The Gayer-Anderson Cat: Be Afraid….. Be Very Afraid

The Wrath of The Gayer Anderson Cat

The early schedules of 2017.

Steve had asked me to set the latest swim schedules up on to the computer while he prepared and cooked dinner, so when I had finished what I was fiddling around with I went to my French two drawer farm table that serves me at my work desk but instead of sitting down quietly to start this minor chore, I was shocked into stillness with horror of what I saw had occurred there.

I don’t have a great deal of absolute treasures, we are not wealthy people after all but I do have a few items that I like to see treated with respect. My bike Alice for example or my race mascot Placido, who is a little bear that gets zip locked behind my saddle for events and otherwise sleeps on the bed and comes away on holidays too.

Then, sitting on one end of my desk, there is my full sized replica of The Gayer-Anderson Cat given to me for an important birthday by my daughter. The statue is a representation of the cat-goddess Bastet and is a copy of the original that is on display in the British Museum where it is described as ‘A Hollow-cast bronze figure of a seated cat with incised detail, an inlaid silver sun-disc and wedjat-eye pectoral on the chest and golden earrings and nose-rings; tangs beneath. It was discovered by Major Robert Grenville Gayer Anderson in Egypt and donated to the British Museum.

All this drama is because I was so horrified because Steve had propped his A4 scribble notebook up, (where he works out the swim schedules), on THE CAT!

At my very loud ‘OMG’ at double treble volume, Steve came rushing back into the room expecting to find a tarantula the size of the kitchen table somewhere in front of me. When he saw my expression and followed my eyes, he hastily started to move THE CAT! What are you doing I squawked!

I turned quietly to face him and said, “Step away from the cat”, and moved the offending notebook myself. As he retraced his steps out of the room and toward the kitchen I warned him to, “Be afraid….. Be Very Afraid”. Some things are sacred.

Steve had left schedules for the period of our holiday and this morning should have been his first coaching session back to normal but when we all arrived at the pool this morning we found that we would not get a swim after all because the main pool was close due to technical difficulties. People had driven from Worthing, Bognor, Arundel and beyond so there was a little muttering. Steve and I went for a run along the sea front instead where at least it was fairly well lit since it was still completely dark at something o’clock to seven in the morning. At least we had a nice run that both of us were happy with and we had only driven two miles.

The schedules will now wait until Friday morning but here they are in the table below.

Lane 1
Distance	On Timing Clock	Swim Rest
300	60	5.00
200	60	3.30
100	30	1.45
100	15	1.45
50	60	1.00
50	60	1.00
200	60	3.15
100	15	1.45
100	60	1.45
50	60	1.00
50	60	1.00
200	60	3.30
100	30	1.35
100	05	1.35
50	40	1.00
50	40	1.00
400	40	6.30
100	20	1.40
100	60	1.45
100	45	1.50
100	35	2.00
50	35	0.45
50	15	0.45
50	60	0.45
50	45	0.45

Lane 2 dist.	On Timing Clock	Swim Rest
200	60	5.00
100	60	2.30
200	30	5.00
100	30	2.30
200	60	5.00
100	60	2.30
200	30	5.00
100	30	2.30
100	60	2.30
100	30	2.30
50	60	1.10
50	10	1.10
50	20	1.10
50	30	1.10