Footloose and Fancy Free

Last night was a lot of fun. A half a dozen of us from the swim mob went to see Footloose at the Pavilion in Worthing. The absolute truth of the matter is that we go to see the twice yearly shows put on by Worthing Musical Theatre Company just to see our friend Anthony Towers perform what every part he has in the current show. It this one he was playing two parts, he has a very good clear speaking voice and he is always very well rehearsed for his own performance.

The highlight of the evening for his loyal supporters club of fellow swimmers, who will tease him mercilessly about it, was the second role he played; which was that of a country and western singer that gave him his moment to shine. He had built in plenty of movement and performed the song superbly, we all found this the best part of the show, but Ant, don’t you ever grow that moustache for real please, although the new long hair is looking great. We cannot believe that the nice, quiet, polite man we all know so well, can get up on the stage and do this. It is amazing.

These evenings are so enjoyable because they have such a keen and very mixed audience. It is a real party atmosphere with such an enthusiastic crowd. They really are a mixed bunch that always on the Friday evening show, which always includes nearly a whole row of biker types. In contrast to this, sitting just in front of us was another entertaining group, that as a star performer, was a slim young guy in a long clinging red silk petticoat style evening dress with thin little straps. He had a flower in his hair and matching scarlet lipstick. Now I am happy for anybody to be whoever they want to be and I am still perfectly comfortable and do not feel threatened in any way. I find it most interesting, and the thing about this guy was that he had not tried to actually look like a girl, he was very much a bloke in a frock but who shook his hair quite often and held his skirt nicely when he walked. He outshone the woman that he was with by a mile and a half.

We had a great evening and the show was really good. The people in the leading roles all sang very well but, and I am perhaps being a bit picky, as an ex dancer/am dram person in my own youth, when I say they need to rehearse the dances more, they have more good singers than dancers. Still they did have a completely packed house, who all clapped, cheered, whooped and stamped. It was a great evening’s entertainment.

Today because the weather was foul again we decided to change days on our weekend work outs and having entered the Raw Energy Pursuits Bluebell 10km run on April 23^rd just before we left home, went to run that course instead of the bike ride we had planned. The weather looks better for tomorrow and so we hope to get out on our bikes then.

Our friend Birgit who usually runs with us on Sundays is away in Germany for the 85^th birthday of her mother Renate and so it was not a big deal to change days at the drop of a hat. It was nice to do a different run route, even though it did cover part of our usual run but in the opposite direction for about a kilometre. 

It is an equally hard route and was still very muddy but the good news is that the Wood Anemones are out at last and so can show their dainty little white faces to the world before being swallowed up as the bluebells, that are only about five inches of greenery right now, grow and come out into their glorious purple.

 The weekly run distance jumped up dramatically this week. I am hoping it was just an experiment to see how the old girl would take an increase. The 32 km this last seven days is more than I intend to do as a regular thing, Half Ironman coming up on June or not.

 

I realise that I did not publish the Friday swim schedules yesterday and so here they are.

Lane 1	Warm up
Distance	Clock	S/Rest
300	60	5.00
150	60	2.30
300	30	5.00
150	30	2.30
300	60	4.50
150	50	2.25
300	15	4.40
150	55	2.20
300	15	4.45
150	60	2.25
300	25	4.50
150	15	2.30
300	45	5.00
150	45	2.30
	Swim	Down
3150	mtrs

Lane 2	BX
Dist.	Clock	S/Rest
300	60	8.00
100	30	2.30
300	60	8.00
100	60	2.30
300	30	8.00
100	30	2.30
300	60	8.00
100	60	2.30
Swim	Down
1600 mtrs