Friday, February 17, 2017

Ready for my close up Mr. De Mille.



  

It has been quite a day. Having scheduled the day out of normal goings on, because we thought it would be one of those days when nothing else on the normal every day list of jobs would get done. So Steve and I had set the day aside for the purpose in hand.

After several weeks of emails, sending photos and talking on the phone and then a visit to the house and a sort of interview stroke research probe, we planned to clear the day as far as possible to co-operate with the group of mature students, who are attending a course at Brighton Film School to come over for a serious day of filming and recording. The day started at Freedom Leisure pool at Littlehampton where the three students; two women and a man were already in place to start filming on our arrival at the centre.

They did a little piece of our entrance with the usual early morning people and then into the pool to record some of the swim training. One of them even got into the water but had to pay the price by submitting to a short front crawl lesson that she did very well with, promising even.

Altogether, it ended up as quite a useful days training because Steve and I have got in a full swim session, then according to Steve’s Garmin, we did 4 km running along the seafront. Then we regrouped at our house for interviews, chats about our years in triathlon and finally a turbo session. What more could you wish for because we ended up feeling as though we had pushed through a fair days training even though it was a little lengthy. Still as I said we had put the whole day by for the purpose and it seemed to work out to everybody’s satisfaction.


At the point where we were wired up for sound, I had an inner fit of the funnies because it reminded me of the part of the film Singing in the Rain, where they were trying to film a movie with sound for the first time and the dizzy but beautiful blonde silent film star, could not quite get it right and would turn her head from side to side Or rattle her pearls in an infuriating fashion. I was probably just as bad being the fidget that I am.

It was quite apt really since we have experienced so many things that have not gone quite to plan in our early days in triathlon. Years ago in those early times, we drove to Cardiff for a swim-run event. I have forgotten how far the swim was exactly but it was pool based and maybe 2500 metres followed by a half marathon run. Having pointed out to our film crew today that when I started in the sport I was very often to only woman in my age group by a long way and at that event, I was not a very fast swimmer and by the time I got out of the water, in my swimsuit, put on my trainers and left the building to start the half marathon run; The marshal at the first turn off was not in place; maybe he or she thought everybody had gone. So I missed that turn off entirely and ran right into the centre of Cardiff suffering a lot of very rude remarks shouted by the youth of the town, well I was just in my cozzie after all. Realizing that I was totally lost I eventually asked the way back to the pool. 

At the pool, having found out that it was true what I had said and that the marshal was not in place, they did try to present me with my age group prize, since I had run more than the half marathon required and still got back the only woman in my age group. I refused to take the trophy having been embarrassed enough that day.


Today went very much better than that day in Cardiff and it certainly was a pleasant passing of the day with a delightful group of serious students, who did their best to make the process as irritation free as they could; they were very professional, thoughtful and calm. One of the thing we talked about was my accident that resulted in three broken bones and abrasions, in 2013. The rest of the photos shown today were taken in Lecce and Matera on the holiday where that little drama occurred

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I hope they got enough film and chatting to work for them, to make sure that their course project is successful as a motivational documentary. All I would hope for is that the end product causes some older person who sees the film, to rethink their state of fitness and maybe aim a little higher for the sake of their health. That would be a great reward for me. And as for ‘My Close Up’ I hope none of their shots are too close to the truth since an old girls face, dripping sweat and crimson of cheek might not be the stuff of glamour shots. 

This is Matera where I had to climb two long stone stairways to get to our hotel. In my broken state I did those steps on my bottom, it sounds funny now but it was anything 'Butt' at the time.






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