wave I am a scrap of seaweed like Neptune’s daughter

A powerless feeling of being washed around, held and dropped alas

10.

There were a few seagulls around, flying just overhead, quite low,

 Maybe they were curious, eyed me with eyes brighter not duller

The sky was overcast but occasionally the slightest sunshine would show

Instantly turned the sand laden waters a startling bright golden colour

11.

Concentrate I told myself, think of the stroke don’t wander

Swimming for what felt like twenty minutes eight groynes slowly past

Visualise now don’t allow drift off, it a long way to the end

Stick with it now, dig in, or never make it to the last

12.

Think of the rhythm settle down in a smooth rolling pace

By the shore of Gitchie Gumee, that will get me there

By the shining Big-Sea-Water, then pick up a working pace

With mental metronome beating Hiawatha sparks a flare

13.

I am Hiawatha’s canoe, my hands and arms the paddles place

Thou the wild flower of the forest, so far along I swim on again

Thou the wild bird of the prairie, the poem make’s a warming pace

Now swim to the rhythm of the words softer strokes I fain

14.

Soon my friends one by one started to pass, gone my reverie  

A shocking pink hat forging ahead, two more and then

My husband managed to swim right over me, gouging me

Between me and the waves ending on the beach again  

15.

I plodded on trying to keep up a slightly faster cadence so

As to keep my body temperature from dropping too much.

Once you start to get cold it can affect your stroke you know

Quite significantly your pace will get slower and shorten your touch

16.

Having been passed by the main group I settled back into my work,

 Enjoying being alone in the somewhat lumpy, slappy sea.

The movement of the water is hypnotic and dangers do lurk

Sheer pleasure of the movement tears my concentration from me

17.

I took the time instead to turn my thoughts the job in hand

With ineffective work, core temperature will gradually drop,

Preceding hypothermia, so plan where the hand should land

For cold before you know it can force you to stop

18.

Most of the gulls had peeled of and flown trailing away

All but one who stayed with me, flying close enough to feel

Hovering on the headwind hoping marine life on the way

My movements might provide him with a handy meal

19.

The waves were rolling in almost head on dashing on each batch

I had took a more than a few mouthfuls of the salty sea

I told myself, ‘think about the stroke girl make that catch’

Stretch out, pull it back and push the hand away behind me.

20.

The seagull was still with me and our eyes firmly met

When I made a big long axis body roll to see his position

He swooped down and gently touched my finger, no bite yet

My arm moved during my stroke recovery, he though I was nutrition

21.

 Reflections in a golden eye, a very close very golden eye

It did not seem to be aggressive but maybe it was a missed peck

I turned over onto my back as if to pose the question why

I swear he shrugged his shoulders with the slightest crick of neck 

22.

Ignoring my new friend or enemy which ever was the case here

I swam on looking at the sea and sky above to my left

This was becoming a weird swim then I began to fear

The clouds are joining in the fun, forming a strange cleft

 

23.

Heavy rain clouds were drifting along on a plain so high

The sky had dramatically darkened perhaps a storm was due

 Images in clouds, here in a cauliflower cloud a huge crisp almond eye

With the rain clouds ahead it seemed strange to see that patch of blue

 24.

The clear blue space in the cloud was distinct, an eye, plain to see

 Centrally a small white fluffy cloud forming the iris of my eye

I smiled at the thought of someone up there watching out for me.

I am not averse to a bit of spirituality and felt a calming sigh

25.

Having wandered off mentally I set back into getting this long hard swim done

All the coloured beach huts on the shoreline had unnoticed passed

I was closing on the first basket and could make out the next one

 Nibbled away at the course breakwaters close to the end at last

26.

A line of sea baskets would make navigation easier but still not to shirk

 I kept an eye on the big eye as it focused peacefully on me

I always thought of myself as a pretty unsinkable a buoyant piece of work

 Not afraid of the current and to fight it a fool you’d surely be

27.

I went on trying to settle my breathing down making sure to fully exhale

You can’t breathe in a full lung capacity of fresh air

If you have not exhaled all the stale used air first, my fingers looked pale

Calm down; relax give myself to the water I was almost there

28.

Relaxing for the last part, swim toward shore beneath that heavenly eye

Flat in the water no aches or pains but happy to have ended this test

At last the swim is at an end the cloudy eye closed and passed on by

Undeterred by seagulls that had been such a pest, now away to their nest